Systems and methods for wireless power transfer

System and method for wireless power transmission

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER

Copyright statement

Part of the disclosed patent document contains copyrighted content. The copyright holder has no objection to the exact same reproduction of any patent document or patent disclosure by anyone, as is the patent record or file in the US Patent and Trademark Office, but retains all other copyright rights.

Priority claim:

The present application claims the priority of the following application: US Provisional Patent No. 61/613,792, filed on March 21, 2012, entitled "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING POSITIONING FREEDOM IN THREE DIMENSIONS FOR WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER" The application is filed on March 14, 2013, entitled "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER", US Patent Application Serial No. 13/828,789; filed on March 14, 2013, entitled "SYSTEMS AND METHODS" U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 13/828,933, filed on Mar. Case; the title of the application on March 14, 2013 is "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WIRELESS POWER US Patent Application Serial No. 13/829,186 to TRANSFER; and the title of the application filed on March 14, 2013 is "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WIRELESS" U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 13/829,346, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods for wireless power transfer, including the use of electrical or electronic devices, vehicles, batteries, or other products, or with additional accessories, such as for transmitting power to the device. Use of a housing, battery cover or outer panel of a receiver for a vehicle, battery or other product.

<b>Cross-references to related applications:</b>

This application is related to the following application: US Patent Publication entitled "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING POSITIONING FREEDOM, AND SUPPORT OF DIFFERENT VOLTAGES, PROTOCOLS, AND POWER LEVELS IN A WIRELESS POWER SYSTEM", filed on January 17, 2012 US Provisional Patent Application entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MODULATING THE PHASE AND AMPLITUDE OF AN ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE IN MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS", filed on January 18, 2011, filed on Jan. 18, 2011. Priority rights to the case No. 61/433,883; the title of the application on April 21, 2011 is "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MODULATING THE PHASE AND AMPLITUDE OF AN ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE IN MULTIPLE US Provisional Patent Application No. 61/478,020 to DIMENSIONS; and the title of the application on October 2, 2011, "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING POSITIONING FREEDOM, AND SUPPORT OF DIFFERENT VOLTAGES, PROTOCOLS, AND POWER LEVELS IN A WIRELESS POWER SYSTEM U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 61/546,316, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Conventional wireless technologies for powering or charging mobile devices or other electronic devices or electric devices generally use a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver in combination to provide a means for transmitting power over a distance. In a typical system, the transmitter is aligned with the receiver coil and is sized. This requires the user to place the device or battery that they are waiting to charge in a particular location relative to the charger, which is unreasonably limited. These are some general areas that can be addressed by embodiments of the present invention.

Disclosed herein are systems for implementing efficient wireless power transfer and for charging such devices or batteries in a manner that allows for free placement of devices and batteries in one or more dimensions (eg, one, two, or three dimensions) method. According to various embodiments, applications include inductive or magnetic charging and powering and, for example, wireless powering or charging of: mobile devices; electronic devices; electric devices; lighting devices; batteries; power tools; kitchen, military, medical or dental , industrial applications; vehicles; trains or other devices or products. According to various embodiments, the systems and methods may also be generally applied to, for example, a power supply or other power source or charging system, such as for transmitting wireless power to a mobile device, electronic device or electric device, vehicle, or other Product system.

<p>100Wireless charger or power system</p><p>102First charger/transmitter unit</p><p>104Second receiver unit</p><p>120Wireless charger system</p><p>130System</p><p>140Center tap-type receiver</p><p>150Inductance</p><p>160Wireless battery pack/receiver</p><p>170Examples</p><p>180Charging cycle</p><p>190 operation</p><p>200Connected test voltage</p><p>220Configuration</p><p>222 Tightly coupled power transmission system</p><p>224Loosely coupled wireless power system</p><p>230 coil</p><p>240 magnetic field</p><p>250Power transmission</p><p>260Magnetization curve</p><p>270Magnetic hysteresis curve</p><p>280 Ferromagnetic material layer</p><p>290Magnetization curve</p><p>320Magnetic coupling geometry</p><p>360 system behavior</p><p>370Magnetic permeability change</p><p>380Magnetic pore geometry</p><p>390Transformer geometry</p><p>400Transformers</p><p>410Circular E-core/winding</p><p>420Transformers</p><p>440Magnetic Resonance/Loose Coupling Geometry</p><p>450Microcontroller geometry</p><p>452Coil geometry</p><p>464Examples</p><p>466Examples</p><p>468Examples</p><p>470Output rectified voltage</p><p>472Wire/cable</p><p>480Examples</p>

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless charger or power system in accordance with an embodiment.

2 illustrates a more detailed view of one of the wireless charger systems in accordance with an embodiment.

3 illustrates a system in which one of a dedicated channel for one-way or two-way communication between a charger and a receiver is implemented for verification and/or regulation purposes, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 4 illustrates a center tap type receiver in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 5 illustrates how the charger and receiver coils can be represented by their respective inductances.

Figure 6 illustrates a wireless powered battery pack and receiver in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 7 illustrates an embodiment including a battery cell.

Figure 8 illustrates a typical charge cycle or a lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery.

Figure 9 illustrates one wireless power system operation in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a communication program and power conditioning and/or other functions in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 11 illustrates, on the left side, the configuration of one of the two individual transmitter coils of different sizes, the tightly coupled power transmission system, and the left side, illustrating the loose coupling (magnetic resonance) of one of the individual individual transmitter coils, on the left side, according to an embodiment. Configuration of the power transmission system.

Figure 12 illustrates an exemplary coil.

Figure 13 illustrates the calculated magnetic field obtained by one of the coils of Figure 12.

Figure 14 illustrates the impedance of the input supply of a transmitter, showing the resonance in power transmission.

Figure 15 illustrates the magnetization curves of a plurality of ferromagnetic materials.

Figure 16 illustrates a hysteresis curve of one of the hard ferromagnetic materials such as steel.

Figure 17 illustrates the real and imaginary parts of the magnetic permeability of a layer of ferromagnetic material.

Figure 18 illustrates the magnetization curve of a high permeability, soft magnetic ferrite material.

Figure 19 illustrates a large area transmitter coil and a representative receiver coil covered by a ferromagnetic, ferrite or other magnetic material or layer, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 20 illustrates a magnetic coupling geometry in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 21 illustrates an embodiment including a solenoid receiver in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 22 illustrates an example of a magnet in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 23 illustrates a magnetic aperture geometry in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 24 illustrates the magnetization curve of a soft ferrite material.

Figure 25 illustrates the variation in magnetic permeability when a magnetic field is applied.

Figure 26 illustrates different sizes and possible rated powers and/or according to an embodiment. One of the two receivers of the voltage output can switch the use of the layer.

Figure 27 illustrates a transformer geometry in accordance with an embodiment in which a common core is wound with a primary winding and a primary winding in its two sections.

Figure 28 illustrates a view of one of the transformers including two ER-Cores (circular E-Core), in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 29 illustrates a view of one of the transformers including an E-Core and a flat section and one of the primary and secondary coils of the PCB, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 30 illustrates a Flux Guide geometry in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 31 illustrates a representative top view of one of the receivers placed on a charger, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 32 illustrates a magnetic coupling geometry in accordance with an embodiment in which a charger coil is covered by a magnetic or switching layer.

Figure 33 illustrates a representative top view of one of the receivers placed on the charger, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 34 illustrates an example of a magnetic aperture coil of one of the combined flux guiding layers in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 35 illustrates a top view of one of the receivers placed on the charger, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 36 illustrates two or more receivers of the same or different size placed on the charger, in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 37 illustrates an embodiment with a larger charger surface area in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 38 illustrates the output rectified voltage from a receiver as a function of frequency.

Figure 39 illustrates a wire or cable in accordance with an embodiment.

Figure 40 illustrates a shield/flux guide included in accordance with an embodiment. Set.

As noted above, conventional wireless technologies for powering or charging mobile devices or other electronic devices or powered devices generally use a wireless power transmitter and wireless power receiver in combination to provide a means for transmitting power across a distance. In a typical system, the transmitter is aligned with the receiver coil and is sized. This typically requires the user to place the device or battery to be charged in a particular location relative to the charger, which is undesirably limited.

According to an embodiment, disclosed herein are methods for implementing efficient wireless power transmission and for allowing one of the devices and batteries to be freely placed in one or more dimensions (eg, one, two, or three dimensions) System and method for charging a battery. According to various embodiments, applications include inductive or magnetic charging and powering and, for example, wireless powering or charging of: mobile devices; electronic devices; electric devices; lighting devices; batteries; power tools; kitchen, military, medical or dental , industrial applications; vehicles; automobiles; electric bicycles; locomotives; Segway-type devices; trains or other transportation vehicles or devices or products. According to various embodiments, the systems and methods may also be generally applied to, for example, a power supply or other power source or charging system, such as for transmitting wireless power to a mobile device, electronic device or electric device, vehicle, or other Product system.

According to an embodiment, it is desirable for the receiver to be placed on a larger surface area charger without the need to specifically align the position of the receiver.

According to an embodiment, it is also desirable to be able to charge or power a plurality of devices having similar or different power and voltage requirements or operating on different or substantially identical surfaces with different wireless charging protocols.

According to an embodiment, it is also desirable to provide a certain degree of freedom to the vertical distance between the charger and the receiver (away from the surface of the charger). One of the large gaps is exemplified in the charging of electric vehicles (EVs) or trains. Another example includes situations where the charger may need to be separated from the device or battery entity to be charged, such as when a central console such as a car One of the underside of the surface or under the surface of a desk or desk with a charger.

As electrical and electronic devices and vehicles or trains (which are considered herein as examples of devices) increase, simple and versatile methods of powering and/or charging such devices become more and more important.

As used herein, the term device, product, or battery is used to include any electrical, electronic, mobile, lighting, or other product; battery; power tool; cleaning, industrial, kitchen, lighting, military, medical, dental, or special a product; and a vehicle or a mobile machine (such as a robot or mobile machine) whereby the product, component or component is powered by electricity or an internal or external battery and/or externally or internally by a generator or solar cell A solar cell, a fuel cell, a hand crank or other mechanical crank or the like is powered or charged.

According to an embodiment, a product or device may also include an attachable or integral outer panel, a housing, a battery cover or an attachable or additional or hard lock type receiver assembly to enable a user to The device is powered or charged.

Induction is generally defined as generating electrical power (EMF) or voltage across the path in response to varying magnetic flux through any of the surfaces defined by a closed electrical path. The term magnetic resonance has recently been used for inductive power transfer where the charger and receiver can be separated relatively far apart. Since this is generally an inductive form, the term induction is used herein; however, the terms induction and magnetic resonance are sometimes used interchangeably herein to indicate that the method of power transfer can be combined in any field or one of them.

According to various embodiments, an inductive power transmitter uses one or more magnetic induction coils to transfer energy to a device or product, a housing, a battery cover, or one or more receiving coils in or on an attachable or additional component, The assembly includes, for example, an accessory such as a hard-lock or internal or external device or attached to the device through a connector and/or a wire or a battery placed adjacent to the power transmitter platform. The receiver can receive power wirelessly It is intended to be used for mounting or attaching another incomplete device in or on one of the final products, batteries or devices to be powered or charged. Alternatively, the receiver may be a complete device intended for direct connection to another device, product or battery by a wire or wirelessly.

As used herein, the terms wireless charger, wireless power charger, transmitter, and inductive or magnetic resonant power charger are sometimes used interchangeably.

As used herein, the term firmware, software, or instruction set is sometimes used interchangeably and refers to any machine readable instruction set (most commonly in the form of a computer program) that directs a computer, microcontroller, or other processor to perform a particular operation. ).

According to an embodiment, the wireless charger can be a planar or curved surface or component that can wirelessly provide energy to a receiver. The charger can be constructed from flexible materials and/or coils or plastic electronics to achieve mechanical deflection and flexing or folding to save space or conform to non-flat surfaces. The wireless charger can be powered directly by an AC input, DC power or other power source such as a car, bus, locomotive, truck or other vehicle or train, aircraft or boat or boat or other transportation system or vehicle power outlet. Or powered by being loaded into and powered by: transport vehicles or systems, single-cell batteries (non-rechargeable) or rechargeable batteries, solar cells, fuel cell units, mechanical power supplies ( For example, a hand-cranked generator, a wind source, a water source, a nuclear power source, or a combination of one or another wireless charger or power supply or the like.

Moreover, according to an embodiment, the wireless charger can be integrated and/or powered by a component such as a rechargeable battery, the rechargeable battery itself being charged by another power source, such as an AC or DC power source; Bus; vehicle; boat or ship or aircraft power socket or vehicle, boat, train or ship or aircraft or other transportation system or vehicle itself; solar battery unit; fuel cell unit; mechanical power supply (for example, hand-cranked hair) Motor; wind source; water source; nuclear power source; or other power source; or a combination thereof. In an example in which the wireless charger is powered by a rechargeable power source such as a battery, the battery itself can also be inductively charged by another wireless charger.

According to an embodiment, the wireless charger can be a separate component, device or product, or can be incorporated into another electric or electronic device, table, desk chair, armrest, television stand or base or furniture or vehicle or aircraft or nautical Vehicle or dinghy or items such as: table; desk; chair; counter; shelf counter or cash register or checkout counter; transformer kiosk; car seat; armrest; car console; door; net piece; cup holder; Dish; glove box; aircraft launcher; computer; laptop; notebook; tablet; display; TV; magnetic; optical or semiconductor storage or playback device, such as hard disk drive, solid state storage drive, optical playback Cable or game console; computer pad; toy; clothing; tool bag or backpack; belt; rack; industrial; medical; dental; military or kitchen counter, area, device and appliance; telephone; camera; Stereo system or other media.

According to an embodiment, the wireless charger may also have other functions built in or constructed such that modularization and additional capabilities or functions may be appropriately added. Some of these capabilities or functions may include the ability to: provide more power; charge more devices; exchange top surfaces or enclosures or decorations; use a battery and/or renewable power source (such as solar cells) as described above. Operating by internal power; communicating and/or storing data from a device; providing communication between the device and, for example, other devices, chargers, and/or a network.

One example is a basic wireless charger with the ability to be expanded to include a rechargeable battery pack to operate without external power. Another example may be a wireless charger that contains one or more speakers and/or microphones or displays and Bluetooth, WiFi or other connectivity as a module that will enhance the base charger to allow for the charger One of the charging mobile phones or music players plays/streams music or sound or video, or via a speaker and/or microphone via Bluetooth, WiFi or other connectivity wirelessly to perform a hands-free conversation or video call. Another example may be a charger product or a computer or laptop or display or TV, which also contains a disk drive, solid state memory or other storage device, and when a device is placed on the charger, Charger establishment Material connectivity (eg, Bluetooth, NFC, Felica, WiFi, Zigbee, or Wireless USB) occurs for transmission, synchronization, or update of data or programs to download/upload information, display or play music or video, or synchronize data. An exemplary use can be a camera or telephone charger whereby many other combinations of products and capabilities can be implemented in conjunction with charging and other functions.

