Embodiments of the present invention relate to storage device charging systems. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for high-frequency wireless power charging.
Wireless charging is based on the principle of magnetic induction, which is the manipulation of electromagnetic fields produced by electrons moving within a wire loop. These electromagnetic fields radiate perpendicularly to the axis of the loop. These loops may either be small, in which the receiver loop is closely aligned with the transmitter loop, or large in which case the transmitter and receiver do not need to be closely aligned. This difference in transmitter loop size and frequency affects both the power requirements and the efficiency of the energy transfer.
Currently there are at least three standards bodies that are proposing differing standards and transmitter/receiver frequencies. The first wireless power standard is the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), which established the Qi standard, the Power Maters Alliance (PMA), and the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP).
The lower frequency Qi standard uses a wireless transmission frequency of 100 khz to 200 khz, PMA standards are in the range of 200 khz to 300 khz and higher frequency A4WP standard uses 6.78 Mhz. There are other standards that also operate at a much higher frequency, such as 12 Mhz and beyond. As such, a wireless receiver capable of simultaneously supporting multiple standards is needed.
To transfer high frequency AC power to a DC load, diode configurations are generally utilized. A prior art implementation of such a system 100 is shown in
To accommodate varied frequency ranges, different implementations for a front end (i.e., a wireless receiver) that minimizes losses and maximizes efficiency of the system is required.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention include a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port, at least one asymmetric conductance device operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, the at least one asymmetric conductance device having a first terminal and a second terminal, at least one cross-over break switch operatively coupled across the first terminal and the second terminal and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one cross-over break switch to control the at least one cross-over break switch.
Another embodiment of the present invention includes a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port to receive at least one electromagnetic signal, at least one rectifier operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, the at least one rectifier having a bridge configuration having at least one bridge leg, at least one cross-over break switch operatively coupled across the at least one bridge leg and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one cross-over break switch to control the at least one cross-over break switch.
A further embodiment of the present invention includes a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port to receive at least one electromagnetic signal, at least one bridge rectifier operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, at least one load connected to an output of the at least one rectifier, at least one load switch operatively coupled to the at least one load and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one load switch to control the at least one load switch.
The present disclosure will be more clearly understood from consideration of the following detailed description and drawings in which:
References in the detailed description correspond to like references in the various drawings unless otherwise noted. Descriptive and directional terms used in the written description such as right, left, back, top, bottom, upper, side, et cetera, refer to the drawings themselves as laid out on the paper and not to physical limitations of the disclosure unless specifically noted. The drawings are not to scale, and some features of examples shown and discussed are simplified or amplified for illustrating principles and features as well as advantages of the disclosure.
The features and other details of embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various illustrative examples of the disclosed subject matter are shown and/or described. It will be understood that particular examples described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the disclosure. The disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to any of examples set forth herein. The principle features of this disclosure can be employed in various examples while remaining within the scope of embodiments of the present invention.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular examples and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosed subject matter. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. As used herein the term “and/or” includes any combination of one or more of the associated listed items. Also, as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, and/or “comprising” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Also, as used herein, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, left and right, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.
Embodiments of the present invention include a power system for controlling loads and for general system optimization. To control an AC load and to optimize the system, signal loads may be evaluated and adjusted at various locations throughout the system.
In
In additional embodiments of the present invention, an active system may be used to maximize the efficiency and control.
Loads may also be changed to adjust the resonance on the secondary side and may de-tune and control the energy that may be sent to the receiver side of the system.
For high frequency and high voltage systems, it is challenging to efficiently switch the active devices. High frequency process components, such as SiGe or high frequency MOS or GaN or combinations may be used to minimize switching losses while maintaining a low Rds(on) for the switches. Alternatively, high voltage processes can be used to increase the voltage at the secondary side and reduce the current for the same power load. As such, the Rds(on) of the devices does not have to be as low. The gate drives of the switches of the bridge may be dynamically changed, where at larger current and/or voltage they have a higher gate drive and at lesser current and/or voltage they have the lower gate drives which would place the device in an OFF position. The control of the gate drives may be synchronized to the PLL control (e.g., 206 of
In
In
Switching of the bridge and any combination may be fully diode configured, full synchronous, ½ synchronous, or asynchronous or any combination during the transfer of energy from the primary to the secondary.
