Energous, Theranos, uBeam Updates

I've been at the International Ultrasound Symposium in Kobe this week, and have hardly had time to do any updates or summaries of what's been going on in Energous, Theranos, and uBeam lately. Having spent the weekend walking around Tokyo, my feet are now sore enough that I'm going to sit still for a couple of hours and write. Let's start with Energous:

We last left Energous after an earnings call where finally someone questioned their basis for optimism, and they were promptly cutoff. Emperors do not like their nakedness pointed out. The other key takeaways from that call were that the long range transmitter was pushed out to 18 months away (again), and that hearing aid products would be out within 90 days. Well here we are 88 days later (which means another earnings call is coming up, Tuesday Oct 30th at 1.30pm PT), and what's happened?

First thing is that the share price seems to be on a long, slow, almost constant trajectory down, losing about $1.50 to $2.00 per month since April, and right now the after hours trading has the share price under $8, putting the company market cap close to $200 million. Not good for shareholders and compensation of employees, nor for any future share offering. Worse, given their revenues, >95% of their valuation is based on the hope of massive future growth - there might be a stock price at which the big institutional investors need to exit, and at that point it's game over. So what are they doing about it? I've indicated in the past that I expected to see some goosing of the stock price with pointless or small-time product announcements and so on, and those products were indeed announced. (BTW Energous, you didn't bother to check your website after the redesign - your "In the News" page is a bad link). 

First of all we have some asset tracking tags by Qubercom, though it seems it's the contact based charging, which kinda defeats the "IoT charging" wireless benefit when you have to drop 20 of them at a time on a charging pad. Seriously if you want to charge IoT low power devices wirelessly, there's already solutions like PowerCast out there. Then we have some spinal position trackers, also with contact based charging from the Gokhale Method, which I did try to buy, but the nice lady there told me they wouldn't be available until next year and only available to practitioners, so it's not really a big market. Apparently Austar Hearing have an upcoming product, but I can't find anything there. Now Energous have also passed regulatory approval for their contact charging in 100 countries (oooooh...), so you can imagine my shock when none of these had any effect on the stock price.

Pretty much, it seems everyone is wise to their games now. No stock bump just before Apple WWDC events, no belief that charging hearing aids is going to make them a $1 billion company. Without a major product release (not announcement), real regulatory approval for something practical, or clear licensing deal with a real company like Apple, this thing is heading to $0. Remember they are out of cash in Q1 2019 so they've less than 6 months to raise more money, and with a declining stock price that's going to be hard to do. Have we reached the limit of this game? I would say so, but the chutzpah of this company, and the gullibility of the press and the public, might mean there's another round left in it.

Theranos

CEO Holmes and COO Balwani of Theranos are facing criminal charges for fraud at the blood testing company. Earlier this month they lost an appeal to try to keep documents out of the government's hands, and according to Bloomberg the judge in the case referred to undisclosed charges and activities, while the Assistant U.S. Attorney bluntly stated that the indictment did not cover all the criminal activity, implying there may be more to come for the pair. Not looking good for them.

Marketwatch had an interesting article on "The Last Days of Theranos" and is pretty blunt with the sub-title of "the financials were as overhyped as the bloodtests". It covers a lot of the mechanics of what happened but the really standout parts for me were the statements from Daniel Warmenhoven, a board member from December 2016. It starts with this quote from him about one of the huge deals that "made" the company:

“The Walgreens deal made no sense, ... It was doomed from Day 1 because it was based on using the minilabs, which weren’t completed when the deal was signed."

So he immediately admits the whole thing was a fraud, but later comes out with this gem:

Warmenhoven told MarketWatch he blames engineers for the final sinking of Theranos. “They lost the recipe. The tests were not coming out right. That 60 to 90 days extra to figure it out took away the runway we thought we had.”

Yes, that's right - after terrible business practices, fraud, intimidation of former staff, 15 years work and over $700 million of investment, it comes down to two months and dumb engineers losing the Post-It with the entire future of the company on it. Damn those pesky engineers!

This seems to be the norm for people like Warmenhoven - engineers as annoyances, replaceable cogs that better behave, not a vital part of the technology development or company, but rather the true irreplaceable geniuses are the CEOs who are the innovators and aren't held back by such things as fraud, physics, or Post-Its. 

This ties with statements I've heard C-level execs make with all sincerity "I told the engineering team what they needed to do, they just didn't understand/weren't good enough". There's some school of MBA that says engineers are fungible units, and are lazy and always say they can't do it, and so need pushed. To an extent there's usefulness in pushing a team to achieve more, and then as a C-level exec providing them the resources, cover, and time to execute, but those without the training and experience seem to regard measured statements that something can't be done as demanded as more of the frustrating whining of a developmentally challenged child than of an experienced employee trying to do the right thing. The idea that the C-level is wrong or mistaken is clearly an option never to be considered.

uBeam

And so that brings me to uBeam. Only a couple of things to say here, there's really precious little new information on this. Mark Suster, the lead investor in uBeam, seems to have deleted all his Tweets from prior to October 1st this year, which is shortly after Perry "moved on" as CEO. He's been a prolific poster on many topics over the years, so this was surprising to see. Further, his Medium post supporting uBeam from just after my blog gained publicity, seems to have been altered. The article "What is it Like to Wake Up and Have the Press Ready to Torpedo Your Business?" used to contain the line:

“If for any reason we fall short of expectations we have set in the market, I will be the first person in line to admit it and then to immediately fund Meredith’s next company.”

for which Mark drew high praise - you can see references to it in the original blog comments, as well as articles from other investors here, here, and here - but at some point between original publication and now, that line disappeared. I wonder why it's not there anymore? (Thanks to HowardLong of EEVBlog for spotting this).

Last thing - I've been asked "What would you do if you were made CEO of uBeam today?" Here's my simple answer, and bear in mind I have not seen the status of the company or the books, I'm just inferring from public information:

I'd give the staff 60 days notice that their jobs were ending, and an offer of a bonus should they stay and tidy up their work (document, and pack it up), along with services to help find another job. Then I'd close down the company, and return the remaining money to the investors. In my opinion, it's the most they'd ever get back.

I'll be surprised if that happens as usually the "sunk cost fallacy" along with legal hurdles prevents such an approach, but I just can't see how the company is viable at this point.

Mailbag: Questions on Energous

I've been asked some questions on Energous and my recent posts, and rather than answer in the slightly-annoying-to-reply-in comments section here, or in private email, I thought I'd just answer them as a post in themselves. Nothing startlingly new here, for those who have read my prior posts, except for one thing. In the earnings call, CEO Rizzone talked about devices at the 5 to 15 Watts level, previously they'd claimed up to 5 Watts and 15 feet, so if he truly meant Watts, that's quite a bold new claim.

1) Has Energous implicitly conceded it cannot generate significant charging power in the near field, ergo its new focus on tertiary products?

I'll start with the most important point - this company has no products, and in my opinion, never will. To say otherwise is to play their game. Everything is turned on its head compared to other companies, all IMO of course. If the thinking of most of Energous' detractors is correct, the goal is not to release a product but to maintain interest in share purchase by large institutions, not to develop technology but to offer the fantasy of safe at-distance wireless charging, that marketing is the true innovation and money earner in the company, and engineering R&D is simply the necessary expense to maintain the illusion it's about products and technology. In summary, it's a very well run marketing company with large R&D expenses that is successfully extracting millions of dollars a year for the insiders.

