System and method for simultaneous wireless charging, tracking and monitoring of equipments

• US 9,178,569 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2012
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: TATA Consultancy Services Limited (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Chakravarty, Tapas, Purushothaman, Balamuralidhar
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, An T
• Application Number:
  US13/680,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20130135084A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,079 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 3405721-5727, 3406931-6934, 340/539.1, 340/539.13, 340/10.33, 340/10.34, 340/10.4, 340/10.41, 455/73, 455/572, 455/574
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/20 using microwaves or radio frequency waves
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/27 characterised by the type of receiving antennas, e.g. rectennas
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

A system and method for simultaneous charging, tracking and monitoring one or more equipments, comprising actuating a coordinator using a management server for transmitting UHF radio waves; receiving the transmitted UHF radio waves by a receiver; converting the UHF radio waves into DC power by employing an energy harvesting IC for charging a battery pack of said equipment, and simultaneously activating an RFID tag for receiving one or more operational parameters related to said equipment by employing said one or more sensors and transmitting said received one or more operational parameters by using short range data communication protocol via said coordinator.

Claims

1. A system for simultaneous wireless charging, tracking and monitoring of at least one equipment, the system comprising:

a management server, a coordinator and at least one receiver wherein

said management server is communicatively coupled with said coordinator and actuates said coordinator to transmit Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio waves;

said coordinator is communicatively coupled with the at least one receiver; and

the at least one receiver is electrically and communicatively coupled with and enclosed inside said at least one equipment, wherein the at least one receiver receives the UHF radio waves transmitted by said coordinator, and wherein the at least one receiver further comprises;

a UHF receiver antenna to receive and transmit the UHF radio waves;

a power divider to divide the UHF radio waves and transmit a first part of the UHF radio waves to a wireless charging subsystem and a second part of the UHF radio waves to a monitoring and tracking subsystem, the wireless charging subsystem further comprising a wireless charging circuit, a buffer, a controller circuit and a battery pack;

wherein the wireless charging circuit converts the first part of the UHF radio waves to Direct Current (DC) power and transmit the DC power to the buffer and the controller circuit, and wherein said buffer and said controller circuit transmits the DC power for charging the battery pack and activates a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag; and

and wherein the monitoring and tracking subsystem comprises a programmable delay unit, the RFID tag and one or more sensors, wherein the programmable delay unit provides a time delay to the second part of the UHF radio waves and transmits the UHF radio waves to the RFID tag, and wherein the RFID tag is communicatively coupled with one or more sensors to receive one or more operational parameters related to said equipment by employing said one or more sensors and transmits the one or more operational parameters via the UHF receiver antenna.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the management server is a hospital management server and said at least one equipment is sealed medical equipments.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said coordinator comprises a transceiver for short range data communication and a UHF antenna.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said coordinator transmits UHF radio waves in Industrial, Scientific And Medical (ISM) band.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said UHF receiver antenna is a flexible UHF antenna.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said wireless charging circuit comprises a Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvesting Integrated Circuit (IC).

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and battery charge sensor.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said RFID tag comprises a low power transceiver IC.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said RFID tag is a UHF active tag.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said RFID tag is a sensory tag.

11. A method for simultaneous wireless charging, tracking and monitoring one or more equipments, the method comprising

actuating a coordinator using a management server for transmitting Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio waves;

and

receiving the transmitted UHF radio waves by a receiver, wherein receiving the transmitted UHF radio waves by the receiver further comprises;

dividing, with a power divider, the UHF radio waves and transmit a first part of the UHF radio waves to a wireless charging subsystem and a second part of the UHF radio waves to a monitoring and tracking subsystem;

wherein the wireless charging subsystem further comprises a wireless charging circuit, a buffer, a controller circuit and a battery pack, wherein the wireless charging circuit converts the first part of the UHF radio signal to Direct Current (DC) power and transmit the DC power to the buffer and the controller circuit, and wherein said buffer and controller circuit transmits the DC power for charging the battery pack and activates a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag; and

wherein said monitoring and tracking subsystem comprises a programmable delay unit, the RFID tag and one or more sensors;

wherein the programmable delay unit provides a time delay to the second part of the UHF radio signal and transmits the UHF radio signal to the RFID tag, and wherein the RFID tag is communicatively coupled with one or more sensors to receive one or more operational parameters related to said equipment by employing said one or more sensors and is adapted to transmits the one or more operational parameters via the UHF receiver antenna.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said one or more operational parameters related to said one or more equipments are selected from the group consisting of equipment battery status, position of the equipment, presence of the equipment in a prescribed location, humidity inside the equipment, temperature inside the equipment, unique Identification (ID) of an asset, confidential manufacturer data, and device usage status.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said one or more operational parameters are transmitted from the receiver to coordinator by employing Direct-sequence spread spectrum protocol at transmitting power level of +36 dBm.