TRANSMITTER FOR INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSFER SYSTEMS

• US 20160308394A1
• Filed: 11/07/2014
• Published: 10/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: PowerbyProxi Limited (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: ABDOLKHANI, Ali, HU, Aiguo, WANG, Ya-Ting, KUMAR, Arunim
• Granted Patent: US 10,396,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01F 38/14 Inductive couplings for wireless supply or distribution of electric power using inductive coupling H02J50/10
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0042 characterised by the mechanical construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

An inductive power transmitter having a plurality of transmitting coils for generating an alternating magnetic field arranged in a row with each transmitting coil partially overlapping with adjacent transmitting coils in the row. A transmitting circuit connected to each transmitting coil may drive the transmitting coils so that each transmitting coil'"'"'s alternating magnetic field is phase shifted with respect to the alternating magnetic field of adjacent transmitting coils in the row or so that the alternating magnetic field generated by the transmitting coils travels along a charging surface.

Claims

1. An inductive power transmitter including:

a. a plurality of transmitting coils for generating an alternating magnetic field, wherein the plurality of transmitting coils are arranged in a row and each transmitting coil partially overlaps with adjacent transmitting coils in the row; and

b. a transmitting circuit connected to each transmitting coil for driving the transmitting coils so that each transmitting coil'"'"'s alternating magnetic field is phase shifted with respect to the alternating magnetic field of adjacent transmitting coils in the row.

2. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inductive power transmitter includes a magnetically permeable layer.

3. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is only one row of transmitting coils.

4. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein there are two or more rows of transmitting coils.

5. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmitting coils are arranged in the row with a regular distribution.

6. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein each transmitting coil partially overlaps with all other transmitting coils in the row.

7. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein each transmitting coil in the row is generally the same size.

8. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein each transmitting coil in the row is defined by a transmitting coil width which is parallel to the direction of the row and a transmitting coil length which is perpendicular to the direction of the row.

9. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 8, wherein each transmitting coil partially overlaps with immediately adjacent transmitting coils by (n−

1)/n of the transmitting coil width, where n is the number of transmitting coils in the row.

10. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inductive power transmitter is incorporated into a charging mat having a charging surface.

11. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 10, wherein the transmitting coils are generally coplanar with the charging surface.

12. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 10, wherein the charging surface is defined by a charging surface length and a charging surface width.

13. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 10, wherein each transmitting coil in the row is defined by a transmitting coil width which is parallel to the direction of the row and a transmitting coil length which is perpendicular to the direction of the row.

14. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 13, wherein the transmitting coil length is roughly the same as the charging surface width.

15. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 13, wherein the transmitting coil width is roughly n/(2n−

1) of the charging surface length, where n is the number of transmitting coils in the row.

16. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein each transmitting coil is connected to a resonant capacitor to create a resonant circuit.

17. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 16, wherein each transmitting coil is connected in parallel to the resonant capacitor.

18. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 16, wherein each transmitting coil is connected in series to the resonant capacitor.

19. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein each transmitting coil'"'"'s alternating magnetic field is phase shifted with respect to immediately adjacent transmitting coil'"'"'s alternating magnetic field by 180/n degrees, where n is the total number of transmitting coils.

20. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is a separate transmitting circuit for each transmitting coil.

21. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is a single transmitting circuit for each transmitting coil and wherein the power transmitter is adapted to generate a multiphase signal.

22. The inductive power transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein there are three transmitting coils in the row.

23. An inductive power transmitter including:

a. a plurality of transmitting coils for generating an alternating magnetic field, wherein the plurality of transmitting coils are arranged in a row and each transmitting coil partially overlaps with adjacent transmitting coils in the row; and

b. a transmitting circuit connected to each transmitting coil for driving the transmitting coils so that the alternating magnetic field generated by the transmitting coils travels along a charging surface.