When Apple introduced their new iPhone X back in early September they also introduced a larger wireless charging pad for multiple devices called AirPower that will be coming to market in 2018 as noted below.

This week the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Samsung that reveals that they've also been working on a dual wireless charging pad that could charge multiple devices and wouldn't surprise me to see this come to market when the Galaxy 9 (or X) debuts in Q1 2018.

The Qi standard works in both inductive and resonant modes of charging and Samsung's patent filing confirms that they're working on their charging coils working in both modes as well.

Samsung notes in their patent application that the charging apparatuses of the related art are designed to charge the electronic device by using one of the magnetic induction method or the magnetic resonance method, and charge the electronic device by only one method.

Therefore, since the charging apparatus charges the electronic device by only one method, the user who uses an electronic device that is charged by using the other method should buy a separate charging apparatus according to the charging method of his/her own electronic device.

Accordingly, it is necessary to provide the magnetic induction charging and the magnetic resonance charging together with a single charging apparatus.

Samsung's patent FIG. 7A below illustrates an example in which an electronic device that is charged by an induction method is placed on a charging apparatus that adopts two induction coils and a single resonance coil; FIG. 7B illustrates an example in which two electronic devices that are charged by an induction method are placed on a charging apparatus that adopts two induction coils and a single resonance coil.

Samsung's patent FIG. 7C above illustrates an example in which one electronic device that is charged by an induction method and another electronic device that is charged by a resonance method are placed on a charging apparatus that adopts two induction coils and a single resonance coil; FIG. 7D illustrates another example in which one electronic device that is charged by an induction method and another electronic device that is charged by a resonance method are placed on a charging apparatus that adopts two induction coils and a single resonance coil.

Samsung's patent FIG. 3B above is a block diagram of a charging apparatus for controlling wireless charging and FIG. 6 is a view illustrates a coil unit that is comprised of a single resonant coil and two induction coils.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a multi-mode charging apparatus and a method for supporting both the magnetic induction method and the magnetic resonance method.

Samsung filed their patent application back in March 2017. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

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