Inductive coupling for battery sharing and multi-function inductive antenna

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9407333-B2
Application number	US-201414528883-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2014
Priority date	Oct 30, 2014
Publication date	Aug 2, 2016
Grant date	Aug 2, 2016

Abstract

A mobile device includes a housing and an antenna. The mobile device further includes a power-receiving circuit, and power-transmitting circuit, and a short-range communications circuit. The antenna performs multiple functions in that it is shared by the power-receiving circuit, the power-transmitting circuit and the short-range communications circuit. Each of the three circuits is selectively connectable to the antenna. The mobile device is configured to participate in a mobile-to-mobile battery-charge-sharing operation via inductive coupling from mobile device to mobile device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A mobile device comprising:
a housing;
an antenna contained and/or supported by the housing and including a plurality of loops;
a power-receiving circuit contained by the housing, said power-receiving circuit selectively connectable to the antenna;
a power-transmitting circuit contained in the housing, said power-transmitting circuit selectively connectable to the antenna;
a short-range communications circuit contained in the housing and selectively connectable to the antenna, the short-range communications circuit for sending and/or receiving data communications signals via the antenna; and
switching circuitry coupled to the antenna, the power-receiving circuit, the power-transmitting circuit and the short-range communications circuit such that:
when the power-receiving circuit is connected to the antenna, the power-receiving circuit is effectively coupled to a first number of said loops of the antenna;
when the power-transmitting circuit is connected to the antenna, the power-transmitting circuit is effectively coupled to a second number of said loops of the antenna; and
when the short-range communications circuit is connected to the antenna, the short-range communications circuit is effectively coupled to a third number of said loops of the antenna;
said first, second and third numbers of antenna loops not all being equal to each other.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the short-range communications circuit is configured to engage in data communications in accordance with the NFC (near field communications) standard.

3. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the antenna is a first antenna; the mobile device further comprising:
a second antenna contained and/or supported by the housing; and
a voice communications transceiver circuit contained in the housing and coupled to the second antenna.

Assignees

• Mastercard International Inc

Inventors

• Phillips Simon
• Johnson Alan
• Collins Simon

Classifications

• H02J7/342

  The other DC source being a battery actively interacting with the first one, i.e. battery to battery charging (with circuits for polarity protection H02J7/68) · CPC title

• H02J50/10

  using inductive coupling · CPC title

• H02J50/80

  involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04B1/3883

  Arrangements for mounting batteries or battery chargers · CPC title