Energous Corporation

Howard Chan

Deepak Jain

Cesar A Johnston

Erik Heinke

Sean Nicolson

Mehdi Khanpour

Aras Pirbadian

An example method is provided for detecting and classifying foreign objects. The method includes after a predetermined period of time, for a zone of a plurality of zones, enabling a beacon signal, obtaining a set of electrical measurements, and disabling the beacon signal. The method also includes determining, based on the set of electrical measurements and a trained classifier, a status of the zone. The status of the zone indicates whether there is a presence of foreign objects within the zone of the plurality of zones. The method further includes in accordance with an indication that there is the presence of the foreign objects, forgo transmitting wireless power to one or more wireless power receivers. The method further includes in accordance with an indication that there is an absence of the foreign objects, transmitting wireless power to the one or more wireless power receivers.

Systems and methods for machine learning zone-based foreign object detection for wireless power transmission

A wireless power transmitting system includes a power amplifier comprising a plurality of measurement points and a power amplifier controller integrated circuit (IC). In some embodiments, the power amplifier controller IC performs synchronization of the various components of the power amplifier, conducts impedance and temperature measurements at the measurements points, determines if a foreign object is within the transmission range of the wireless power transmitter, and decides if a shutdown of the power amplifier is needed. In some embodiments, the power amplifier controller IC determines through a transmitter controller IC, the presence of a foreign object within the transmission range and adjusts the power transmission to one or more receivers.

Classifying and detecting foreign objects using a power amplifier controller integrated circuit in wireless power transmission systems

An example method is provided for detecting and classifying foreign objects, performed at a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs configured for execution by the one or more processors. The method includes obtaining a plurality of electrical measurements while a wireless-power-transmitting antenna is transmitting different power beacons. The method also includes forming a feature vector according to the plurality of electrical measurements. The method further includes detecting a presence of one or more foreign objects prior to transmitting wireless power to one or more wireless power receivers by inputting the feature vector to trained one or more classifiers, wherein each classifier is a machine-learning model trained to detect foreign objects distinct from the one or more wireless power receivers.

Systems and methods for machine learning based foreign object detection for wireless power transmission

A method of wireless power transmission is performed at a wireless-power-transmitting device having one or more antennas configured to transmit wireless-power signals, one or more processors, and a wireless data transceiver. The method comprises detecting that a wireless-power-receiving device is located in proximity to the wireless-power-transmitting device; establishing a data-traffic profile associated with the wireless-power-receiving device, the data-traffic profile including identifications of data signals to be exchanged over a predetermined frequency band between the wireless-power-receiving device and the wireless-power-transmitting device using the wireless data transceiver, determining windows of time during which to transmit wireless-power signals over the predetermined frequency band to the wireless-power-receiving device based on the data-traffic profile; and at the determined windows of time, transmitting, by the one or more antennas, wireless-power signals over the predetermined frequency band to the wireless-power-receiving device.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Howard Chan