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EP-4285493-B1 - WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER WITH IN-BAND VIRTUALIZED WIRED COMMUNICATIONS

EP4285493B1EP 4285493 B1EP4285493 B1EP 4285493B1EP-4285493-B1

Inventors

  • MELONE, MARK
  • KATZ, MICHAEL
  • LUZINSKI, JASON
  • PERALTA, ALBERTO
  • KAPOLNEK, DENNIS
  • BABCOCK, JACOB

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20220128

Claims (15)

  1. A wireless power transfer system (10) comprising: a wireless power transmission system (20) comprising: a transmitter antenna (21) configured to couple with at least one receiver antenna (31) and transmit wireless alternating current AC signals to the at least one receiver antenna (31); a transmission controller (28) configured to: provide a driving signal for driving the transmitter antenna (21) based on an operating frequency for the wireless power transfer system (10), wherein the transmitter antenna (21) is configured to emit a transmission in accordance with the driving signal, and wherein the driving signal is configured to generate a power signal and a first data signal in accordance with a wireless power and data transfer protocol; and a wireless power receiver system (30) comprising: the at least one receiver antenna (31) configured for inductive coupling with the transmitter antenna (21) and receiving the transmission from the transmitter antenna (21), the at least one receiver antenna (31) operating based on the operating frequency for the wireless power transfer system (10); a power conditioning system (40) configured to receive the transmission from the at least one receiver antenna (31), convert the received transmission to a direct current DC power signal, and provide the DC power signal at least to a load associated with the wireless power receiver system (30); and a receiver controller (38) configured to: decode the transmission to extract a first decodable data signal compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol and decode the first decodable data signal compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol to extract the first data signal; characterised in that : the first data signal is a first asynchronous serial data signal; the transmission controller (28) is configured to: decode the power signal to extract a second decodable data signal that is compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol; and decode the second decodable data signal to extract a second asynchronous serial data signal; and the receiver controller (38) is configured to: encode the second asynchronous serial data signal as the second decodable data signal compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol; and selectively alter the power signal to encode the second decodable data signal compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol into the power signal.
  2. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first asynchronous serial data signal is a first universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) compliant signal and the second asynchronous serial data signal is a second UART compliant signal.
  3. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 1 or 2, wherein the wireless power and data transfer protocol is a Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol.
  4. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 3, wherein the transmission controller (28) and the receiver controller (38) are further configured to generate the first and second UART compliant data signals in accordance with the NFC data transfer protocol by packetizing the first and second UART compliant data signals in a synchronous NFC data stream having a header with a synchronizing command and length command.
  5. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 3 or 4, wherein the transmission controller (28) and receiver controller (38) are further configured to generate the first and second UART compliant data signals in accordance with the NFC data transfer protocol by including at least one error check element after the first and second UART compliant data signals.
  6. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 5, wherein the transmission controller (28) and receiver controller (38) are further configured to generate an acknowledgement (ACK) response to be transmitted when processing of the at least one error check element indicates errorless receipt of the first and second UART compliant data signals.
  7. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 5 or 6, wherein the transmission controller (28) and receiver controller (38) are further configured to generate a negative acknowledgement response (NACK) to be transmitted when processing of the at least one error check element indicates erroneous receipt of a UART-compliant data signal.
  8. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with any one of claims 3 to 7, further comprising a first set of one or more buffers (1405, 1407, 1408, 1411) in the wireless power transmission system (20) and a second set of one or more buffers (1423, 1425, 1427, 1429) in the wireless power receiver system (30).
  9. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 8, wherein the first set of one or more buffers (1405, 1407, 1408, 1411) is configured to order communications data for transmission and receipt by the wireless power transmission system (20) and the second set of one or more buffers (1423, 1425, 1427, 1429) is configured to order communications data for transmission and receipt by the wireless power receiver system (30).
  10. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with claim 9, wherein an output of either or both of the first set of one or more buffers (1405, 1407, 1408, 1411) in the wireless power transmission system (20) or the second set of one or more buffers (1423, 1425, 1427, 1429) in the wireless power receiver system (30) is clocked to trigger buffered data for transmission.
  11. The wireless power transfer system (10) of any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein the first set of one or more buffers (1405, 1407, 1408, 1411) of the wireless power transmission system (20) are triggered to output during one or more transmission communications windows and the second set of one or more buffers (1423, 1425, 1427, 1429) of the wireless power receiver system (30) are triggered to output during one or more receiver communications windows.
  12. The wireless power transfer system (10) of claim 11, wherein one transmission communications window and one receiver communications window are contained within a period of time for a pair of transmission and receiver communications windows.
