Patent Application
20090033564
Previous applications that are commonly assigned to the present application have described sending power wirelessly from a transmitter to a receiver, using, for example, a magnetic field to induce power wirelessly into the receiver.
Transmit and receive antennas and their designs become important in this kind of system.
The present application describes a deployable antenna for use with wireless power.
These and other aspects will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The concepts of wireless power are described in detail in our patent application Ser. No. 11/775,168 filed Jul. 9, 2007 and entitled “Wireless Energy Transfer Using Coupled Antennas”, the subject matter of which is herewith expressly incorporated by reference. In general, this describes a wireless power transmitter and receiver that is capable of transmitting power over distances typically greater than six to 12 inches, and more generally between 3 inches and 6 feet.
The inventors have found, however, that bringing the wireless power receiving antenna too close to a conductive plane may reduce the power that is received. It may be desirable to use power receiving antennas of this type in various items that have conductive claims, such as PDAs, laptop computers and cell phones. However, each of these devices may have a displayed or printed circuit board that itself forms the conductive plane. A cell phone may be even more problematic, since it may use a ground plane as part of its antenna.
An aspect of the present system is to use a deployable antenna that maintains some or all of the resonator antenna more than 1/10 of a wavelength away from the device. An aspect describes the use of deployable antennas.
According to one aspect, the wireless power receiving antenna is embedded in a cover flap of the case. In one position, the antenna is stowed, so it is pressed firmly against the outer housing, and does not take up extra room. However, the antenna can be unfolded to its receive position.
In operation, any time a user is within a charging zone, they can deploy the antenna from laptop 405 as shown in
Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above, other embodiments are possible and the inventors intend these to be encompassed within this specification. The specification describes specific examples to accomplish a more general goal that may be accomplished in another way. This disclosure is intended to be exemplary, and the claims are intended to cover any modification or alternative which might be predictable to a person having ordinary skill in the art. For example, this may be incorporated into other electronic devices or other devices that use power input. Another aspect, for example, may enable a foldout antenna from an automobile to charge an electronic battery that is associated therewith.
Also, the inventors intend that only those claims which use the words “means for” are intended to be interpreted under 35 USC 112, sixth paragraph. Moreover, no limitations from the specification are intended to be read into any claims, unless those limitations are expressly included in the claims. The computers described herein may be any kind of computer, either general purpose, or some specific purpose computer such as a workstation. The computer may be an Intel (e.g., Pentium or Core 2 duo) or AMD based computer, running Windows XP or Linux, or may be a Macintosh computer. The computer may also be a handheld computer, such as a PDA, cellphone, or laptop.
The programs may be written in C or Python, or Java, Brew or any other programming language. The programs may be resident on a storage medium, e.g., magnetic or optical, e.g. the computer hard drive, a removable disk or media such as a memory stick or SD media, wired or wireless network based or Bluetooth based Network Attached Storage (NAS), or other removable medium. The programs may also be run over a network, for example, with a server or other machine sending signals to the local machine, which allows the local machine to carry out the operations described herein.
Where a specific numerical value is mentioned herein, it should be considered that the value may be increased or decreased by 20%, while still staying within the teachings of the present application, unless some different range is specifically mentioned. Where a specified logical sense is used, the opposite logical sense is also intended to be encompassed.
