US 12,476,490 B2
Device sensing and charging using networked coils
Kaushik Chowdhury, Needham, MA (US); and Yousof Naderi, Brookline, MA (US)
Assigned to Northeastern University, Boston, MA (US)
Appl. No. 17/766,325
Filed by Northeastern University, Boston, MA (US)
PCT Filed Oct. 2, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/053937
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 4, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/067692, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 8, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/943,870, filed on Dec. 5, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/910,613, filed on Oct. 4, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2024/0063665 A1, Feb. 22, 2024
Int. Cl. H02J 50/12 (2016.01); B64U 50/35 (2023.01); H02J 50/10 (2016.01); H02J 50/40 (2016.01); H02J 50/90 (2016.01); B64U 50/37 (2023.01)
CPC H02J 50/12 (2016.02) [B64U 50/35 (2023.01); H02J 50/10 (2016.02); H02J 50/402 (2020.01); H02J 50/90 (2016.02); B64U 50/37 (2023.01); B64U 2201/10 (2023.01); H02J 2310/44 (2020.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A dynamically configurable wireless charging system comprising:
one or more master transmitter tiles, each master tile comprising a coil and configured to couple to a power source;
a plurality of slave transmitter tiles respectively comprising coils coupled to configurable impedance-matching circuits and respectively positioned to magnetically couple to at least one other slave transmitter tile of the plurality of slave transmitter tiles, with at least one slave transmitter tile positioned to magnetically couple to one of the master transmitter tiles; and
a controller, communicatively coupled to master and slave transmitter tiles of the plurality of transmitter tiles, and configured to:
select a subset of the plurality of slave transmitter tiles, optionally excluding some of the plurality of slave transmitter tiles, to define a path from the master transmitter tile to a chargeable device in proximity to a cluster of one or more slave transmitter tiles of the plurality of slave transmitter tiles; and
control the power source configurations in each master tile and respective impedance-matching circuits of the subset of slave transmitter tiles to form a chain of wireless magnetic resonance power transmission from the master transmitter tile to the chargeable device.