The wireless iPhone charger you’ve always wanted could be in the works.
Per a recent patent that was filed in May 2019, Apple is working on a two-coil wireless charging technology for an iPhone battery case that could charge without using the Lightning connector.
Current Smart Battery Case models can charge themselves wirelessly, but use a built-in Lightning connector to power the iPhone they’re attached to.
The patent describes how a smart battery case could use two coils to allow for bidirectional wireless charging.
A battery case has first and second coils on opposing sides of a battery and has switching circuitry that is coupled between the first and second coils,” the patent reads. These two coils, and associated circuitry, are important elements of a wireless Smart Battery case that could both charge itself and an iPhone wirelessly.
The patent goes on the explain how the case could use its own built-in battery to power a connected device using the second child in an open state. The could could also wirelessly receive power itself in this open state
So that current flowing through the first coil flows through the second coil in series so that wireless power from the wireless charging mat that is received with the first coil is transmitted wirelessly to the wireless power receiving device using the second coil.
Put another way, the next-generation Smart Battery Case could ditch the built-in Lightning connector and charge the device it’s attached to via Qi wireless charging. And, the battery case will be able to transfer power directly to an iPhone in a “pass-through” without charging its own battery.
The current Apple Smart Battery Case models use only a single coil and rely on a Lightning connector to charge the device.
Thursday’s patent application also claims the benefit of another provisional Apple patent application that was filed in January 2019. The patent includes the other application in its entirety.
The patent application names Rohan Dayal, Stephen C. Terry and Narendra S. Mehta as its inventors. The first two inventors have worked on Apple wireless charging patents in the past, while Mehta invented charging systems for Qualcomm.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and the United States Patent and Trademark Office