原创 超材料制作，无线充电距离可达一英尺【无线充电 新闻评论】

翻译：无线充电圈(WXCDQ360)   作者：Russell Holly  

今天，当我们提起无线充电，很多人依然觉得还是在说着玩，认为无线充电离我们的要求还有差距。

然而有一项无线充电的新技术，会让我们感觉无线充电会离我们我们很近了（译者注：其实很多无线充电产品早已量产，通过Qi认证的无线充电产品都有400多款了）。

我们理想的无线充电是希望无线充电器能给我们所在的空间的任何电子设备充电。例如，当你把手机和笔记本电脑放在桌子上时，会自动提醒你连接无线充电网络开始充电。

但到目前为止，无线充电技术依然有很大的局限性，它只能一对一的充电，且充电设备必须紧贴充电器上，现有的无限充电器是通过充电盘下面的线圈来传递电能，且传输的距离有限。现有的无限充电器的充电效率还不太高，且价格也不便宜，看起来离大规模的应用还有一些距离。

然而最近一项由杜克大学(Duke)和丰田公司(Toyota)合作成功研发的技术，称之为超级镜片(Superlens)，可以大大提高无线充电的充电距离。

当今的单线圈或多线圈的磁感应充电器，能量的传输距离只有1英寸左右(1英寸=2.54cm)（备注：Qi标准的无限充电器充电距离在10mm以内），而杜克大学的研究人员研究的这款超级镜片的充电器的无线充电距离可以达到1英尺(1英尺=30.48cm)。这种超级镜片的无线充电器看起来像一张被很多很小盒子阵列覆盖的垫子。采用的是一种超材料布置在充电器的表面。

如果把这项技术应用在无线充电器上，比如说你在咖啡厅，整张座子可能将相当于一个无线充电小基站，可以给你随身携带的电子产品充电。

另外用超级镜片做的充电器还可以应用在车上，可以放在车上任何合适的地方，很好的满足你的手机充电。想把你的手机放在车的杯托上充电都有可能。关于这项技术，通用可能会通过丰田授权先应用在车上。

当然这项技术要想让普通消费者都应用起来还需要时间。不过潜力巨大，未来在很多领域都可能应用。

【圈评】<无线充电圈（微信：WXCDQ360）>
 

我初看标题，还很兴奋，仔细看了发现还比较遥远，翻译过来给也共享给同行。

杜克大学研究的这项无线充电技术实际上是一项材料技术，超材料。超材料(metamaterial)的研究在国外是一个新兴的研究领域。超材料是一种具有特殊性质的人造材料，这些材料是自然界没有的。

超材料有一些特殊的性质，比如可以让光、电磁波改变它的通常的性质，超材料如果发展起来将改变我们现有世界的很多东西。

杜克大学的兄弟们只是把新材料应用在了无线充电领域（可以看出无线充电领域有多火），这项技术的研究也还在材料的研究阶段，真正的量产还很遥远。

无线充电是一个大家都非常关注的新兴领域，现有的磁感应和磁共振技术的推进就可以满足我们普通消费者的应用。当然无线充电向远距离发展一个方向，磁共振技术的无线充电技术也就可以做到远距离，量产的产品基本也可以做到5cm左右，未来1~2年做到30cm也并不难。一起多关注无线充电的发展。

对无线充电技术、市场感兴趣的请关注微信号/公众号：WXCDQ360(无线充电圈)

英文原文：

Wirelesscharging Superlens could give users a one foot charging space

By Russell Holly Jan. 21, 2014 2:56 pm

Thething that we call wireless charging today is a sad joke compared to what wewant it to be. Fortunately, it looks like there’s a new technology coming thatwill deliver something much closer to what most people think when they hearabout wireless charging.

In a perfect world, wireless charging would charge all of your deviceswithin a specific and generous range of a broadcast point. The ability to setyour laptop and smartphone down on your desk and have them both light up andnotify you that they are now receiving power, for example.

The technology we call wireless charging right now is incrediblylimited. It only charges a single object that is in contact with a chargingplate, and that plate has a coil underneath to transmit the power over theincredibly short range. It’s inefficient, it’s so expensive, and calling itwireless is more a technicality than something that is actually useful. Theremight be a new way to significantly extend the range, though, and researchersat Duke University and Toyota are calling it a superlens.

Unlike the single or multi-coil inductive chargers we see todaythat can only project energy an inch away, a superlens charger looks more likea large pad covered in a grid array of smaller boxes. This is accomplishedthrough the use of metamaterials,which is to say it’s an incredibly small artificially constructed surface. Bypowering this metamaterial, Duke researchers have created a situation where acone of electromagnetic power can be projected to nearly a foot away.

If this technology were to be applied to wireless charging ofconsumer technology, it would become possible for the entire table at yourcoffee shop to be a wireless charging spot for your gadgets. Alternatively, thecharging cone created by a superlens could cover the most likely places youwould place a phone in your car. This would make it possible for your phone tocharge just be sitting in your cup holder. That is something Toyota would beespecially likely to take interest in given GM’s decision to put wireless charging in several oftheir vehicles this year.

While this technology is far from being ready for consumer use,it’s not hard to see the many places this could be way more useful than what wehave now.