WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER MANAGEMENT

• US 20180269715A1
• Filed: 03/16/2017
• Published: 09/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Searete LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: HANNIGAN, RUSSELL J., LIPWORTH, GUY SHLOMO, REYNOLDS, MATTHEW S., URZHUMOV, YAROSLAV A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,389,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/60 responsive to the presence of foreign objects, e.g. detection of living beings

Abstract

Described embodiments include a system and method. An antenna is configured to implement at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions. Each selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions respectively has a bounding surface that describes a specified power density in the radiative electromagnetic field. A sensor circuit is configured to detect a presence of an object within the bounding surface of an implemented radiative electromagnetic field. A countermeasure circuit is configured to select a response to the detected presence of the object within the bounding surface of the implemented radiative electromagnetic field. A spatial distribution selector circuit is configured to select from the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions another radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution (i) that includes a target device present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field and (ii) that implements the selected response to the detected presence of the object.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an antenna configured to implement at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions, each selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution of the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions having a respective bounding surface that describes a specified power density in the radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

a spatial distribution selector circuit configured to select from the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions a radiative electromagnetic field that includes a target device present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

a sensor circuit configured to detect a presence of an object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

a countermeasure circuit configured to select a response to the detected presence of the object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution; and

a wireless power transfer management circuit configured to instruct the spatial distribution selector circuit to select from the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions another radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution that (i) includes the target device present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution and (ii) implements the selected response to the detected presence of the object.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured to implement at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field wireless power transfer spatial distributions.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured to transfer wireless power using at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured to implement at least one of a direction, power level, phase, or amplitude component of each of the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions have a frequency range between about 1 and 100 GHz.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured to redirect electromagnetic fields emitted by another antenna.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna includes a phased array having at least one of a tunable phase shifter, tunable amplifier, or tunable attenuator.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna includes an electronically reconfigurable antenna system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna includes a dynamically reconfigurable metasurface aperture.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna includes a surface having a plurality of individual electromagnetic wave scattering elements distributed thereon with a periodic inter-element spacing equal to less than one-half of a free space wavelength of an operating frequency of the antenna, the aperture configured to define the at least two radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions on the surface with tangential wavenumbers up to 2π

over the aperture periodic inter-element spacing (k_apt=2π

/a).

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution includes a Fresnel region radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution includes a Fraunhofer region radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions includes at least two selectable arbitrary radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions include at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the bounding surface includes a pre-characterized bounding surface.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the bounding surface includes an empirically characterized bounding surface.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the bounding surface includes a three-dimensional bounding surface.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the bounding surface encloses an electromagnetic hazard field.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the power density outside of the bounding surface never exceeds a specified power density.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected another radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution includes a radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution configured (i) to include the target device present within its bounding surface;

and (ii) to wirelessly transfer electromagnetic power from the antenna to the target device.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect a bearing of the object present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution relative to the antenna.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect a bearing and a distance between the object present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution and the antenna.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect the object present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution in response to a signal indicative of a change in radiative electromagnetic power received by the target device from the antenna.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect the object present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution based on information responsive to a propagation channel test between the antenna and the target device.

35. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect a presence of an object proximate to, at, or within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

37. The system of claim 1, wherein a selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution of the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions of the antenna further includes a radiative electromagnetic field probe distribution;

and

wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect the object present within the bounding surface of a selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution in response to a reflected energy from the radiative electromagnetic field probe distribution.

41. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit is further configured to detect a location of the target device in response to an identification signal returned by the target device.

47. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit includes another antenna configured to transmit another electromagnetic beam and receive a reflected energy from the another electromagnetic beam indicating a presence of the object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

48. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor circuit is configured to detect a presence of the object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution in response to a signal from a tag or transponder physically associated with the object.

50. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a zone protection circuit configured to detect a presence of another object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution in response to a signal from a tag or transponder physically associated with the another object; and

wherein the countermeasure circuit is configured to select a response to the detected presence of the another object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

52. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless power transfer band selector configured to select a transfer radiofrequency sub-band available for wireless power transfer in response to a radiofrequency spectrum sensing of the transmission environment in which the antenna is located; and

wherein the wireless power management circuit is further configured to initiate a wireless power transfer from the antenna to the target device using the selected sub-band.

54. The system of claim 1, wherein the countermeasure circuit is configured to select a response to the detected presence of the object from a library of the at least two selectable responses to the detected presence of the object.

55. The system of claim 1, wherein the countermeasure circuit is configured to select a response to the detected presence of the object based on trial and error, or a brute force optimization technique.

56. The system of claim 1, wherein the countermeasure circuit is configured to select a response to the detected presence of the object based on a feedback-guided optimization loop.

57. The system of claim 1, wherein the response selected by the countermeasure circuit includes a reduction of the power transmitted by the antenna in response to the detected presence of the object.

58. The system of claim 1, wherein the response selected by the countermeasure circuit includes a redirection of the power transmitted by the antenna away from the object in response to the detected presence of the object.

59. The system of claim 1, wherein the response selected by the countermeasure circuit includes a termination of a transmission of wireless power in response to the detected presence of the object.

60. The system of claim 1, wherein the response selected by the countermeasure circuit includes a reconfiguration of the radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution away from the object.

62. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless power transfer management circuit configured to request the antenna to implement the another selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

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63. A system comprising:

a spatial distribution selector circuit configured to select from at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions of an antenna a radiative electromagnetic field that includes a target device present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution, the antenna configured to implement the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions, each of the selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions respectively having a bounding surface that describes a specified power density in the radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

a sensor circuit configured to detect a presence of an object within a bounding surface of an implemented radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution of at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions of the antenna;

a countermeasure circuit configured to select a response to the detected presence of the object within the bounding surface of the implemented radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution; and

a spatial distribution selector circuit configured to select from the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions another radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution (i) that includes a target device present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution and (ii) that implements the selected response to the detected presence of the object.

64. A system of claim 63, further comprising:

the antenna.

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66. A method comprising:

wirelessly transmitting electromagnetic power from an antenna to a target device using a selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution, the antenna configured to implement at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions, each of the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions respectively having a bounding surface that describes a specified power density in the radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

detecting a presence of an object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

selecting a countermeasure responsive to the detected presence of the object within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution;

selecting from the at least two selectable radiative electromagnetic field spatial distributions another radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution that (i) includes the target device present within the bounding surface of the selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution and (ii) implements the selected countermeasure response to the detected presence of the object; and

wirelessly transmitting electromagnetic power from the antenna to the target device using the another selected radiative electromagnetic field spatial distribution.

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