Energous FCC Approval Found: It's a renamed approval from April 18

My last few posts have asked where the FCC approval for the recently announced product was, as it wasn't showing up on the FCC search site. While the FCC site doesn't have it, it can be found at a different site and is ID VAW-NF910. It is indeed by SK Telesys, was granted on Dec 27th, and is for wireless charging under FCC Part 18. Reading further though, it's clear this is not a new product, but rather simply a renaming of an earlier near field charger, the 2ADNG-NF230.

Since I've written a lot this week, I'll summarize here:

• This transmitter is a rebadged 2ADNG-NF230 that Energous mad a fanfare about in April 18
• If it's been approved since April and is awesome, why can't I buy it yet?
• There is no receiver that works with it yet approved (known of), so no product sale possible
• If so, no PSAP/hearing aid approval could then be claimed
• For safety shouldn't be within 10 centimeters of a person when operating
• Maximum output is 1 Watt, so likely under 100 mW charging max
• Slower, less safe, less versatile than a Qi charging case for earbuds
• Share price continues to fall from this brief spike

So back to the detail:

I did a full post on this 'product' back in April and I was as unimpressed then as I am now, I titled it "Energous FCC Approval Shows Weakness of WattUp Technology". Basically, slower than Qi, with further safety restrictions and less compatibility. There are already Qi based charging cases for earpieces, why is this any better? Or should I instead ask, why is this not worse?

The user manual for the 2ADNG-NF230 is here, and the FCC Approval from April 9th 2018 can be found here. Below are pictures of the device and antenna from those documents.

An interesting statement from this documentation:

The NF-230 Charger requires all persons to be at least 10 cm afar from the charger at all times except when placing or removing the device to be charged. 

Don't sleep too close to it!

With one antenna active at a time, it's 29dBm output so just under 1 W transmitted. They maintain the SAR limit (1.6W/kg) at around 0.86W/kg, so judging by the previous Part 18 approved device which was similar output after the safety cutoff zone (though 10W transmitted), we can probably expect no more than 200 mW of received power, and after conversion from RF to DC down to around 100 mW at most. 

Interestingly, if SK Telesys and Delight are simply rebadging existing Energous applications, there is no current FCC Approval for a receiver for this, so the transmitter can send, but there's nothing to take the power. The only parts in the same frequency range approved are the larger sized transmitter (2ADNG-MS300), and a phone sized receiver (2ADNG-MS300A), and are not appropriate for this.

I would give some comment on their DA2223 chips and what they might be able to do in a receiver, but unlike regular electronics, the vendor provides no data sheet, only marketing level material. Without receiver approval, there's no product here!

And doesn't this mean that a statement like "FCC approval of the Delight PSAP hearing device" in the press release is a bit of an exaggeration when it's a charger that's approved, not the PSAP? There really needs to be another approval somewhere we've not seen.

Well done Energous, great marketing hype given there's absolutely nothing new at all. What did that do for your share price?

Oh, a bump and back down 40% from there. I hope the insiders managed to sell at that high - we'll see in a few days if they do.

(Repeating the seemingly obligatory statement - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company. Nor have I ever had any such positions.)

Energous Product Announcement: Where's the Approval?

Earlier today Energous put out a press release about an apparent FCC approval for an anticipated personal sound amplification product (PSAP) that may be on the market in as little as three months. Despite his being a re-announcement of an already delayed product, and contact only, it send the WATT stock shooting up from under $4.80 to nearly $9.50 before settling back down closer to $7.00 at close, a healthy ~50% gain. Interestingly, it's basically a year to the day when they announced the FCC Part 18 approval for their mid-range wireless charger, that still is not announced as for sale, which got it a big price spike before a long slow decline. As this was 3am pacific time, my post was fairly cursory, and since then I've had some discussions with others who follow Energous and a few interesting points have come up.

As noted earlier, no FCC approval could be found for such a device for Energous or the manufacturers SK Telesys or Delight. Now I'd expect there to be something, somewhere - Energous push things pretty far IMO in how they exaggerate, but they really avoid doing anything blatantly illegal. Given this, I'm interested to know what that FCC approval is, if the company can provide any more details on that - the type of approval, and approval number, anything.

Interestingly, this is a personal sound amplification product PSAP - not a hearing aid. A hearing aid requires FDA approval, a PSAP does not. From the FDA:

PSAPs are intended to amplify environmental sound for non-hearing impaired consumers. They are intended to accentuate sounds in specific listening environments, rather than for everyday use in multiple listening situations. They are not intended to compensate for hearing impairment or to address listening situations that are typically associated with and indicative of hearing loss. 