  13. The wireless power transfer system (10) of claim 12, wherein each of the one or more transmission communications windows has a respective first length and each of the one or more receiver communications windows has a respective second length, and wherein each of the first lengths and each of the second lengths may be dynamically altered, such that a respective pair of first and second lengths, within the period of time for the transmission and communications windows, combine to be less than or equal to the period of time.
  14. The wireless power transfer system (10) in accordance with any preceding claim, wherein the operating frequency is in a range of about 13.553 MHz to about 13.567 MHz.
  15. A wireless power transmission system (20) comprising: a transmitter antenna (21) configured to couple with at least one receiver antenna (31) of a wireless power transfer system (10) and transmit alternating current AC wireless signals to the at least one receiver antenna (31); and a transmission controller (28) configured to provide a driving signal for driving the transmitter antenna (21) based on an operating frequency for the wireless power transfer system (10) such that the transmitter antenna (21) emits a transmission in accordance with the driving signal, wherein the driving signal is configured to generate a power signal and a first data signal in accordance with a wireless power and data transfer protocol; characterised in that : the first data signal is a first asynchronous serial data signal; and the transmission controller (28) is further configured to: decode the power signal to extract a second data signal compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol, and decode the second data signal compliant with the wireless power and data transfer protocol to extract a second asynchronous serial data signal.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to systems for wireless transfer of electrical power and electrical data signals, and, more particularly, to wireless power transfer with in-band virtual wired communications. BACKGROUND The present invention is characterised over US10700742B1, which discloses a wireless power transmitter that can transmit a wireless power signal, encode data to be transmitted into symbols, determine a phase shift to represent the symbols, and phase modulate the wireless power signal with the phase shift. Wireless connection systems are used in a variety of applications for the wireless transfer of electrical energy, electrical power, electromagnetic energy, electrical data signals, among other known wirelessly transmittable signals. Such systems often use inductive wireless power transfer, which occurs when magnetic fields created by a transmitting element induce an electric field, and hence, an electric current, in a receiving element. These transmitting and receiving elements will often take the form of an antenna, such as coiled wires and the like. Transmission of one or more of electrical energy, electrical power, electromagnetic energy and/or electronic data signals from one of such coiled antennas to another, generally, operates at an operating frequency and/or an operating frequency range. The operating frequency may be selected for any of a variety of reasons, such as, but not limited to, power transfer efficiency characteristics, power level characteristics, self-resonant frequency restraints, design requirements, adherence to standards bodies' required characteristics (e.g. electromagnetic interference (EMI) requirements, specific absorption rate (SAR) requirements, among other things), bill of materials (BOM), and/or form factor constraints, among other things. It is to be noted that, "self-resonating frequency," as known to those having skill in the art, generally refers to the resonant frequency of a passive component (e.g., an inductor) due to the parasitic characteristics of the component. When such systems are operating to wirelessly transfer power from a transmission system to a receiver system via the antennas, it is often desired to contemporaneously communicate electronic data between the systems. In some example systems, wireless-power-related communications (e.g., validation procedures, electronic characteristics data communications, voltage data, current data, device type data, among other contemplated data communications related to wireless power transfer) are performed using in-band communications. Wireless connection systems are used in a variety of applications for the wireless transfer of electrical energy, electrical power, electromagnetic energy, electrical data signals, among other known wirelessly transmittable signals. Such systems often use inductive wireless power transfer, which occurs when magnetic fields created by a transmitting element induce an electric field, and hence, an electric current, in a receiving element. These transmitting and receiving elements will often take the form of coiled wires and/or antennas. Transmission of one or more of electrical energy, electrical power, electromagnetic energy and/or electronic data signals from one of such coiled antennas to another, generally, operates at an operating frequency and/or an operating frequency range. The operating frequency may be selected for a variety of reasons, such as, but not limited to, power transfer characteristics, power level characteristics, self-resonant frequency restraints, design requirements, adherence to standards bodies' required characteristics (e.g. electromagnetic interference (EMI) requirements, specific absorption rate (SAR) requirements, among other things), bill of materials (BOM), and/or form factor constraints, among other things. It is to be noted that, "self-resonating frequency," as known to those having skill in the art, generally refers to the resonant frequency of a passive component (e.g., an inductor) due to the parasitic characteristics of the component. When such systems operate to wirelessly transfer power from a transmission system to a receiver system, via the coils and/or antennas, it is often desired to simultaneously or intermittently communicate electronic data from one system to the other. To that end, a variety of communications systems, methods, and/or apparatus have been utilized for combined wireless power and wireless data transfer. In some example systems, wireless power transfer related communications (e.g., validation procedures, electronic characteristics data communications, voltage data, current data, device type data, among other contemplated data communications) are performed using other circuitry, such as an optional Near Field Communications (NFC) antenna utilized to compliment the wireless power system and/or additional Bluetooth chipsets for data communications, among other known communications circuits and/or antenna