Integrated Device Technology, Inc.

Intersil Americas Inc.

Renesas Electronics America Inc.

Advanced Analogic Technologies Incorporated

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Gustavo James Mehas

Nicholaus Wayne Smith

Tao Qi

James William Leith

Rui Liu

Brandon Day

Lijie Zhao

Pooja Agrawal

Zhitong Guo

Tae Kwang Park

Naveen Kumar Jain

Amit D Bavisi

Jayant Vivrekar

Siqiang Fan

Xiaole Chen

Damla Solmaz Acar

Giovanni Figliozzi

Chan Young Jeong

Kevin Peter D'Angelo

Michael Jason Houston

Chun Cheung

Sandeep Agarwal

Jiangjian Huang

David Wilson

Daryl Sugasawara

Mihail Jefremow

Vladimir N Vitchev

Andrew Whyte

Xinyun Gu

Atul Wokhlu

Aihua Lee

Jure Menart

Ashley De Wolfe

Wei P Chen

John M Pigott

Weihong Qiu

Bogdan M Duduman

Bruce Lee Inn

Detelin Borislavov Martchovsky

Anthonius Bakker

Chris T Burket

Adam Matthew Bumgarner

Gerrit Van Der Horn

Amit Dharmendra Bavisi

Changjae Kim

Marcin Kamil Augustyniak

Richard Visee

Shying D Chen

Daryl Jay Sugasawara

Tianze Kan

Laurence McGarry

Xintian Shi

Francesco Santoro

Systems and methods for demodulating a signal is described. A device can receive a modulated signal that encodes data. The device can sample a voltage of the modulated signal to generate a plurality of samples in digital domain. The device can determine in-phase data and quadrature data of the plurality of samples. The device can determine amplitude data and phase data based on the in-phase data and the quadrature data. The device can decode the amplitude data and phase data into digital symbols that represent the data encoded in the modulated signal.

Quadrature communication for wireless power transfer

A method and a system may inductively determine a position of a display screen of a computing device. Associated processes may generate a magnetic field by providing an alternating current to a driver coil, and may generate a voltage at a sensor coil in response to the magnetic field. The system and method may additionally include determining a linear position of the display screen by executing an algorithm at a processor. An input to the algorithm may include voltage data associated with the voltage generated at the sensor coil. The linear position of the display screen may correspond to a size of the display screen between a minimum size and a maximum size.

Display screen position sensing using inductive sensing

Systems and methods for phase demodulation is described. A wireless power transmitter can include a controller, a transmission coil, and an integrated circuit connected to the controller and the transmission coil. The integrated circuit can be configured to measure a voltage of a transmission coil of a wireless power transmitter. The integrated circuit can be further configured to generate, based on the measured voltage, a pulse signal comprising a plurality of pulses. The integrated circuit can be further configured to send the pulse signal to the controller of the wireless power transmitter. The controller can be configured to perform phase demodulation using the pulse signal.

Phase demodulation using pulse signal

In an embodiment, a semiconductor device is disclosed that includes at least one processing device and firmware including a dynamic demodulation engine. The dynamic demodulation engine, when executed by the at least one processing device, is configured to obtain a digital signal waveform, dynamically select a bit detection method based at least in part on a characteristic of the digital signal waveform, perform demodulation of the digital signal waveform using the selected bit detection method and generate decoded packets based at least in part on the demodulation.

Digital demodulation for wireless power

A wireless transmitter coordinates changes in the transmitter's input or output voltages with changes in the transmitter's operating frequency to counteract the transmitter's output power changes while changing the voltages. When the voltages are being increased, the output frequency is moved away from the resonant frequency. Consequently, the output power increase due to the increased voltages is restrained by the frequency change. Before or after the voltage increase, increased output power can be obtained by changing the output frequency while the input and output voltages are held constant or near constant. Some embodiments follow similar procedures when reducing the transmitter's input or output voltages. Calibration is performed before power transfer to determine suitable voltage and frequency profiles for voltage change operations. Other features are also provided.

Coordinating voltage and frequency changes in wireless power transfer

Systems and methods for calibrating a wireless power transmitter is described. A wireless power transmitter can include a controller and an amplifier module. The amplifier module can include an amplifier configured to amplify a voltage converted from a current proportional to power consumed by a wireless power transmitter, and a circuit connected to the amplifier. The circuit can be configured to receive a control signal from the controller. The circuit can be further configured to perform time division multiplexing on an output of the amplifier according to the control signal. A time division multiplexed output of the amplifier can include calibration data of the amplifier. The amplifier can be configured to output the time division multiplexed output to the controller.

