Patent Application
20130076986
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital television (TV) receiver, and more particularly to a batteryless digital television receiver connected to a handheld device to convert digital TV signals to be displayed on the handheld device and receiving power from the handheld device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, handheld devices have been rapidly developed from early stage notebook computers to current smart cell phones or tablet personal computers. Relevant products associated with those handheld devices also won the favor of consumers. Peripheral devices collaborating with the handheld devices bring forth more convenient and practical functions to users.
To keep abreast with the prevalence of handheld devices, peripheral devices collaborating with handheld devices have become more and more diversified. In view of the overwhelming response to Apple products, such as iPhone, iPad and iPod, the peripheral devices for the foregoing handheld devices also mushroom to emerge in the market. Among the peripheral devices is a receiver for the foregoing handheld devices to receive digital TV signals and display digital TV programs. Such receiver can be connected with a cell phone or a tablet personal computer (PC) and sends received, decoded and encoded digital TV signals to the cell phone or the tablet PC for the cell phone or the tablet PC to play so that users can watch digital TV programs through a cell phone or a tablet PC.
However, as requiring batteries to supply an operating power, the digital TV receiver is relatively large and heavy, takes up a lot of space and is inconvenient when being carried. Under the circumstance, the portability concern may not be an issue if the digital TV receiver can acquire power from a handheld device. However, handheld device manufacturers normally have strict specification requirements concerning the peripheral devices. For example, Apple Inc. imposes strict operating current limitation on peripheral devices, such as current output less than 100 mA. Accordingly, conventional digital TV receivers need to both improve portability and meet the specification requirements of peripheral devices demanded by the handheld device manufacturers.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a batteryless digital TV receiver receiving operating power and digital TV signals from a handheld device, decoding and encoding the digital TV signals, and transmitting the digital TV signals to the handheld device to play.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the batteryless digital TV receiver has a body, a connector, an antenna port, a digital TV processor, an RF receiving module, an authentication chip, and a switching power conversion module.
The connector is mounted on the body and has a power input pin and a set of signal access pins.
The antenna port is mounted on the body.
The digital TV processor has at least one power input terminal, one set of signal access terminals, a set of authentication data access terminals, and at least one set of RF signal input terminals. The set of signal access terminals is connected to the set of signal access pins of the connector.
The RF receiving module has at least one set of digital signal input terminals, at least one set of digital signal output terminals and a power input terminal.
The at least one set of digital signal input terminals is connected to the antenna port on the body.
The at least one set of digital signal output terminals is respectively connected to the at least one set of RF signal input terminals of the digital TV processor.
The authentication chip has a set of authentication data access terminals and a power input terminal. The set of authentication data access terminals is connected to the set of authentication data access terminals of the digital TV processor.
The switching power conversion module has at least one power input terminal and multiple power output terminals. The at least one power input terminal is connected to the power input pin of the connector. The power output terminals are respectively connected to the power input terminals of the digital TV processor, the RF receiving module and the authentication chip. The digital TV receiver, the RF receiving module, the authentication chip and the switching power conversion module are mounted inside the body.
The switching power conversion module has a higher voltage conversion efficiency as designed based on a switching power technique. Additionally, the converted voltage has better voltage stability. Accordingly, the power loss is relatively low and thus meets the limitation of the handheld device posted on output current.
Given the batteryless digital TV receiver, users can plug the connector on the body of the batteryless digital TV receiver in a handheld device. The switching power conversion module receives power outputted from the handheld device through the connector and outputs the power to the digital TV processor, the RF receiving module and the authentication chip for their operation. After acquiring an authentication approval from the handheld device through the authentication chip, the digital processor decodes and encodes received digital TV signals and sends the digital TV signals to the handheld device for the handheld device to display the corresponding digital TV programs. The foregoing design allows the digital TV receiver to be operated under a power specification requirement of a handheld device.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
With reference to
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With further reference to
Each of the authentication chip 40 and the memory 50 has one set of authentication data access terminals (HGSCLK, HGSD) and a power input terminal (VCC3.3V). The set of authentication data access terminals (HGSCLK, HGSD) is connected to the set of authentication data access terminals (HGSCLK, HGSD) of the digital TV processor 20. The power input terminal (VCC3.3V) is connected to the power input terminal (VCC3.3V) of the connector 11.
With reference to
The UHF digital signals of the RF receiving module 30 are obtained by the use of resonance of the set of matching inductors (L9, L10, L11) and capacitors (C56, C60). The VHF digital signals of the RF receiving module 30 are obtained by the use of resonance of the other set of matching inductors (L12, L14, L15) and capacitors (C49, C53, C59). The unbalanced signals of the UHF digital signals and the VHF digital signals are respectively converted into balanced signals by the digital signal tuners 31, 32 and the balanced signals are respectively outputted to the two sets of RF signal input terminals (UHFP, UHFN, VHFP, VHFN) of the digital signal processor 20.
With reference to
With the foregoing design, the batteryless digital TV receiver allows users to watch digital TV programs on handheld devices after connected with the handheld devices. Meanwhile, the batteryless digital TV receiver can acquire operating power, which is approximately 97 mA, and also meets strict power requirement, which is less than 100 mA.
Apple Inc. also has other operation requirements associated with a low power mode, such as a state when a digital TV receiver is plugged in a handheld device but no software program is started, or after the digital TV receiver is plugged in a handheld device, software is running but no digital TV program is shown on the handheld device. The operation requirements at the low power mode specify that the current consumption must be less than 10 mA. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the digital TV receiver is electrically connected with a handheld device, the communication interface between the digital TV receiver and the handheld device is a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) interface. The digital TV receiver can be switched to a low power mode through the UART interface and the consumed current is less than 5 mA. When the software of the handheld device is started and digital TV programs are shown on the handheld device, the digital TV receiver can be switched to a normal power mode through the UART interface and the consumed current is about 97 mA. Moreover, when the antenna 121 of the digital TV receiver fails to receive digital TV signals or the software of the handheld device is terminated, the digital TV receiver can be switched to the low power mode through the UART interface so as to make power management more efficient.
With further reference to
In the present embodiment, the power pin (VBUS) of the power port 13 is further connected to a power output terminal (5.0V) of the connector 11 through a protection module 70 to prevent over-voltage or over-current occurring when power is outputted through the power port 13 from damaging the handheld device. With further reference to
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