According to an embodiment, the wireless power charger and/or receiver has the ability to update its instruction set, software and/or firmware by a user or automatically remotely or locally to implement enhanced or improved wireless charging. Ability to add other capabilities or features that include a user application (app).

According to an embodiment, examples of products or types of devices that can be powered or charged by the inductive transmitter and receiver include, but are not limited to, batteries; cellular phones; smart phones; unwired phones; communication devices; pagers; Personal data assistant; portable media player; global positioning (GPS) device; Bluetooth headset and other devices; head-up or display glasses; 3D display glasses; scraper; watch; toothbrush; calculator; camera; optical sight ( Optical Scope);infrared viewer;computer;laptop;tablet;notebook;keyboard;computer mouse;ebook reader or email device;pager;computer monitor;television;music or movie play And recorder; storage device; radio; clock; speaker; game device; game controller; toy; remote control; power tool; scanner; construction tool; office equipment; robot, including vacuum robot, mopping robot, swimming pool cleaning robot Drain cleaning robot or for hospitals; clean rooms; robots for military or industrial applications; industrial tools; mobile vacuum cleaners; medical or dental tools; military equipment or tools; kitchen appliances; blenders; cooking pots; Food or beverage heaters or coolers, such as electric beverage cups; massagers; adult toys; lamps or lamps; signs or displays or advertising applications; electronic magazines or newspapers or magazines or newspapers containing an electronic component; Fax machine; scanner; car; bus; train; locomotive or bicycle Personal mobile devices (e.g., Segway) or other vehicle or mobile transport machines; and a battery or electric devices or other product; or-based products of the above listed One combination of one product.

According to an embodiment, a receiver or charger may be incorporated, for example, into a tool bag, carrier, outer panel, garment, outer casing, package, product package or package, crates, boxes, display cases or luggage racks. In a table, container or device to implement a tool bag, carrier, outer panel, garment, outer casing, package, product package or package, crates, boxes, display cases or luggage racks, tables, containers (such as, for example, Resulting in a display box or package displaying promotional information or instructions or lighting), and/or using tool bags, carriers, outer panels, clothing, outer casings, packaging, product packaging or boxes, crates, boxes, brackets or connectors , display case or luggage rack, table, container to power or charge another device or somewhere on or near the component.

According to an embodiment, the product or device need not be portable and/or contain a battery to utilize inductive or wireless power transfer. For example, a light fixture or a computer monitor, typically powered by an AC outlet or a DC power supply, can be placed on top of the table and receive power wirelessly. The wireless receiver can be a planar or curved surface or component that can receive energy wirelessly from a charger; and the receiver and/or charger can also be constructed from flexible materials and/or coils or plastic electronics for mechanical flexing. Flexibility and flexing or folding to save space or conform to non-flat surfaces.

According to various embodiments, many of the types of devices described above contain an internal battery and the device may or may not operate during reception of power. Depending on the state of charge of the battery or its presence and system design, the applied power can power the device, charge its battery, or a combination of the above. The terms charging and/or powering are sometimes used interchangeably herein to indicate that the received power is available for any of these or a combination thereof. According to various embodiments, the terms charger power supply and transmitter are also used interchangeably herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless charger or power system in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a wireless charger or power system 100 includes a first charger or transmitter component 102 and a second receiver component 104, in accordance with an embodiment. Charger and / or transmitter A repetitive power signal pattern (such as a sine or square wave, from 10 Hz to several MHz or even higher, but typically in the range of 100 kHz to several MHz) can be generated by its coil drive circuit or a coil or antenna for transmitting power. . The charger and/or transmitter may also include a communication and adjustment/control system that detects a receiver and/or turns the applied power on or off and/or cycles such as by changing amplitude, frequency or duration of action Alternatively, by changing the resonant condition or by changing the impedance (capacitance or inductance) of the charger or a combination thereof, the applied power of the applied power signal of the coil or antenna is modified.

According to an embodiment, the charger may be an integral part or part of an electronic device, a coil, a shield, or other portion of the system required to wirelessly transmit power. Electronic devices may include discrete components or microelectronic devices that provide wireless charger functionality when used together, or include one or more multi-chip modules (MCMs) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip, computer or field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), microprocessor or integrated circuit (IC) or chipset or microcontroller (MC) specifically designed to be used as an integral or a substantial part of the electronics of a wireless charger system .

As used herein, the terms microcontroller, computer, MCM, ASIC or FPGA, microprocessor or processor are used interchangeably to refer to any system having a central processing unit capable of executing an instruction set or computer program.

According to an embodiment, the second part of the system comprises a receiver or a receiver for receiving power and for changing the received AC voltage to a DC voltage (such as with one or more rectifiers or, for example, bridge or One of a component of a synchronous rectifier and one or more capacitors for rectification and smoothing.

In the case where the voltage at the load does not have to be kept within a tight tolerance or the load resistance can change the voltage at the load or the load resistance is always constant, the rectified and smoothed output of the receiver can be directly connected to a load. . An example of this situation can be used in lighting applications where the load is a constant resistance such as a heater or resistor. In these examples, the receiver system may be simple and inexpensive.

In many other examples, the resistance or impedance of the load changes during operation. This includes instances where the receiver is connected to need to change power during operation or when the receiver is used to charge a battery. In these examples, it may be desirable to adjust the output voltage such that it remains within a range or tolerance during various operating conditions. In these examples, the receiver may optionally include a regulator such as a linear, buck, boost or buck-boost regulator and/or a switch for the output power. Additionally, the receiver can include or operate a method of communicating the receiver with the charger.

According to an embodiment, the receiver may optionally include one of the reactive components (inductors or capacitors) that increase the system resonance and one switch that allows direct switching between one of the wired and wireless methods of charging or powering the product or battery. The receiver may also include optional features such as Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth, WiFi, RFID or other communication and/or authentication techniques.

According to an embodiment, the charger or transmitter coil and receiver coil may be formed of any desired shape and may be constructed by a combination of, for example, a PCB, a wire, a Litz wire, or the like. To reduce electrical resistance, the coils can be constructed from a plurality of traces or wires in the PCB and/or wire construction. For PCB construction, multiple layers can be in different sides of a PCB and/or different layers and suitably layered/designed to provide the best field pattern, uniformity, inductance and/or resistance or quality factor (Q) to the coil. Various materials can be used for the coil conductors, such as different metals and/or magnetic materials or plastic conductors. Generally, copper having a low electrical resistivity can be used. The design should also consider the skin effect of the material used to better provide low electrical resistance at the operating frequency.

According to an embodiment, the receiver may be an integral part of one of the devices or batteries as described above, or may receive power wirelessly and is intended for installation or attachment in a final product, battery or device to be powered or charged or Another incomplete device, or receiver, may be a complete device intended to be used for direct connection to a device, product or battery by wire or wirelessly. Examples may include a replaceable cover, an outer panel, a housing, a door, a socket, a surface of a device or battery that will have a portion of the receiver or receiver, and the received power will be transmitted through A connector or device or a normal connection connector (or power outlet) in or on the battery is directed to the device.

According to an embodiment, the receiver may be similar to one of the devices or batteries that can receive power on or near a charger and can direct power to a device or battery to be charged or powered through a wire and/or a suitable connector. A part or device of a body lock. The receiver may also have a side that will allow it to be attached to the device in an insignificant manner (such as on the bottom side, front side of a laptop, notebook, tablet, phone, game console or other electronic device or The back side is attached to one of the outer surfaces) and the received power is routed to the input power connector or one of the outlets of the device. The connector of the receiver can be designed such that a straight-through or a separate connector is integrated therein such that one of the wire cables for providing wired charging/powering or communication can be connected to the connector without removing the connector The connector thus allows the receiver and its connector to be permanently or semi-permanently attached to the device during its operation and use.

Many other variations of the receiver implementation are possible and the above examples are not meant to be exhaustive.

According to an embodiment, the receiver may also be an integral part or part of an electronic device, a coil, a shield, or other part of a system required to wirelessly receive power. Electronic devices may include discrete components or microcontrollers that provide wireless receiver functionality when used together, or include an MCM or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip, or are specifically designed to function as a wireless charging receiver system. A whole or a substantial portion of the wafer set of the electronic device.

According to an embodiment, the coil can be transmitted through the same coil as that used to transmit power, through a separate coil, through an RF or optical link, through, for example, RFID, Bluetooth, WiFi, Wireless USB, NFC, Felica, Zigbee or Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) or through a combination of such agreements as Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) or other agreements or standards for wireless power development or other communication protocols or combinations thereof The communication method between the charger and the receiver.

In an example of providing communication through a power transmission coil, a communication method modulates one of the loads in the receiver to affect the voltage in the receiver coil and thus produces a modulation of one of the charger coil parameters, which can be monitored by the charger coil The voltage or current of the charger is used to detect the charger coil parameters. Other methods may include inductive, capacitive or resistive modulation by combining the frequency of the received frequency with a local oscillator signal or the output of the receiver coil.

According to an embodiment, the information conveyed may be output or rectified receiver coil voltage, current, power, device or battery status, receiver verification ID, end of charge or various state of charge information, receiver battery, device or coil temperature And/or user data such as music, email, sound, photos or video or other forms of digital or analog material used in a device. The information conveyed may also be a type or change in signal or circuit condition that is transmitted or generated to notify only the presence of a nearby receiver.

According to an embodiment, the information conveyed may be any one or more of the following: information detailed herein; or the difference between the value and the desired value; or simply a command to increase or decrease power; or simply confirm There is one or more signals of a receiver; or a combination of the above. In addition, the receiver can include other components, such as a DC to DC converter or regulator, such as a switching, buck, boost, buck/boost, or linear regulator. The receiver may also include a switch between the DC output of the receiver coil and the rectification stage and the smoothing stage and its output or regulator stage to the output of a device or battery or a device housing or an outer board, and wherein the receiver system In the case of charging a battery or device, the receiver may also include a regulator, battery charger IC or circuit and/or battery protection circuit and associated transistor. The receiver may also include variable or switchable reactive components (capacitors and/or inductors) that will allow the receiver to change its resonant conditions to affect the amount of power delivered to the device, load or battery. For safety and/or radiological reasons, the receiver and/or charger and/or other coils may also include components such as thermistors, magnetic shields or magnetic cores, magnetic sensors, and input voltage filters.

According to an embodiment, the receiver can also communicate with other sources such as NFC, WiFi or Bluetooth Or store a combination of features. In addition, the charger and/or receiver may include components that more accurately align the charger with the receiver coil or antenna. These components can include visual components, solid components, or magnetic components to assist the user in aligning the components. To achieve a more free positioning of the receiver on the charger, the coil size can also be mismatched. For example, the charger may comprise a large size and a receiver coil package comprises a relatively small size of the coil or vice versa, so that the power transmission coils need not be precisely aligned.

In a simpler architecture, there may be minimal or no communication between the charger and the receiver. For example, a charger can be designed to be in a standby power transfer state, and any receiver that is in close proximity to the charger can receive power from the charger. The voltage, power or current demand of the device or battery connected to the receiver circuit can be unregulated or regulated or fully controlled at the receiver or can be fully controlled by the device attached to the receiver circuit. In this example, there may be no need to adjust or communicate between the charger and the receiver.

In this variation, the charger can be designed to be in a state in which one of the receivers is in close proximity to one of the receivers in a state of power transmission. An example of this would be a resonant system in which an inductive and/or capacitive component is used such that when one of the appropriately designed receivers is near a charger, power is transferred from the charger to a receiver; but in the absence of a receiver In this case, the charger transmits the least amount of power or does not transmit power from the charger.

In one of the above variations, the charger can be periodically driven with a one-cycle pattern (a ping process) and if one of the receivers begins to draw power from the charger, the charger can The power drawn from it is detected and will remain in a transmission state. If power is not drawn during the wiring test process, the charger is turned off or placed in a standby or sleep mode to reserve power and periodically turned "on" and "off" to continue searching for a receiver. According to an embodiment, in order to minimize power draw between the connection test processes, only the microcontroller and the entire charger system other than one of the regulators may be powered off or placed in a low power mode to minimize Use of electricity.

According to an embodiment, the power supply portion (coil drive circuit and receiver power supply portion) may be A resonant converter, resonant, full bridge, half bridge, class E, zero voltage or current switching, flyback or any other suitable power supply topology.

2 illustrates a more detailed view of one of the wireless charger systems 120 having a resonant converter geometry in which a pair of transistors Q1 and Q2 (such as FETs, MOSFETs, or other types of switches) are utilized in accordance with an embodiment. It is driven by half of the bridge driver IC and the voltage is applied to one or more capacitors of C1 to the coil L1. According to an embodiment, the receiver includes a coil and one of the capacitors shown as C2 and can be selected in series or in parallel with the receiver coil L2 (to increase efficiency). The charger and/or receiver coil may also include an impedance matching circuit and/or a suitable layer of magnetic material behind it (on the side opposite the surface of the coil facing each other) to increase its inductance and/or shield to the surrounding The magnetic field in the area leaks. The charger and/or receiver coils may also include impedance matching circuitry to optimize/improve power transfer between the charger and the receiver.

In several embodiments and figures described herein, the resonant capacitor C2 in the receiver is shown in a series architecture. This is only used as a representative illustration and this capacitor can be used in series or in parallel with the receiver coil. Similarly, the charger is generally shown in a configuration in which the resonant capacitor is in series with the coil. A system embodiment having a capacitor C1 in parallel with the charger coil is also possible.

According to an embodiment, the charger also includes circuitry for measuring the current through the charger coil or the voltage across the charger coil (a current sensor is shown as an example in the figures). Various demodulation methods for detecting communication signals on the charger current or voltage are available. The demodulation mechanism can be, for example, an AM or FM receiver similar to one of the radio receivers tuned to one of the communication frequencies (depending on whether the receiver modulator uses amplitude or frequency modulation) or a heterodyne Detector Detector.

According to an embodiment, the microcontroller circuit (MCU) in the charger (MCU1) can be responsible for understanding the communication signals from a detection/demodulation circuit and adjusting the charger coil drive appropriately depending on the algorithm used. Circuit to achieve the desired output from the receiver output Pressure, current or electricity.

