Hinge-Mounted Wireless Charging Coil for Thin Electronic Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for compact portable electronic devices poses a challenge in integrating wireless charging systems without increasing the overall height of these devices, as traditional wireless charging solutions often require additional space for charging coils, which conflicts with manufacturers' goals of maintaining a slim profile.
Innovation Solution
The integration of a wireless charging receiver coil into a hinge member of electronic devices, allowing the coil to be positioned externally and reducing the overall height by relocating it from the device's main members, while maintaining efficient energy transfer through alignment features and materials transparent or opaque to electromagnetic fields.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a wireless charging receiver coil is integrated into the main members of an electronic device, then wireless charging functionality is achieved, but the overall height or thickness of the device increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless charging receiver coil is extracted from the main members (base and lid) and relocated to the hinge member. This extraction removes the coil from the thickness-critical areas of the device, allowing the base and lid to maintain their original thin profiles while the hinge member accommodates the coil in a different spatial location.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution transitions the wireless charging coil from a two-dimensional integration within the plane of the base or lid to a three-dimensional placement within the hinge member structure. By utilizing the hinge member as a separate spatial dimension, the coil can be positioned without increasing the overall device thickness.
2Length of stationary object
If the wireless charging coil is relocated to the hinge member, then device thickness is reduced, but alignment and positioning complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment features are merged directly into the hinge member structure, integrating the positioning mechanism with the coil housing. This consolidation ensures that when the hinge member is assembled, the coil automatically aligns with the charging base through the integrated alignment features, reducing the need for separate alignment components or complex assembly procedures.
3Manufacturing precision
If alignment features are incorporated into the hinge member, then coil positioning precision is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment features utilize geometric parameters (protrusions and recesses) that can be directly formed during the hinge member manufacturing process. By changing the manufacturing approach to include these geometric features as integral parts of the hinge member structure, precise coil positioning is achieved without requiring additional manufacturing steps or complex assembly operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables wireless charging without increasing the device's thickness, allowing for a thinner profile while ensuring effective energy transfer and minimizing electromagnetic interference.
Implementation Method 1
Inductive charging or wireless charging uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two coils. Typically such charging is accomplished using a power supply coil or coils in a charging station to generate an electric field and an electronic device that includes one or more receiving coils. When the receiving coils are brought into the electric field produced by the charging station, energy is transferred, via the inductive coupling between the coils in the charging station and the coils in the device, to the electronic device.
Implementation Method 2
Magnetic resonance charging systems wirelessly transmit electrical energy between two coils tuned to resonate at the same frequency. Based on the principles of electromagnetic coupling, a resonance-based power supply uses an oscillating current in a highly resonant coil to create an oscillating electromagnetic field. A receiver coil having the same resonant frequency is able to receive energy from the electromagnetic field and convert the received energy into an electrical current.
Data Source
AI summary
A wireless energy transfer system includes an electronic device having at least two members, each housing at least a portion of the electronic device pivotably coupled via a number of hinges. A hinge member is disposed proximate at least some of the number of hinges. At least one receiver coil may be disposed in, on, or about the hinge member. Removing the receiver coil from the members housing the electronic device advantageously permits thinning of the members and a beneficial reduction in height of the electronic device. A power supply may include a number of power supply coils disposed in, on, or about a power supply member. Some or all of the power supply coils may wirelessly couple to the at least one receiver coil via an electromagnetic field and transfer energy to the electronic device when the electronic device is disposed proximate the power supply.