INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSMITTER

• US 20180034326A1
• Filed: 03/04/2016
• Published: 02/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: PowerbyProxi Limited (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: ABDOLKHANI, Ali
• Granted Patent: US 10,840,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07758 arrangements for adhering the record carrier to further objects or living beings, functioning as an identification tag
• CPC Class Codes: H01F 7/02 Permanent magnets [PM]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• 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 50/60 responsive to the presence of foreign objects, e.g. detection of living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment

Abstract

An inductive power transmitter comprising: at least one power transmitting coil configured to generate an inductive power transfer (IPT) field; and an object detection system configured to detect objects in or adjacent a space occupied by the IPT field when generated; wherein the object detection system is configured to detect a receiver object based on a tag associated with the receiver object.

Claims

1. An inductive power transmitter comprising:

at least one power transmitting coil configured to generate an inductive power transfer (IPT) field; and

an object detection system configured to detect objects in or adjacent a space occupied by the IPT field when generated;

wherein the object detection system is configured to detect a receiver object based on a tag associated with the receiver object.

2. The transmitter in claim 1, configured to energise the coil once the object detection system detects a receiver object.

3. The transmitter in claim 1, wherein the tag is a magnet.

4. The transmitter in claim 3, wherein the magnet is a permanent magnet located relative to a receiver coil of the receiver object.

5. The transmitter in claim 3, wherein the magnet is a receiver coil of the receiver object energised with a DC voltage.

6. The transmitter in claim 3, wherein the object detector comprises one or more magnetic switches.

7. The transmitter in claim 6, wherein at least one of the one or more magnetic switches is a Hall Effect switch, a Reed switch or a 3D hall effect sensor.

8. The transmitter in claim 1, wherein the tag has a coded reflective surface and the object detector includes photodetectors configured to measure reflected light patterns.

9. The transmitter in claim 1, comprising a plurality of power transmitting coils, wherein at least one object detector of the object detection system is located about each power transmitting coil, and the transmitter is configured to energise the respective coil based on activation of the respective object detector through interaction with the tag associated with the receiver object.

10. The transmitter in claim 9, wherein a plurality of object detectors are located between respective power transmitting coils, and the transmitter is configured to energise one or more of the coils based on activation of the respective detectors through interaction with the tag associated with the receiver object.

11. The transmitter in claim 10, wherein all the object detectors for a respective coil are connected in parallel.

12. The transmitter in claim 9, wherein the power transmitting coils are not energised unless a receiver object is detected by the object detectors associated therewith under control of a controller of the transmitter.

13. The transmitter in claim 1 configured to communicate with the receiver once the object detection system has detected a receiver object, and if the communication is unsuccessful to deenergise the coil.

14. The transmitter in claim 1 wherein the object detection system is further configured to distinguish non receiver objects based on a further OD detection strategy.

15. The transmitter in claim 14 wherein the further OD detection strategy includes determining a level of correlation between a circuit parameter and a predetermined profile for each of a plurality of predetermined non receiver objects.

16. The transmitter in claim 15 wherein the further OD detection strategy is configured to detect a non receiver object adjacent in or adjacent the space simultaneously with a receiver object.

17. The transmitter of claim 15, wherein the further detection strategy includes determining whether a response of the object detection system to detecting an object has a correlation with a reference response which is less than a threshold.