Power regulation in wireless charging

• US 10,263,450 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2015
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Vilhauer, Reed D., Porat, Shahar, Elad, Yuval
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Brian
• Application Number:
  US14/711,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20160336782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,434 Days
• Field of Search: 320107, 320108, 320114, 320137
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007182 in response to battery voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

Techniques for power regulation in a system, method, and apparatus are described herein. An apparatus for voltage regulation in a wireless power receiver may include a power switch to selectively supply a regulated voltage to a battery at a regulated current. The apparatus may also include load modulation logic to generate load modulation signaling by toggling the power switch.

Claims

1. An apparatus for power regulation in a wireless power receiver, comprising:

a wireless power receiving coil to receive wireless power from a power transmitting unit;

circuitry coupled to the wireless power receiving coil to transform an AC voltage received at the wireless power receiving coil to a regulated DC voltage;

a power switch that couples the regulated DC voltage to a battery, wherein the power switch is configured to selectively supply the regulated DC voltage to the battery at a regulated current; and

a load modulation logic configured to modulate the load on the wireless power receiving coil by toggling the power switch to couple the regulated DC voltage to the battery according to a load modulation signaling pattern to be detected by the power transmitting unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the regulated DC voltage is a predefined voltage based on at least one characteristic of the battery.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the load modulation logic is a component of a charger circuit of the battery.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the charger circuit of the battery is configured to receive rectified voltage and generate the regulated DC voltage.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the load modulation signaling comprises a beacon extension request.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the beacon extension request extends a time period to complete a wireless handshake between the wireless power receiver and a wireless power transmitter inductively coupled to the wireless power receiver.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the load modulation logic is configured to:

detect a power level available in the battery; and

initiate only power rail that is associated with a wireless handshake component if the power level available in the battery is below a predefined threshold.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the load modulation logic is configured to initiate power rail for a system boot if the power level available in the battery is above the predefined threshold.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the load modulation logic is configured to modulate the load on the wireless power receiving coil within a predefined power range.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a component of a computing device, and wherein the load modulation occurs during an initialization phase of the computing device.

11. A method for power regulation in a wireless power receiver, comprising:

receive wireless power from a power transmitting unit at a wireless power receiving coil;

transform an AC voltage received at the wireless power receiving coil to a regulated DC voltage;

and

modulating the load on the wireless power receiving coil by toggling a power switch that couples the regulated DC voltage to a battery, wherein the toggling generates a load modulation signal to be received by the power transmitting unit.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the regulated DC voltage is predefined based on at least one characteristic of the battery.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the toggling the power switch is performed by a component of a battery charger circuit.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving rectified voltage and generating the regulated DC voltage via a charger circuit of the battery.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein generating load modulation signaling comprises issuing a beacon extension request.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein issuing the beacon extension request comprises generating a time period extension to complete a wireless handshake between the wireless power receiver and a wireless power transmitter inductively coupled to the wireless power receiver.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting a power level available in the battery; and

initiating only power rail associated with a wireless handshake component if the power level available in the battery is below a predefined threshold.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising initiating power rail for a system boot if the power level available in the battery is above the predefined threshold.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating the load modulation signaling within a predefined power range.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the load modulation occurs during an initialization phase of a computing device.

21. A system for power regulation in a wireless power receiver, comprising:

a wireless power receiving coil to receive wireless power from a power transmitting unit;

a battery charger circuit to receive a rectified voltage from the wireless power receiving coil and generate a regulated voltage;

a power switch to selectively supply the regulated voltage to a battery at a regulated current; and

a load modulation logic to modulate the load on the wireless power receiving coil by toggling the power switch to couple the regulated voltage to the battery according to a load modulation signaling pattern to be detected by the power transmitting unit.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the load modulation generates a beacon extension request.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the beacon extension request extends a time period to complete a wireless handshake between the wireless power receiver and a wireless power transmitter inductively coupled to the wireless power receiver.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the load modulation logic is to:

detect a power level available in the battery;

initiate only power rail associated with a wireless handshake component if the power level available in the battery is below a predefined threshold; and

initiate power rail for a system boot if the power level available in the battery is above the predefined threshold.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the load modulation modulates the load on the wireless power receiving coil within a predefined power range.