Moreover, according to an embodiment, the MCU 1 may be responsible for a program such as: periodically turning on the charger to search for a receiver when charging is started; and making the charger when a receiver is found and accepting the receiver as a valid receiver Keep on; continue to apply power and make necessary adjustments; and/or monitor temperature or other environmental factors; provide users with an audio or visual indication of the state of charge or power supply; or due to end of charging or customer preferences or overcurrent Terminate charging or power application by overvoltage or some other error condition or by starting or starting another program or program.

Moreover, according to an embodiment, a charger can be incorporated in a car or other vehicle or transportation system (such as a train, airplane, etc.) and when an active receiver and/or an NFC, RFID or integrated device is found The charger can activate some other functions, such as Bluetooth of the device, WiFi connectivity, display device identification code on a display, or other ID mechanism on the mobile device, its outer casing or outer panel, hardware lock or battery. Or device charging status. You can also use this action to activate or enable more advanced features. An example of such context aware functionality includes the use of the device as one of the user identification mechanisms, and the use of the vehicle or driver or passenger side, as described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20110050164, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The temperature is set to the user's best pre-programmed temperature; the mirror and the seat are set to better settings; the user's preferred radio station or music is started to play; it is reproduced on a TV or other monitor or touch screen, etc. A mobile device display and/or functionality.

According to an embodiment, the charger and/or the vehicle or device being charged or attached to the charger can synchronize, upload or download user data, instruction sets, firmware or software or store the information in the charger and/or The information is stored between a vehicle or device that is being charged or attached to the charger or via a wired or wireless connection and/or network between a remote or local third device or system.

According to an embodiment, the wireless charger and/or receiver may include hardware and software/firmware and a sense of context for performing this additional function according to a user application layer (UAL) instruction set. Know the hardware related to the function.

According to an embodiment, the charger may also include an RF signal amplifier/transponder such that placing a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or tablet, will tightly couple and/or turn the amplifier with its antenna, making it available for Better signal reception for communication (such as cellular telephone calls). It is becoming more and more common to include an antenna mounted on the outside of the car, a bidirectional signal amplifier inside the car, and a transponder antenna. The action of starting or starting a charger can be different by setting a device in different environments. Examples may include routing a mobile phone call or music or video from a smart phone to a speaker and microphone or video monitor or TV, computer, laptop, tablet in a car, home or office. Other similar actions or different actions may be provided in other environments.

According to an embodiment, in addition to transmitting a signal, it may also be useful to detect the DC value of the current through the charger coil. For example, insertion or presence of a foreign object such as a metal material between the charger and the receiver may cause a malfunction. These materials can be heated by applying electrical power and can be detected by comparing the charger current or temperature or comparing the input voltage, current or power of the charger with the output voltage, current or power from the receiver and inferring the ratio in the normal range. Other power consumption occurs outside of the cause and is detected due to unknown reasons. In such conditions or situations such as abnormal charger and/or receiver heating, the charger may be programmed to display an error condition and be powered down and/or alert the user or take other actions.

According to an embodiment, after the charger MCU receives a signal and decodes the signal, an action may be taken to provide more or less power to the charger coil. This can be accomplished by a combination of known methods of adjusting the frequency of the charger coil, applying a time cycle or input voltage, or one of these practices. Depending on the system and circuitry used, the MCU can directly adjust the bridge driver or an additional circuit, such as a frequency oscillator that may be necessary to drive the bridge driver or FET.

Figure 2 also illustrates a typical circuit of a receiver in accordance with an embodiment. According to an embodiment, the receiver circuit may include a capacitor C2 in parallel or in series with the receiver to generate A tuned receiver circuit. This circuit is known to increase the efficiency of a wireless power system. The rectification and smoothing (through a bridge rectifier and capacitor) output of the receiver coil and the optional capacitor is applied to the output either directly or through a switch or regulator. A microcontroller is used to measure various values (such as output voltage, current, temperature, state of charge, battery full state, end of charge), and is used to report back to the charger to provide a closed loop to the charger as described above. system. In the circuit shown in FIG. 2, the receiver MCU communicates back to the charger by rapidly switching off and off a switch-modulated receiver in series with a modulated load at a predetermined speed and coded pattern. This fast load modulation technique can be easily detected by the charger at a frequency different from one of the power transmission frequencies. According to an embodiment, the modulated load can be capacitive, inductive or resistive (as shown in Figure 2 for simplicity) or a combination thereof.

As an example, assume that for a maximum output of 5 W, the maximum current output of the receiver is 1000 mA and the output voltage is 5 V; in this case the minimum load resistance is 5 ohms. A few ohms of modulated load resistors (500 ohms to 10 ohms or less) will provide a large modulation depth signal on the receiver coil voltage. Other methods of communicating by changing the impedance of the reactive component can also be used. The modulation scheme shown in Figure 2 is merely shown as a representative method and is not intended to be exhaustive. As an example, the modulation can be achieved capacitively by replacing the resistor with a capacitor. In this example, the modulation by the switch in the receiver provides the following advantages: by appropriately selecting the modulation frequency, the minimum power consumption (compared to the resistance load modulation) can be achieved to achieve the modulation and the charger coil. And signal communication of the circuit.

According to an embodiment, the receiver illustrated in Figure 2 also exhibits a DC regulator selected to provide a constant regulated voltage to the receiver MCU. Avoiding the receiver MCU falling during the start-up condition in which the power is greatly changed or during the output current change and also enabling the MCU to have a stable voltage reference power supply may require this voltage supply, so the voltage supply can accurately measure the output voltage. Moreover, according to an embodiment, an optional output regulator and/or switch can be added to provide a regulated output voltage. To avoid being on a charger Voltage overshoot or load conditions change rapidly during placement of a receiver. The receiver can also include a voltage limiting circuit or component, such as a transient voltage suppressor, Zener diode, before the output regulator/switch stage. Body or regulator or other pressure limiter.

In the above description, a one-way communication (from receiver to charger) is generally described. However, according to an embodiment, the communication may also be two-way communication, and the data may be transmitted from the charger to the receiver through the voltage or current in the modulation charger coil and detected by the microcontroller in the receiver ( For example, the voltage or current changes and is read back.

Although a system for communicating between a charger and a receiver through a power transmission coil or antenna is described above in accordance with an embodiment, the communication may also be through a separate coil, a radio frequency link (AM or FM or Other communication methods), an optical communication system, or a combination of the above is implemented.

According to an embodiment, as described above, communication in any of these ways may also be bidirectional rather than unidirectional. As an example, FIG. 3 illustrates a system 130 in which a dedicated RF channel for one-way or two-way communication between a charger and a receiver is implemented for verification and/or regulation purposes, in accordance with an embodiment. This system is similar to the system shown in Figure 2, except that the method of communication is not load modulation, but the MCU in the receiver transmits the necessary information via an RF communication path. A similar system with an LED or laser transceiver or detector and light source can be implemented. Advantages of this system include that the received power is not modulated and therefore no noise is wasted during communication and/or no noise due to the modulation is added to the system.

One of the disadvantages of the circuit shown in Figure 2 is that in the receiver circuit shown therein, the current path passes through two diodes and encounters two voltage drops, resulting in large power dissipation and loss. For example, for a Schottky diode with a forward voltage drop of 0.4V, when the current output is 1A, each diode will lose 0.4W of power due to two of the bridge rectifier configurations. The combined power loss of the diode is 0.8W. For 5V, 1A output power (5W), this 0.8W power consumption represents a large loss due only to the rectification system. (16%).

According to an embodiment, an alternative method is to use a center tap-type receiver 140 as illustrated in Figure 4, wherein during each cycle current only passes through one of the coils and the diodes in the receiver, thus causing rectification losses Halve. The wire geometry can be wound with two winding sections or a two-sided or multi-sided PCB coil of a printed circuit board coil or a combination or even a stamp or etched or otherwise fabricated coil or winding. A center tap type coil.

In any of the above systems, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the charger and receiver coils may be represented by their respective inductances 150 (L1 and L2) and the mutual inductance M between the charger coil and the receiver coil, mutual inductance. M depends on the material between the two coils and their position relative to each other in the x, y and z dimensions. The coupling coefficient k between the coils is given by: k=M/(L1*L2)^1/2

The coupling coefficient measures the tightness of the two coil couplings and can range from 0 (uncoupled) to 1 (very tightly coupled). This value may be less than one in a coil having a large gap between small overlaps, coils, or different coils (eg, size, number of turns, coil windings, or pattern overlap).

FIG. 6 illustrates a wirelessly powered battery pack and receiver 160 in accordance with an embodiment. Components of a typical battery pack (e.g., battery unit, protection circuit) typical of one of the battery devices used in applications such as mobile phones are shown inside the dashed line. The components outside the dashed line contain additional components for safe and wireless charging of the battery pack.

According to an embodiment, a battery pack can have four or more external connector points that interface with a mobile device in a battery case or interface with an external typical wired charger.

According to an embodiment 170, the battery unit can be protected by one of the battery protection ICs including one of the battery protection from overcurrent and undervoltage or overvoltage, as illustrated in FIG. The road is connected to two of the connectors (shown as BATT+ and BATT- in the figure). A typical IC can be a Seiko 8241 IC that uses two external field effect transistors (FETs) as shown in Figure 7 to detect an error condition based on overcurrent or battery cell overvoltage or undervoltage. Prevent current from flowing out of the battery unit (left side) from the external battery pack connector or to the battery unit (left side) from the external battery pack connector. This provides safety during charging and discharging of the battery. Additionally, a battery pack can include a PTC conductive polymer passive fuse. If the amount of current exceeds a threshold, such devices can sense and shut off the current by heating one of the layers inside the PTC. The device is reset after the current is reduced and the PTC device is cooled.

According to an embodiment, the battery pack may include a thermistor in which the mobile device detects the battery pack through a connector to monitor the health of the battery pack, and in some embodiments, the battery pack may An ID chip or microcontroller containing the mobile device interrogating through another connector to confirm the original battery manufacturer or other information about the battery. A battery pack can include other connectors and functions to provide accurate battery status and/or charging information to one of the devices powered by a battery pack or one of the battery packs.

In addition to the above components, in accordance with various embodiments, the receiver circuit can include: a receiver coil that can be a wire and/or PCB coil wound as described above; an optional electromagnetic shield between the coil and the metal body of the battery Alignment aids, such as magnets; a receiver communication circuit (such as the resistors for load modulation and TFE shown in Figures 2 and 4); a wireless power receiver (such as described above) Rectifier and capacitor); and one of the pre-programmed battery charging algorithms uses a battery charger IC.

In general, each type of battery and chemistry requires a predetermined optimum amount of curve for charging the battery type. For example, a typical charge cycle 180 of one of lithium ions (Li-Ion) is illustrated in FIG. The full capacity of this battery can be charged up to 4.2V A value. This battery should be charged according to the manufacturer's instructions. For a battery of capacity C, the battery unit can typically be charged at a rate of 1C. In phase 1, the maximum available current is applied and the battery cell voltage is increased until the battery cell voltage reaches a final value (4.2V). In this case, the charger IC switches to phase 2, wherein the charger IC switches to constant voltage charging, the battery cell voltage is not changed but the current is drawn from the power source to further fill the battery constant under the constant voltage charging. Voltage charging. This second phase can take up to one hour or more, and this second phase is necessary to fully charge the battery. Eventually, the battery will draw very little current (below a threshold) or draw current. At this stage, the battery is fully charged and the charger can be interrupted. The charger IC can periodically search for battery conditions and end further when the battery is exhausted due to standby.

According to an embodiment, the various stages of battery charging may be implemented in a software or firmware, with the wireless power charger and receiver microcontroller monitoring (eg, battery cell voltage, current, and in succession to provide appropriate ( For example) voltage or current for safe charging of any type of battery.

According to an embodiment, in the approach shown in FIG. 6, a battery charger IC chip having a special battery charging circuit and algorithm for a particular type of battery may be employed. These charger ICs (with or without fuel meter capability to accurately measure battery status) can be used for different battery chemistries and included in most mobile devices with mobile batteries, such as mobile phones. The charger IC may include such security features as a temperature sensor, open circuit cut, etc., and may provide other useful information to the other circuit or microcontroller as a charge end signal, transmitting a constant current or voltage signal ( The above stage 1 or 2, etc.). In addition, some of these ICs allow the user to program and set the maximum output current of the battery cells with an external resistor across one of the two pins of the IC.

According to an embodiment, the wireless rechargeable battery pack additionally includes a microcontroller that coordinates and monitors one of the points, and may also include a thermal power sensor on the wireless power coil, the battery unit, and/or other points in the battery pack. The microcontroller can also be communicated to the charger and can also be monitored Communication from the charger (in the case of two-way communication). The typical communication through load modulation is described above.

According to an embodiment, another aspect of a wireless rechargeable battery pack can be an optional external/internal switch. A battery pack can receive power and can be charged wirelessly or through a connector of a battery pack.

For example, when using this battery pack in a mobile phone, the user may wish to place the phone on a wireless charger or plug the device into a wired charger for charging and synchronizing the device or Upload and/or download materials or other information. In this example, it may be important to have the battery pack recognize the current flowing into the battery pack and take some action. This action may include, for example, turning off the wired charger by a switch or simply powering down the charger IC and sending back a signal through the microcontroller and modulating the current back to the charger to notify the user that there is a cable The charger (if the cable charger is given priority), or conversely, when the wireless charger charges the battery, gives priority to the wireless charger and disconnects the wired charger for the battery. In either case, one of the two chargers can be pre-established and implemented in the hardware and/or firmware for disposal.

According to an embodiment, the battery is wirelessly charged as it flows through the battery contacts from the mobile device into a battery. Typically, this current is supplied to a mobile device (such as an AC/DC adapter for a mobile phone) by an external DC supply, and is handled by a charger IC chip or power management IC within the mobile device. Charging, in addition to charging the battery, the charger IC chip or power management IC also measures the state of charge and operation of the battery, verifies the authenticity of the battery, and displays the state of charge to a user through, for example, LEDs and displays. According to an embodiment, the system can include a current sensing circuit that measures and senses the direction of current flow into or out of the battery at one of the battery pack contacts. In the case where the current flows inward (ie, externally charges the battery through a wired charging connection and/or through a mobile device), the microcontroller can take the above actions and turn off the wireless charging, or vice versa Charging provides priority and if there is wireless charging, it is allowed or not Wired charging is allowed as an implementation requirement.

In many applications, it may be extremely important to include a feature that informs a mobile device user about the state of charge of one of the battery packs in the device. To achieve accurate measurement of remaining battery charging, several gas meter technologies can generally be implemented by incorporating a remaining charge measurement IC or circuit in a battery or device.

