Receiver unit of a wireless power transfer system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11316381-B2
Application number	US-201917048429-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 22, 2019
Priority date	Apr 19, 2018
Publication date	Apr 26, 2022
Grant date	Apr 26, 2022

Abstract

A receiver unit of a wireless power transfer system is presented. The receiver unit includes a main receiver coil, a plurality of auxiliary receiver coils disposed about a central axis of the main receiver coil, and a receiver drive subunit. The receiver drive subunit includes a main converter operatively coupled to the main receiver coil and having a main output terminal. The receiver drive subunit may include a plurality of auxiliary converters operatively coupled to the plurality of auxiliary receiver coils. The plurality of auxiliary converters may be operatively coupled to each other to form an auxiliary output terminal coupled in series to the main output terminal to form a common output terminal. In some implementations, the receiver drive unit may be formed on a substrate of an integrated electronic component. The integrated electronic component may further include a communication subunit and a controller disposed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A receiver unit of a wireless power transfer system, the receiver unit comprising:
a main receiver coil for receiving a wireless power signal having a first voltage from a transmitter unit;
one or more auxiliary receiver coils for receiving the wireless power signal having the first voltage from the transmitter unit; and
an integrated electronic component comprising:
a receiver drive subunit comprising:
a main converter operatively coupled to the main receiver coil, wherein the main converter comprises a main output terminal;

one or more auxiliary converters operatively coupled to the one or more auxiliary receiver coils, wherein the one or more auxiliary converters are operatively coupled to each other to form an auxiliary output terminal coupled in series to the main output terminal to form a common output terminal; and
a controller configured to determine one or more circuit parameters of the receiver drive subunit, the controller operatively coupled to at least one of the main output terminal, an alternating current terminal of the main converter, the common output terminal, or an alternating current terminal of the common output terminal.

2. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein one auxiliary converter of the one or more auxiliary converters is operatively coupled in parallel to another auxiliary converter of the one or more auxiliary converters.

3. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein one auxiliary converter of the one or more auxiliary converters is operatively coupled in series to another auxiliary converter of the one or more auxiliary converters.

4. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more auxiliary receiver coils is operatively coupled to a corresponding auxiliary converter of the one or more auxiliary converters.

5. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more auxiliary converters is at least one member selected from a group consisting of a passive rectifier, a hybrid rectifier, and an active rectifier.

6. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more auxiliary receiver coils is disposed on the main receiver coil.

7. The receiver unit of claim 6 , wherein the one or more auxiliary receiver coils is disposed on at least one member selected from a group consisting of a first surface, a second surface, and a peripheral side of the main receiver coil.

8. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more auxiliary receiver coils is at least one member selected from a group consisting of a circular shaped, an oval shaped, a square shaped, a triangular shaped, rectangular shaped, asymmetrical shaped, symmetrical shaped, and an elliptical shaped.

9. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more auxiliary receiver coils is disposed symmetrically about the central axis of the main receiver coil.

10. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the main receiver coil and the one or more auxiliary receiver coils is disposed on a ferrite layer.

11. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein the receiver unit is disposed on a printed circuit board.

12. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein the main receiver coil and the one or more auxiliary receiver coils are resonant coils.

13. The receiver unit of claim 1 , wherein the integrated electronic component further comprises:
a communication subunit operatively coupled to the main receiver, the one or more auxiliary receivers, and the controller;
wherein the controller is configured to
determine one or more circuit parameters corresponding to at least one of the common output terminal, the alternating current terminal of the main converter, or the alternating current terminals of the plurality of auxiliary converters; and
control at least the communication subunit based on the one or more circuit parameters.

14. The receiver unit of claim 13 , wherein the communication subunit is coupled to at least one member selected from a group consisting of the alternating current sensor of the main converter, the alternating current sensor of the one or more auxiliary converters, and the common output terminal.

15. The receiver unit of claim 13 , wherein the substrate comprises a silicon wafer.

16. The receiver unit of claim 13 , wherein the integrated electronic component comprises a plurality of first switches comprising at least one member selected from a group consisting of a diode, an insulated gate bipolar transistor, a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor, a field-effect transistor, an injection enhanced gate transistor, an integrated gate commutated thyristor, a gallium nitride based switch, a silicon carbide based switch, and a gallium arsenide based switch.

17. The receiver unit of claim 16 , wherein the communication subunit comprises at least one of at least one second switch and a demodulator.

18. The receiver unit of claim 17 , wherein the integrated electronic component further comprises a third switch coupled across the common output terminal.

19. The receiver unit of claim 13 , wherein the integrated electronic component is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a very large-scale integration (VLSI) chip, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS), or a system on chip (SoC).

20. A wireless power transfer system comprising:
a transmitter unit; and
a receiver unit operatively coupled to the transmitter unit, wherein the receiver unit comprises:
a main receiver coil;
a plurality of auxiliary receiver coils;

an integrated electronic component comprising:
a receiver drive subunit comprising:
a main converter operatively coupled to the main receiver coil, wherein the main converter comprises a main output terminal; and
a plurality of auxiliary converters operatively coupled to the plurality of auxiliary receiver coils, wherein the plurality of auxiliary converters is operatively coupled to each other to form an auxiliary output terminal coupled in series to the main output terminal to form a common output terminal;

a communication subunit operatively coupled to the receiver drive subunit and
a controller operatively coupled to at least one of the common output terminal, an alternating current terminal of the main converter, alternating current terminals of the plurality of auxiliary converters, or the communication subunit, wherein the controller is configured to:
determine one or more circuit parameters corresponding to at least one of the common output terminal, the alternating current terminal of the main converter, or the alternating current terminals of the plurality of auxiliary converters; and
control at least a communication subunit based on the one or more circuit parameters.

21. The wireless power transfer system of claim 20 , comprising a field focusing coil disposed between the transmitter unit and the receiver unit.

22. The wireless power transfer system of claim 20 , comprising a plurality of phase compensation coils configured to compensate a change in at least one of an impedance of the main receiver coil and a phase angle of current flowing through the main receiver coil.

23. The wireless power transfer system of claim 20 , wherein the transmitter unit comprises:
a transmitter coil; and
a transmitter drive subunit operatively coupled to the transmitter coil.

24. The wireless power transfer system of claim 23 , wherein the plurality of auxiliary receiver coils is configured to compensate a misalignment between the transm

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Kanakasabai Viswanathan
• Aravind Deepak
• Bhat Suma Memana Narayana
• Bohori Adnan Kutubuddin

Classifications

• H01F38/14 Primary

  Inductive couplings {(for wireless supply or distribution of electric power using inductive coupling H02J50/10)} · CPC title

• H02J50/40

  using two or more transmitting or receiving devices (H02J50/50 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02J50/402 Primary

  the two or more transmitting or the two or more receiving devices being integrated in the same unit, e.g. power mats with several coils or antennas with several sub-antennas · CPC title

• H02M7/4815

  Resonant converters (H02M7/4811 and H02M7/4826 take precedence) · CPC title

• H02M7/5387

  in a bridge configuration · CPC title