Embodiments of the present invention include a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port, at least one asymmetric conductance device operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, the at least one asymmetric conductance device having a first terminal and a second terminal, at least one cross-over break switch operatively coupled across the first terminal and the second terminal and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one cross-over break switch to control the at least one cross-over break switch.
In such embodiments, the at least one asymmetric conductance device may comprise at least one of a diode and a schottky diode and may be configured as a bridge. The at least one control circuit may issue a trigger signal based on at least one of a detected frequency, a detected phase, a detected voltage and a detected current, may predict an incoming waveform and issue a trigger signal based on at least one of a frequency lock and a phase lock and may issue a trigger signal based on at least one of a phase locked loop and a frequency locked loop. The at least one cross-over break switch may be configured in at least one of a parallel configuration, a series configuration and a combination of series configuration and parallel configuration. At least one output of the at least one control circuit may output a level shifted signal or a stepped signal.
Embodiments of the present invention additionally include a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port to receive at least one electromagnetic signal, at least one rectifier operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, the at least one rectifier having a bridge configuration having at least one bridge leg, at least one cross-over break switch operatively coupled across the at least one bridge leg and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one cross-over break switch to control the at least one cross-over break switch.
In such embodiments, the at least one rectifier may comprise at least one of an active bridge and a passive bridge, may be at least one of a full bridge and a half bridge, may comprise an active bridge and wherein the active bridge comprises at least one of a fully synchronous bridge and half synchronous bridge and may comprise a dynamic bridge and wherein the dynamic bridge comprises at least one of a fully synchronous bridge, half synchronous bridge and asynchronous bridge. The at least one cross-over break switch may be configured in at least one of a parallel configuration, a series configuration and a combination of series configuration and parallel configuration.
Embodiments of the present invention further include a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port to receive at least one electromagnetic signal, at least one rectifier operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, at least one load connected to an output of the at least one rectifier bridge, at least one cross-over break switch operatively coupled across the at least one load and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one cross-over break switch to control the at least one cross-over break switch.
In such embodiments, the at least one rectifier may comprise at least one of an active bridge and a passive bridge, at least one of a full bridge and a half bridge, an active bridge and wherein the active bridge comprises at least one of a fully synchronous bridge and half synchronous bridge and a dynamic bridge and wherein the dynamic bridge comprises at least one of a fully synchronous bridge, half synchronous bridge and asynchronous bridge. The at least one cross-over break switch may be configured in at least one of a parallel configuration, a series configuration and a combination of series configuration and parallel configuration. The at least one load may be an active load such as a combination of at least one inductor and at least one capacitor. The active load may be adjusted based on the active load state. At least one output of the at least one control circuit may output a level shifted or stepped signal.
Furthermore still, embodiments of the present invention include a high-frequency wireless power system, comprising at least one antenna port to receive at least one electromagnetic signal, at least one bridge rectifier operatively coupled to the at least one antenna port, at least one load connected to an output of the at least one rectifier configured as a diode bridge, at least one load switch operatively coupled to the at least one load and at least one control circuit operatively coupled to the at least one load switch to control the at least one load switch. In this example, the at least one bridge rectifier may comprise at least one of an active bridge, a passive bridge, a full bridge and a half bridge. The at least one load switch may be configured in at least one of a parallel configuration, a series configuration and a combination of series configuration and parallel configuration.
While the making and using of various exemplary examples of the disclosure are discussed herein, it is to be appreciated that the present disclosure provides concepts which can be described in a wide variety of specific contexts. It is to be understood that the device and method may be practiced with cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, tablet computers, portable batteries and associated apparatus. For purposes of clarity, detailed descriptions of functions, components, and systems familiar to those skilled in the applicable arts are not included. The methods and apparatus of the disclosure provide one or more advantages including which are not limited to, portable energy and high efficiency passive charging of devices. While the disclosure has been described with reference to certain illustrative examples, those described herein are not intended to be construed in a limiting sense. For example, variations or combinations of steps or materials in the examples shown and described may be used in particular cases while not departing from the disclosure. Various modifications and combinations of the illustrative examples as well as other advantages and examples will be apparent to persons skilled in the arts upon reference to the drawings, description, and claims.
This non-provisional patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/763,180 filed on Feb. 11, 2013, entitled “HIGH-FREQUENCY WIRELESS POWER SYSTEM,” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. This application and the Provisional Patent Application have at least one common inventor.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61763180 | Feb 2013 | US |