According to an embodiment, the mobile device may also include communicating with the wirelessly chargeable battery and measuring the degree of charge of the wirelessly charged battery and displaying the status on the mobile device display or otherwise informing the user of a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) ) or a fuel or battery gauge. In another embodiment, this information is transmitted to the charger and also displayed on the charger. In a typical situation, a typical fuel gauge or PMIC can use battery voltage/impedance and the like and measure the time at which current and current enter the mobile device (Cullen count) to determine the state of charge of the battery. However, in a wireless charging system, it may be necessary to perform this coulomb counting in the battery (not in the mobile device), and then this coulomb count can be communicated to the mobile device or charger because the charging current is passing through the on-board wireless The power receiver and circuit enter the battery directly.

According to an embodiment, the communication between the mobile device and the battery is through a connector of the battery and may involve communication with a microcontroller on one of the battery packs. According to an embodiment, the wirelessly rechargeable battery pack may include a suitable microcontroller and/or circuitry to: even if externally (through a wired power supply or charger) applies current to the mobile device and wirelessly charges the battery, Communicate with the mobile device or wireless charger circuit and update its state of charge.

In a simpler fuel gauge technique, battery voltage, impedance, etc. can be used to determine the state of charge of the battery and then the determination can be performed by means of a mobile device through a battery connector point or by wireless charging This is done with the battery pack and/or the mobile device or its appropriate circuitry in the PMIC or circuit. In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 6, the battery pack internally contains a microcontroller or circuit to perform the fuel gauge task and The device reports the state of charge. The circuit can be the same or different from the one used to identify the battery ID and can communicate via a common battery connector or a separate battery connector.

According to an embodiment, the firmware in the receiver microcontroller plays a key role in the operation of the battery pack. The microcontroller can measure the voltage and current, flags and temperature at appropriate locations for proper operation. According to an embodiment, for example, the microcontroller can measure the value V from the rectifier circuit_OutAnd try to make V in the charging cycle_OutIt remains constant, thereby providing a stable regulated DC supply to the charger IC chip. The microcontroller can report this voltage value or error or simply relative to a desired voltage (eg, 5V) to the charger via a load modulation or other scheme (eg, RF communication, NFC, Bluetooth as described above). A binary or multi-level coding scheme is used to return more or less power to one of the chargers. The charger can then act by adjusting the input voltage to the charger coil, adjusting the frequency of the AC voltage applied to the charger coil, or applying a time cycle to cause V_OutWithin the required voltage range, or in combination with one of these actions or similar methods.

According to an embodiment, the microcontroller can monitor the end of charging and/or other signals from the charger and/or the protection circuit and the sensing circuit (to sense the direction and value of the battery pack current) during charging to take appropriate action. For example, lithium ion batteries must be charged below a certain temperature for safety reasons. According to an embodiment, it may therefore be desirable to monitor a battery cell, a wireless power receiver coil or other temperature and take appropriate action, such as terminating charging or reducing the charging current if a certain maximum temperature is exceeded.

During charging, as shown in FIG. 8, the battery cell voltage is increased from 3 V or lower to 4.2 V in this example as charging. Wireless power receiver V_OutInput to a charger IC and if this V_OutKeeping constant (eg, 5V), a large voltage drop (up to 2V or greater) can occur across this IC, especially during phase 1 where the maximum current is applied. Since the charging current is as high as 1 A, this large voltage drop across this IC can translate into up to 2 watts of wasted power/heat, which can cause the battery to overheat. According to an embodiment, it may therefore be desirable to implement a strategy whereby the V in the charger IC is entered._OutTrack battery voltage, thereby creating a small voltage drop across the charger IC And therefore less loss. This greatly improves performance because the thermal performance of the battery pack is extremely important.

According to an embodiment, the communication between the receiver and the charger may follow a predetermined agreement (including, for example, baud rate, modulation depth) and one of a predetermined method for signal exchange, communication establishment and transmission of signals, and optionally A method for providing closed loop control and regulation of power and voltage in, for example, a receiver.

According to an embodiment, operation 190 of one of the wireless power systems as illustrated in FIG. 9 can be as follows: The charger periodically activates the charger coil driver and powers the charger coil with one of the appropriate frequency drive signals. During this "wire test" procedure, if a receiver coil is placed on or near the top of the charger coil, power is received through the receiver coil and energy is supplied to the receiver circuit. The receiver microcontroller is activated by the received power and begins executing an initial procedure whereby the receiver ID, its presence, power or voltage requirements, receiver or battery temperature or state of charge, and/or other information are sent back. charger. If verified and found to be valid, the charger is continuously powered to the receiver. The receiver may alternatively send a message that the end of charging, excessive temperature, battery charging is complete, or will be properly handled by the charger and the actions performed. The length of the wire test procedure should be configured to be of sufficient length to allow the receiver to power up and respond to its microcontroller and receive and understand the response. The length of time between several connection tests can be determined by the implementation designer. If the connection test process is performed frequently, the standby power usage of the charger is higher. Or, if the connection test is performed occasionally, the system will delay the discovery of the nearby receiver. Therefore, in practice, a balance must be reached.

Alternatively, according to an embodiment, the connection test operation may be initiated after the nearby receiver is found by other means. This provides a very low standby power usage by the charger and can be due to the inclusion of a magnet in the receiver and a magnetic sensor in the charger or through optical, capacitive, weight, NFC or Bluetooth, RFID or other Execute by RF communication or other methods for detection.

Alternatively, according to an embodiment, the system can be designed or implemented to be always on (ie, powered to the charger coil at a suitable drive frequency) or periodically wired, and the presence of the receiver coil causes the coil to receive The coil resonates and power transfer occurs. The receiver in this case may even be self-contained without a microcontroller, and there may be only one regulator in the receiver to provide regulated output power to a device, its outer panel, housing or battery. In an embodiment in which a periodic connection test is performed, the presence of a receiver can be detected by measuring a higher degree of current flow or power transmission or other means, and the charger can simply continue to transmit power until it is captured. The power is reduced below a certain level or a charge is detected and/or no device is detected.

In another embodiment, the charger may be turned off or on standby or the power condition is low or no power condition before the receiver is detected by a magnetic, RF, optical, capacitive or other method. For example, according to an embodiment, the receiver may contain an RFID chip and when the receiver is present on or near the charger, the charger will turn on or begin a wiring test to detect a receiver.

According to an embodiment, the protocol for communication may be, for example, any of the common RZ, NRZ, Manchester code used for communication. An example of a communication program and power conditioning and/or other functions is illustrated in FIG. According to an embodiment, the charger may periodically begin and apply one of the predetermined frequencies and lengths to test the voltage 200 to the charger coil (shown in lower diagram 202 of Figure 10). The receiver is then activated and can begin transmitting back to the communication signal (shown in diagram 204 above in Figure 10). The communication signal can include an optional preamble for synchronizing the detection circuitry in the charger and having the detection circuitry ready to detect communications. The communication containing one of the data packets can then follow the checksum and the parity bit, followed by the sum check code and the parity bit as needed. Similar procedures are used in communication systems and similar techniques can be followed. According to an embodiment, the actual data packet may contain information such as: one of the receiver ID codes; the received voltage, power or current value; the battery state; the amount of power in the battery; the battery or circuit temperature; the end of charging or the storage of electricity The pool is fully charged; the presence of an external wired charger; or any combination of the above. The packet may also contain the actual voltage, power, current or actual value and the difference between the desired value or an encoded value that will be used to cause the charger to determine how quickly to adjust the output.

Alternatively, in accordance with an embodiment, the communication signal can be of a predetermined pattern that is repeated and simply allows the charger to know that there is a valid device in which the receiver and/or receiver is within the power range of the charger. Any combination of systems can be designed to provide the desired performance.

In accordance with an embodiment, in response to the receiver providing information regarding, for example, output power or voltage, the charger can modify the voltage, frequency, duty cycle, or a combination of the above. The charger can also use other techniques to modify the power output of the charger coil and adjust the received power. Alternatively, the charger can simply continue to power the receiver when an approved receiver is detected and continues to exist. The charger can also monitor the current into the charger coil and/or the temperature of the charger to ensure that there are no unusual fault conditions. An example of this type of failure may be to place a metal object on the charger instead of a receiver.

According to an embodiment, the charger may adjust one or more parameters to increase or decrease the power or voltage in the receiver, and then wait for the receiver to further provide information before changing a parameter again, or it may use more complex proportional integrals Differential (PID) or other control mechanism used to close the loop using a receiver and achieve output power control. Alternatively, as described above, the charger can provide a constant output power, and the receiver can adjust the power through a regulator or a charger IC or a combination thereof to provide the required power to a device or battery.

Different manufacturers can use different codes and also use bit rates and protocols. Controls used by different manufacturers may also vary, further causing interoperability issues between various chargers and receivers. One source of interoperability differences can be the size, shape, and number of turns used for power transmission coils. Moreover, depending on the input voltage used, the design of a wireless power system can boost or step down the receiver depending on the voltage required by a device with appropriate charger and receiver coil turns. However, then one of the receivers from a manufacturer Due to such differences in the design employed, it is not necessarily possible to act on another manufacturer's charger. It is therefore advantageous to provide a system that can operate with different receivers or chargers and is universal.

The resonant frequency of any LC circuit is given by F: F = 1/2π<img file="TW201347349A_D0001.tif" wi="34" he="64" img-format="tif" img-content="character" orientation="portrait" inline="no" />LC

The inductance of the L-system circuit or coil (in Henry) and the C-series capacitance (in Farah). For the system shown in Figure 2, a free running charger can use the C1 and L1 values in the above calculations, and as a receiver approaches the circuit, this value is changed by the mutual coupling involved. . In the case where a ferrite shield is used behind one of the charger and/or the receiver, the electrical inductance of the coil senses the magnetic permeability of the shield and the modified permeability should be used in the above calculations. .

In accordance with an embodiment, to be able to detect and power/charge various receivers, the charger can be designed such that the initial wiring test signal is within this frequency range to initially be able to be in any receiver during the wiring test process The receiver circuit is powered and the receiver circuit is activated. After this initial power up of the receiver, the charger communication circuitry should be able to detect and understand the communication signals from the receiver. Many microcontrollers can communicate in multiple formats and can have different input pins (or a single input pin) that can be configured differently (or individually) to simultaneously receive communication signals and synchronize and understand differently Bow rate and communication under the agreement. According to an embodiment, the charger firmware can then determine which receiver is present and adjust or implement the desired things (eg, end of charge, shut down, fault condition). Depending on the received message, the charger can then decide to change the charger driver voltage amplitude, frequency or duty cycle or one of these combinations or other parameters to provide an appropriately adjusted output.

According to an embodiment, the behavior of the charger may also take into account differences in coil geometry (eg, turns ratio). For example, a charger and receiver pair from one or more manufacturers may need to operate the charger drive voltage at 150 kHz. However, if the same receiver is placed on a charger from another manufacturer or the combination is driven with a different coil/input voltage combination To achieve the same output power, the charger frequency may have to be 200kHz. The charger program can detect the type of receiver placed on it and shift the frequency appropriately to achieve a baseline output power and continue to adjust the frequency. According to an embodiment, the charger can be implemented such that it can test and/or decode and implement a plurality of communication and adjustment protocols and respond appropriately to them. This enables the charger to be provided as part of a multi-protocol system and operates with different types of receivers, technologies and manufacturers.

For a receiver that contains a regulator on one of the output powers, the stability of the input voltage of the regulator is less important than the receiver of the output regulator stage, because the regulator is changed when any load changes. Perform a smoothing function and keep the output voltage at the desired level. However, it is important that the maximum rated input voltage of the regulator is not exceeded or dropped below the desired one level so that the output voltage may no longer be maintained at the desired value. In general, however, the inclusion of a regulator and/or a charger IC chip (for a battery) reduces the power/voltage regulation requirements at the input of the regulator stage at the expense of additional component size and cost. According to various embodiments, a simpler voltage limiting output stage can be used, such as a Zener diode, a transient voltage suppressor (TVS), or other voltage limiting or clamping IC or circuit. However, this level only clamps the maximum voltage level, rather than providing true output stage adjustment. According to an embodiment, such components can also be used as one of the safety mechanisms prior to the output regulator stage. According to another embodiment, one or more of the voltage limiting stages and the regulating stages may be combined with a feedback adjustment system as described above, thereby monitoring the input voltage of the receiver output regulator and/or the voltage limiting system and The input voltage is communicated to the charger such that the charger can maintain this voltage in a desired range as described above. In this way, a multi-level adjustment can be created to provide additional safety and reliability.

Although the above system describes a system in which communication is mainly performed through a coil, as described above, communication can also be performed through a separate coil, RF, optical system, or a combination of the above. In such situations, a multi-aggregation system can also be used to interoperate between systems having different communication and/or control protocols or different modes of communication.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is an important aspect of the performance of any electronic device. Any device commercially available is subject to regulations in different countries or regions in terms of radiated power from it. Any power supply (wired or wireless) that contains high frequency switching can generate conductive and radiated electromagnetic interference (EMI) beyond acceptable limits, so care should be taken to keep these emissions to a minimum.

For an inductive charger that includes multiple coils and an electronic switch and control circuit, the main sources of emissions include: Any potential radiated noise from the switching FET, driver or sensing and control circuitry. The frequency of this noise can be higher than the basic driving frequency of the coil and the noise is emitted away from the charger due to the frequency. This noise can be minimized by optimizing the drive circuitry to avoid sharp edges in the drive waveform and associated noise.

. Noise from copper traces with AC signals. The frequency of this noise can also be high and the noise is emitted away from the charger. The length of these paths should be minimized.

. Electromagnetic radiation from the switched coil. For coils described herein and driven at 100 kHz up to several MHz, the electromagnetic (EM) field produced can have a wavelength of a few hundred meters. In view of the small length of the coil winding (typically 1 m or less), the coil used is not an efficient far field transmitter of the EM field, and the resulting EM field is typically extremely contained near the surface of the coil. The magnetic flux pattern from a PCB coil is extremely contained in the area of a coil and is not efficiently radiated away from the coil.

. It should be noted that when designing a current path and in some embodiments, it may be necessary to shield the FET or other IC or electronic component. In addition, the use of a waveform switching coil having a higher frequency component causes noise at a high frequency. In any of the above described geometries, a conductive layer and/or a ferromagnetic layer may be present in the system to shield the external environment from any potential radiation fields. These conductive layers can be incorporated into the PCB to eliminate the need for additional separate shield layers.

In any of the configurations described herein, it should be noted that when designing the current path and in some embodiments, it may be necessary to shield the FET or other IC or electronic component.

