Smart battery for ultrafast charging

• US 10,416,742 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2017
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuchibhatla, Ramesh, Ali, Bahram
• Primary Examiner(s): Snyder, Steven G
• Application Number:
  US15/436,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20180239408A1
• Time in Patent Office: 942 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/443 in response to temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/46 Accumulators structurally combined with charging apparatus circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/486 for measuring temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4271 Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2220/30 Batteries in portable systems, e.g. mobile phone, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00036 Charger exchanging data with battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007194 of the battery
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

Methods and devices are described for charging a smart battery in a computing device. The methods and devices may include determining, by a battery management controller, a charging configuration for managing one or more battery modules of the smart battery and transmitting a charging configuration signal to one or more battery modules of the smart battery. The methods and devices may include receiving, by at least one of a plurality of charging coils, power from a wireless signal based on the wireless signal coupling energy to at least one of the plurality of charging coils at a frequency as the at least one of the plurality of charging coils and charging at least one battery module connected to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards in response to a respective one of the plurality of charging coils receiving the power from the wireless signal.

Claims

1. A smart battery of a computing device, comprising:

a battery management controller configured to manage one or more battery modules of the smart battery;

a plurality of battery control boards connected to the battery management controller via an internal bus, wherein each of the plurality of battery control boards communicates with the other battery control boards and the battery management controller via the internal bus;

a plurality of charging coils configured to receive power from a wireless signal based on the wireless signal coupling energy to at least one of the plurality of charging coils at a frequency of the at least one of the plurality of charging coils, wherein each of the plurality of charging coils connects to at-least one of the plurality of battery control boards, and wherein a first portion of the plurality of charging coils receive power from the wireless signal at a first frequency and a second portion of the plurality of charging coils receive power from the wireless signal at a second frequency, the second frequency differing from the first frequency;

at least one battery module, comprising said one of the battery control boards, wherein each battery module is charged based on the power received by the at-least one of the plurality of charging coils and a charging configuration signal transmitted by the battery management controller via the internal bus; and

wherein the battery management controller configures one or more battery modules into at least one virtual module based on at least one of battery capacity levels of each of the one or more battery modules, application demands, resource demands, or load conditions.

2. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of charging coils partially overlaps with at least one other charging coil of the plurality of charging coils.

3. The smart battery of claim 2, wherein the battery management controller configures at least one of the plurality battery control boards to modify the respective one of the plurality of charging coils to receive the power of the wireless signal in at least one of a time division multiplex configuration or frequency division multiplex configuration.

4. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of charging coils receive the wireless power signal simultaneously.

5. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of battery control boards is configured to determine whether a parameter of the at least one battery module meets a set capacity threshold, and

wherein the battery management controller adjusts a charging configuration of the at least one battery module based on a determination that the parameter of the at least one battery module meets the set capacity threshold.

6. The smart battery of claim 5, wherein the battery management controller transmits, via the internal bus, the charging configuration signal to the one of the plurality of battery control boards to disable a charging coil connected to the one of the plurality of battery control boards based on the determination that the parameter of the at least one battery module meets the set capacity threshold.

7. The smart battery of claim 1, further comprising a position alignment magnet to magnetically align the computing device with a charging station.

8. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of battery control boards includes at-least one power line, at-least one sensor line, and at-least one control line configured to monitor the at least one battery module and communicate, via the internal bus, with the battery management controller.

9. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of battery control boards includes at-least one temperature control sensor configured to monitor a temperature of the at least one battery module, and

wherein the one of the plurality of battery control boards disables a respective one of the plurality of charging coils based on a determination that the temperature of the at least one battery module meets a set temperature threshold.

10. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein each battery module is replaceable with another battery module.

11. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein the battery management controller is further configured to:

determine whether a wear level parameter corresponding to the at least one battery module corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards meets a set wear level threshold;

transmit a wear level signal to a second battery management controller of a second smart battery of the computing device based on a determination that the wear level corresponding to the at least one battery module meets the set wear level threshold, wherein the wear level signal indicates to the second battery management controller to activate a battery control board of the second smart battery; and

disables the respective one of the plurality of battery control boards corresponding to the at least one battery module in response to the second battery management controller activating the battery control board of the second smart battery.

12. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein each virtual module is configured to provide power for a designated purpose.

13. The smart battery of claim 12, wherein each virtual module is associated with one or more applications operating on the computing device, and wherein the battery management controller activates each battery module corresponding to a virtual module in response to activation of one of the one or more applications.

14. The smart battery of claim 12, wherein each virtual module is associated with one or more resources operating on the computing device, and wherein the battery management controller activates each battery module corresponding to a virtual module in response to activation of one of the one or more resource.

15. The smart battery of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of micro-coils configured to receive power from a high frequency signal based on the high frequency signal coupling energy to at least one of the plurality of micro-coils at a frequency of at least one of the plurality of micro-coils, wherein each of the plurality of micro-coils connect to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards.

16. The smart battery of claim 15, wherein the at least one of the plurality of micro-coils is configured to receive power from the high frequency signal based on a determination that the plurality of charging coils are not receiving power from the wireless signal.

17. The smart battery of claim 15, wherein the high frequency signal is a harmonic component of a signal.

18. The smart battery of claim 1, wherein the battery management controller includes at-least one of a System Management Bus (SMBus) or a Smart Battery System (SBS) interface for communicating information between the smart battery and one or more components of the computing device.

19. A method of charging a smart battery, comprising:

determining, by a battery management controller, a charging configuration for managing one or more battery modules of the smart battery;

transmitting, by a battery management controller, a charging configuration signal to one or more battery modules of the smart battery in response to determining the charging configuration, wherein each battery module includes one of a plurality of battery control boards connected to the battery management controller via an internal bus;

receiving, by at least one of a plurality of charging coils, power from a wireless signal based on the wireless signal coupling energy to at least one of the plurality of charging coils at a frequency of the at least one of the plurality of charging coils and based on the charging configuration, wherein each of the plurality of charging coils connect to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards, and wherein a first portion of the plurality of charging coils receive power from the wireless signal at a first frequency and a second portion of the plurality of charging coils receive power from the wireless signal at a second frequency, the second frequency differing from the first frequency;

charging at least one battery module connected to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards in response to a respective one of the plurality of charging coils receiving the power from the wireless signal and based on a charging configuration signal transmitted by the battery management controller; and

configuring, by the battery management controller, one or more battery modules into at least one virtual module based on at least one of battery capacity levels of each of the one or more battery modules, application demands, resource demands, or load conditions.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions executable by a processor for charging a smart battery in a computing device, comprising:

instructions for determining, by a battery management controller, a charging configuration for managing one or more battery modules of the smart battery;

instructions for transmitting, by a battery management controller, a charging configuration signal to one or more battery modules of the smart battery in response to determining the charging configuration, wherein each battery module includes one of a plurality of battery control boards connected to the battery management controller via an internal bus;

instructions for receiving, by at least one of a plurality of charging coils, power from a wireless signal based on the wireless signal coupling energy to at least one of the plurality of charging coils at a frequency of the at least one of the plurality of charging coils and based on the charging configuration, wherein each of the plurality of charging coils connect to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards, and wherein a first portion of the plurality of charging coils receive power from the wireless signal at a first frequency and a second portion of the plurality of charging coils receive power from the wireless signal at a second frequency, the second frequency differing from the first frequency;

instructions for charging at least one battery module connected to a respective one of the plurality of battery control boards in response to a respective one of the plurality of charging coils receiving the power from the wireless signal and based on a charging configuration signal transmitted by the battery management controller; and

configuring, by the battery management controller, one or more battery modules into at least one virtual module based on at least one of battery capacity levels of each of the one or more battery modules, application demands, resource demands, or load conditions.