NL-NWO 1971 Problem 4

For every positive integer $n$ there exist unambiguously determined non-negative integers $a(n)$ and $b(n)$ such that $$n = 2^{a(n)}(2b(n)+1),$$ For positive integer $k$ we define $S(k)$ by: $$a(1) + a(2) + ... + a(2^k) = S(k)$$ Express $S(k)$ in terms of $k$ .