According to an embodiment, the shielding can be performed by a combination of a ferrite or a metal plate or component or the like. Other patent applications for incorporating a procedure for a thin layer of metal (typically less than a few microns thick) in the top and/or bottom layer or other regions of the charger have been described therein (eg, US Patent Publication No. 20090096413) , the application of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety by reference to the entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire content Use of objects. Since the layer does not absorb the incident EM field at the operating frequency of the device, the incident EM fields will even pass through the top surface of the charger (facing the charger coil or the top surface), but will absorb higher Frequency components, thereby reducing or eliminating the harmful effects of higher frequency component radiation on nearby devices, or reducing or eliminating the effects on organisms or humans and meeting regulatory conditions of operation. The charger or receiver can thus be incorporated into a component or product in which the charger and/or receiver coil is covered by a conductive thin layer containing one of the materials or layers. The electrically conductive material may comprise metal, magnetic, plastic electronics or other materials or layers.

In many cases, the frequency content of any EMI emissions from the wireless charger and receiver is important, and care should be taken that the fundamental frequency and its harmonics do not exceed the required values and do not unnecessarily interfere with nearby ones. Electronic device, vehicle or component.

According to an embodiment, a method that can be used to reduce the peaks of such emissions is to intentionally introduce a controlled dither (variation) to the operating frequency of the charger. This dithering will reduce the peak and propagate the fundamental radiated frequency component and its harmonics within one of the frequency ranges determined by the introduced dither or shift amount. Proper implementation of dithering can reduce the undesired interference problem at a given frequency to an acceptable level. However, it is not necessary to reduce the total radiation power. To introduce a dither in any of the systems described herein, the charger driver can be appropriately driven by the MCU to tremble the operating frequency of the charger driver at high frequencies or this can be hardwired into the design. Introducing dithering will typically introduce a slow chopping to the output voltage from the receiver. However, this slow chopping can be kept to a minimum, or a regulator or circuit can be incorporated into the receiver to reduce this chopping to an acceptable level or eliminate this Libo.

According to an embodiment, the multi-protocol approach described herein is used to develop a general-purpose system that can operate among multiple systems and is convenient for the user.

According to an embodiment, the system described herein may use discrete electronic components, or some or all of the above functions, circuits or ICs may be integrated into an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a multi-chip module (MCM) package. In order to achieve a smaller footprint, better performance and / or noise and / or cost advantages. This integration is common in the electronics industry and offers additional advantages here.

In many cases, for the above systems, the transmitter and receiver coils can be similar, but the sizes need not be the same and generally laterally aligned to enable efficient transmission of power. For similarly sized coils, this will typically require the user to approximate the device and/or receiver to the transmitter coil. For example, for a 30 mm diameter transmitter/receiver coil, this would require lateral (x, y) positioning within less than 30 mm, so there is some degree of overlap between the coils. In practice, a high degree of overlap between high output power and efficiency is required. This can be achieved by providing mechanical or other mechanisms such as notches, protrusions, walls, retaining members, fasteners to align the components.

According to an embodiment, for a universal charger/power supply for charging or powering various devices, it may be desirable to be able to accept any device and receiver design. Thus, according to an embodiment, a charger/power supply surface that is flat or slightly curved can be used with any type of receiver. In order to achieve alignment in this case, imprints, small protrusions or notches and/or hearing aids and/or visual aids or the like may be used. Other methods include the use of magnets and magnetic or ferrite magnetic attractor materials that can be attracted to one of the transmitter/charger and receiver magnets. In such methods, a single charger/transmitter and receiver are typically in close proximity to one another and aligned with each other.

However, for ease of use, it may be desirable to be able to place the device to be charged/powered over a larger area without having to precisely align the coil.

Several methods of addressing the subject of location independence have been described above. For example, as described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20070182367 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20090096413, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in One embodiment of a plurality of transmitter coils. When a receiver is placed on the surface of the coil array, the transmitter coil that maximizes overlap with the receiver is detected and activated to allow for optimal power transfer and position independence operation. The detection can be provided by, for example, the weight, capacitance, optical, mechanical, magnetic RFID, RF or power sensing of the receiver.

According to an embodiment, the coils in the charger/power supply are powered sequentially (wired test) and the charger/power supply waits for any potential nearby receivers to be powered up and replies to the wiring test. If no reply is detected within a time window, the next coil is activated until a reply is detected. In the case where a reply is detected, the charger/power supply starts to power up the appropriate transmitter coil. And proceed to charge/power the receiver.

In another geometry, each transmitter (or charger) coil center includes a sensor inductor (eg, as by E. Waffenschmidt and Toine Staring, 13th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, Barcelona, 2009, EPE '09, page 1 to page 10). The receiver coil includes a soft magnetic shield material that shifts the resonant frequency of the system and can be sensed by one of the transducers to turn on the appropriate coil. The defect of this system is that three layers of overlapping coils are needed, and each layer has a sensor and detection circuit at the center, thereby increasing the complexity and cost of the system. Other variations or a combination of techniques described above can be used to detect the appropriate transmitter coil.

According to other embodiments as described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20070182367 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20090096413, the charger or power supply may be suspended in the xy plane behind the top surface of the charger/power supply and One or more transmitter coils are free to move laterally in the xy plane. When a receiver is placed on the charger/power supply, the nearest transmitter coil will move laterally to its own under the receiver coil Position and align with the receiver coil.

A passive method of achieving this may be the use of a magnet or magnet and an attractor that will properly attract and passively align the two coils (one or more attractors attached to the transmitter coil or the movable charging assembly and/or A combination of multiple attractors attached to the receiver coil or receiver).

According to another embodiment, the position of the receiver on the surface of the charger/power supply is detected and this information is used to actively move the transmitter coil to the appropriate position using a motor, piezoelectric actuator or other actuator A system is feasible.

In general, the above systems generally use coils that are similar in size/shape and relatively close together to create a wireless power system. However, according to various embodiments, different sized coils may be used.

As mentioned above, the coupling coefficient k is an important factor in designing a wireless power system. In general, wireless power systems can be classified into two types. One type known as tight coupling operates in a parameter space where the k value is typically 0.5 or greater. A system of this type is characterized in that the coil sizes are generally similar and/or the distance (z-axis) is spatially close together and the lateral (x, y) overlap is good. This so-called tightly coupled system is typically associated with a high coil power transfer efficiency defined herein as the ratio of the output power from the receiver coil to the input power to the transmitter coil. The above method for positional independence (array of transmitter coils and moving coils) typically uses a tightly coupled coil.

In contrast, the system coupling coefficient is lower for coils of different sizes or designs with different transmitter-to-receiver distances or smaller lateral coils. Another important parameter (the quality factor of a transmitter (tx) and receiver (rx) coil) is defined as: Q_Tx=2 π f L_Tx/R_Tx

Q_Rx=2 π f L_Rx/R_Rx

Where f is the operating frequency, L_TxAnd L_RxThe inductance of the transmitter and receiver coils, and R_TxAnd R_RxTheir respective resistances. The system quality factor can be calculated as follows: Q=(Q_Tx.Q_Rx)^1/2

In general, loosely coupled systems can have less power transfer efficiency. However, it can be shown (eg, E. Waffenschmidt mentioned above) that increasing Q can compensate for smaller k values and can achieve reasonable or similar power transfer efficiency. Such systems with different coil sizes and higher Q values are sometimes referred to as resonant coupling systems or resonant systems. However, resonance is also commonly used in the case of coil systems of similar size.

Others (such as André Kurs, Aristeidis Karalis, Robert Moffatt, JD Joannopoulos, Peter Fisher, and Marin Soljac, Science, 317, pp. 83-86, 2007) show that the application is due to the large distance between the coils (up to A system with a k of less than 0.2 for 225 cm) can achieve a reportable size power transmission efficiency of 40% to 70%. Other types of loosely coupled systems present the use of mismatched coils in which the transmitter coil is much larger than the receiver coil (eg, JJ Casanova, ZN Low, J. Lin, and Ryan Tseng, "In Proceedings of Radio Wireless Symposium, 2009", p. 530 Go to page 533 and JJ Casanova, ZN Low, and J. Lin, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-II: Express Briefs, Vol. 56, No. 11, Nov. 2009, pp. 830-834.

A number of references (e.g., U.S. Patent Nos. 6,906,495, 7,239,110, 7,248,017 and 7,042,196) describe a loosely coupled system for charging a plurality of devices whereby one of the magnetic fields parallel to the plane of the charger is used. In these examples, the receiver contains a coil that is typically wrapped around a magnetic material, such as a rectangular sheet, and has an axis parallel to the plane of the charger. To allow the charger to operate with a receiver that rotates at any angle, two sets of coils that are driven 90 degrees apart and driven in opposite phase are used, which produce a magnetic field parallel to the plane of the charger.

Such systems may have a larger transmitter coil and a smaller receiver coil with a small k value (depending on coil size mismatch and gap/coil offset between coils, k may be between 0 and 0.5) Between) operation. Of course, a small transmitter coil and a larger receiver line The opposite of the circle is also feasible.

11 shows a tightly coupled power transmission system (left side, 222) having two different transmitter coils of different sizes for powering a laptop computer and a telephone, and having two of the pair of mobile phones, according to an embodiment. One of the large transmitter coils is powered by one of the large transmitter coils loosely coupled to the configuration 220 of the wireless power system (right side, 224).

One of the most mismatched coils (ie, different sizes/shapes) of an ideal system can potentially have several advantages: Power can be transmitted to the receiver coil placed anywhere on the transmitter coil.

. Several receivers can be placed on a transmitter and power a transmitter, allowing the transmitter to be simpler and less expensive.

. Systems with higher Qs can be designed such that the gap between the transmitter coil and the receiver coil can be larger than a tightly coupled system, resulting in greater design freedom for system design. In practice, power transmission of several cm or more is demonstrated.

. Power can be transmitted to multiple receivers simultaneously. In addition, the receivers may potentially have different rated powers or be at different stages of charging or require different power levels and/or voltages.

To achieve the above characteristics and achieve high power transfer efficiency, a lower Q value is compensated for by using a higher Q by designing, for example, a lower resistance coil. The power transfer characteristics of such systems may differ from the tightly coupled systems, and other electric drive geometries such as Class E amplifiers or Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) or Zero Current Switching (ZCS) or other power transfer systems may be used in such situations. Operate more efficiently. In addition, impedance matching circuits at the charger/transmitter and/or receiver may be required to enable such systems to provide power and output current conditions over a range of load values. However, the general operation of the system may be very similar to a tightly coupled system and use one or more capacitors in series or in parallel with the transmitter and/or receiver coil to create a tuning circuit that can resonate power transmission. Operating near this resonance point enables efficient power transfer across the transmitter to the receiver coil. Depending on the size between the coils Differences and operating points, reporting efficiencies greater than 50% up to approximately 80%.

In order to make the power transmission across a coil more uniform, a method of providing a more uniform magnetic field across one of the coils can be used. One of the methods for achieving this is to use a hybrid coil comprising one of a wire and a PCB coil (for example, X. Liu and SYR Hui "Optimal design of a hybrid winding structure for planar contactless battery charging platform," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 455-463, 2008. In another method, the transmitter coil is constructed of Litz wires and has a continuous number of turns at the center. Between very wide patterns and tighter windings closer to the edges (eg JJ Casanova, ZN Low, J. Lin and R. Tseng "Transmitting coil achieving uniform magnetic field distribution for planar wireless power transfer system", "Proceedings of the IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium", pages 530 to 533, January 2009).

Figure 12 shows one of the coils 230 that has been demonstrated therein, while Figure 13 shows the resulting calculated magnetic field 240.

In one of the geometries described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080067874, a flat spiral inductor coil is demonstrated in which the trace width of the inductor becomes wider as the trace spirals toward the center of the coil to achieve a more A uniform magnetic field allows for a more flexible positioning of a receiver across a transmitter surface. In still other embodiments (F. Sato et al., IEEE Digest of Intermag 1999, pp. GR09, 1999), the coil can be a tortuous type of coil in which the wire is stretched in the X or Y direction and then folded back and A round-trip pattern is formed to cover the surface.

According to an embodiment, the charger can continue to operate, and any suitable receiver coil placed on or near the surface of the charger will cause the charger to resonate and will begin to receive power. The regulation of the output power can be performed through a conditioning phase and/or tuning of the resonant circuit at the receiver. The advantages of this system include: it can be powered simultaneously to different power needs in this way. Multiple receivers. The receiver can also have different output voltage characteristics.

To achieve this, according to an embodiment, the receiver coil turns can be varied to achieve different receiver output voltages. When there is no receiver nearby, this charger will not resonate and will draw the least amount of power. After placing one or more receivers on the charger, the system resonates and transmits the initial power. According to an embodiment, when charging is complete, the receiver may also include a switch that detects the minimum current drawn by the device connected to one of the receivers and completely disconnects the output and/or disconnects the receiver The receiver then no longer draws power. This will cause the charger to not resonate and will draw the least input current at this stage.

According to another embodiment, the charger can periodically test the receiver and initiate and maintain power transmission when it detects that sufficient current is drawn from a receiver. Otherwise, the charger can resume standby and continue the connection test. This system will have a lower standby power usage.

In a more complex system, similar communication and control and/or receiver detection as described above for the tight coupling scenario can be applied to such loosely coupled systems. However, a wireless power system designed to power a plurality of receivers placed on a single transmitter may require different adjustments to the power transmission at each receiver depending on the state of the load/device through which the power is transferred. Voltage.

According to another embodiment, in an example in which a plurality of receivers are placed on one transmitter coil and it is desirable to power/charge all devices, all receivers may attempt to communicate with the transmitter, and the transmitter shall distinguish the receivers And operating differently from each receiver (eg, at a different power level or switching frequency). Because the transmitter coils radiate power to all receivers, it may be difficult to adjust the power delivered to each receiver differently. Thus, in an actual system, a certain degree of adjustment can be performed in the receiver circuit for power delivered to a load or device.

In another method of adjustment, each receiver can share transmitter power over time. Each receiver placed on a transmitter can communicate via wireless RF or RFID or near field communication, blue Bud, WiFi, Zigee, Wireless USB or other protocols or communication via power transmission and/or split coils or through optical or other methods to synchronize and communicate with the transmitter and/or other receivers. The transmitter can then sequentially supply power to the receivers and deliver the appropriate power level by adjusting the transmitter frequency, pulse width modulation or adjusting the input voltage or a combination of the above methods. To operate the system, all or some of the receivers may need to be disconnected from the received power during a time period during which the receiver is receiving power. This can be accomplished by implementing and disconnecting a switch or deactivating the output of the receiver or its associated optional regulator or the like in the path of the receiver coil circuit. In this way, only one receiver coil (or more receiver coils, depending on design and architecture) is magnetically coupled to the transmitter and receives power at any given time. After a certain period of time, the receiver can be disconnected and powered to the next receiver by disconnecting its appropriate switch. Alternatively, one or more receivers can be powered simultaneously. In this case, the receiver may need to share the available power, so for example, when one of the 5W output power receivers is available, each of the 2 receivers may only output only 2.5W. This is acceptable in many charging and/or powering applications.