Now to the 'technology'. I'm going to start covering the 'at a distance' application - basically the non-contact version, since I'm not sure you meant "near field" when you said "near field", and there are multiple definitions of that term being used. In physics terms, near-field and far-field refer to the regions of interference from radiation emitters. In simple terms near-field is close to the emitters where the field varies extensively (it's bumpy) while further out in the far-field it varies inversely with distance (it's smooth) - the image below from Wikipedia shows this. Where this transition happens is relative to the size of the transmitter and the wavelength of the radiation.

So for Energous there is the "contact" version of their charger, the "miniWattUp", which they position as a competitor to Qi, except it's less efficient, slower at charging, has no existing infrastructure, and isn't available (there are multiple product announcements that never make it to market, such as with Myant). Then they have the claim of "at-distance" charging, such as the "long range" device they've been promising for years at 15 feet and up to 5 Watts (now 15 Watts apparently), and the FCC Part 18 approved "mid range" device that will send at best 30 mW at 0.9 meters to a single device, requires a safety cutoff, and also isn't available.

I'm also careless with the use of the terms here, so in part I'm writing this to force myself to be more consistent - the confusion from Energous I think is deliberate, as it helps them with allowing the public to think whatever they want of the technology, rather than making them see it as it is.

Now to actually answering the question:

Energous seem to be careful not to bluntly lie, but let ignorance and laziness of press and investors do the work for them in drawing incorrect conclusions they want from what is said. For years they hinted about a "Tier One" they had a deal with, that they did everything bar say was Apple, until they finally had to give up on that one following AirPower last year - there's a post on some of that here. They deliberately confuse everyone by talking about "WattUp" which is a branding term for all their "products" such as the contact, mid, and far range devices. They also give demonstrations of products that are not FCC approved and exceed the SAR limits to get higher power levels and have people associate with the approved products. I cover some of that here.

In summer 2017 the CEO was already dialing back expectations in specific statements:

“As long as you’re in that 15-foot range, you’ll be charging. Small, small amount of energy. It’s not charging super fast, like you would be plugged in the wall, but a small amount of energy, trickle charging it. And as you put it down closer or farther away, the amount of power changes.”

I cover my opinion of the journalism that let him get away with that statement and no follow up here.

Rizzone says this again in January this year, in a Barron's article

As for five watts, “I don’t see it happening at 15 or 18 feet,” concedes Rizzone. More likely, he thinks Energous will be shipping at the end of 2019 systems that can charge devices such as wearables and smartphones at that distance, but perhaps only with a watt or two, perhaps only hundreds of milliwatts. 

Despite these statements, Rizzone makes claims in the earnings call this month that would lead people to believe 5 to 15 Watts charging is coming. It's no wonder people are still thinking that somehow you'll be charging at the same rate as a wire from the wall. If Energous ever end up in court on fraud claims, they can point to this and say "See, in major interviews we said it was a trickle charge, we never lied, they just interpreted it another way"

Regarding the contact version - The FCC reports for the latest contact device, the 2ADNG-NF130, shows two antenna each able to transmit just shy of 1 Watt. I assume they are at 90 degrees to one another to try to improve performance with receiver position. Given Qi charges at 5 to 7.5W there is literally no way, even at 100% efficiency, for this method to challenge the established market leader. FCC documents show this system charges at a maximum of 300 mW, so a tiny fraction of what is needed, and at no more than about 15% efficiency (Qi is usually 70%ish).

Now does anyone think that the far range transmitter is going to be better than one that's in contact?

So to answer the first question - they seem to almost deliberately confuse terms like feet and Watts, and give differing statements at different times. When Energous have no choice, or are on the record, they downplay performance and obfuscate. They have to know it won't work at the multi-watt level, there is no question there, but what can they badger the FCC into allowing, especially as it seems they have contacts at the top like Chairman Ajit Pai willing to break the normal rules for them. They have to keep this gravy train going for as long as they can, so let the rubes think the next great release is 18 months out perpetually. One thing I'll give to Energous, they are geniuses at how to milk this market.

Next question:

2) Given your assessment of its RF based technology and its limitations re SAR compliance, what could the basis be for Rizzone's claim on the call of achieving 5 to 15 watts for midfield?

Now let's get the first thing out the way - as with all at-a-distance wireless power transfer - is sending 5 to 15 Watts possible? Yes, of course it is. But you do not want to be anywhere near that thing, as it will be hideously dangerous to anyone around, and highly inefficient. So it is possible, just not in any vague sense practical or within SAR limits.

So in the real world, the basis is 'None'. It was always fantasy. This is like me claiming I can run a 3 minute mile, but I just need to train harder and I'll soon get there, maybe another 18 months... Now Energous claimed the 15 feet for the "far range" device in Jan 2015, to my knowledge this is the first time anyone has ever claimed 15 Watts for Energous. Either a slipup by the CEO, or a sudden increase in performance for this so-far nonexistent technology.

The "mid range" device was the one that got Part 18 approval last December, and only goes to ~100mW max, 0.9 meters max, at safety limits, so why would they be able to charge >50x faster at longer ranges? See the quote above where they admit it's less than a wall charger, so not even 5 Watts. Yes, Energous are inconsistent, but that helps them, confusion benefits their message as most people give up.

Looking at the physics, I don't think there's a practical combination of size and safety that results in an even vaguely useful amount of power received (impractical, maybe). That doesn't mean that they won't keep this deception going IMO, and pretend something ridiculous that games the system is coming and will have the fanboys salivating - but in any practical sense it will be pointless. Now, here's what he said in the call:

We expect to see the full impact of this next generation of chips towards the middle of next year, when we anticipate the first product releases to the consumer using our high power WattUp technology for quick charging and applications requiring 5 to 15 watts of charging power.

So that's just not going to happen. It's a year out, minimum, same as all their claims, then it's for applications that require 5 to 15 Watts, he doesn't say they'll actually provide it. Maybe the chips will do 5 to 15 Watts, but the antenna and rest of the system won't. This is definitely a "hopeful" statement and probably can be justified because they keep asking the FCC to approve their 5 to 15 Watt (feet?) device and keep getting told 'No, not safe'. I expect as the end gets closer, the statements will get a little riskier and them less careful about blatantly lying (see recent statements by CEOs of well known tech companies for examples...)

Next question:

3) It seems odd that Dialog would highlight its relationship among others with Energous in its latest press release. Merely justifying its investment and partnership seems unlikely to be the only reason; isn't there something material the partnership could realistically produce?

Yeah. Dialog. No one gets why they did this. I liken them to Safeway and Walgreens with Theranos, where stupidity at the CEO level over-rode all internal advice. They had warned it was possible they were going to lose some of Apple's business, and perhaps were desperate for a 'must have' technology to replace and got suckered, or maybe they knew it was a scam and after the share price hike got their money back out at a profit (looking at their quarterly reports, I don't think they did). I have no idea, it might be a great business school case study when this is all over. As for their statements, note that they make no press releases on Energous since January, and in quarterly reports they say the minimum they can and still be compliant with disclosure rules. This is not a relationship they want to promote right now.

