Charging device for charging the energy store of a portable electric device

• US 9,509,172 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2012
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Zoelle, Thomas, Deininger, Jochen, Schauer, Lothar, Tress, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, SUN J
• Application Number:
  US14/369,767
• Publication Number:
  US 20150048787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,442 Days
• Field of Search: 320/108, 320/137
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• 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 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

A charging device for charging an energy storage device of a portable electric device. The charging device has a load cell or load cells, each load cell is equipped with a controllable resonant circuit for inductively transmitting energy, a parallel resonant circuit with two coils and a controllable supply voltage, two controllable switching elements for a self-oscillation of the parallel resonant circuit, which have control connections that can be connected to each other via a respective controllable switch-off element, and a demodulator connected to an output of the load cell being formed by a coil end of one coil of said two coils, wherein said coil end is not connected to a coil end of another coil of said two coils. The self-oscillation can be interrupted in a controlled manner by switching the two controllable switching elements in order to modulate an amplitude of an electromagnetic field generated by the two coils.

Claims

1. A charging device for charging an energy storage device of a portable electrical device, the charging device comprising:

at least one load cell having a controllable resonant circuit for inductively transferring energy;

said at least one load cell having a parallel resonant circuit with a first coil and a second coil and two controllable switching elements for self-oscillation of said parallel resonant circuit, wherein said parallel resonant circuit is supplied with a controllable supply voltage;

controllable switch-off elements for connecting control connections of said two controllable switching elements to each other, wherein the self-oscillation is interruptible in a targeted manner in order to modulate an amplitude of an electromagnetic field generated by said first coil and said second coil; and

a demodulator connected to an output of said parallel resonant circuit, said output being formed by a coil end of said first coil, wherein said coil end is not connected to a coil end of said second coil and wherein said output forms an output of said at least one load cell.

2. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein said first coil and said second coil are flat coils.

3. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein said parallel resonant circuit is a self-oscillating push-pull oscillator.

4. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein control connections of said controllable switch-off elements have a same control signal applied thereto.

5. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein said control connections of said two controllable switching elements of said parallel resonant circuit are connectable to a reference potential via load paths of said controllable switch-off elements.

6. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein the first coil and the second coil at least partially overlap.

7. The charging device according to claim 1, further comprising a controllable voltage regulator providing the controllable supply voltage, wherein an amount of energy transferable to the parallel resonant circuit is controlled as a function of a level of the controllable supply voltage.

8. The charging device according to claim 7, further comprising a microcontroller to generate control signals for said controllable voltage regulator and control connections of said controllable switch-off elements.

9. The charging device according to claim 8, wherein said microcontroller is connected to an output of said demodulator, wherein a demodulation signal can be fed to said microcontroller for processing.

10. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein said at least one load cell is one of a plurality of load cells.

11. The charging device according to claim 10, wherein said first coil and said second coil of one of said plurality of load cells are arranged to at least partially overlap said first coil and said second coil of an adjacent one of said plurality of load cells.

12. The charging device according to claim 10, wherein a respective output of said plurality of load cells is coupled to an input of said demodulator via a capacitor.

13. The charging device according to claim 12, wherein at least two demodulators are provided, the inputs of said demodulators being connectable to a respective output of said plurality of load cells via an associated changeover switch, wherein one of said plurality of load cells is connected to one of the demodulators and, the other ones of said plurality of load cells are connected in sequence to another one of said at least two demodulators.

14. A method for charging a portable electric device, the method comprising:

providing a charging device according to claim 1 for charging the portable electric device; and

switching, with the controllable switch-off elements, the self-oscillation of the parallel resonant circuit on or off according to a predefined data protocol, and providing the controllable supply voltage for the load cell with a voltage regulator, for interrupting the self-oscillation of the parallel resonant circuit and modulating the amplitude of the electromagnetic field generated by the first coil and the second coil.