A start-up company, Energous, has secured an agreement with Vivo to attempt to integrate its products into the Chinese OEM's devices. This technology is a form of over-the-air charging technology. This next-gen methods of powering the batteries found in electronics is still being developed by a handful of companies, Energous included.
Its version of the emerging modality is called WattUp, and has been developed up to the point of an iteration called 2.0. Like some other forms of truly wireless charging, it involves sending power to phones through the air in the form of radiofrequency (RF) energy. In the case of WattUp 2.0, Energous claims that it deliver up to 15 watts from an RF transmitter, which, as they claim, can easily be built or fitted into buildlings or even cars.
Unlike another type of fully-wireless charging recently showcased at MWC19, which has a form-factor that needs to be accomodated in a phone case, Energous claims that their take on wireles RF charging can be delivered via a tiny module that could easily fit onto a phone's main board. The start-up also asserts that WattUp is also scalable due to this property. Therefore, it is possible that we may see phones from Vivo with the abilty to charge independent of power-bricks, wires or stations of any kind in the future.