Overall with Dialog I'd say "Stop trying to apply logic and sense to this decision, it's not there". Anyone who has worked in large businesses knows that even when there is a ton of money on the line, what the coal-face workers know are dumb-assed decisions still get made.

4) What do you see Energous doing next?

I see them continuing what they've been doing for the last few years, until the market or the SEC says they can't. What does this mean? Basically, gaming the system and abusing the poor diligence of both investors and press, to raise money from a hopeful public. If I had no scruples, what I'd do is try to find a way to weasel around the FCC rules on Part 18 on my long distance charging to get something that sends 10's of mW over 2 to 3 meters. Perhaps something impossibly large, say a 1 to 2m square array, to keep the W/kg down for SAR, and pushing the far-field boundary out for 'contained' energy. Maybe a safety cutoff variable with charge rate so at any useful rates no-one can be in the room, and if they can it charges at the sub-mW level, but the press and public will not understand that. It would be utterly useless and impractical, something that would never be viable as a product, but the press and investors will believe, because they have no idea what's actually just happened. (Alternatively, I'd get it approved under Part 15 at the sub mW level and then claim Part 18 is coming). Products will be announced for 18 months out, and that they've decided to cancel the contact and mid-range products to concentrate on the long range one, hence managing to excuse how they failed to deliver upon promised products.

At that point, stock price will spike, and they'll a) have the insiders sell their current holdings, b) raise more capital via stock, up to $75 million at the boosted price, to keep this thing going another couple of years, and c) reward themselves with more stock and bonuses. IIRC the CEO gets large bonuses if the market cap spikes beyond $1 billion (a $38.70 stock price assuming no more dilution). We may then see a company with a market cap of >$1 billion, with no products, and revenues in the high 5, low 6 figure range.

Basically, expect something to happen to goose the stock price. This trick worked last year, why not do it again? When someone is rewarded for a set of actions, they are incentivized to repeat. In the end, this stock is going to zero, IMO, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be a rollercoaster until then.

(Repeating the seemingly obligatory statement - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company)

Energous Raising $75 Million?

In addition to their standard 10-Q, Energous submitted a Form S-3 today, indicating that they are looking to sell up to $75 million of equity in the company, coming barely 6 months after their earlier $40 million raise (from a 2015 S-3 and then an amendment in January 2018). With $37m in the bank as of last month, and a burn rate of near $13m a quarter and statements they will increase R&D spend, I had guessed they'd be raising soon but thought it might be nearer the end of the year. It seems they think now's the right time, perhaps before negative press catches up with them and sours the public. They do not have to raise all this at once, it can be done over time, but given they've set the price at $14.05 I expect much will be done soon.

This likely gives the company another 5 to 6 quarters of operation, which in conjunction with cash in the bank will keep them going until mid 2020. Given that around $4m of equity based compensation goes to the team per quarter, that's another $32m or so of extra cash in their pockets.

Interestingly this comes just after I heard reports of the CFO presenting at Oppenheimer, and apparently he was awful - weak, unenthusiastic, and got ripped to pieces by multiple tough questions after his talk. At least Rizzone is enthusiastic about what he's doing!

A few days ago the company indicated it had revenues of $200,000 per quarter and its major product release was still 18 months out. The 10-Q shows they have debts of just short of $200m to get to this point. Hardly compelling for a company with a $350m market cap.

Last time Raymond James acted as distibutor and made $1,000,000 from the sale (2.5%). Who's making the money this time around? The gravy train keeps rolling for at least another two years...

Energous Finally Questioned On Continuous Delays and Poor Performance on Earnings Call

You have no revenues and it’s been quarter-after-quarter and you're not doing any business, so why don’t you just come out and say it’s not working?

Every quarter Energous does their earnings call as publicly traded companies do. And every quarter they talk about the great future, and Wireless Power 2.0 (now at Phase 3.0!), and how next year is the breakout year, and the great game changing product is only 18 months away, perpetually. And after that, the four analysts that are selected each ask a rather boring question, ignoring things like low revenues, excessive executive compensation, departing founders, and missed product deadlines which the CEO gives a bland answer to, and we thank everyone and end the call.

But not this time.

Before we get to that, just a few highlights from the call - you can read the full thing here on Seeking Alpha, or listen to it here, start at 42m 00s for the interesting part.

• They claim the long range transmitter will be out H1 2020. Time to carrot - 18 months. Again.
• They claim a product release - near field charging for hearing aids. It'll be out in 90 days. Promise. Will they beat the Myant release...
• Revenue is up from $25,000 last quarter to $206,000. That's split between services and royalties, they declined to give the split when questioned, so my guess $200k and $6k respectively. If it was big royalties they'd say. This is a company with a $350m market cap.
• Expenses $12.5m per quarter (61x revenue), with $37.1m in the bank - fundraise needed by Q1 2019
• Working to get regulatory approval with their Tier One partner in South Korea (Samsung?)
• Admits their first generation product failed for every single Tier One customer, and this has left a "bad taste in the number of our customer's mouth" (was referencing inductive charging such as Qi, although I think they will be even less enthused about Energous...)

It was the usual ridiculous call, with the CEO and CFO putting lipstick on a pig and everyone else pretending it's a supermodel. Then we get the question from Matthew Winthrop of Aegis Capital Corp.

Matthew Winthrop (Caller) I’m curious on the hearing-aid business because my father was an audiologist and he tells me that you need to keep your hearing aid next to you in a very closed environment that doesn't get any dust or particles. So, I don't understand why you would need a wireless charge system when you have two plug it in right next to your bed? I’m confused.

Steve Rizzone (Energous CEO) Well, perhaps I can help you. Since your father has had experience with the hearing-aid, I am sure you’ve also seen him go through the process of changing these batteries. He has probably dropped one on the floor on more than one occasion.

Now I'm sure at this point the CEO felt he'd given his usual placating answer and it would be time to move on, but Winthrop wasn't having any of it.

Matthew Winthrop ... So, I don't understand, you came out here, got everyone into this, and told us we were going to charge cell phones and Teslas, and now you're telling we're going to do hearing-aids, sorry I know you are the CEO, but you got the whole world watching. You did a couple of hundred thousand of revenue, you have been putting this of quarter-after-quarter, how can you look at people in the eye and say, we're going to be huge, you’re not. You are just coming up and dancing with new products. Show me something, one company, one contract, something I can hang my hat on. I just don't understand what you’re doing.

Steve Rizzone Well, I respect your comments, but you’re wrong. And I think that the way you’re approaching this is incorrect also. I think you need to keep in mind the scope of what we’re looking to do. We are actively…

Unimpressed with this attempt to dodge and run out the clock, Winthrop interrupts Rizzone:

Matthew Winthrop (Exasperated) You have no revenues and it’s been quarter-after-quarter and you're not doing any business, so why don’t you just come out and say it’s not working?

Rizzone then gives a lengthy non-answer answer (he talks about a very clear, undeniable fact, but never says what it is...), talking over the top of Winthrop, claims they have not lied or been misleading - always a good sign when the CEO has to deny they're a fraud on a public earnings call -  and the call is ended.