In any actual system, in addition to power transmission and communication systems, suitably electromagnetically shielded transmitters and receivers are also necessary and may be similar or different than tightly coupled systems.

The ratio of transmitter coil size to receiver coil size may be determined depending on design considerations such as the desired number of receivers for powering/charging at any given time, the required degree of freedom of positioning, or the actual size of the device to be charged/powered. . In the case where the transmitter coil size is designed to accommodate one receiver at a time, the transmitter and receiver coil sizes may be similar, thereby enabling the loosely coupled system to achieve tight coupling limitations in this case.

While loosely coupled systems can have different advantages and to some extent overcome the complexity of multiple coil/moving coil systems employed in a tightly coupled system to achieve positional independence, conventional systems suffer from several problems, such as :

. Because a large area transmitter coil and a smaller receiver coil can be used, Electromagnetic radiation is present in the area of the transmitter coil covered by the receiver coil. This radiation system is rapidly reduced in the near field and as it moves away from the coil. However, this radiation can have an adverse effect on the devices and/or people in the vicinity of the transmitter.

. The receiver can be incorporated or attached to an electronic device and an electrical device or a battery that typically contains metal components and/or circuits and/or components/housings. These uncrossed metal sections absorb electromagnetic (EM) fields radiated from the transmitter and produce destructive and unintended eddy currents and/or heat in such components.

. The emitted electromagnetic field can also affect the operation of the powered or charged device or even adjacent devices that are not on the transmitter/charger. The reduced sensitivity (sensitivity reduction) to device operation/reception or a radio transmitter/receiver is extremely important for designing an action or electronic device such as a mobile phone or communication device. To avoid this effect, it may be desirable to shield portions of the device that are charged or powered outside of the receiver coil region that are exposed to the EM field, thereby severely limiting device design and affecting the operation of other antennas or wireless components in the device.

. In many cases, an after-market or receiver (such as an enclosure, an outer panel, a carrier, a battery, or an accessory with a built-in receiver) can be desired for a mobile or electronic/electrical device. Wireless power or charging. In order to shield the entire device from EM radiation at a location beside the receiver coil, this aftermarket or optional receiver will require all other locations of the shielding device, which may severely limit the design and selection of aftermarket products. For example, a battery with a built-in receiver circuit and a shield may not be sufficient to protect one of the mobile devices to be wirelessly charged. For example, in the case of a mobile phone, the battery will cover only a small area of the back area of a mobile phone such that the remainder of the phone is exposed to EM radiation that can have a significant impact on its performance and operation. In addition, the shield can affect the performance of the device and its multiple wireless components.

. Metals containing metal backs or metal-containing circuits or other metals placed on a charger/transmitter (such as a key or coin or electronic device or camera) can affect the transmitter The operation is based on eddy currents and draws power from the transmitter. This can result in extremely unpredictable overheating of such items.

. The EM field radiated from the transmitter may be further close enough to a user to influence and be incident on the user. Exposure to EM radiation can result in exposure levels that are not expected or unacceptable.

. There are many regulatory guidelines for safe exposure limits for human and electrical/electronic device operation and there is a growing awareness and concern about this issue. Unnecessary exposure from one of the transmitters is uncovered and the operation area is extremely unsatisfactory.

. An area that is not physically covered by the receiver can lose a large amount of power from the transmitter, resulting in less efficient and wasted power.

. To draw most of the power and achieve higher efficiency, the receiver coil area should be maximized. This typically results in a receiver coil area that is greater than one of the tightly coupled embodiments.

It is therefore desirable to benefit from the advantages of a loosely coupled system while at the same time minimizing or avoiding problems associated therewith.

In accordance with an embodiment previously described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20,120, 235, 636, several embodiments are described herein, by appropriately designing the system and using two of which are referred to as magnetic aperture (MA) and magnetic coupling (MC), respectively. The technology retains the advantages of using (size) mismatched coil systems while overcoming the above problems, resulting in an ideal system for wireless power transfer.

As described above, a positional independence system can be implemented by using a large area transmitter coil on which a smaller receiver coil is placed at a plurality or any location and the receiver coil can receive power .

Typically, a system such as that shown in Figure 2 includes capacitors in series and/or in parallel with the transmitter and/or receiver coils to provide a resonant circuit that exhibits strong power transfer characteristics at a particular frequency. (eg, SY Hui, HSH Chung, and SCTang, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 14, pp. 422- 430) (1999), which shows an analysis method for one of the systems). Use a transmitter coil with a value of L1=46μH and a receiver with L2=4μH (based on a 16cm x 18cm 13 transmitter coil and a 4cm x 5cm 6 receiver coil (J. Casanova, ZN Low and J. Lin) IEEE Trans. On Circuits and Systems-II, Express Briefs, Vol. 56, pp. 830-834 (2009)) and using a 12nF receiver capacitor, the transmitter input can be calculated as shown in Figure 14. The impedance of the supply, showing the resonance of the power transmission 250.

In practice, one of the transmitters operating at or near the resonant frequency does not draw too much power until there is one of the appropriate inductors and capacitors in the vicinity, thereby shifting the operating point of the transmitter and making it resonant. At this point, a large amount of power can be drawn from the transmitter supply and large power transmission and high power transmission efficiency can be realized. However, as noted above, a large area transmitter will typically also radiate power into an area not covered by the receiver coil, which can result in EMI and is accompanied by operational conditions.

In accordance with an embodiment previously described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20,120, 235, 636, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein incorporated by reference in its entirety in its entirety in the in the in the in the in in in

According to one of the previously described embodiments, a large transmitter coil and a smaller receiver coil or a coil similar to a loosely coupled system are used. However, to reduce or eliminate radiation from the transmitter coil, the transmitter coil is covered with a thin soft magnetic layer.

Figure 15 illustrates a magnetization curve 260 for a plurality of ferromagnetic materials. The materials include: 1. thin steel plate; 2. tantalum steel plate; 3. cast steel; 4. tungsten steel; 5. magnetic steel; 6. cast iron; 7. nickel; 8. cobalt; and 9. magnet. In a linear operating system, the magnetic field strength H through the material's magnetic permeability μ is related to the magnetic flux density B:<maths><img alt="" file="TW201347349A_D0002.tif" he="115" id="" img-content="drawing" img-format="tif" inline="no" orientation="portrait" wi="712" /></maths>

Where M is the magnetization of a material. Each of B, H, and M is a vector and one of the μ-type isotropic materials and one amount of anisotropic material. In an anisotropic material, in one direction Applying a magnetic field on it can affect the magnetic flux in the other direction. The magnetic permeability of the ferromagnetic material is the slope of the curve shown in Figure 15 and is not constant, but depends on H. In the ferromagnetic or ferrite material as shown in Fig. 15, the magnetic permeability increases to a maximum value as H increases, and then decreases toward 1 (vacuum or air permeability value) as it approaches the saturation level. . In short, the mechanism of this nonlinearity or saturation is as follows: For a magnetic material containing one of several magnetic domains, due to the gradual increase of the external magnetic field, the magnetic domains are aligned with the direction of the magnetic field (of the isotropic material) and The magnetic permeability is multiplied by the magnetic flux density, which is proportional to the external magnetic field. As these magnetic domains continue to align, beyond the magnetic field values, the magnetic domains are all physically aligned and no further alignment is added, thereby reducing the magnetic permeability of the material to a magnetic permeability closer to vacuum or air. The magnitude of the rate.

Different materials have different degrees of saturation. For example, a high permeability ferroalloy for a transformer achieves magnetic saturation at 1.6 Tesla (T) to 2.2 Tesla (T), while ferromagnetic is saturated at 0.2T to 0.5T. One of the metallic glass amorphous alloys is saturated at 1.25T. The magnetic field (H) required to reach saturation can vary from 100 A/m or less to 1000 A/m. Many materials commonly used in transformer cores include the above materials, soft iron, niobium steel, laminated materials (to reduce eddy currents), niobium alloy materials, carbonyl iron, ferrite, glass metal, Ni, Mn, Zn, Fe, Alloys of Co, Gd and Dy, nanomaterials and many other materials in solid or flexible polymers or other substrates used in transformers, shields or power transmission applications. Some of these materials are applicable to the applications of the various embodiments described herein.

Figure 16 illustrates a hysteresis curve 270 of one of the hard ferromagnetic materials, such as steel. As the magnetic field increases, the magnetic flux saturates at a certain point, so the above linear relationship is no longer followed. If the magnetic field is then reduced and removed in a medium, then a certain B value called remanence (Br) is retained, resulting in a magnetization behavior. By applying an opposite field, B is reduced to a region of zero to follow the curve. At this time, the H level is called the coercivity of the material.

Many magnetic shield layers include ferromagnetic gold by high magnetic permeability ferrite or metal alloy such as large crystalline grain structure high magnetic alloy and Mu metal or nanocrystalline crystal structure It is a soft magnetic material made of a coating. Just like an electrical shield, these materials do not block the magnetic field, but instead draw a magnetic field into the material to provide a path for the magnetic field lines around the shielded volume. The effectiveness of this type of shield decreases as the magnetic permeability of the material decreases, which is generally reduced at very low magnetic field strengths and also at high magnetic field strength, where the material becomes saturated as described above . The magnetic permeability of a material is generally a complex value: μ = μ' + jμ"

Where μ' and μ" are the real and imaginary parts of the magnetic permeability, which respectively provide the storage component and the loss component of the magnetic permeability. Figure 17 illustrates the real part and the virtual magnetic permeability of a ferromagnetic material layer 280. The magnetic field frequency dependence of the part.

Figure 18 illustrates a magnetization curve 290 for a high permeability (actual permeability of about 3300) exclusive soft magnetic ferrite material at 25 ° C and 100 ° C temperature. Increasing the temperature results in a decrease in the saturation flux density. However, at any temperature, it is clearly observed that the flux density B saturates as H increases. It is observed that the slope of the BH curve (ie, material permeability) decreases significantly at about 100 A/m and the decrease in magnetic permeability increases with H before the material permeability approaches 1 at several hundred A/m. increase. This particular material is based on MnZn and maintains high magnetic permeability at applied magnetic field frequencies up to 1 MHz, but loses its magnetic permeability at higher frequencies. There are also materials that operate in other frequency ranges. In general, MnZn-based materials can be used at lower frequency ranges, while NiZn-based materials are more commonly used at higher frequencies up to several hundred MHz.

According to an embodiment, suitable material designs and compositions can be used to optimize material parameters to achieve desired real and imaginary magnetic permeability at any operating frequency and also to achieve a saturated magnetic field and desired behavior.

<b>Magnetic coupling (MC) geometry</b>

In accordance with an embodiment described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20,120, 235, 636, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein incorporated by reference in its entirety in the entire entire entire entire entire entire entire entire portion One of the paths of one of the receiver coils law.

To achieve this, according to one embodiment illustrated in Figure 19, by directing, limiting and shielding one of the fields of ferromagnetic, ferrite or other magnetic material or layer (due to its high magnetic permeability) coverage A large area transmitter coil (combined with a wire, a Liz wire or a PCB type or one of them). Selecting the material thickness and its magnetic permeability and saturation properties, the magnetic material can reduce or shield the field in the region above the charger/transmitter coil, so that the field is reduced by 2 compared to another similar geometry without the magnetic layer. Order of magnitude or less. Having a receiver coil with a suitable resonant capacitor in series or in parallel with the receiver coil collects the field that penetrates the magnetic layer and achieves local power transfer regardless of where the receiver coil is placed.

In US Patent Publication No. 20120235636, a charger coil similar to that shown in FIG. 12 and having a size of 18 cm x 18 cm, including a Liz wire, is described which is covered with a material having the properties shown in FIG. Mm thick sheet. A circular receiver coil having an inner radius of 2 cm and a number of turns of 7 was placed on the top of the charger surface/magnetic layer. This magnetic coupling (MC) geometry 320 is illustrated in FIG.

According to an embodiment, the receiver circuit comprises a parallel or series resonant capacitor followed by a bridge or synchronous rectifier and a smoothing capacitor. A large amount of power transmission is achieved using a receiver coil that is a few mm to 2 cm to 3 cm from the surface of the charger. Power transfer and efficiency increase as a 0.5 mm thick ferrite magnetic material or layer is introduced onto the receiver coil to direct and shield the flux as shown in FIG. In this case, the resonance of the charger/receiver circuit is extremely important for the operation of the MC configuration. The leakage field from the surface of the charger is reduced by using a thicker or higher magnetic permeability magnetic layer. Selecting the appropriate magnetic layer and the receiver shield/guide layer permeability and thickness provides a low reluctance path that allows the magnetic flux to withstand higher power transfer and efficiency while simultaneously achieving field shielding at other locations of the charger. This MC configuration with a charger/receiver coil vertical distance of a few mm to 2 cm to 3 cm achieves over 10 W of power transmission and over 50% of DC output to DC input power transmission efficiency at the output. Transmitting the surface of the transconductor coil laterally to the MC receiver coil to confirm: cross-transmitter The surface achieves high power transmission with high uniformity and high efficiency. The radiation from other locations of the charger (without the receiver) is monitored by a probe and shown to be reduced by two orders of magnitude compared to a similar position in a magnetic resonant charger that does not have a magnetic layer. Due to the high magnetic permeability of the ferrite layer, this edge (leakage) field quickly disappears away from the top surface and should not cause a large amount of EMI problems as it moves away from the charger. The interference effect of a magnetic or non-magnetic metal plate or ferrite placed on the surface of the charger is not observed, thereby demonstrating that the magnitude of the leakage field from the surface is small and due to the resonance generated by the receiver LC circuit. It is only fully coupled to the receiver. As expected, this MC geometry can simultaneously charge/power multiple receivers.

Depending on the MC geometry, the magnetic reluctance of the flux path in the receiver can be reduced by including a high permeability material in the receiver toroid (similar to a solenoid) core or a T-core or the like. Many geometric shapes are possible and such geometries are only given as examples. In addition, although a Liz wire receiver coil is used, it is also possible to use a PCB coil and/or a combination of a Liz wire and a PCB coil.

According to an embodiment, to reduce the reluctance of the path, by using one of the axes having a surface perpendicular to the charger (or at an angle sufficient to capture substantially perpendicular flux from the charger) A guiding material, such as a ferrite having a magnetic permeability greater than 1, produces a receiver coil.

