IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,336,116
Granted Patent B2
US 11,336,116 · App. 16/777,768 · Granted May 17, 2022

High precision signal measurement in wireless charging system

Inventors: William Paul Abajian (Napa, CA); Jules Marie Xavier Laffitte (San Mateo, CA); John MacDonald (San Francisco, CA); Viswajit Natarajan (San Jose, CA); Lixin Shi (Redwood City, CA); Jake Lee Vander Ploeg (San Francisco, CA); Xiaoping Zhu (Moraga, CA)
Assignee: AIRA, INC.
H02J50/10G01R23/16H01F38/14H02J7/02H02J50/12H02J50/40H02J50/402H02J50/80H02J50/90H04B5/0037
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,336,116
App. No.
16/777,768
Granted
May 17, 2022
Kind
B2
Abstract

A wireless charging system is configured to charge one or more receiver devices simultaneously. The wireless charging system includes multiple coils that may be driven independently based on a feedback system with one or more feedback channels. One of the feedback channels may be a voltage and/or current measurement of coil driving signals from the coils that are indicative of receiver device presences on the wireless charging system. A coil driving signal may be sampled and processed using discrete Fourier transform to determine amplitude and phase information of the signal.

Claims (28)

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising stored instructions to measure an amplitude and a phase of a signal of a coil driven at an operating frequency in a wireless charging system, the instructions when executed causing a microcontroller to:

select a first integer value and a second integer value, wherein the first integer value and the second integer value are coprime integers;

determine a ratio between the first integer value and the second integer value;

select a sampling frequency for sampling the signal, wherein a ratio between the sampling frequency and the operating frequency is same as the ratio between the first integer value and the second integer value;

sample the signal based on the selected sampling frequency to collect a plurality of signal samples;

calculate a value representative of the plurality of signal samples using a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) performed based in part on the first integer value and the second integer value; and

determine the amplitude and the phase of the signal based on the Fourier value.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the signal is a voltage across the coil or a current through the coil.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to transmit the signal to an op-amp circuit, the op-amp circuit configured to modify the signal to be in a predetermined range compatible with an analog-to-digital converter used to sample the signal.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein a number of samples in the plurality of signal samples corresponds to a multiple of the first integer.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein a number of samples in the plurality of signal samples is less than the first integer.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the amplitude is a root mean square of a magnitude of the value.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to modify an amplitude of the signal to be within a predetermined range for the sampling prior to sampling the signal based on the selected sampling frequency.

8. A wireless charging system comprising:

a coil driven by a signal at an operating frequency to wirelessly transfer power to a receiver device;

a coil measurement circuit configured to measure an amplitude and a phase of the signal of the coil; and

a microcontroller configured to:

select a first integer value and a second integer value, wherein the first integer value and the second integer value are coprime integers;

determine a ratio between the first integer value and the second integer value;

select a sampling frequency of the coil measurement circuit for sampling the signal, wherein a ratio between the sampling frequency and the operating frequency is same as the ratio between the first integer value and the second integer value;

receive, from the coil measurement circuit, a plurality of signal samples collected by sampling the signal at the selected sampling frequency;

calculate a value representative of the plurality of signal samples using a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) performed based in part on the first integer value and the second integer value; and

determine the amplitude and the phase of the signal based on the Fourier value.

9. The wireless charging system of claim 8 , wherein the signal is a voltage across the coil or a current through the coil.

10. The wireless charging system of claim 8 , wherein the signal is received by an op-amp circuit, the op-amp circuit configured to modify the signal to be in a predetermined range compatible with an analog-to-digital converter used to sample the signal.

11. The wireless charging system of claim 8 , wherein a number of samples in the plurality of signal samples corresponds to a multiple of the first integer.

12. The wireless charging system of claim 8 , wherein a number of samples in the plurality of signal samples is less than the first integer.

13. The wireless charging system of claim 8 , wherein the amplitude is a root mean square of a magnitude of the value.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 4, 2022
From: PI, INC.
To: AIRA, INC.
Reel/Frame 059489/0962 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 13, 2020
From: ABAJIAN, WILLIAM PAUL; LAFFITTE, JULES MARIE XAVIER; MACDONALD, JOHN; NATARAJAN, VISWAJIT; SHI, LIXIN; VANDER PLOEG, JAKE LEE; ZHU, XIAOPING
To: PI INC.
Reel/Frame 051817/0443 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62834919 · Apr 16, 2019
Related Publication 20200333387A1 · Oct 22, 2020