So, finally, someone 'respectable' is pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, that they've been claiming monster specs and delivering little, that it's a constant push out, and that the revenues don't match the expenses. Importantly they are doing it on an earnings call, a matter of record now.

A questioner on their earnings call tells them to just give him something solid, or admit that it doesn't work as claimed, and they couldn't give that solid response. A dissembling, rambling, politician reply.

Finally. Let's see if it's the start of something. It will be interesting to watch any impact on the share price tomorrow.

Update Aug 2nd - It had a pretty significant effect on the share price, in the first few hours it's down ~20%

More Clarity from New Energous FOIA Documents

One of the pleasures of writing this blog is in the communications with engineers and scientists who are experts in their respective fields, and I get to learn from private email discussions, or have a great sounding board to bounce theories back and forth with. Following my recent posts on the Energous FOIA documents, one contributing reader let me know they had also directly requested those documents on Energous, and received a batch of redacted emails that had some new ones not in the collection that had been previously available, which led to some interesting exchanges - so thank you for that.

These documents cover an earlier time period from December 2014 to March 2017, with at least one of the email threads having a full year gap in the middle. Those of you who would like to see the new documents in full, email me and I'll send them, or you can contact the FCC yourself and say "I ask for the responsive records for FOIA 2018-000342", and start with the FCC FOIA page here.

There are no stunning technical revelations in here, but there are some key points from earlier that seem to be confirmed. For those who don't want to read the details, the main takeaways are that:

• Switch from 5.75 GHz to 915 MHz seems to have happened late summer 2016
• The "local" RF power issue to get Part 18 seems to be resolved in Oct/Nov 2016
• Reduction of power at receiver to well below 1 Watt seems to happen at end of 2016
• Explicit admission of single device charging occurs in early 2017

These four items combined are likely to have a significant impact on the practicality of the device - huge "pockets" of energy and poor steering, highly limited operating range, delivered power below useful levels for most devices, and only one device at any time. The entire system was on shaky ground to begin with, IMO, and these changes made what I would consider a terrible product far, far worse. In future posts I may compare the dates of these changes, that have quite an impact, with statements from Energous at the time. A publicly traded company must be very careful in what it tells the public.

"Throw it at the wall and see what sticks"

I guessed that Energous were just refiling applications again and again, each time making what minimal changes they thought might get them through, and relying on the FCC to guide them in changes, or perhaps simply to give up and so win through attrition. These documents seem to reinforce that with five face-to-face meetings between June 2016 and March 2017, and nine OET Submissions between August 2016 and March 2017. If we look at the times they submitted, there are some key changes at various dates. Unlike most situations where a company has a product that has to meet minimum specs to satisfy customer demand, it's obvious that there is no aspect of the design that will not be sacrificed in order to get Part 18 approval, no matter how pointless the resulting 'product' is. I list the physical meetings and OET submissions at the base of this article. Key changes are:

• 5.75 GHz to 915 MHz change occurred between June 23rd 2016 (experimental licence) and October 17th 2016 (Document 59)
• Part 18 "Unlimited Power" appears to have been resolved between October 17th 2016 (Doc 59) and November 8th 2016 (Doc 58), possibly at the October 26th face-to-face meeting. "Local" and "unconstrained" RF energy issues do not arise anymore. Note this does not resolve safety issues, such as SAR
• Two Receivers Down to One happens between August 23rd 2016 (Doc 61) and December 12th 2016 (Doc 56). No reason given, perhaps complex SAR measurements
• Drop Below 1 Watt Charging Claim happens between August 23rd 2016 (Doc 61) and (likely) December 12th 2016 (Doc 56) or (definitively) March 28th 2017 (Doc 5)
• Change from 10 Antenna to 12 happens between December 12th 2016 (Doc 56) and February 26th 2017 (Doc 1)
• Change from Sound Bar to Angled Sound Bar happens between December 12th 2016 (Doc 56) and February 26th 2017 (Doc 1). May just be a description change, but coincides with # of antenna change. Energous still demonstrating 'abandoned' straight bar as of January and June 2017.
• Change to Charging a Single Device is in February 26th 2017 (Doc 1), although it was obvious even in earlier submissions this was likely. May be a move to "time sharing" charging multiple devices, reducing already low charge rate to each

No significant changes seem to have occurred between March 2017 and approval in December 2017, which surprised me as the system and performance were so basic that I thought they had to have rushed it, but it seems they had most of a year.

Given the above, it doesn't appear that the change to 915 MHz, at least by itself, fixed the Part 18 issues as that change had occurred by October 17th 2016, while Part 18 questions were still being asked. It could be that the change occurred and it just took time to get that accepted as sufficient for Part 18, or it could also mean that they still had not satisfied SAR safety and did not start lowering the power output until December 2016/March 2017. This also means that Energous knew the mid-range transmitter would be incompatible with the higher frequency mini-WattUp, or have 1 Watt charging, while promoting licencing deals with the likes of Myant. I wonder if Myant knew?

The most important change that allowed for Part 18 approval seems confirmed now to be the requirement for "local" RF energy, and that such energy is never "uncontained". I've suggested this may restrict any such system from working in the far field (which for an array this size is around 1 meter at 915 MHz), but may also be restricting the system from working in the near field where there are multiple "pockets of energy". This would then be a second need for the safety cutoff system that prevents SAR limits being exceeded. If this is the case, even without SAR limits the system would be constrained to the 50 cm to 1 m range it currently is, and makes questionable the claims of Energous' CEO that power limits could be raised by extending this keep-out zone.

This gives a possible explanation as to why 5.75 GHz was not used (beyond the simple FCC statement of "no destroying WiFi"), as the far-field boundary moves much further out and the "pocket" of energy gets smaller in theory - that any close in operation that would be needed would be in the near field with many maxima and minima, with potential for further maxima beyond the charging location. Either that or such a system would require too many antenna and electronics too precise for Energous to want/be able to build. There's still not enough information to resolve this question, but more pieces are beginning to fall into place.

If that's the case, it doesn't bode too well for Ossia, who recently claimed a shift to 5.8 GHz. While they have a 2D array and can probably dynamically alter the transmit aperture, say to a 30x30 cm square for a 1 meter far field. There would be a pretty reasonable number of elements in that, assuming 1/3 wavelength pitch (around 17 by 17, or ~300). Quite how they overcome the SAR and safety issue and still get reasonable energy out, I'm not sure - I still only see this working for IoT devices at exceptionally low power. Searching on the FCC website though, I can't find grantee code for Ossia - it's as if they've never interacted with the FCC on product regulation at all. Does anyone know what their FCC grantee code is?

So the outcome of this is more clarity that Energous were simply doing whatever it takes to get Part 18 approval, even if it were a product that failed to meet their original claims, and some visibility into the methods they used to slowly reduce capability, or wear down the FCC, until it was finally allowed. The "local" RF energy question seems to have been answered by placing severe restrictions on the usable range, while safety was met by reducing power again and again, retesting until it finally passed. Little by little, we're learning more about how this process was playing out in the background. I'm looking forward to the next set of revelations to narrow down what's really going on.

Oh, and Energous earnings tomorrow - odds on this ~$400m market cap company earning more than $25,000 this quarter? (My mistake, earnings at the end of Wednesday, not Tuesday! And boy was it an interesting call.)