Products making these (hearing aid) or similar claims should not be considered PSAPs. In addition, products that are sold as an “over the counter” alternative or substitute for a hearing aid should not be considered PSAPs. Because PSAPs are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or mitigate disease and do not alter the structure or function of the body, they are not devices as defined in the FD&C Act.

The link also has a very clear definition of hearing aids, and the regulatory pathway expected of them.

So a very clear and specific difference between a hearing aid, and a PSAP, and while the press release starts by talking about a PSAP, it then goes on to say:

Like hearing aids, PSAPs are used by the hearing impaired to assist with hearing loss, but they are available without a prescription and tend to be lower in cost than hearing aids.

So they are making claims that these devices are to be used for mitigating hearing loss, which makes them hearing aids, not PSAPs, and subject to FDA approval. Now confusion is often useful when you want people to draw incorrect conclusions from statements, but when you get into a regulatory environment like the FDA, you have to be careful and precise. So which is it Energous?

It's also very hard to find out anything from either of the partner companies on the product itself. SK Telesys isn't a hearing aid company and there's a single Energous related press release that I can find on their page (and nothing else, for any product, for a company that's 21 years old...). Delight have a website with more information, but not much more. They clearly advertise as a hearing aid (not a PSAP), no mention of FCC or FDA approval (it has Bluetooth, FCC approval is mandatory, it's a hearing aid, so FDA approval mandatory), and it's dated from the original June 2018 announcement.

Now there's even a PDF for download, however you enter an email, click send now and then see this:

And when you click the only button you have - nothing. So a 6 month old webpage, with minimal information, that contradicts some of Energous' statements, and that I can't find necessary FDA or FCC approvals for. No ordering page, no description of commercial outlets to purchase from, no release date.

Not much more to say, with so little to go on, the coming weeks will tell. The roller-coaster of Energous continues. Now to keep an eye on when insiders sell and see if they take advantage of this spike.

(Repeating the seemingly obligatory statement - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company. Nor have I ever had any such positions.)

Energous: Here we go again with another 'product' announcement

Only a few days ago I thought I'd done my last post on Energous for 2018, but it was not to be. Not to be outdone by uBeam, a few minutes ago Energous sent out a press release about the first new amazing life changing FCC approved WattUp consumer product, the SK Telesys hearing aid  personal sound amplification product (PSAP).

New wirelessly-charged personal sound amplification products from Energous customer, Delight, are certified to sell in the United States

“FCC approval of the Delight PSAP hearing device is a very significant and positive announcement for Energous in that it represents the first WattUp-enabled consumer product moving into full commercial production, with anticipated availability in Q1,” said Stephen R. Rizzone, president and CEO of Energous 

Incredible. FCC certified to sell. With anticipated available in no more than 3 months. Wow, couldn't be more certain than something that's 'anticipated'. And it was only at the beginning of August that the same CEO Rizzone was telling us that this hearing aid product personal sound amplification product would be available in... 90 days. (And that's forgetting the Myant chargable undies announced as a product about a year ago and that seem to have been... forgotten). I used to say "Time to Carrot" for Energous products was a near constant 18 months, but that's the long range wireless charger, for the contact based charger, it's apparently 3 months. 

So yes, even if this product ever becomes available, it will be the in-contact WattUp version, not the at-distance, and charges at a rather low rate (a few hundred mW most likely, claims up to 1 W but we'll see). I know it's easy to get mixed up between that and the at-distance wireless WattUp products that charge even slower and aren't actually available, but then that's kind of the point of creating a single marketing name for multiple very different products. Almost as if the company wanted to bamboozle and confuse you into thinking they had something other than what they do.

So why use this instead of Qi, the industry standard, that charges at a higher rate, is compatible with all your existing wireless charging devices, and is more efficient? Not sure, about the only thing they might be able to claim in "hearing aids don't need to be in a case" which is awesome, especially when they roll off the nightstand and get lost.

The FCC approval itself is also interesting. Seeing there's a government shutdown the FCC can't have authorized it in the last few days (update: turns out the FCC is funded through Jan 3, so still possible), and a search of the FCC system shows no recent licence grants for Energous, Delight, or SK Telesys (most recent authorization, 2011). I'll dig through the FCC site tomorrow to see if there's something in another section, but sounds odd to me. Almost as if Energous were desperate for some form of publicity and made up the best they could from the turds they had lying around.

