Coil for mobile device context-driven switching and wireless charging

• US 10,263,451 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2013
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Konanur, Anand S., Yang, Songnan, Karacaoglu, Ulun, Tao, Jiancheng, Adrangi, Farid
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Drew A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thapa, Sailesh
• Application Number:
  US14/911,244
• Publication Number:
  US 20160181857A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,946 Days
• Field of Search: 320108
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/162 changing, e.g. reversing, the face orientation of the screen with a two degrees of freedom mechanism, e.g. for folding into tablet PC like position or orienting towards the direction opposite to the user to show to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1635 Details related to the integration of battery packs and other power supplies such as fuel cells or integrated AC adapter
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0393 Accessories for touch pads or touch screens, e.g. mechanical guides added to touch screens for drawing straight lines, hard keys overlaying touch screens or touch pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04162 for exchanging data with external devices, e.g. smart pens, via the digitiser sensing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2266 disposed inside the computer
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/402 the two or more transmitting or the two or more receiving devices being integrated in the same unit, e.g. power mats with several coils or antennas with several sub-antennas
• 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 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/263 Multiple coils at either side
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Apparatus, system and method to provide switchable coils in a computing device, comprising: a plurality of electrically conductive coils to transfer electromagnetic energy; a sensor coupled to a processor, to select a coil from among the plurality of electrically conductive coils; a switch to energize the selected coil; and a switch controller coupled to the switch and to the processor. In some embodiments, the plurality of coils may comprise an inductive charging interface. Some embodiments may further include a communication interface between the processor to the plurality of electrically conductive coils, the plurality of coils comprising an interface for near-field communications (NFC). The antenna coils may be arranged to provide improved NFC coverage when the computing device is in a respective predetermined physical configuration. Sensors may be used to detect the configuration and switch NFC communications to use a preferred antenna coil for the detected configuration.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of electrically conductive coils of a computing device comprising a display housing portion and a keyboard housing portion, the plurality of electrically conductive coils to transfer electromagnetic energy, wherein at least a first coil of the plurality of the electrically conductive coils is located within the display housing portion and at least a second coil of the plurality of the electrically conductive coils is located with the keyboard housing portion;

a sensor of the computing device to sense a physical configuration of the computing device operating in one of a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation;

a processor of the computing device coupled with the sensor and the plurality of electrically conductive coils, the processor to select one of the first coil or the second coil from among the plurality of electrically conductive coils based at least on the physical configuration sensed by the sensor being in a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation;

a switch to energize the selected coil; and

a switch controller coupled to the switch and to the processor, to control the switch.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the plurality of electrically conductive coils comprising an inductive charging interface.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, the plurality of electrically conductive coils arranged under a touch-screen user interface.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication interface between the processor to the plurality of electrically conductive coils,

the plurality of electrically conductive coils comprising an interface for near-field communications (NFC).

5. The apparatus of claim 4, the plurality of electrically conductive coils arranged along at least two major surfaces of the computing device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the sensor to sense an operating state of the computing device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, the sensor to sense a physical configuration of the computing device that is related to a change in operating state of the computing device.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, the sensor to sense a pattern of responses from the plurality of electrically conductive coils.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an application program monitor, to activate a predetermined coil upon detection of predetermined application program activity.

10. A system, comprising:

a processor of a computing device and coupled to a memory;

a plurality of electrically conductive coils of the computing device comprising a display housing portion and a keyboard housing portion, the plurality of electrically conductive coils to transfer electromagnetic energy, wherein at least a first coil of the plurality of the electrically conductive coils is located within the display housing portion and at least a second coil of the plurality of the electrically conductive coils is located with the keyboard housing portion;

a sensor of the computing device to sense a physical configuration of the computing device a sensor of the computing device to sense a physical configuration of the computing device operating in one of a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation, and the processor to select one of the first coil or the second coil from among the plurality of electrically conductive coils based at least on the physical configuration sensed by the sensor being in a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation;

a switch to energize the selected coil; and

a switch controller coupled to the switch and to the processor to control the switch.

11. The system of claim 10, the plurality of electrically conductive coils comprising an inductive charging interface.

12. The system of claim 11, the plurality of electrically conductive coils arranged under a touch-screen user interface.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a communication interface between the processor to the plurality of electrically conductive coils,

the plurality of electrically conductive coils comprising an interface for near-field communications (NFC).

14. The system of claim 13, the plurality of electrically conductive coils arranged along at least two major surfaces of the computing device.

15. The system of claim 10, the sensor to sense an operating state of the computing device.

16. The system of claim 10, the sensor to sense a physical configuration of the computing device that is related to a change in operating state of the computing device.

17. The system of claim 10, the sensor to sense a pattern of responses from the plurality of electrically conductive coils.

18. The system of claim 10, further comprising an application program monitor, to activate a predetermined coil upon detection of predetermined application program activity.

19. At least one computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a controller of a computing device to:

cause a plurality of electrically conductive coils to transfer electromagnetic energy, wherein at least a first coil of the plurality of the electrically conductive coils is located within a display housing portion of the computing device and at least a second coil of the plurality of the electrically conductive coils is located with a keyboard housing portion of the computing device;

receive data from a sensor coupled to the controller, the data to indicate a physical configuration of the computing device operating in one of a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation;

select one of the first coil or the second coil from among the plurality of electrically conductive coils based on the data indicating a physical configuration of the computing device being in a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation;

control a switch to energize the selected coil; and

communicate with a switch controller coupled to the switch.

20. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, the plurality of electrically conductive coils comprising an inductive charging interface.

21. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, the plurality of electrically conductive coils arranged under a touch-screen user interface.

22. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the controller to:

communicate on a communication interface between the controller to the plurality of electrically conductive coils,

the plurality of electrically conductive coils comprising an interface for near-field communications (NFC).

23. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, the plurality of electrically conductive coils arranged along at least two major surfaces of the computing device.

24. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, the sensor to sense the physical configuration of the computing device.

25. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, the sensor to sense an operating state of the computing device.

26. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, the sensor to sense a physical configuration of the computing device that is related to a change in operating state of the computing device.

27. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, the sensor to sense a pattern of responses from the plurality of electrically conductive coils.

28. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising an application program monitor, to activate a predetermined coil upon detection of predetermined application program activity.