(Repeating the seemingly obligatory statement - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company)

Below is a simply a summary of meetings and submissions to the FCC by Energous on their mid-range device. This is not intended, or likely, to be complete, just what is known at this time. I'll update with other information later.

Physical Meetings

• 8/9th June 2016 (experimental licence application)
• 27th July 2016 (Doc 61)
• 26th October 2016 (Doc 55)
• 6th December 2016 (Doc 54)
• 28th Feb 2017 (Doc 3)

Office Engineering and Technology (OET) Response Submissions

• 23rd August 2016 (Doc 61) - Still not clear that Part 18 is achievable, and claims a second receiver at 1 Watt. To get Part 18, repeatedly references "local" RF energy. Two receivers listed, one at 100 mW, one at 1 Watt - last mention of two receivers or 1 Watt. Power reported as "Number Receivers Supported: Rx-1: 100mW, Rx-2: 1W", No indication if these two receivers were on the same device, or could be separate, I expect a single device. Lists a sensor needed for SAR compliance.

• 17th October 2016 (Doc 59) - Earliest mention of the 913 MHz band in available documents. Ongoing discussion of viability of Part 18 with it clearly critical that energy be assured to be "local" and can never be "uncontained". Also see page 2

• 8th November 2016 (Doc 58) - All Part 18 discussion is dropped following Oct 26th meeting. It is never raised again in future documents. Part 18 "local" and "unconstrained" issues solved?
• 30th November 2016 (Doc 55, Page 4) refers to an OET Response on this date but not available
• 10th December 2016 (Doc 57) refers to meeting of Oct 26 and not Dec 6. Appears Energous want OET to develop new safety criteria for them. Jeff McNeil of Energous adds "Regulatory" to his SVP Ops title.
• 12th December 2016 (Doc 56) refers to Dec 6th meeting. FCC requests clarity on which of the many designs will be submitted. Table 1 lists 10 antenna and "Target Platforms: Sound bar for desktop usage". Power now reported as "Cumulative Receive Power at 30 cm and 1m: [Redacted]". Use case claims "charging multiple devices", but admits to one device at a time.

• 18th December 2016 (Doc 55) FCC request a different method of calculating SAR and measure individual antenna
• 26th February 2017 (Doc 1) Table 1 lists 12 antenna and "Target Platforms: Angled Sound Bar for desktop usage". If an actual change, a limit on phase array capability to focus? Number of antenna and description change. Use case now admits "charging single device"

• 28th March 2017 (Doc 5) - FCC still asking for single clear submission

Experimental Licence Application

• To demonstrate the technology to FCC, a 15 day experimental licence was applied for , starting June 8th 2016 for 15 days. Application is here. The details of this can be found at the FCC site here, and clearly show still operating at 5.8 GHz, with 20.4 Watts output (55.6 W ERP). Energous' next such application was for 6 days, between 6th and 12th January this year for  CES, which listed the 913 MHz band with 30 W ERP. 

Energous FCC FOIA Docs

I had a chance to go through the FCC/Energous FOIA documents mentioned in my last blog post. They span a period from around February to December 2017 when Energous were trying to get their mid-range transmitter approved under Part 18 (unlimited power) rules. Most of them have the really useful information redacted, and are Energous bugging the FCC to "please can we visit so we can move this on quickly" and the FCC engineers saying "errr, sorry out of town that day" like an ex-girlfriend trying to avoid an annoying and slightly psycho ex. One of them was super interesting with lots of info in it though, which reveals a lot of the history of the system.

The data shown seems to be for the system as they were trying to push through in early 2017, with 21 W out, but to ensure they hit the SAR safety limit by December had to dial it back to 10 Watts out. This ties with the December device power at 90 cm being 30 mW, while in March it was 60 mW at 1 meter. They pushed the size of the safety cutoff zone up to 50 cm from around 35 cm, possibly changing the focal point along the way (just eyeballing the structure it looks to have changed between March and December). 

The main FCC concerns seemed to be safety via the SAR limit, as well as ensuring that energy was in "pockets of concentration" (Doc 18). There's a significant discussion on corrective factors applied as safety margins, and basically they have to scale all measured results by ~1.5 and still be under the 1.6W/kg limit (Doc 30). This means, as I suspected, that Energous cannot raise the power output of their system from where they are today (0.966 W/kg) - what they have now is as powerful as it gets.

My read of this - Energous just kept resubmitting and resubmitting, each time with the FCC telling them to go away and what to do next, and eventually they dialed everything back to the point where they got it through under the SAR limit. An undercurrent in the notes is sloppy work by Energous, with the FCC constantly having to ask for clarifications, updates, or actually doing calculations for them! (Doc 30) 

I don't see any evidence of pressure on the staff to push the device through, more exasperation on their part with second rate engineers just throwing stuff at the wall hoping it would eventually stick.

The rest of this analysis is a little dry for those not interested in the details, just warning you.

There's a few things though that stand out as important, beyond what I listed earlier. First of all, they had moved to 915 MHz from 5.8 GHz by February 2017. Document 1 indicates that the February submission is a second clarification or change in response to a meeting they had with the FCC in October 2016. I could speculate that a 5 or 6 month response time indicates that some significant changes had been made, as new measurements or clarifications could be made quickly. This may be the timeframe in which the frequency switch was made. This IMO is a significant change with implications for performance of the system, yet was never mentioned in SEC calls or quarterly reports.

The work presented by Energous also appears to be sloppy, with the FCC multiple times noting how poor the data consistency and quality is (Doc 9 "trying to understand field distribution", Doc 41 requesting "proper and consistent information", Doc 48 "We understand that it was prepared quickly, but we suggest paying attention to some details.").  Their two tables don't match, for example the received power listed below when converted from dBm in Table 2 are 512 mW and 47 mW (27.1 and 16.7 dBm) for 30 cm and 1 meter respectively, but in Table 1 (previous post) are 190 mW and 60 mW (22.8 and 17.7 dBm).

Basically, the numbers don't add up. I expect the numbers here are for an earlier system that was very tightly focused to try and maximize power at a single point to get to ~500 mW to charge a phone, but ended up going way over SAR. There may be some other reason, one being estimated and one measured, but I'm tending to the "sloppy" for now.

Document 32 shows the "keep out" zone changed around November 2017, increasing it to 50 cm. This may also be when the physical structure of the power bar was changed, or may simply be that they were forced to update their SAR measurements and this was required.

Document 18 references the need not only to be concerned with safety and states that data "should also show that the energy distribution through field maps demonstrate that there are pockets of concentration". This indicates that the safety restriction was not only a single SAR number, but the physical distribution of the energy. 

Figure 11 above shows a typical on axis beam, with a peak at one point showing the transition from near to far field, and then a gradual but continuous reduction with distance. If we assume a "pocket" of energy implies a region where there is a lower value of energy both before and after the charge location, then that would restrict the use of the system to just beyond near field only. Even with a phased array, where that transition zone is, it's a function of frequency and physical size of the transmitter. For any practical size transmitter, (equations here) it's basically likely to never be viable beyond 1 meter. If this is the case, that's a huge limitation for any at-distance wireless power system unless they make the transmitter the size of a wall.

Also, that peak in Figure 11 is at 42cm, but they say a focus at 65cm. They might want to take a look at their work there...

