Apparatuses and methods to distinguish proprietary, non-floating and floating chargers for regulating charging currents

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9448259-B2
Application number	US-201414328093-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 10, 2014
Priority date	Jul 10, 2014
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods to distinguish proprietary, non-floating and floating chargers for regulating charging current are disclosed. In one aspect, a charger detection circuit is provided in a portable electronic device. The charger detection circuit is configured to detect whether a connected Universal Serial Bus (USB) charger is compliant with a USB battery charging specification. If the connected USB charger is non-compliant with the USB battery charging specification, the charger detection circuit is configured to further detect if the non-complaint USB charger is a non-compliant floating USB charger or a non-compliant proprietary USB charger. If the connected USB charger is determined to be a non-compliant proprietary USB charger, the portable electronic device can be configured to draw up to a maximum charging current according to the USB battery charging specification.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A Universal Serial Bus (USB) charger detection circuit, comprising:
a detection control circuit configured to initiate a timeout timer in response to receipt of a VBUS signal from a connected USB charger and generate a timeout output indicative of an expiration of the timeout timer; and
a comparison circuit configured to:
receive a data input signal based on a received USB data pin signal selected between a first data pin signal and a second data pin signal from the connected USB charger;
receive a reference signal generated in response to detection of the VBUS signal from the connected USB charger; and
generate a comparator output based on a comparison of the data input signal and the reference signal;

the detection control circuit is further configured to generate a detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being a proprietary USB charger if the comparator output indicates the data input signal is greater than the reference signal.

2. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein the detection control circuit is further configured to generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being the proprietary USB charger that is non-compliant with a USB battery charging specification.

3. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein the detection control circuit is configured to generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being the proprietary USB charger if the comparator output indicates a voltage of the data input signal is greater than a voltage of the reference signal.

4. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein the detection control circuit is further configured to generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being a floating USB charger, based on the timeout output indicating the expiration of the timeout timer and the comparator output indicating the data input signal is less than or equal to the reference signal.

5. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 4 , wherein the detection control circuit is further configured to generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being the floating USB charger, based on the comparator output indicating a voltage of the data input signal is less than or equal to a voltage of the reference signal.

6. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein:
the comparison circuit is further configured to:
selectively receive a second data input signal based on the second data pin signal from the connected USB charger; and
generate the comparator output based on a comparison of the second data input signal and the reference signal; and

the detection control circuit is further configured to:
generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being a first type proprietary USB charger if the comparator output indicates that the second data input signal is greater than the reference signal; and
generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being a second type proprietary USB charger different from the first type proprietary USB charger, if the comparator output indicates that the second data input signal is less than or equal to the reference signal.

7. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 4 , wherein the comparison circuit is further configured to:
selectively receive a second data input signal based on the second data pin signal from the connected USB charger; and
generate the comparator output based on a comparison of the second data input signal and the reference signal; and
the detection control circuit is further configured to generate the detection output indicative of the connected USB charger being a third type proprietary USB charger based on the timeout output indicating the expiration of the timeout timer and the comparator output indicating the second data input signal is greater than the reference signal.

8. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein the detection control circuit is further comprised of a timer circuit comprising the timeout timer having a timeout duration, the timer circuit configured to generate the timeout output indicative of the expiration of the timeout timer.

9. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 8 , wherein the timer circuit is implemented as a software function.

10. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 8 , wherein the timeout duration is up to a predetermined configurable upper limit.

11. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , further comprising:
an input switch configured to:
selectively receive the data input signal as either a first data input signal based on a received first data pin signal or a second data input signal based on a received second data pin signal based on a detection circuit selection output; and
provide the first data input signal or the second data input signal as the data input signal received by the comparison circuit;

the detection control circuit is further configured to generate the detection circuit selection output to control a selective receipt of the first data input signal based on the received first data pin signal or the second data input signal based on the received second data pin signal by the comparison circuit as the data input signal.

12. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , further comprising a first voltage detection circuit configured to generate a first data input signal based on a voltage measurement of the first data pin signal.

13. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 12 , wherein the first voltage detection circuit further comprises a pull down resistance (R DM _ DWN ) and a data contact detection source (I DM _ SRC ) configured to:
form a first electrical circuit with the connected USB charger for detecting the first data pin signal of the connected USB charger; and
tear down the first electrical circuit with the connected USB charger after detecting the first data pin signal of the connected USB charger.

14. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 12 , further comprising a second voltage detection circuit configured to generate a second data input signal based on a voltage measurement of the second data pin signal.

15. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 14 , wherein the second voltage detection circuit further comprises a pull down resistance (R DP _ DWN ) and a data contact detection source (I DM _ SRC ) configured to:
form a second electrical circuit with the connected USB charger for detecting the second data pin signal of the connected USB charger; and
tear down the second electrical circuit with the connected USB charger after detecting the second data pin signal of the connected USB charger.

16. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein the data input signal is based on the first data pin signal.

17. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 , wherein the data input signal is based on the second data pin signal.

18. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 6 , wherein a first data input signal is based on the first data pin signal generated from a D− pin of the connected USB charger, and the second data input signal is based on the second data pin signal generated over a D+ pin of the connected USB charger.

19. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 6 , wherein the reference signal is comprised of V DAT _ REF according to a battery charging specification.

20. The USB charger detection circuit of claim 1 integrated into a device selected from th

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Kulkarni Ameya
• Patnaik Devdutt
• Remple Terrence Brian
• Choi Jay Yu Jae
• Hamidi Madjid Abdul

Classifications

• H02J7/00

  Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries · CPC title

• G01R19/0092

  Measuring current only · CPC title

• G06F13/387 Primary

  for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system · CPC title

• H02J7/007

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02J7/0052

  Electricity · mapped topic