As illustrated at 330 in Figure 21, according to an embodiment, a Liz wire can be wrapped around the core to produce a snail having a relatively small cross section (2 mm x 10 or 20 mm) that is substantially parallel to the surface of the charger. Line type receiver. In one example, the length of the solenoid height (in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the charger) is varied from 10 mm to 20 mm, but may be shorter. According to an embodiment, the flux guiding layer may also have a thickness of 0.5 mm or less, thereby allowing the use of a small volume of the receiver coil and the shield. The typical number of turns of the receiver coil is 7 turns. At resonance, a large amount of power transmission (over 20W) is received at the bottom of the receiver coil on the surface of the charger or within a few cm of the surface of the charger. Rotating solenoid relative to charge The vertical direction of the surface of the appliance produces a large amount of power transfer, confirming that efficient power transfer is achieved as long as a certain component of the charger flux is along the axis of the coil. Leakage power from other areas of the charger surface was observed to be minimal and free positioning and multiple receiver operations were available as expected.

According to an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 21, an additional shield/guide layer may be added to the top of the receiver and to the bottom of the charger as needed. A solenoid having a magnetic flux guide can be constructed such that it also has a larger area parallel to the surface of the charger, which is similar to the embodiment of Figure 20 except that a flux guiding layer is present in the middle of the coil. In this case, the height (along the length perpendicular to the surface of the charger) may be extremely short (1 mm to 2 mm or less). The use of flux guiding and a smaller cross section parallel to one of the surfaces of the charger as shown in Figure 21 is also extremely important for applications where a small area of the cross section of the receiver in the plane of the charger can be used. An example may be a device such as a telephone or battery or a three-dimensional or communication glasses/telephone that is longer and substantially seated or laid on its ends or sides in one or two dimensions to wirelessly receive power.

According to another embodiment, similar to Figure 21, a magnetic shield/guide layer is placed underneath (bottom) the charger coil and the receiver comprises a coil having one of the vertically placed ferrite materials; however, in Figure 21 The magnetic switching layer shown is omitted. In this case, it is observed that efficient power transfer from the charger to the receiver can be achieved when the area ratio between the charger surface and the receiver coil area parallel to the charger surface is 50 to 1 or greater. This is due to the fact that the flux generated by the charger strongly tends to the path of the receiver coil position, rather than due to the flow of flux in the area in contact with the air. In this way, large-area free positioning and high-efficiency power transmission can be achieved.

As described above, according to an embodiment, the charger/transmitter as shown in FIGS. 20 and 21 may also include a magnetic flux guiding layer/shield at the bottom of the charger so that it is from the bottom of the charger/transmitter. The radiation is reduced and the magnetic flux is guided. In yet another embodiment described herein, on the top of the receiver shield and/or on the bottom of the charger/transmitter shield A metal layer is also included to further shield the magnetic field.

For one of the geometry of the transmitter coil in Figure 12 (where the current in the coil (the current used here is a few A)), the incident magnetic field is estimated to be at 100 A/m.²Up to several 100A/m²In the range (see Figure 13). Attention should be paid to the selection of magnetic materials so that magnetic saturation does not occur. However, in the region of power transmission between the charger coil and the transmitter coil, the magnetic field is enhanced by the resonance and quality factor (Q) of the system, and a maximum magnetic field may exist. As mentioned earlier, in these tests, the Q of the system was approximately 30. It is thus possible that in the power transfer position below the receiver coil, the magnetic layer can undergo magnetic permeability saturation and reduction to provide a more efficient path for flux to be transmitted from the charger coil to one of the receiver coils above the charger. And increase power transmission and efficiency. This effect is used to benefit as described above by selecting a magnetic layer with an appropriate saturation field value.

<b>Magnetic pore (MA) geometry</b>

According to another embodiment described in U.S. Patent No. 20,120,235,636, a magnetic aperture (MA) can be created at any desired location in a magnetic shield or ferromagnetic layer such that the layer is constrained to the location The magnetic field is efficiently coupled to a receiver coil and provides power transfer to the receiver. At any other location on the transmitter coil, the magnetic field limits prevent or reduce unwanted radiation, thereby making EMI, unwanted operating conditions, and interference effects low.

Several methods of locally altering (switching) the properties of a ferromagnetic material in the MA geometry are described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20,120,235,636. According to one of the embodiments, the ferromagnetic, ferrite or other magnetic properties are altered by saturating the layer by applying a DC and/or AC magnetic field, such as by a combination of a permanent magnet or an electromagnet or the like. The local characteristics of the material or layer. For example, a magnet or electromagnet may be combined with the receiver coil behind, in front of, around or in the center or one of the other such that the receiver coil has a ferromagnetic layer sufficient to localize it above or near where the receiver coil is placed. The magnetization curve saturates or changes the magnetic field of the magnetization curve.

Examples of magnets used include, for example, one or more discs, squares, rectangles, ellipses, bends, loops (e.g., 340 in Fig. 22) or any other shape of magnets, and combinations thereof, and the like. The magnetization orientation and intensity provide a DC or AC magnetic field sufficient to shift the operating position of the magnetization curve (as shown in Figure 15 or Figure 18) such that the transmitter coil, the affected ferromagnetic layer and the receiver coil are combined One of the power transmissions reaches a resonance condition at a given frequency.

As illustrated in Figure 23, according to one embodiment of the MA, there is a permanent magnet (and / in the receiver in front of and/or behind the receiver coil and/or at the horizontal plane (outside and/or inside the coil). Or an electromagnet) and bringing the receiver close to the surface of the charger, at which point a portion of the "magnetic aperture" is opened in the ferromagnetic, ferrite or other magnetic material or layer, thereby allowing the electromagnetic field of the transmitter coil to not affect any nearby In the case of a zone, it is transmitted through this local pore.

In this way, by locally saturating or reducing or otherwise reducing the magnetic permeability of the ferromagnetic layer by DC and/or AC field, a limit can be established and maintained at the location where power and energy coupling should occur. In other areas. The magnetic or ferrite material layer is here also referred to as a switching layer. This layer acts as a reservoir and/or an AC flux guiding layer (for power transfer) and a switching layer.

This embodiment can be used to meet the goal of simultaneously efficiently transmitting power to one of the receivers at any desired location while preventing the field from being radiated at other locations and causing problems. At the same time, since the magnetic field generated by the entire surface of the charger coil is guided or directed toward the generated magnetic aperture, this provides an effect similar to focusing power on one of the magnetic aperture regions and achieving power transmission to an arbitrary position. One of the receivers is an efficient method.

In Figure 23, as previously described, the receiver may also include an outer surface or outer casing. As shown in Figure 23, such a surface or outer casing will typically be located between the receiver coil and the charger surface member.

Figure 24 provides an illustrative method of understanding the behavior 360 of the system described above. Show The magnetization curve of a soft ferrite material at different operating temperatures. The AC magnetic field generated by the wireless charger/power supply coil is also shown in the two operating regions (the shielding region and the magnetic aperture region). Most of the surface area of the ferrite layer does not have a receiver above and operates in a shielded area with high magnetic permeability to externally direct the AC magnetic field generated by the charger/power supply coil in the transmitter and shield the AC magnetic field. In the magnetic aperture region (with receiver and switching magnets), the DC (and/or AC) magnet acts as an offset to move the operating point around the vertical axis from which the material has high magnetic permeability and limits and directs the magnetic field. Moving to a region where the material is saturated and has a low permeability, thereby creating a magnetic aperture for coupling to one of the nearby receiver coils, resulting in efficient power transfer. The magnetic field (magnetic switching field) required to saturate the switching material can be easily generated by many types of commonly available magnets that can generate magnetic fields of up to several hundred A/m or more, thereby easily saturating many ferrite materials. .

Figure 25 is another representation 370 of a variation of the magnetic permeability of the applied magnetic field, showing that the magnetic permeability initially increases when the magnetic field is low and then the magnetic permeability decreases as the magnetic field value increases.

The MC and MA practices described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120235636 utilize the non-linear behavior of ferrite materials to act as an active switch to provide power transfer only in a desired location. Permeability is an inherent material property of one of the magnetic materials and the response time of the material is limited only by the magnetic domain movement and may be a few nanoseconds or faster depending on the material. Thus one of the advantages of this system is that the device responds almost instantly and if a receiver is moved over the surface, a new aperture is created almost instantaneously and the shield is restored at all other locations.

In contrast, other wireless charger systems, such as coil arrays, moving coils, and the like, move this due to time lags associated with mechanical movement of the coil and/or electronic detection and reconfiguration of an electronic system. Has a slow response.

Additionally, a plurality of receivers (with switching magnets) can be placed on or near the surface of the charger to create a plurality of magnetic apertures for coupling power to the plurality of receivers while maintaining Shielding and low electromagnetic emissions at all other locations provide an easy to use, efficient multi-charger system.

According to an embodiment, the shield transmitter coil is below the side (the side opposite the charging side/supply side of the transmitter) and above the receiver coil (the coil can be in tight contact with a wirelessly powered or charged device, battery or electrical The magnetic field at the location of the side of the component, if necessary, may further be provided with a shielding layer such as a ferromagnetic and/or metal layer below the transmitter coil and/or above the receiver coil. In addition, these layers can be integrated into the coil design (such as a metal shield layer integrated into a PCB multilayer design that includes one PCB coil). The choice of material and thickness is such that even if one of the magnets in the receiver is available to saturate the top layer (switching layer) of the receiver (switching the top layer (switching layer) of the receiver), the magnetic permeability of the shield layer is not affected.

For example, the switchable layer in the charger can include materials with low saturation field values, while other shield layers in the charger and/or receiver have higher saturation field values. Examples of materials for such shields may be sheets or other shaped materials such as ferrite, nanomaterials, iron powder (hydrogen reduced iron), carbonyl iron, glass metal (amorphous), soft iron, Laminated tantalum steel, steel, etc. or other materials used in transformer core applications where high magnetic permeability and saturation flux density are required and eddy currents due to electrical conductivity at operating frequencies are low.

Laminations have also been used in many transformer applications to reduce eddy current heat. To avoid saturating the ferrite shield from the switching magnets in the receiver, the shield can also be multi-layered and other configurations can be used. For example, in one of the embodiments described above, a thin high saturation flux density layer (e.g., iron powder or steel) may be placed behind the switching magnet (as shown in Figure 23) for other characteristics ( Another ferrite layer, such as the higher magnetic permeability or operation at the AC magnetic field frequency described above, shields the switching magnetic field. Thus, the high saturation flux density layer will shield the high permeability layer magnet from saturation effects and allow it to efficiently direct and shield the AC magnetic field.

Forming or fabricating a highly saturated shield layer in accordance with another embodiment as hereinbefore described It has a shape and size suitable for the switching magnetic field pattern of the magnet to shield the magnetic field from the shielding layer and to allow an AC electromagnetic field from the charger to pass upward through the generated magnetic aperture (Fig. 23 Medium) extends to another shield or ferrite layer with different characteristics. For example, in the geometry of Figure 23, if a ring-type switching magnet is used, the highly saturated shield material may be of a suitably sized ring shape and placed behind the magnet (top in Figure 23) to split or reduce the magnet from the magnet. In the field, a piece of ferrite is placed on top of the highly saturated shield layer to direct and shield the AC magnetic power transfer flux through the center of the coil as shown in FIG. Many combinations of the above techniques and materials in the receiver and charger have been described above to fully optimize performance and such embodiments are given by way of example only.

The overall geometry of the MA described in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 20,120,235,636, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety in its entirety in its entirety in its entirety, the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of the disclosure of . 23 shows a simplified side view of a wireless power system showing a charger (transmitter) and receiver coils, a switching layer, and a switching magnet, in accordance with an embodiment. In this example, an annular switching magnet is shown and the coil is described as a toroidal coil for simplicity. However, other geometries and designs may be used to achieve similar results in accordance with other embodiments. For example, as described above, the coils can be configured to achieve a more uniform field pattern and/or the magnets can have different shapes and magnetization orientations. In addition, the magnets can be placed in front of, behind or on the same plane as the coils and/or the coils can be made of a combination of wires, PCBs, free-standing metal components, or the like, or other geometric shapes and materials.

Methods and procedures for increasing the efficiency of a wireless charger system and the vertical operating distance (the gap between the charger coil and the receiver coil) are described in accordance with various embodiments. Moreover, these embodiments make the design of the wireless charger system more flexible.

As mentioned previously, several methods have been developed that allow for free positioning of one or more receivers on a wireless charger system. In general, as described above, the methods include loose coupling (or magnetic resonance in some literature), magnetic coupling, and magnetic aperture techniques. Although heavy Focus on the coil structure and focus on the magnetic or ferrite switching layer covering the charger in the MC and MA geometry, but the shield layer above the receiver coil and under the charger coil can also be used in unshielded devices or environments. Important role. According to an embodiment, the systems described herein may advantageously use such layers to enhance the performance of the wireless charger system.

<b>Wireless charging system using flux guidance to enhance performance</b>

Figure 27 illustrates a transformer geometry 390 in which a common core has one primary wire winding and a secondary wire winding wound around its two sections. An alternating magnetic flux is generated by the ac current of the primary winding, which is substantially contained in the high magnetic permeability material of the magnetic core and travels to a core cross section at the center of the secondary winding, in which the ac current generates an induced voltage . The number of primary and secondary windings defines the step-down (or step-up) voltage ratio of the transformer, which is essentially used as a step-down (or step-up) voltage while gradually increasing (or gradually decreasing) one of the currents. Match the network. To operate the transformer efficiently, the flux path (or magnetic circuit) should minimize the loss of magnetic energy. The concept of a magnetic resistance similar to that of a resistor in a circuit is produced to aid in the analysis of the magnetic structure and the performance of a transformer comprising varying magnetic and non-magnetic materials and spacers or air.

One of the basic transformers commonly used is the E-Core or ER-Core (Circular E-Core) transformer, which contains an additional intermediate flux carrying section. For example, Figure 28 illustrates a view of one of the transformers 400 including one of two ER-Cores (circular E-Core). The primary winding produces a flux in a central section that is carried by the two paths that return and enclose the outer winding and are divided into the two paths. An exploded view of the same transformer is shown in Figure 28, which more clearly illustrates two ER-Cores 410.

E-Core transformers are also used in planar transformers where windings are typically provided as flat PCB coils for space savings. Figure 29 illustrates a view of a transformer 420 including an E-Core and a flat section and one of the PCB primary and secondary coils. The primary winding produces a flux in a central section that is carried by the two paths that return and enclose the outer winding and are divided into the two paths. The flux is then returned to the center of the E-Core by a flat section guide. surface. An exploded view of the same transformer is also shown in Figure 29, which more clearly shows the E-Core, flat section, and winding 410.

