Cota®: The Technology
In order for wireless power to become widely adopted, it needs to be useful for a wide range of applications. Cota Real Wireless Power™ technology opens the most doors to the most use cases.
1. Cota Real Wireless Power is the only technology that can power devices in motion over a distance, while not in line of sight of the transmitter.
Devices enabled with Cota are able to receive power even while they are in use or being moved about. This is a big differentiator that allows a broader range of uses, more user convenience, and little to no downtime.
The fact that the device can receive power with little to no user intervention means no technology training, no charging reminders, and no other management processes need to take place.
Historically, data communication approaches have used phased arrays that deal with beamforming, channel estimation, and RF lensing, augmented with location tracking. All these approaches end up needing specific settings for antenna phases and significant computations or communications, and still end up only being approximations of the “perfect” phases to deliver the highest power efficiency.
Cota is the only wireless power technology available that does not use phased arrays and does not require specific settings and complex computations to send and receive power.
2. No other technology can match or exceed Cota in delivering power.
Cota’s core technique (time reversal) operates at the theoretical upper limit of efficiency between two sets of antenna. No other technology can match or exceed Cota in delivering power from any set of antenna designs. Cota technology will outperform anything currently available.
Cota’s time reversal approach is mathematically proven (and easily provable) to be unsurpassable. No other technology can use the same hardware to achieve higher power delivery using continuous wave radio frequencies.
Cota’s phase determination of the antennas of the array is different than all other technologies in that it provides instantaneous phase detection without complex calculations. By utilizing a beacon from the Cota-enabled receiver device, the transmitter antennas determine the exact phase so that every antenna’s signals are coherent at the receiver’s antennas.
This approach guarantees that the phases detected are the “perfect” phases, which leads to the highest power delivery efficiency between the transmitter and receiver, also known as the “theoretical maximum limit.”
What’s more, as we add frequency adjustments, we enable small increases in power delivery; this is only possible with Cota technology.
3. Cota transmitter and receiver antennas can fit virtually anywhere.
While other technologies’ hardware needs to be flat or trivial, Cota can be fitted within curved surfaces and volumes without the need for extra software or algorithm charges. Time to market significantly shortens and the potential applications broaden with this kind of hardware flexibility.
4. Cota can scale from a few antennas in a transmitter to tens of thousands of antennas.
Without slowing down or requiring greater computing power, organizations can leverage Cota in large applications that require increased power and efficiency.
5. Cota can be securely managed from afar.
You don’t need managers to be near or touching the hardware to secure and prioritize power delivery with Cota. In fact, operators and designers of Cota solutions can choose which devices receive power when with a controlled schedule or priority power plan, all from the cloud.
6. Cota offers capabilities beyond power delivery.
Power delivery may be the primary draw, but Cota is also designed with environmental sensors and usage data in mind. Gain insight to how much power is used, how many devices are connected, where, and when in order to optimize efficiencies and costs.
Cota: Technology Maturity
7. Cota has seen more than a decade in development, testing, and implementation.
Since 2008, Cota technology has been in active development. Cota’s fifth and sixth generation implementations are currently being validated by customers. Ossia has used these generations to develop the technology stack, software layers, and customer alignment to ensure that Cota technology addresses customers' real-world needs.
8. Cota is well protected with a deep patent portfolio.
With more than 60 patent families and 74 granted patents in the US and worldwide, Ossia prides itself in the quality of its patent portfolio. Due to this extensive experience over the last decade, Ossia has been invited by the USPTO to train their patent examiners twice in the last three years.
9. Reference Design Kit (RDK) Available to Partners
To facilitate cross-company and cross-country implementation of the different components of Cota, Cota’s technology is available as a Reference Design Kit. The RDK is a collection of 50+ items (hardware, documents, and data sheets) that offers developers and manufacturers of Cota-enabled devices a gold standard on how to implement Cota in their devices. With a well-established RDK, components from different companies more readily fit together.
Cota: Proven Safe for People and Pets
10. Cota technology is the only available RF technology that operates safely while people are in the room.
FCC filings by other companies (such as Energous and Auspion) specifically declare that their systems are not to be used in the presence of people and will switch off in the presence of people. Cota is tested with consideration of people (or pets) standing between the receiver and transmitter, and its inherent design avoids organic matter like people.
11. Cota is the only wireless power technology that can power devices safely at skin level.
Wearables, including watches, rings, earbuds, clips, and in-ear hearing aids, as well as smartphones that get held in the hand or to the face, are safe to use while charging. That’s because of the inherent design of the transmission of power. The Cota-enabled device will send a beacon signal into a room. The signal bounces off of objects (but not organic matter) to find a transmitter. The transmitter sends power along these same paths, safely avoiding people.
Cota: A Unique and Flexible Market Position
12. Multiple applications are possible.
Cota’s RF power delivery is unimpeded by air or lack of it (unlike ultrasound that is absorbed by air), can penetrate some materials (glass, plastic, and drywall), which enables multi-room power delivery, can fit within standard battery form factor Power Receivers (e.g.,the Cota Forever Battery), unlike infrared or visible light that is interrupted by most common materials. This flexibility allows companies a greater range of design, because power-receiving circuitry can be hidden from view, even within devices we use on a daily basis.
13. Ossia enables the top designers, manufacturers, and service providers to do what they do best.
Rather than be all things to all companies, and not do anything well, we are enabling an ecosystem of the top suppliers to partner with Ossia and license the Cota technology. This way we focus on what we do best, innovating and improving on the technology, and they do what they do best. We are in close contact with major electronics manufacturers in several industries to facilitate the development and adoption of Cota wireless power.