The size of a region of constructive interference, a focus, is often defined by the half power, or -3dB points. Looking at Figures 11 and 13, it seems that region is about 60 cm in the x- and z-axes, but only 15cm or so in the y-axis. Some "pocket"!

The "safety system" that detects if anyone is in range of the device and shuts it off (supposedly) is ultrasonic, using TI PGA450 chips and my best guess would be Murata ultrasound transmitters (sound familiar?), used in car parking sensors. I'd be very interested to see how this is setup, because as someone who has worked with them before and ultrasound a lot, I think that system might be easy to fool if you don't design it very carefully.

So overall this data is interesting, nothing too amazing, but confirms what was suspected - that this system is at the limit of what it can transmit safely, that it doesn't have enough power to charge a phone in any realistic way, that efficiency is low, and that FCC staff weren't too impressed with Energous' consistency and quality of work. But it does prove that persistence pays off.

(Seemingly obligatory statement - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company)

Energous: It's Worse Than We Thought

A contributor to SeekingAlpha has recently posted an article highlighting data from an FOIA request to the FCC regarding Energous' approval for their mid-range transmitter last December. They appear to show concern from the FCC officials as to how the system was performing, and understanding the system behavior. There's also discussion regarding the safety limits, which I think are one of the key issues and concerns surrounding this approval, and covered them in several posts. The author has provided the FOIA documents for download here.

For some background, I wrote several posts on the FCC approval in December last year, you can find them starting here.

Interestingly, earlier this year I did a FOIA request for all of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's communications regarding Energous (along with several other keywords) and was told there was nothing. Given Ajit Pai's (IMO clearly illegal) use of the official FCC communications to promote a private company, I suspect there are documents there, just not available. I may revisit that.

One of the key images that has been redacted from the FCC report, but is floating around from another source, shows the actual specifications for their desktop system.

There are some key points in here:

• The system works for only 1 receiver at a time
• Output is from 12 antenna, each antenna is 1.8W (32.5 dBm) - 21.6 Watts total output
• Receive power at 30cm is 190 mW, at 1m is 60mW
• Max range 1 meter
• Receiver is 6.5 cm in diameter
• No mention of safety limit distance

There is no clear detail is that received power is actual RF power at target, or power to battery at target - I suspect the former. This is a higher output power than the system shown in FCC documents in the Part 18 Approval (21.6W vs 10W), and the receive power slightly lower - I was estimating 100 to 150 mW at 50 cm, some were estimating higher. That implies a "Wall to Battery" efficiency of 0.2% at 30cm and 0.06% at 1 meter, assuming 90 Watts in at the wall socket (thanks to a reader for pointing out my initial mistake here). That would mean a phone would take over a day to charge at 30 centimeters, and nearly 4 days at 1 meter - and that's assuming 100% efficiency on receive, and I also suspect those numbers are ideal and real world will be worse. You might say it's more appropriate for IoT or small item charging, however the receiver, at 6.5cm diameter, is wider than my phone. I expect it's multiple dipole antenna and they need it that size to get even that terrible efficiency. I can see why Myant didn't want this receiver in their underwear.

So charge times are obscenely long, it's incredibly inefficient, only one target receiver at a time, the receiver is larger than a phone, and it needs a safety cutoff if you get too close. Did I miss anything? 

Apple must be chomping at the bit to get hold of this technology...

I'll dig into the released documents in more detail later, but at first glance it doesn't quite match with prior statements from the Energous CEO as to system capabilities.

"Here is a brief summary of the results of the amount of actual power delivered to a device at varying distances with a single WattUp transmitter. Power received at zero to five feet measured 5.55 watts compared to our targeted performance of 4 watts. Power received at five to 10 feet measured 3.74 watts compared to our targeted performance of 2 watts and power received at 10 to 15 feet measured 1.06 watts compared to our targeted performance of 1 watt."

5.5 Watts vs an actual 0.19W - only a factor of around 29. Remember that when viewing the statements from at-distance wireless power companies as to their performance specs, compared to what they have to write in the legally required documents and spec sheets.

There's an update to this post, reading the releases in more detail, here.

(Since I always seem to need say this - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company)

Wireless Power Consortium: Aristides Capital on Energous - Still Not Looking Good

Earlier today Christopher Brown of Aristides Capital gave a presentation on "The Six Billion Dollar Watt: Promise and Problems of Wireless Charging 2.0" at the Wireless Power Consortium meeting in Quebec. He continues to focus on Energous and his opinion of them has not improved since last time. You can find the WPC page here with direct download here and a simple PDF of it here. It's similar to, but updated from, a talk he gave a few weeks ago at a short selling conference that can be seen here. Here's one of my favorite slides from it, highlighting the "Time to Carrot" where Energous have been pushing out product delivery to around 18 months away for four years.

I'm hoping that the Wireless Power industry is finally getting its act together and realizing that if one large well publicized company generates bad press, it's terrible for them all. If the overall industry speaks together to denounce what Brown straight out calls "fraud", then the mainstream media and large investors may finally take notice and give Energous and the like the coverage and treatment they deserve.

More Energous Updates - Now trickle charging, 10Q shows a 9 month runway, FCC Chair promotion

A few brief Energous updates. There was a new article from Rhodri Marsden covering the technology area, and it was reasonably skeptical. The most interesting part for me was this quote from the Energous CEO:

Steve Rizzone, chief executive of Energous, responds by alluding to the lifestyle change mentioned by Bladen of Chargifi. “Mobile distance charging will not, for the foreseeable future, have charging power comparable to a wall socket,” he says. “But if you are continually topping off your mobile devices, you do not need to enable the same amount of power because charging happens continuously.”

So main points from here are 1) an admission they will not hit the multi-Watt charging rates and 2) that they are moving their public position to the "trickle charge" model where you don't charge the phone up, just try to halt or slow down the rate of battery decline. That's a pretty significant admission from a $500m market cap company - that everything they built the company on won't be happening "for the foreseeable future". A rational market would have seen a major price decline for their shares but for WATT, nothing. It's another indication this company's value is irrational - though that's not to say there won't be a lot of ups and downs, and money to be made and lost, before it finally hits zero.

Taking a look at the trickle charging claim - the FCC Part 18 data shows that maximum charge rate for a phone is around 100 mW at 50 cm from the transmitter, down to 30 mW at 90 cm. Ignoring RF to DC conversion loss, if you held your phone at exactly 50 cm away, square on to the transmitter, and didn't move it, you would extend the battery life from about 10 hours to 12 hours. At 90 centimeters you may add around 30 minutes if you are lucky. Don't hold it with your hand at the back of the phone though, or at an angle, you'll lose charging. This is me being nice to them with the numbers, realistically it makes no noticeable difference at all. Alternatively you could plug it in or place on a Qi charge pad and get back to 100% in an hour or so.

10Q

On the finances front, the 10Q was out for Energous, and it's not looking pretty for them. They had about $45m in the bank as of the end of March this year, with about $13.5m in per-quarter run rate. If that holds, they're out of cash in January, and by their own admission there are no significant products or revenue in that timeframe. Let's see how they either cut their expenses or persuade people to buy a few more tens of millions of dollars "worth" of stock.