According to an embodiment, in the above geometry and for other transformers, a variety of magnetic or ferrite materials may be used to maintain the flux contained in the core.

The above-mentioned transformers of the MR, MC, and MA wireless power systems have some similarities. For example, a planar E-Core transformer with planar coils has a flux pattern similar to the flux patterns of Figures 20, 21, and 23. The flux from the wireless charger system shown in Figures 20, 21 and 23 focuses only on the cross section in which the receiver is present and flows upward through the geometry of the receiver coil, then is closed on itself Before flowing outwards below the charger coil. The optional magnetic shield at the top of the receiver and under the charger not only shields the environment from this magnetic flux and provides a flux that travels to close one of its own relatively low reluctance paths. However, because these layers are separated by a distance and the charger shield is covered by another magnetic layer (switching layer), one of the geometries is not provided with an efficient low reluctance path for return flux. This can cause leakage of flux to the surrounding area, resulting in unwanted interactions with nearby metals and devices or resulting in unnecessary emissions or loss of power transmission efficiency or power. In accordance with embodiments described herein, several geometries are described in which this return flux path is modified to allow the return flux to return to the charger. By applying these technologies, higher efficiency and power transmission and lower sensitivity to the gap between the charger coil and the receiver coil and lower unscheduled radiation can be achieved, thereby greatly enhancing the wireless power system and The use of the charger system.

According to one embodiment illustrated in FIG. 30 for a modified magnetic resonance (MR) or loose coupling geometry 440, the charger coil transmits power to one or more receiver coils. The receiver has a magnetic shield/guide layer extending over the edge of the receiver coil in one or more dimensions. The charger coil also has a magnetic shield/guide layer or surface extending over one of the coil regions in one or more dimensions below it. In this geometry, the flux from the receiver coil has a low impedance path to complete a flux loop, thus providing more efficient Rate, the ability to operate the coil gap under a larger coil and provide a lower radiation field to the environment.

In accordance with an embodiment that further facilitates coupling of the magnetic field to the receiver coil, the receiver system can incorporate an additional magnetic material at the center of the receiver coil as shown in FIG. This component may include the same or different materials used behind the receiver coil and its properties may be optimized for its particular use. As an example, a solid or flexible ferrite material having a desired magnetic permeability may be combined. The core may have only the thickness of the PCB or Liz wire receiver coil and thus may have a thickness of tens of millimeters and a minimum thickness and weight. However, merging the core to the receiver coil can affect the receiver coil inductance and greatly affect the efficiency and power handling capabilities of the system.

Figure 30 shows a core and to a central region of a flux guiding system. According to other embodiments, the MR, MC, and MA receiver systems described above may add a magnetic core to similarly enhance its equivalent energy.

A representative top view of one of the receivers placed on the charger is shown in FIG. As shown at 442, the receiver shield/flux guiding layer is shown extending beyond the coil (on the Y-axis) in one dimension, and the charger shield underneath the charger coil is in one or two Dimensional extension such that during operation, the flux generated by the charger flows up through the receiver coil and then in the y direction before flowing down the charger shield/magnetic flux guiding layer above itself Guided by the receiver flux guiding layer. The corresponding side view (viewed from the left side of FIG. 31 toward the center) is as shown in FIG. 30 above.

As noted above, MR geometry suffers from a lack of charger flux limitations, resulting in a large amount of unintended radiation, vulnerability to metal, and inefficiency. To overcome these effects, the MC and MA geometries have been described above. 32 shows a modified MC geometry 450 in which the magnetic field strength of the area between the charger and one or more receivers that are operated by the enhanced resonance is covered by a magnetic or switching layer. Efficient power transfer at the location that saturates the material locally and can be limited. By using a receiver in one or more dimensions The area of the charger shield or flux guiding layer extends beyond the area of the charger coil to create a low reluctance path for returning magnetic flux. The geometry was tested with a Liz wire spiral coil similar to the coil in Figure 12 but shrinking in the Y dimension by a 6 cm x 17 cm area.

452 in Figure 33 shows a representative top view of one of the receivers placed on the charger. The corresponding side view (viewed from the left side of Fig. 33 toward the center) is as shown in Fig. 32 above.

According to another embodiment as shown in Figure 34, the magnetic aperture (MA) geometry can combine the flux guiding layers to provide a better flux path. As shown in Figure 34, to assist in the local flux flow from the charger to the receiver, the receiver can add a magnet as compared to the MC and flux guiding geometry shown in Figure 32. The corresponding top view of this embodiment will be similar to the top view shown in Figure 33, except that the receiver will add a switching magnet. As previously described, according to various embodiments, the magnets can have a variety of shapes and sizes to optimize local saturation of the switching layer.

As another example, FIG. 33 shows an example of a coil geometry 452 for a combined MC and flux guiding geometry. This geometry is not unique and many other shapes and sizes can be used. As mentioned earlier, a Liz wire, a PCB or a combination type coil can be used. In a tested system, a ferrite material layer (including a tile or ferrite wafer) having a relative magnetic permeability value of about 1440 at a frequency of less than 1 MHz of 70 mm x 180 mm and 0.5 mm thick. Cover the charger coil. The charger shield/flux guiding layer consisting of the same ferrite material layer (including 50mm x 40mm tiles or ferrite wafers) of 0.5mm x 120mm x 200mm is separated by 5mm from the coil. The receiver has a 50 mm x 40 m area and has a number of turns of one of the Liz wire coils and directly attaches one of the 0.5 mm x 50 mm x 90 mm receiver ferrite/flux guiding layers over the coil.

To test performance, the charger coil is attached to a resonant converter (similar to the charger shown in Figure 2) and the receiver coil is connected to a parallel diode and one of the diodes including the diode rectifier and the smoothing capacitor Circuit. The resonant capacitor value is selected to connect the two components Resonance near approximately 160 kHz. Monitor DC input and output power while simultaneously bringing the system close to resonance from the high frequency side. High power transfer efficiency (over 15W) and efficiency (over 65% DC to DC efficiency) are achieved, while the receiver can be moved around the X and Y directions on the charger. It should be noted that receiving power does not require the receiver coil to be completely on the charger coil. It has been found that even partial overlap of the coils results in a large amount of power transmission. By placing a metal plate on the surface of the charger to confirm that the charger is insensitive to metal objects, it is confirmed that the magnetic coupling (MC) operation method is responsible for power transmission, and the top shield layer of the charger shields the stray excess magnetic field.

A radiation near field pattern of a 2d magnetic field scan table mapping system is then placed on top of the receiver and the output of the 2D coil array embedded in the table is fed to a spectrum analyzer. The spectrum analyzer is tuned to the basic operating frequency during power transmission, mapping a 2D map of any spurious unwanted emissions. The resulting signal is extremely small and the receiver only observes one of several microvolts corresponding to a very small stray AC magnetic field, confirming that the constraints and flux guidance in this structure are high.

The receiver is then separated from the surface of the charger (in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the charger) by up to 3 cm. Similar power transfer values with minimal loss of efficiency (2% to 3%) were observed compared to small coil or coil gap conditions. The stray radiation near-field magnetic field can be similarly ignored. Thus, by employing a flux guiding layer in accordance with various embodiments, high efficiency transmission power levels and coil-to-coil gaps can be achieved at low emissions.

According to one embodiment 464 shown in FIG. 35, two or more receivers of the same or different size can be placed simultaneously on the charger to receive power. As described in the MA and MC geometries, various methods for controlling and regulating the power output can be employed in this embodiment.

Another embodiment 466 of a larger charger surface area is shown in FIG. Here, on the top (charger side), several coil areas covered by a ferrite switching shield are used at the top. These areas of action are interspersed with areas that do not have a coil or top shield. The charger has one or more lower flux guiding layers to complete the flux path as shown in Figures 30-35. One or more receivers can be placed on the charger to receive power. Different receiver power Pressure and power levels can vary. Thus the charger can be a universal free positioning system for one of a plurality of devices using different power, voltage and size.

According to another embodiment 468, as shown in FIG. 37, using only the flux guiding technique described above, the magnetic switching layer can be omitted and multiple active charger coils can be used to increase the charger active area.

In the geometry of the receiver resonant capacitor connected in parallel to the receiver coil, it is observed that the receiver output voltage is extremely dependent on the current drawn by the output load. According to one embodiment in which the receiver resonant capacitor is connected in series with the receiver coil (as shown in Figures 1-4), it is observed that very high output voltage stability can be achieved over a wide range of voltages.

Figure 38 shows the output rectified voltage 470 from a receiver (having a 100 nF series resonant capacitor and the flux guiding layer as described above) for different output currents (i.e., output load values) with charger or transmitter operating frequency. Variety. In this embodiment, the resonant converter of the charger operates with a high frequency slope of a gain peak (such as that shown in Figure 14). Higher transmission voltages (and power) are obtained at higher frequencies. It can be seen that at a fixed frequency, the output voltage is significantly constant for different output currents. For example, at 153 kHz, for a current output that varies from 0 A to 1 A, the output voltage changes from 5V to 4V. This stability improvement allows for easy adjustment of the output voltage by several techniques. In an embodiment, the adjustment may be performed only by one of the output stages, linear, switching, or other regulators. In another embodiment, the adjustment can be accomplished by changing the frequency, duty cycle or input voltage of the charger between the receiver and the charger as previously described, whereby the receiver will sink the receiver voltage, current or other The parameter or the difference between this value and a desired value is transmitted to the charger, which makes a combination of its frequency, duty cycle and/or input voltage or the like to achieve the desired operation.

According to an embodiment, it may be advantageous to construct the charger/transmitter coil from a ferromagnetic material having suitable properties such that the coil acts as a magnetic field generator and magnetic shield for the MA and MC geometries. This eliminates a charge on the top surface of the charger/transmitter The need for an outer magnetic layer or a ferrite layer. Alternatively, in order to maintain the high conductivity and Q of the transmitter and/or charger coils and achieve a switching effect, one of the metal coils and/or wires of the PCB may be coated or covered with a switching magnet material such as a ferromagnet.

Figure 39 shows a commercial lead or cable 472 that can be used with one of a variety of meters having such characteristics. Section A in Figure 39 includes a plurality of bundles of copper or other wires, which may also be individually coated or insulated to avoid conduction between the bundles (similar to the Liz wires) to avoid skinning effects. Section B is a protective layer or ferrite layer or other magnetic material. Section C is an outer coating or insulator. If appropriate, the ferrite layer or coating can be achieved by dipping into a slurry, sputtering, electron beam, and the like.

Similarly, a magnetic or ferrite layer made of a material having a low saturation magnetic field value can be used over the transmitter coil (eg, such as one or none of the flux guiding geometries in the MA or MC). At the same time, one of the materials with a higher saturation magnetic field value can be used below the transmitter coil and/or above the receiver coil for shielding purposes. For example, nickel, cobalt, Mn, Zn, Fe, etc. with a low saturation magnetic field value or an alloy of this material (see Fig. 15 or Fig. 17) can be used as a top layer of a charger/transporter, and a steel sheet having a high saturation magnetic field value. Or FineMET^®Or other shield material will be used for shielding. For either material, care should be taken to use materials that reduce or eliminate eddy currents through geometry or dopant materials to provide high electrical resistance. By using a low saturation magnetic field material, a smaller and/or weaker switching permanent magnet and/or electromagnet or resonant induced magnetic field can be used to switch the switchable layer. Therefore, the shield will not saturate due to the magnets used for switching and will still effectively shield excess stray magnetic fields from affecting nearby devices, materials or living tissue. In this case, the total system will be completely shielded and secure. At the same time, power is efficiently transferred between the transmitter and the receiver from the magnetic apertures created by the user at one or more locations where the receiver is placed.

In some situations, a user may desire to modify a receiver for a fixed location or modify an MR, MC or MA system to operate with one of the systems with flux guidance. As shown in Figures 30-37, this may require extending the magnetic shield layer in one or more dimensions. Covers an area that is larger than the area behind the receiver coil.

According to one embodiment 480 shown in FIG. 40, the shield/flux guiding layer can be a thin solid or flexible ferrite or can be attached to the receiver or housing by the manufacturer or user. , battery cover, phone case/case, battery, hardware lock or mobile device or other device to extend the other magnetic layers of the flux guiding path. This attachment can be done during manufacturing or by the consumer as an aftermarket or option. In this manner, the device, battery, housing/sleeve or component intended to be powered can be used with the flux guided position independence system described herein. At the same time, it will not affect and can complete the charging of the device on the initially desired charger. An example of a telephone housing/sleeve receiver can be designed to be charged by a fixed position or a Wireless Power Consortium (WPC, one of the interoperability standards for tightly coupled chargers and receivers). By attaching a thin flexible or solid ferrite layer to the interior of the housing or battery cover behind the receiver coil, a flux guiding layer can be created to allow for passage as shown in Figures 30-37. The volume is more fully utilized and conveniently used to charge the device in a positionally independent manner on a suitable system. One WPC available The iPhone sleeve receiver has experimentally demonstrated this embodiment. Adding a thin (0.5 mm thick) layer of ferrite material that extends the length of the sleeve to the inner part of the sleeve (between the sleeve and the phone) for use on the flux guiding system or MC flux guiding charger described above WPC receiver housing/set. Of course, the housing/sleeve can also function with its desired WPC charger. The increase in the flux guiding layer can be accomplished by the user or manufacturer and can provide this increased spatial functionality and coil-to-coil gap separation without loss of original functionality or batch increase.

Many geometries and systems have been described in the above description. According to various embodiments, one or several geometries or systems may be used in combination in a charger and/or receiver to provide desired performance and advantages. The above description and examples are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are intended to illustrate only a few examples of the various products and technologies that are contemplated and realized by the various embodiments of the invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that these and other embodiments can be combined to produce a combination of the above techniques to provide advantageous effects and products.

Some aspects of the invention may be conveniently implemented using a conventional general purpose or a particular digital computer, microprocessor or electronic circuit programmed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, an experienced programmer and circuit designer can readily prepare an appropriate software code based on the teachings of the present invention.

In some embodiments, the present invention comprises a computer program product stored on one of the instructions stored thereon that can be used to program a computer to perform any of the procedures of the present invention. The storage medium may include, but is not limited to, any type of disk, including floppy disk, optical disk, DVD, CD-ROM, mini hard disk and magneto-optical disk, ROM, RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, DRAM, VRAM, flash memory. Body device, magnetic or optical card, nanosystem (including molecular memory IC) or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or materials.

The foregoing description of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize many modifications and variations. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the embodiments of the invention and the embodiments of the invention It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims