2 Wireless Power Consortium

The Wireless Power Consortium defines a complete ecosystem for the deployment of wireless charging for mobile devices. Starting with version 1.3 of the Qi specification, authentication was defined as a requirement for chargers that wish to charge at a power level higher than 5W. Version 1.3 of the specification allows charging of mobile devices up to 15W. All chargers are allowed to initially charge at the 5W level without authentication. Authentication must occur to allow charging at a level of higher than 5W.

To accommodate these changes, a chain of trust is defined as part of the Qi ecosystem. This chain of trust consists of three levels:
  1. WPC root certificate – Consists of the root public key and root certificate.
  2. WPC manufacturing certificate – Consists of a manufacturing certificate signed by the private key of the root certificate.
  3. WPC product unit certificate – Consists of the product unit certificate signed by the private key of the WPC manufacturing certificate.

The WPC certificates follow the X.509 format. For WPC Slots 0 and 1, the certificate format is fixed. For WPC Slots 2 and 3, the format is not defined and allows for proprietary use of these certificate chain slots.

To participate in the WPC wireless charging ecosystem, one must be a member of the Wireless Power Consortium. Additional information on the standards and on the consortium can be found on the WPC website: www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/.