Integrated Device Technology, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Dialog Semiconductor (uk) Limited

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited

Intel IP Corporation

Amit D Bavisi

Gustavo James Mehas

Rui Liu

Mahibur Rahman

Nicholaus Wayne Smith

Tao Qi

Chan Young Jeong

Mark Alan Kirschenmann

Pravin Premakanthan

Daryl Sugasawara

Xinyun Gu

Aihua Lee

Daniel B Schwartz

Omid Oliaei

Bing Xu

Sorin Laurentiu Negru

Jiangjian Huang

Sabin Eftimie

Lasse Harju

Changjae Kim

Alin I Gherghescu

Mahib Rahman

Manfred Kogler

Ershad Ahmed

Gabriel Aungurencei

Vineet Tiwari

Darioush Keyvani

Narendra Nath Gaddam

Walter J Grandfield

Tianze Kan

Daryl Jay Sugasawara

Mark Kirschenmann

Embodiments described herein provide foreign object detection based on coil current sensing. The transmitter power loss is computed directly based on the coil current, in conjunction with, or in place of the conventional computation based on transmitter input current. The enhanced precision of the computer power loss can be used to more accurately detect a foreign object near the transmitter coil during a wireless power transfer.

Enhanced foreign object detection with coil current sensing in wireless power transfer systems

In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, an ion cooling engine (ICE) controlled by a transmitting or receiving device cools a transmit or receive coil and possibly other parts of a wireless power transmitter or receiver system. In some embodiments, the ICE includes a low-voltage circuit controlled by the transmitting device and coupled to a high voltage circuit that generates the airflow. Other features are also provided.

Control of ionic cooling in wireless charging systems

Embodiments described herein provide a wireless power transmitter that dynamically adjusts the deadtime to reduce power loss. Specifically, the wireless power transmitter includes a transistor circuit for switching a first voltage at a first node and a second voltage at a second node, and a LC circuit coupled between the first node and the second node. The wireless power transmitter further includes a controller coupled to the transistor circuit. The controller is configured to determine whether either of the first voltage and the second voltage is negative during a deadtime of switching. The controller is configured to increment or decrement the deadtime by an adjustment amount depending on whether negative voltage is detected.

Dynamic deadtime control in a wireless transmission function

In a wireless power transfer operation, the operating parameters are adjusted to improve efficiency by reducing the transmit and receive coil currents as follows. First, the transmitter causes the receiver to reduce the receive coil current to the lowest value based on the transmitter/receiver communication while still delivering the same amount of power to the load as before the AC current was adjusted to the minimum value. Then the transmitter may change the operating parameters to increase or preserve the power provided to the receiver without decreasing efficiency or with only small decrease in efficiency, or with increasing the efficiency. For example, the transmitter may increase the VBRG voltage (the DC voltage powering the transmit coil) or the operating frequency to maintain or increase output power levels at lower or the same AC and DC current levels. Other features are also provided.

Wireless power maximum efficiency tracking by system control

A capacitor sensor array (or grid) over a wireless power transmission coil can include a first set of lines; a second set of lines intersecting the first set of lines; a first multiplexer coupled to provide a charge (e.g. in the form of a DC voltage) from a voltage source to the first set of lines and provide first signals to detect voltages on each line; and a second multiplexer coupled to provide a charge from the voltage source to the second set of lines and provide second signals to detect voltages on each line, wherein an object positioned with respect to the first set of lines and the second set of lines is located. According to some embodiments, a wireless power receive coil and a rectifier circuit can be used in forming a capacitor sensor, to sense the capacitance between the receive and transmit coils for better alignment between the two coils. Other embodiments are also provided.

Wireless power transmission using a capacitive sensor

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, a coil design for the transmission of wireless power. In some embodiments, the coil can include a winding with one or more turns of conductive traces mounted on a substrate, wherein the one or more turns include characteristics that enhance operation of the coil. In some embodiments, the winding includes a transmit coil and a receive coil, each coupled to terminals that provide for a transmit functionality and a receive functionality. In some embodiments, the traces are varied in width and/or thickness in order to optimize the inductance and the coil resistance. In some embodiments, parameters of a control circuit coupled to the coil to affect a transmit functionality or a receive functionality can be optimized.

Optimization of transmit and transmit/receive (TRX) coils for wireless transfer of power

A wired connection, such as USB-C, for charging a sink from a source, has a configuration channel and a power transmission channel. The presence of data on the configuration channel is used to determine that a cable has been disconnected from the power source. This charging system contains a capacitive power converter and a controller for controlling the capacitive power converter. There is also a configuration channel detector, which is arranged to detect the status of the configuration channel and to provide this status to the controller, so that the system can determine that the source has been detached from the bus when no configuration channel data is present.

Battery charging for mobile devices

A method and a circuit of operating a multi-phase switching converter is presented. The circuit contains a plurality of phase circuits. The method includes setting an adaptive voltage positioning parameter of an adaptive voltage positioning controller and controlling an output voltage of the multi-phase switching converter using the adaptive voltage positioning controller. The method further includes generating a threshold voltage value based on the adaptive voltage positioning parameter, comparing the output voltage of the multi-phase switching converter with the threshold voltage value and performing at least one of enabling and disabling a phase circuit based on the comparison.

Multi-phase switching converter

In accordance with the present disclosure, method may include receiving one or more environment parameter signals indicative of an environment of a wireless communication element. The method may also include communicating one or more control signals to an antenna tuner of the wireless communication element for controlling an impedance of the antenna tuner based on the one or more environment parameter signals.

System and method for tuning an antenna in a wireless communication device

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, a control path for a wireless communication device may include a radio frequency coupler having a coupled port and a terminated port, the radio frequency coupler configured to couple at least a portion of a transmission power of a transmission line coupled to the antenna tuner such that the coupled port carries a first signal indicative of an incident power transmitted to an antenna coupled to the antenna tuner and the terminated port carries a second signal indicative of a reflected power reflected by the antenna. the control path may also include a control module configured to communicate the one or more control signals to the antenna tuner for controlling the impedance of the antenna tuner based at least on the first signal and the second signal.

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a multi-tap integrated transformer may include one or more windings, wherein each of the one or more windings include at least one pair of primary taps for receiving at least one differential input signal, a first pair of secondary taps for outputting a first output signal, and a second pair of secondary taps for outputting a second output signal. The first and second output signals may be based on the at least one differential input signal and a mutual inductance between portions of the one or more windings associated with the at least one pair of primary taps, the first pair of secondary taps, and the second pair of secondary taps.

System and method for multiple band transmission

A multi-band RF transmitter circuit () for a wireless communication device combines a plurality of RF transmission blocks into a single transceiver integrated circuit which includes a shared broadband SVGA (), a shared tunable balun (), and an output switching network () at the output of the balun to support three different frequency bands. The outputs of the multi-band RF transmitter circuit are connected to separate external power amplifier circuits (-), where each power amplifier circuit generates an amplified signal for one of the plurality of predetermined frequency bands.

RF multiband transmitter with balun

Growing community of inventors

Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Amit D Bavisi