What is the Qi standard?
Qi (pronounced “tschi”) means “life energy” in Chinese and is a standard for wireless charging. The Qi standard is defined by the WPC, the Wireless Power Consortium. Behind this consortium is an association of leading companies that work on products related to the topic of “inductive transmission of charging voltage” and through the cooperation ensures the best possible compatibility and quality.
This includes both smartphone manufacturers and development companies from the automotive, electrical components and even from the furniture industry.
Samsung, Nokia, Toshiba, Sony Corporation, Philips, Texas Instruments and many more besides INBAY are members of the Wireless Power Consortium.
What does Qi mean?
The word “Qi” (pronounced like “Chi”), which means “life energy” in Chinese, is thought to provide every living being with the required amount of vital force.
The Qi standard is also based on this principle, because it proposes that battery-powered electrical devices, such as smartphones or electric toothbrushes, can be charged through contactless power transmission.
What is the advantage of the Qi standard?
All components that are manufactured according to this standard can use the technology to communicate with each other and to charge themselves. It does not matter which manufacturer produced the device. This gives you, the customer, the best possible range of choice of chargers for your electrical devices.
Whether at home, in the car or in the office, if you have a Qi charger, then it is a piece of cake to charge your Qi-compatible smartphone, for example. This means that you could charge your smartphone using an IKEA charging station at home and an INBAY station in your car. And you can do it all without charging cables!
The international Qi standard specifies a charging voltage of 5V at a current of 1A.This corresponds to the charging capacity of commonly used wired chargers. Therefore, it is completely sufficient for charging a Qi-compatible smartphone.