POWER REGULATION IN WIRELESS CHARGING

• US 20160336782A1
• Filed: 05/13/2015
• Published: 11/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Elad, Yuval, Vilhauer, Reed D., Porat, Shahar
• Granted Patent: US 10,263,450 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 power switch configured to selectively supply a regulated voltage to a battery at a regulated current; and

a load modulation logic configured to generate load modulation signaling by toggling the power switch.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the regulated 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 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 generate the load modulation signaling 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:

selectively supplying a regulated voltage from a power switch to a battery at a regulated current; and

generating load modulation signaling by toggling the power switch.

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

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the generating the load modulation signaling 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 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 battery charger circuit to receive a rectified voltage 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 generate load modulation signaling by toggling the power switch.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the load modulation signaling comprises 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 logic is configured to generate the load modulation signaling within a predefined power range.