Ajit Pai - Again

Once again the Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, promoted Energous using the official FCC account. A reminder to everyone, this is a disgusting abuse of a public position for the private gain of his personal friends, and that's what we know about.

Thanks to the @Energous team for taking the time to show me the demo! Look forward to seeing the future of wireless charging unfold. (And always a bonus to see the one and only @MartyMobile.) @McDowellTweet https://t.co/OixmfxJzPn

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) April 13, 2018

I took a little time to browse through Ajit Pai's Twitter feed and didn't see any other companies that got the benefit of his promotion.Did I miss any? I wonder what makes them so special to warrant this attention?

Energous Updates

A few updates on Energous happenings from the last week or so. First up, Chris Brown of Aristides Capital gave a presentation at a conference, "Kase Learning: The Art, Pain and Opportunity of Short Selling".


It is the best presentation covering everything that is wrong about Energous I have seen, and neatly summarizes a bunch of what I have been saying in this blog, in a way a lay person can understand. According to their SeekingAlpha page, Aristides Capital manage about $83 million in investments. Here are the "Take Home Messages" from this 34 page work of art:

"The people who do publicity and media relations for Energous have done an utterly brilliant job selling vaporware. Congratulations, Ajit Pai and others.

The “advance” upon which Energous was founded, “the pocket of RF energy,” is a fabrication, a “dazzle them with BS” way of saying “constructive interference,” and doesn’t solve any issues. The reasons we don’t transmit large amounts of RF through the air for power—safety limitations, equipment cost and size, and poor efficiency—are the same as they have been for decades.

Energous is a fraud, one which is burning a lot of cash and will run out of money. The company has no chance of making a commercially successful product. We expect the stock will go to $0."

A link to the full presentation is here.

I added the bold above as I'm glad to see more people covering the what I said in my second post on this blog, over two years ago: "In theory, it can be done in limited cases, but in practice cost and efficiency issues will likely render it impractical." 

So many of the individual pages of this presentation cover topics I have often spent hundreds of words to try to get across in posts, so it's a lesson for me in how to be succinct and effective in this area. I won't repeat them all but a few memorable quotes:

Energous Corporation: a worthless equity hyped to $500 million

CEO who lies bigly and often

#FAKENEWS – false & unskeptical media coverage

If you tell the same big lie often enough, many people will believe it

and my personal favorite as an engineer:

Very small numbers add together to make other very small numbers

CNBC covered this and asked the company for a response:

"Energous did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

Download the presentation and read it for yourself, I'm not doing it justice here.

Speaking of "Unskeptical Media Coverage"
There was also a new wireless power article "When will your phone charge wirelessly in your pocket? We asked an expert" on Digital Trends. It focused on Energous and Ossia, with a brief mention of Powercast, so was aimed squarely at the RF at-distance wireless charging market. I was interested to see the analysis from independent experts and a balanced and reasonable piece on the practical issues surrounding this tech. You're going to be amazed by who the experts are:

• Hatam Zeine - Founder and CTO of Ossia
• Gordon Bell - VP Marketing of Energous
• Mark Hopgood - Snr Director Marketing/Strategy at Dialog Semiconductor (Energous Partner/Investor)

aaaaaand that's it. Every single person interviewed has a financial incentive to promote this technology, they are completely biased. Not even a token attempt here to speak to a university professor of electrical engineering, or get a counter viewpoint. Spend a few minutes Googling Energous and you'll find plenty of stories out there on the less savory side of at least Energous. Of course I'm pretty biased since I'm one of those drawing attention to that. Is this a puff piece that's essentially PR for the companies, or is it actually an attempt to inform the reader? If the former, it achieved that goal splendidly, if it's the latter then it's a major fail.

Now I've been harsh on tech journalists covering this topic in the past, and while it's not the ass-kiss fest that David Pogue exemplifies, or the embarrassingly weak coverage from Tom's Guide where they got the wool pulled over their eyes on what they were showing,  this is still another company PR piece masquerading as tech journalism. I'm not sure the author even realizes he's being used by these companies to whitewash their PR and give it a veneer of authenticity.

I was about to take apart the rest of the article, but in the end realized it's just more of the same of what I've written on other journalists. Instead I'll just make this one point - whenever I talk to journalists about Energous, I'm either asked if I have a financial interest or conflict of interest. When I post online I always get someone replying that I'm just a short-seller looking to make money, or am upset I'm losing money shorting the stock despite my repeated statements that I have no position on the company - I even had someone who owns a wireless power company demand that I declare my financial interests because I was, unlike him, clearly biased. Why do I get more scrutiny about my motivations than someone who is doing it for the money? Only answer I can think of - when someone isn't doing something for money, it confuses people. The idea that you're doing it simply "because it's the right thing to do" is utterly alien and therefore suspicious.

Energous' Financials
It was also time for Energous' quarterly financial results, and once again there were no surprises here - it's still a ~$500m company with $25,000 in quarterly services revenue and no sales. With cash in the bank and the current burn rate, they have 9, at best 12, months of operation left before further fundraising is needed. All talk of product delivery and profitability was once again pushed out into the future, as seems to happen every time. By their own admission, they can't get to revenue before they run out of money, let alone to enough sales to break even. No mention of Myant dropping WattUp from their Skiin product, you'd think given the big deal they made of that product announcement a few months ago that it would be important for investors to be told about that. A transcript of the earnings call can be found here. Oh, and they're also awarding themselves millions of dollars in equity because they're doing such a fantastic job.

Energous FCC Approval Shows Weakness of WattUp Technology

More Energous news today with the announcement of another FCC approval, this time the "unlimited power" Part 18 approval for their Near-Field, contact only, system. You may remember this from May last year when it was approved under Part 18 at 5.8 GHz for 1 Watt transmitted output, but this time approved at 900 MHz at a staggering new 1 Watt transmitted output. Accounting for conversion efficiencies, that might be enough to charge your phone in 10 to 20 hours! Apparently this is momentous news and so WATT shares leapt 25% in after hours trading, because... well for no reason other than this is a volatile stock that trades on hope and greed, not an actual product or profits.

Why was this approval needed? Well, Energous had been advertising the WattUp family, that what charges with the Near-Field device will also work with their upcoming Mid- and Far-Field systems. Unfortunately, they learned in summer 2017 that the FCC would not allow the Mid-Field system to pass Part 18 at 5.8 GHz, and so they scrambled to change it and go with ~900 MHz, the only other frequency band realistically open to them. It got them the approval, for a pitiful amount of power (30 to 100 mW) at a small distance (0.5 to 0.9 meters) and a safety cutoff below 0.5 meters, but broke the promised compatibility with the contact version - the frequencies were just different. 

Now, this new approval allows them to market the compatibility, and it will be quite a campaign, I can just imagine it: 

"Charge your phone on a pad in around a day, and then charge at a distance in ten times as long! (Warning, charging only valid at 0.5 to 0.9 meters, safety cutoff closer than 0.5 meters)".

If you want to look at the data for yourself, look here, then search for Energous under the Applicant Name, and look up the product 2ADNG-NF230 at 918 MHz. You can see that transmitted power is limited to 29 dBm (basically, just under 1 Watt), and they likely have some antenna gain to pretend it's closer to 3 Watts. While there are two antenna to try and ensure the device charges at any angle, only one is active at any time.

