POWER BRIDGE CIRCUIT FOR BI-DIRECTIONAL INDUCTIVE SIGNALING

• US 20110037321A1
• Filed: 07/21/2010
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Lehr, Michael, Shaffer, Dyke, Chatterjee, Manjirnath
• Granted Patent: US 8,437,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/104
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00308 Overvoltage protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/547 via DC power distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/548 the power on the line being DC arrangements for feeding power H04L12/10; extracting feeding power from signals H04L25/02

Abstract

An inductive signal interface comprises a coil assembly including one or more inductive coils, a bridge circuit including a plurality of switches, and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to individually operate the plurality of switches to enable the inductive signal interface to dynamically switch between a power-transmit mode and a power receive mode.

Claims

1. An wireless signal interface comprising:

a coil assembly including one or more coils;

a bridge circuit coupled to the coil assembly configurable to operate in a first mode or a second mode; and

control circuitry to generate one or more control signals to selectively configure the bridge circuit to operate in the first mode to enable the wireless signal interface to transmit power or in the second mode to enable the wireless signal interface to receive power.

2. The wireless signal interface of claim 1, wherein the coil assembly is configurable to be wirelessly coupled to a second device through one or more of:

i) inductive coupling, or ii) magnetic resonance coupling or evanescent coupling.

3. The wireless signal interface of claim 1, wherein the bridge circuit includes a plurality of electrically controlled switches, and wherein the one or more control signals operate the electrically controlled switches by selectively enabling and disabling each of the switches to configure the bridge circuit to operate in the first mode or the second mode.

4. The wireless signal interface of claim 3, wherein the electrically controlled switches are MOSFETs.

5. The wireless signal interface of claim 3, wherein during operation of the inductive signal interface, the inductive signal interface selectively switches between the first mode and the second mode.

6. The wireless signal interface of claim 5, wherein the inductive signal interface selectively switches between the first mode and the second mode based on:

i) a power transmission enable signal, or ii) a power receive enable signal.

7. The wireless signal interface of claim 6, wherein the inductive signal interface is configured to detect a voltage variation within the bridge circuit and generates the power receive enable signal based, at least in part, on the detected voltage variation.

8. The wireless signal interface of claim 3, wherein the wireless signal interface includes an input to receive an input direct current signal and an output to transmit an output direct current signal.

9. The wireless signal interface of claim 8, wherein the control circuitry is configured to selectively operate the electrically controlled switches in the first mode to enable the bridge circuit to receive a power signal from the coil assembly and to transmit the power signal as the output direct current signal.

10. The wireless signal interface of claim 8, wherein the control circuitry is configured to selectively operate the electrically controlled switches in the second mode to enable the bridge circuit to receive the input direct current signal and to transmit the received input direct current signal as an alternating current signal to the coil assembly.

11. The wireless signal interface of claim 8, wherein the wireless signal interface includes a current sensing element coupled to the bridge circuit, the input, and the output, wherein the current sensing element is configured to measure a first current between the input and the bridge circuit, a second current between the bridge and the output, and a third current between the input and the output.

12. The wireless signal interface of claim 1, wherein the coil assembly includes a power coil for wirelessly transmitting or receiving a power signal and a communications coil for wirelessly transmitting or receiving a data signal.

13. The wireless signal interface of claim 1, wherein the coil assembly includes a coil for wirelessly transmitting or receiving a power signal and for wirelessly transmitting or receiving a data signal.

14. The wireless signal interface of claim 13, wherein the data signal is modulated by a carrier signal.

15. The wireless signal interface of claim 1, wherein the wireless signal interface has an to receive a direct current