METHOD FOR PERFORMING WIRELESS CHARGING CONTROL OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH AID OF VARIANT SLOT TIMING AND SIMPLE RESPONSE INDICATING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, AND ASSOCIATED APPARATUS

• US 20160233715A1
• Filed: 04/14/2016
• Published: 08/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Chi-Min
• Granted Patent: US 10,447,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 7/00308 Overvoltage protection
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1657 Implicit acknowledgement of correct or incorrect reception, e.g. with a moving window
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1692 Physical properties of the supervisory signal, e.g. acknowledgement by energy bursts

Abstract

A method for performing wireless charging control of an electronic device and an associated apparatus are provided, where the method may include: determining whether a voltage level of a direct current (DC) output at a DC output terminal of a rectifier in the electronic device is greater than a first voltage threshold to generate a first detection result; and according to the first detection result, selectively sending at least one random phase-delay packet, wherein each random phase-delay packet of the at least one random phase-delay packet has a random phase-delay with respect to a time slot, and the at least one random phase-delay packet is utilized for carrying information of at least one wireless charging report of the electronic device. More particularly, a wireless charging device is arranged to wirelessly charge the electronic device, and the electronic device does not obtain information from the wireless charging device through any packet.

Claims

1. A method for performing wireless charging control of an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

determining whether a voltage level of a direct current (DC) output at a DC output terminal of a rectifier in the electronic device falls within a first voltage range to generate a first detection result; and

according to the first detection result, selectively sending at least one packet, wherein the at least one packet is utilized for carrying information of at least one wireless charging report of the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a wireless charging device is arranged to wirelessly charge the electronic device;

and the step of selectively sending the at least one packet further comprises;

according to the first detection result, selectively sending the at least one packet to the wireless charging device, without receiving a packet from the wireless charging device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first detection result indicates that the voltage level of the DC output does not fall within the first voltage range, and a wireless charging device is arranged to wirelessly charge the electronic device;

and the method further comprises;

determining at least one random value for controlling timing of packet transmission regarding the at least one wireless charging report of the electronic device;

wherein the step of selectively sending the at least one packet further comprises;

based on the at least one random value, sending the at least one packet with a random phase delay with respect to a time slot to the wireless charging device, to trigger an associated wireless charging control operation of the wireless charging device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the voltage level of the DC output falls within a second voltage range, wherein determining whether the voltage level of the DC output falls within the first voltage range has higher priority than determining whether the voltage level of the DC output falls within the second voltage range.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the voltage level of the DC output falls within a second voltage range to generate a second detection result; and

according to the first and the second detection results, controlling a slot time for a packet being sent as a first predetermined slot time corresponding to the first voltage range or a second predetermined slot time corresponding to the second voltage range.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second predetermined slot time is greater than or equal to the first predetermined slot time.

7. An apparatus for performing wireless charging control of an electronic device, the apparatus comprising at least one portion of the electronic device, the apparatus comprising:

a controller arranged for determining whether a voltage level of a direct current (DC) output at a DC output terminal of a rectifier in the electronic device falls within a first voltage range to generate a first detection result; and

a communications module, coupled to the controller and a coil of the electronic device, arranged for, according to the first detection result, selectively sending at least one packet, wherein the at least one random phase-delay packet is utilized for carrying information of at least one wireless charging report of the electronic device.

8. A method for performing wireless charging control of an electronic device with aid of simple response of a wireless charging device, which is arranged to wirelessly charge the electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a packet from the electronic device, wherein the packet is utilized for carrying information of wireless charging report of the electronic device, and comprises unacknowledged header information; and

controlling the wireless charging device to generate at least one simple response, to acknowledge the packet.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of controlling the wireless charging device to generate the at least one simple response to acknowledge the packet further comprises:

controlling the wireless charging device to generate the at least one simple response, without sending information from the wireless charging device to the electronic device through any packet, to acknowledge the packet.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the generation of the at least one simple response to acknowledge the packet does not have to send any packet to the electronic device.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the electronic device detects the at least one simple response as acknowledgement of the packet, having no need to perform decoding on the at least one simple response.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one simple response comprises at least one predetermined signal pulse in time domain or in frequency domain.

13. An apparatus for performing wireless charging control according to the method of claim 8, wherein the apparatus comprises at least one portion of the electronic device.

14. A method for performing wireless charging control of an electronic device with aid of variant slot timing, the method comprising:

performing packet transmission between the electronic device and a wireless charging device, wherein the wireless charging device is arranged to wirelessly charge the electronic device, and at least one packet of the packet transmission is utilized for carrying information of at least one wireless charging report of the electronic device; and

controlling a time slot of the packet transmission to be variant.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein controlling the time slot of the packet transmission to be variant comprises changing a length of the time slot of the packet transmission in response to a plurality of predetermined condition;

and the method further comprises;

when a first predetermined condition of the plurality of predetermined condition is detected, changing a length of the time slot of the packet transmission to be a first predetermined length.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first predetermined condition is more emergent than a second predetermined condition of the plurality of predetermined condition;

and the method further comprises;

when the second predetermined condition is detected, changing the length of the time slot of the packet transmission to be a second predetermined length, wherein the first predetermined length is shorter than the second predetermined length.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining a voltage level of a direct current (DC) output at a DC output terminal of a rectifier in the electronic device; and

according to the voltage level of the DC output, changing a length of the time slot of the packet transmission.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein changing the length of the time slot of the packet transmission further comprises:

when the voltage level of the DC output reaches a predetermined voltage level, decreasing the length of the time slot;

or

when the voltage level of the DC output falls within a predetermined voltage range, increasing the length of the time slot.