Like the Mid-Field system approved at Christmas, the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR, a safety limit) seems to be what stops them, and is around 0.864 W/kg. While the limit is 1.6 W/kg, with safety margins it is hard to go much higher. Basically, this is as much power as they are ever going to put out. Further, unlike the Mid-Field, the CEO cannot pretend that the charge rate can be increased by altering the safety zone - there is none. This is as good as it gets. (Yes, Unlimited Power Part 18 does mean "around 1 Watt max").

For comparison, the Qi standard is around 5 Watts, with a high power version at 15 Watts - Qi is the resonant inductive method you're most likely to have seen, and that Apple has essentially chosen for AirPower. USB cables charge at anywhere from around 5 Watts to 100 Watts (though practically most today are around 10 Watts).

So at less than 1 Watt it's easy to see why Myant dropped Energous from their product. It would likely be ~10x slower than the cheaper, simpler cable they look to be providing instead. As a partner of Energous, Myant would have known this was coming, but still dropped it from the lineup. If "waiting for compatibility with long range charging" was the excuse, then that's gone, as both Near and Mid versions are at ~900 MHz now. Myant could put in the 900 MHz contact charging into their product now, and switch to the at-distance chargers later. If a key partner isn't taking advantage of this feature, IMO that's a major warning flag that something is rotten in the WattUp portfolio.

As with the Mid-Field FCC approval documents, this data shows how impractical the WattUp charging technology is, and how it can't be scaled up from here. This won't stop the Energous fans from claiming another victory, that the stock price boost is a sign of impending greatness, however it's just another well timed news dump of practical insignificance that will goose the stock for a few days. Just one of the occasional bounces you can expect to see on the way down and enabling some to make a profit from the volatility, not the value. I continue to admire Energous for their ability to boost the stock price and keep the game going longer. I wonder when we'll be seeing the next set of insider stock sales...

So is this overnight addition of $100 million to the market cap indicative of great things to come? I'll leave you with this, another reminder of what the Energous CEO said almost 2.5 years ago in the Q3 2015 earnings call:

"Here is a brief summary of the results of the amount of actual power delivered to a device at varying distances with a single WattUp transmitter. Power received at zero to five feet measured 5.55 watts compared to our targeted performance of 4 watts. Power received at five to 10 feet measured 3.74 watts compared to our targeted performance of 2 watts and power received at 10 to 15 feet measured 1.06 watts compared to our targeted performance of 1 watt."

They can barely do 1 Watt when in contact in Q2 2018. Still believing they'll deliver an actual product?

(My regular reminder, I have no financial position in Energous, long or short, or any other wireless power company)

Myant Responds to Questions Over Dropping Energous

Yesterday I wrote a post indicating that Myant, a "hi-tech clothing company", looked to have dropped Energous wireless charging from their upcoming Fitbit-style-underwear product. Energous made a pretty big deal about the announcement at the end of last year and at CES this January, so it was an equally big deal to see that disappear. Today on Twitter, Alexandros Roussos responded with a comment straight from Myant on this:

Asked Skiin about that: they have cancelled release of the contact-based version because of charging efficiency. Still working with Energous to bring a product compatible with distant charging. It does make better sense to lose some efficiency to get distant charging convenience.

— Alexandros Roussos (@alexandrosrouss) April 6, 2018

First of all, thanks to Alexandros for getting this information straight from the company, there's a treasure trove of information just in those few lines. I have not confirmed this myself, and in the absence of an official statement from Myant, I'm going to take this statement as accurate, should that change or Myant clarify, I'll update accordingly.

Efficiency - Valid Excuse or Covering for Poor Performance?

First thing to note is a confirmation they've dropped the contact wireless charging. That's an "ouch" for Energous. Second is that the reason given is "charging efficiency" - which is a bizarre reason to give. Battery life is around 6 days, and likely around 0.5 Wh capacity, which means around 30 Wh per year, or ~0.4 cents per year of electricity at the average price of 12c/kWh at 100% efficiency. That means 4 cents per year at 10% efficiency, and 40 cents per year at 1% efficiency, for a product that's a few hundred dollars. This is not a reasonable excuse based on efficiency, so maybe they mean charge rate?

How long is someone prepared to wait for charging such a device? Well a Fitbit is around an hour, give or take, so it shouldn't be much more than that every 6 days. Energous claimed around 5 Watts or more charging for the contact system, which would easily charge a device like this in less than an hour. Does WattUp charge at lower rates than this for smaller devices? If someone had to wait 10+ hours for the charging, that would be a good reason to have to have 2 devices (Interestingly in their old package Myant included two trackers, while in the current package it looks like they sell only one. "Use two modules interchangeably for the full 24/7 experience" they say.) A slow charge rate would definitely make it questionable as a consumer product, and I think this is more likely what they mean by "charging efficiency".

It seems to me with this statement that Myant have confirmed that the Energous mini WattUp is not a viable solution for mobile electronics - the core market it's touted as being designed for. That's pretty damning for any product.

Incompatibility - Despite Energous PR Claims Otherwise

One of the very interesting things is that Myant claim that they want to "bring a product compatible with distant charging" which is ridiculous as that was touted as an an inbuilt major feature with the mini WattUp - use for contact charging now, then move to the at-distance charging with the same device in future. In-built future proofing! To quote from Energous' own press release:

"All WattUp-enabled products will support seamless transitioning from charging via Miniature WattUp transmitters, to future stationary in-room transmitters that will offer wire-free charging with mobility at a distance. The result will be a complete wireless charging eco-system."

Has that compatibility been broken? I do wonder if the recent change to 913 MHz for the mid-field system killed any hope of compatibility. (Yes, I know, I'm saying that a unavailable product is now incompatible with another product I'm saying will never be released, I get how ridiculous this is).

Have Myant inadvertently confirmed that the "WattUp eco-system compatibility" does not exist?

At Distance Charging Convenience

The last statement of the charging convenience of "at distance" is ridiculous. If the contact method is inefficient, by definition the at-distance method will be far worse - that's both basic physics and common sense. You won't lose "some" efficiency, you'll lose a lot. Energous' own numbers for their mid field system shows charge rates between 30 mW and around 100mW, so between 5 and 16 hours to charge, while standing in a small region around 50 centimeters on each side, always facing the transmitter. Yes, that's practical...

Maybe it's for just throwing on the nightstand and charging at-distance that way while you sleep - in that case it's no more convenient than contact charging, but a lot more inefficient!

Confirmation of Impracticality?

The response from Myant is welcome, to me it confirms that the WattUp has been dropped from the "flagship" Energous named customer, there is no replacement, that the contact based WattUp system is likely too inefficient (slow?) for most consumer electronics, and that the promoted inter-system compatibility does not exist. A few lines from Myant, and it says a lot to me about Energous' product overall.

Update:
A few minutes after posting, Alexandros made the following statement on Twitter, that there was some paraphrasing in his response. You should take that into account when reading this post, however I think the main points of the post still stand.

I see you are reviewing every single word of my response tweet in your last post, so notice this is already a reformulation that may be interpreted differently from their actual feedback.

— Alexandros Roussos (@alexandrosrouss) April 6, 2018