So, this was an amazing announcement today. For a product that was first announced 5 months ago, was supposed to be out 2 months ago, might be available in the next 3 months, is contact only charging, and is slower than the incumbent mass adopted charging technology, Qi. Cue the WATT fanboys to go nuts...

Update: WATT did indeed spike to around $9.50 before dipping and settling around 70% up at $7.95. Let's see if there is another sudden rise and long slow decline situation here.

(Repeating the seemingly obligatory statement - I have no financial position, short or long, in Energous or any related company. Nor have I ever had any such positions.)

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' Mid-Sized Watt Up Transmitter - Can It Get FCC Approval?

Reader Lord Stately-Wayne Manor asked me in comments on the last uBeam article:

Would you be willing to give your opinion on whether or not Energous will get FCC approval on their mid range soon? The CEO believes they have a clear path to approval and expects it to happen well before the end of this year. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

In brief - I don't think Energous mid/full range products as stated by the company will be able to be approved by the FCC in any manner, those that could be approved will emit such a low amount of power that they will not charge at any rate practical for consumer devices like phones. Any such approval would require a rewrite of existing regulations, and while I wouldn't put it past the current FCC to do stupid anti-consumer things, the fact that it would simply wreck any current WiFi signals and equipment means there is a massive, entrenched, business interest in making sure that does not happen.

As for the more detailed discussion, including some nerdy stuff since you literally can't analyze the situation without maths/physics/numbers/engineering:

I'll start by saying that the CEO of Energous has made a lot of claims over the years as to outcomes and timelines that are not met - the product promised is always some ways out, on the order of a year. Some call this the "Time to Carrot"(check Seeking Alpha for some good posts, and where I got the above image), which constantly moves forward and you never, ever get the carrot. Here in 2014 is him saying 2015 delivery. You may know of other companies that have promised deliveries of consumer product "by the end of the year" since, say, 2011, that have never materialized.

WATT started with a "full sized transmitter" which was the "~4m, multiple devices, multi-watt" version that no-one could explain with physics without cooking anyone around it. They claimed:

The strength of the charging drops off rapidly with distance; at the moment, 15 feet is the maximum range of the transmitter. At 5 feet, your gadget (actually, four of them at once) can receive a maximum of 4 watts. At 10 feet, it gets 2 watts; at 15 feet, 1 watt.

Which is a "holy crap 20W received we're going to get cooked" statement and had many eyebrows raised in "basic laws of physics" type ways. Quick question - what were uBeam's publicly stated specs before, and after, this announcement by Energous in early 2015?

Eventually Energous announced a 'mini' which at most emitted 300mW when in contact, so basically >10x worse charge rates and less useful than the already available Qi methods, along with a 'soon' medium and full sized which allowed time to carrot to remain at 18 months or so. Such a low charge rate and in-contact requirement, so it could be FCC approved, and allowed claims of "FCC Approval for Energous", but a pointless product.

Now Rizzone stated back in March 2017 he was confident over FCC approval. However - Energous' own filings with the FCC prove they can't get licensed under Part 18, read to the end where they literally say the rules have to change: 

Energous requests OET to interpret its ISM rules to enable WPT AAD conforming devices that satisfy the criteria specified in this Petition to qualify as Part 18 ISM... However, this can only happen if OET adopts a process that enables equipment manufacturers to secure equipment authorization.

How can the CEO argue it's coming when they admit that it can't be approved under current rules? Doesn't make sense to me, so let's dig more.

How about approval under Part 15 instead of Part 18? Part 15 is for "Low Power" so a problem there I think. In these FCC documents you will see that the FCC limit the 5.8GHz band that Energous use to 1W total if spread spectrum - take efficiency etc into account and you are looking at very long charge times (a couple of days to charge your phone if lucky?). If not spread spectrum then it's P=0.3e^2 where E is listed as 0.05 V/m so that's no more than 0.75mW, or to translate to practical implementation - it would take six months or more to charge your phone at 100% efficiency. I can't find the link but I believe Energous state their method is not spread spectrum, so that tells you how useful their method could be under Part 15.

So, basically, unless they either get the FCC to change the rules, in opposition to a vast entrenched business interest and wreck WiFi for everyone, or reduce their power output to the point where it is an utterly pointless product, then I just don't see FCC approval for their devices.

This doesn't even begin to cover the issues of safety or practicality of beamforming to a fine focus with your array is not much bigger than your wavelength. I go into lots of nerdy depth with it here.

One last piece of advice, and it comes from Warren Buffet - Don't invest in companies whose product you can't understand. If the engineers are arguing about the basics of the product working and laws of physics are being called into question, then just run...