WIRELESS POWER UTILIZATION IN A LOCAL COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20120303980A1
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Culbert, Michael F., Simon, David I., Arnold, Peter M., Bilbrey, Brett C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,086,864 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• 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: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/40 using two or more transmitting or receiving devices H02J50/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/345 using capacitors as storage or buffering devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/70 specially adapted for specific purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

Various embodiments of a wirelessly powered local computing environment are described. The wireless powered local computing environment includes at least a near field magnetic resonance (NFMR) power supply arranged to wirelessly provide power to any of a number of suitably configured devices. In the described embodiments, the devices arranged to receive power wirelessly from the NFMR power supply must be located in a region known as the near field that extends no further than a distance D of a few times a characteristic size of the NFMR power supply transmission device. Typically, the distance D can be on the order of 1 meter or so.

Claims

1. A wirelessly powered local computing environment, the local computing environment including a near field magnetic resonance wireless power supply arranged to use a resonance channel to transfer useable energy to resonance circuits within a near field distance D, the distance D defining an outermost range of the NFMR power supply, comprising:

a central processing unit, the central processing unit providing processing resources to the NFMR power supply; and

a plurality of peripheral devices each having a tunable resonance circuit suitably adapted to receive power wirelessly from the NFMR power supply, wherein when at least one of the plurality of devices is within range of the NFMR power supply, the device tunes the resonance circuit to at least one of the resonance frequencies of the NFMR power supply and subsequently de-tunes the resonance circuit to provide a device identification to the NFMR power supply using a change in a resonance circuit load factor.

2. The local computing environment as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the peripheral devices includes a re-resonator circuit, the re-resonator circuit arranged to wirelessly provide a portion of the power received by the peripheral device from the NFMR power supply to at least one other peripheral client device.

3. A battery charging circuit, comprising:

a first node arranged to receive wirelessly provided power;

a short term charge storage device having a first charge capacity; and

a long term storage device having a second charge capacity, wherein the second charge capacity is substantially greater than the first charge capacity, wherein the long term storage device is charged by,

(A) storing charge corresponding to the power wirelessly received at the first node into the short term charge storage device,

(B) when the stored charge is equal to about the first charge capacity, then passing the stored charge from the short term storage device to the long term storage device, and

(C) repeating (A) and (B) until the charge stored in the long term storage device is about equal to the second charge capacity.

4. The circuit as recited in claim 3, wherein the short term charge storage device is an ultracapacitor and wherein the long term charge storage device is a LiPO battery.

5. A method of wirelessly transmitting power, comprising:

creating a first coupling mode region of an electromagnetic field within a near field of a power supply transmit antenna;

coupling the electromagnetic field and a receiver antenna of a first receiver device within the coupling mode region;

creating a second coupling mode region of the electromagnetic field different from the first coupling mode region within a near field of a transmit antenna of the first receiver device;

coupling the electromagnetic field to a receive antenna of second receiver device in the near field of the transmit antenna of the first receiver device;

wirelessly delivering power from the power supply to the first receiver device by way of the power supply transmit antenna using the first coupling mode region of the electromagnetic field; and

wirelessly delivering at least some of the power wirelessly delivered to the first receiver device is wirelessly by re-transmitting the at least some power to the second receiver device by way of the first receiver transmit antenna using the second coupling mode region of the electromagnetic field.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the first receiver device is a keyboard.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the second receiver device is a mouse.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the power supply is included in a host computing device.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the second coupling mode region is between the keyboard and the mouse.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the first coupling mode region is between the host computing device and the keyboard.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the first coupling mode region is between the host computing device and the mouse.