Calibration and synchronization of ground current sensing amplifier with wireless power transmitter controller

According to some embodiments, a wireless power transmitter is presented. In some embodiments, a wireless power transmitter includes a charging table; a plurality of movable transmitter coils incorporated into the charging table; and a control circuit coupled to sensors in the charging table and to the plurality of movable coils. In some embodiments, the control circuit is configured to detect a device placed on the charging table, determine a position of the device, move at least one of the plurality of movable transmitter coils to engage the device, communicate with the device to determine device characteristics, further configure the plurality of movable coils to engage with the device, and engage the device according to the device characteristics.

Universal wireless charging surface

In an embodiment, a wireless power transmitter is disclosed that includes a first field-effect transistor, a second field-effect transistor a coil and an analog front end. The wireless power transmitter is configured to drive the coil based at least in part on activations of the first and second field-effect transistors. The analog front end includes a first driver corresponding to the first field-effect transistor and being configured to control activation of the first field-effect transistor based at least in part on a pulse-width modulation signal and a second driver corresponding to the second field-effect transistor and being configured to control activation of the second field-effect transistor based at least in part on the pulse-width modulation signal.

PWM control of analog front end

In an embodiment, a semiconductor device is disclosed that comprises a multiplexer. The multiplexer is configured to receive signals from each of a plurality of transmission coils of a wireless power transmitter as inputs and to output an output signal based at least in part on one of the signals. The semiconductor device further comprises an attenuator connected to the multiplexer that is configured to adjust a voltage of the output signal. The attenuator comprises a variable resistance. The semiconductor device further comprises a plurality of pull down circuits each corresponding to one of the transmission coils. The pull down circuits are configured to selectively clamp the signals received from the corresponding transmission coils to ground.

Wireless power transmitter implementing multiplexing for monitoring circuitry in a semiconductor device

A wireless power transmitter pulses the transmit power level unresponsively to the wireless power receiver's power requests in order to perform foreign object detection (FOD). The FOD is performed by the transmitter analyzing the receiver's responses to the pulsed power. Some embodiments avoid mistaking FOD for coil misalignment. Other features are also provided.

Foreign object detection using wireless power receiver's response to modified transmitter behavior

Methods and systems for determining a position of a structure using inductive position sensing are described. In an example, a processor may receive a plurality of data points representing a plurality of voltages. The plurality of voltages may be generated by a plurality of sensor coils based on a magnetic flux field. The magnetic flux field may be generated by a plurality of driver coils, and the plurality of voltages may vary with changes in the magnetic flux field. The processor may calibrate the plurality of data points to generate a plurality of calibrated data points. The processor may filter the plurality of calibrated data points. The processor may estimate a position of the structure based on the filtered calibrated data points, where the position of the structure may indicate a size of a size changing device.

Adaptive position detection for inductive linear position sensing

A current sensing circuit and a minimum operating frequency for a wireless power transmission system is presented. A method of measuring current through a wireless power transmit coil, includes receiving a signal from a switching circuit into a sampling circuit; filtering the sampled signal from the sampling circuit; biasing the filtered sampled signal, wherein the biasing occurs only when the sampling circuit is active; and amplifying the biased signal to provide a transmit coil current signal. A method of measuring current through a wireless power transmit coil, includes receiving a signal from a switching circuit into a sampling circuit; filtering the sampled signal from the sampling circuit; biasing the filtered sampled signal, wherein the biasing occurs only when the sampling circuit is active; and amplifying the biased signal to provide a transmit coil current signal.

Wireless power charging

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

According to some embodiments, a wireless power transmitter is disclosed. The wireless power transmitter can include a plurality of transmission coils arranged to cover a charging area and coupled with a ferrite; a plurality of local power controllers, each of the plurality of local power controllers coupled to drive a subset of the plurality of transmission coils, each subset of the plurality of transmission coils including a plurality of the plurality of transmission coils; and a microcontroller unit (MCU) coupled to the plurality of local power controllers, the microcontroller unit including a MCU processor executing instructions to designate states of each of the plurality of transmission coils, the states including active, de-active, and selected for receiver detection, and executing instructions to transmit instructions to each of the plurality of local power controllers in accordance with the state designations.

Multi-coil PTX/PRX operation and control

Growing community of inventors

Mercer Island, WA, United States of America

Gustavo James Mehas