Battery structure and integration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9705115-B2
Application number	US-201213627944-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2012
Priority date	Jun 7, 2012
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

A portable electronic device is described. This portable electronic device includes an external housing with a cavity defined by an edge. A keyboard, having a front surface and a back surface, is disposed in the cavity with the front surface facing the external housing. Moreover, a tray is disposed over the back surface of the keyboard, and is mechanically coupled to the external housing adjacent to the edge. Furthermore, battery cells are mechanically coupled to an opposite side of the tray from the back surface of the keyboard. The tray may allow the battery cells to be removed from the portable electronic device without damaging the keyboard. In addition, the tray may increase the compression strength and/or the bending strength of the portable electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A portable electronic device, comprising:
a housing that carries operational components;
an input device carried by the housing;
a tray removably carried by the housing inside the housing, the tray comprising sidewalls capable of increasing an overall compressive strength of the portable electronic device, wherein the tray is removable from the housing without damaging either the housing or the input device; and
a battery cell arranged to store electrical energy for use by the operational components, wherein the battery cell is secured to a surface of the tray and is removable with the tray from the housing, wherein when the tray and the battery cell are removed and electrically detached from the portable electronic device, the portable electronic device remains operable.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising multiple battery cells that are secured to separate areas of the tray.

3. The portable electronic device of claim 2 , further comprising an interposer board, wherein the multiple battery cells are electrically connected to the interposer board and the interposer board is configured to provide a common ground for the multiple battery cells.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 3 , further comprising a battery-management circuit and a motherboard.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the interposer board is positioned between the battery management circuit and the motherboard.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the battery-management circuit is electrically coupled to the multiple battery cells and includes an integrated circuit with control logic configured to monitor the multiple battery cells and regulate charging and discharging of the multiple battery cells.

7. The portable electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the interposer board includes spring connectors for electrically connecting the battery management circuit and the motherboard.

8. The portable electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the battery-management circuit is configured to disable itself from subsequent use upon disconnection from the interposer board.

9. The portable electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the battery-management circuit is further configured to disable upon receipt of an instruction from the motherboard.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the instruction is transmitted via at least one spring connector of the spring connectors.

11. The portable electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the multiple battery cells include lithium-ion batteries.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 7 , wherein at least two spring connectors of the spring connectors have different height dimensions.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising: subsets of battery cells, wherein each subset of the subsets has a substantially equal capacity.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 13 , wherein each subset of the subsets includes battery cells of different dimensions.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 14 , further comprising a separate battery cell that is mechanically coupled to a surface of the housing and connected to a main power bus such that power is provided to the operational components when the tray is removed.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the input device is a keyboard that includes backlighting elements.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the sidewalls are adjacent to lateral sides of the at least one battery cell.

18. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the sidewalls extend away from the input device.

19. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the sidewalls are configured to increase a bending strength of the portable electronic device.

20. A base portion of a computer device having a display portion pivotally coupled to the base portion, the base portion comprising:
a housing;
a tray removably carried by the housing inside the housing, the tray having sidewalls that cooperate to define a cavity;
a first battery cell carried by the tray in the cavity; and
a second battery cell carried by the housing outside the tray,
wherein the first battery cell is removable with the tray from the housing without damaging either the housing or a component of the computer device, and the computer device remains operable when the first battery cell is removed and electrically detached from the computer device.

21. The base portion of claim 20 , wherein the first battery cell and the second battery cell are electrically coupled to a battery-management circuit.

22. The base portion of claim 21 , wherein the battery-management circuit is electrically coupled to a motherboard.

23. The base portion of claim 22 , wherein an interposer circuit board is positioned between the battery management circuit and the motherboard.

24. The base portion of claim 23 , wherein the interposer circuit board is configured to provide a common ground for the first battery cell and the second battery cell.

25. The base portion of claim 20 , wherein the battery management circuit regulates charging and discharging of the first and second battery cells.

26. The base portion of claim 20 , wherein the sidewalls increase an overall compressive strength of the computer device.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Hopkinson Ron A
• Degner Brett W
• Murphy Robert S
• Ligtenberg Christiaan A
• Casebolt Matthew P
• Arnold Peter M
• Knopf Eric A

Classifications

• H01M10/441 Primary

  for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title

• H01M10/482

  for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title

• H01M50/209

  adapted for prismatic or rectangular cells (H01M50/216 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M2/1066 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title