Electronic device with intelligent boot

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12197922-B2
Application number	US-202217945950-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2022
Priority date	Sep 15, 2022
Publication date	Jan 14, 2025
Grant date	Jan 14, 2025

Abstract

A system includes a processor, a charger circuit and a battery management unit (BMU). The charger circuit charges a battery. The BMU includes an intelligent boot module that can send a boot signal to the processor based on information including a battery condition and system information. The processor starts a boot sequence based on the boot signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a processor;
a charger circuit configured to charge a battery; and
a battery management unit (BMU) including an intelligent boot module,
wherein:
the intelligent boot module is configured to send a boot signal to the processor based on information including a battery condition and system information, the boot signal being sent based at least in part on a cell voltage of the battery being greater than a cutoff voltage by a predetermined value, and
the processor is configured to start a boot sequence based on the boot signal.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the battery condition includes one or more of a battery voltage, a battery current or a battery model, wherein the processor is further configured to:
initiate the boot sequence for a system boot based on a determination with the boot signal that the battery condition is sufficient to initiate the boot sequence based on a first confirmation that a state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery is greater than a battery charge level for the system boot and a second confirmation that a cell voltage of the battery is greater than the cutoff voltage by the predetermined value; and
send a command to the charger circuit to charge the battery based on a determination with the boot signal that the battery condition is not sufficient to initiate the boot sequence.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system information includes a charger circuit information, a system boot power information and the cutoff voltage.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the intelligent boot module is configured to receive a charger-connect indicator from the charger circuit to determine a state of connection of a charger to the charger circuit for reporting to a BMU process.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the intelligent boot module is configured to receive a high-power charger indicator from the processor to indicate that the charger is a high-power charger for reporting to the BMU process, wherein the high-power charger has a power of greater than about 10 Watts.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the intelligent boot module is configured to use the BMU process to determine a battery charge level for a system boot and compare that with a state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the intelligent boot module is further configured to receive the cutoff voltage as an effective SOC cutoff voltage from a shut-down process of the processor for reporting to the BMU process.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the intelligent boot module is configured to make a first confirmation that the determined battery charge level for the system boot is compatible with the SOC of the battery.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the intelligent boot module is further configured to make a second confirmation that the cell voltage of the battery is greater than the effective SOC cutoff voltage by the predetermined value.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the intelligent boot module is configured to send the boot signal to the processor based on the first confirmation and the second confirmation.

11. An electronic device comprising:
a charger circuit configured to receive current from a charger and charge a battery; and
a processor,
wherein:
the processor is configured to start a boot sequence based on a decision formed based on information including a condition of the battery and additional device information, the boot sequence being started based at least in part on a cell voltage of the battery being greater than a cutoff voltage by a predetermined value.

12. The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the condition of the battery includes, a battery voltage, a battery current and a battery model, and the additional device information includes a charger circuit information, a system boot power information and the cutoff voltage.

13. The electronic device of claim 11 , further comprising a battery management unit (BMU), wherein the decision is made by the BMU configured to receive a charger-connect indicator from the charger circuit to determine a state of connection of the charger to the charger circuit.

14. The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the BMU is configured to receive a high-power charger indicator from the processor to indicate that the charger is a high-power charger, wherein the high-power charger has a power of greater than about 10 Watts.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the BMU is configured to use a BMU process to determine a battery charge level for a system boot based on the charger-connect indicator and the high-power charger indicator and compare the determined battery charge level with a SOC of the battery.

16. The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the BMU is further configured to receive the cutoff voltage as an effective state-of-charge (SOC) cutoff voltage from a shut-down process of the processor for reporting to the BMU process.

17. The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the BMU is configured to make a first confirmation that the determined battery charge level for the system boot is compatible with the SOC of the battery and a second confirmation that the cell voltage of the battery is greater than the effective SOC cutoff voltage by the predetermined value and send a boot signal to the processor based on the first confirmation and the second confirmation.

18. A process implemented by a processor, the process comprising:
receiving a charger-connect indicator from a charger circuit and determining a state of connection of a charger to the charger circuit based on the charger-connect indicator;
receiving a high-power charger indicator from the processor indicating that the charger is a high-power charger;
determining a battery charge level for a system boot based on the charger-connect indicator and the high-power charger indicator;
making a first confirmation that the determined battery charge level is greater than a state-of-charge (SOC) of a battery; and
making a second confirmation that a cell voltage of the battery is greater than an effective SOC cutoff voltage by a margin corresponding to a hysteresis of the effective SOC cutoff voltage.

19. The process of claim 18 , further comprising receiving the effective SOC cutoff voltage from a shut-down process of the processor.

20. The process of claim 19 , further comprising starting a boot process based on the first confirmation and the second confirmation.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• He Wei
• Kim Eugene
• Liu Guangyu
• Lee Suhak

Classifications

• H02J7/82 Primary

  Control of state of charge [SOC] · CPC title

• G06F9/4403 Primary

  Processor initialisation · CPC title

• G06F9/4401

  Bootstrapping (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• H02J7/0048

  Electricity · mapped topic