TWI422113B - Portable electronic device - Google Patents

Description

Portable electronic device

The present invention relates to a portable electronic device, and more particularly to a charging technology for a battery in the portable electronic device.

Portable electronic devices typically provide power from a battery. When the battery is exhausted, it usually needs to be charged by the charger, or it can be connected to a computer host by the universal serial bus (USB) port on the portable electronic device.

However, the user may find that the portable electronic device needs to be charged without any charging tools at hand. For example, when I was in contact with the public, I suddenly found that my mobile phone had no electricity, but I needed the address book information. Therefore, how to make the "charging" action more mobile is a problem that has been studied in the technical field.

The invention discloses a portable electronic device, which comprises: a first battery, an inter-charge port, and an inter-charge module. The mutual charging port is configured to be coupled to another portable electronic device to receive power of the second battery of the one of the other portable electronic devices, or output the power of the first battery to the other portable device The second battery of the electronic device. The inter-charge module is coupled between the first battery and the inter-charge port for comparing the power of the first battery with the power of the second battery. When the power of the second battery is greater than the power of the first battery, the mutual charging module transmits power of the second battery to the first battery to charge the first battery. When the power of the second battery is less than the power of the first battery, the mutual charging module outputs the power of the first battery to the second battery of the other portable electronic device via the mutual charging port, to The second battery is charged.

The above-mentioned inter-charge port technology can be implemented by using a universal serial bus port commonly used on mobile phones, or by separately making independent metal contacts (metal contacts not included in any known port technology).

A number of embodiments and related illustrations are listed below to aid in understanding the invention.

The following content includes various embodiments of the invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The actual scope of the invention should still be based on the description of the scope of the patent application.

FIG. 1 illustrates an application of the portable electronic device of the present invention, in which two portable electronic devices 102 and 104 are connected, so that a device with higher power can charge a device with weaker power. The portable electronic device 102 includes a battery 106, an inter-charge module 108, and an inter-charge port 110. The inter-charge module 108 is coupled between the battery 106 and the inter-charge port 110. The portable electronic device 104 includes a battery 112, an inter-charge module 114, and an inter-charge port 116. The inter-charge module 114 is coupled between the battery 112 and the inter-charge port 116. As shown, the interfill ports 110 and 116 enable the portable electronic devices 102 and 104 to be coupled together. The above-mentioned mutual charging module and the mutual charging port are designed such that the batteries 106 and 112 of the portable electronic devices 102 and 104 are transmitted to the other party for use. For example, the power of the battery 112 of the portable electronic device 104 can be input to the portable electronic device 102 from the mutual charging port 110, and then transmitted to the battery 106 via the mutual charging module 108 to charge the battery 106.

Figure 2 further illustrates a structure of a portable electronic device. As shown, the interfill ports (110, 116) are implemented in a universal serial bus (USB) port. The power supply pin VBUS of the two-way universal serial bus port (110, 116) is used as a transmission conduit for the battery (106, 112) power.

For convenience of description, the following description mainly takes one of the portable electronic devices 102 as an example, and the other portable electronic device 104 can be implemented in a similar structure. Referring to FIG. 2 , the mutual charging module 108 of the portable electronic device 102 includes at least a charging switch 202 , a current limiting circuit 204 , an inter-charge controller 206 , a power supply switch 208 , and a protection circuit 210 . The power of the battery 112 of the portable electronic device 104 is received by the power pin VBUS of the universal serial bus. The charging switch 202 and the current limiting circuit 204 are configured to couple the power pin VBUS of the universal serial bus port 110 to the battery 106. Whether the charging switch 202 is turned on or not is determined by the mutual charge controller 206. As shown, the inter-charge controller 206 is coupled between the battery 106 and the power supply pin VBUS of the universal serial bus port 110 for receiving the power of the battery 106 and the power supply pin VBUS of the universal serial bus port 110. Battery 112 power comparison. If the power of the battery 112 is greater than the battery 106, the mutual charge controller 206 turns on the charging switch 202 with the control signal CSA[0], and does not turn on the power supply switch 208 with the control signal CSA[1], so that the universal serial bus port 110 power supply pin The battery 112 power received by the bit VBUS is capable of charging the battery 106 via the path of the charge switch 202 and the current limiting circuit 204. In other embodiments, the charge switch 202 can be located within the current limiting circuit 204 to conduct or not conduct the charging path.

In addition, the mutual charging module 108 is also used to transmit the power of the battery 106 to the power pin VBUS of the universal serial bus port 110 to output the battery 106 power to the portable electronic device 104. Referring to FIG. 2 , with respect to this embodiment, the mutual charging module 108 includes a power supply switch 208 and a protection circuit 210 for coupling the battery 106 to the universal serial bus port 110 power pin VBUS. The protection circuit 210 can be implemented by a diode to prevent improper current from being drawn into the battery 106 via the current path provided by the power switch 208. In this embodiment, the intercharge controller 206 is further designed to control the power switch 208. For example, after comparing the power of the battery 106 with the power of the battery 112 received by the power supply pin VBUS of the universal serial bus port 110, the mutual charge controller 206 may use the control signal if the power of the battery 112 is found to be lower than the power of the battery 106. The CSA[1] turns on the power supply switch 208, and does not turn on the charging switch 202 with the control signal CSA[0], so that the power of the battery 106 can be transmitted to the power supply pin of the universal serial bus port 110 via the path of the protection circuit 210 and the power supply switch 208. The VBUS is for the portable electronic device 104 to charge the battery 112 therein. In other embodiments, the power switch 208 can be located within the protection circuit 210 to turn the power supply path on or off.

With regard to the connection cable between the universal sequence busbars 110 and 116, the present invention further proposes a universal serial busbar cable (as shown in FIG. 3). The universal serial bus bar can be designed as a male end at both ends. In this way, the general continuation bus bars 110 and 116 of FIG. 2 can be both female designs. In addition, the general-purpose serial bus cable of Figure 3 has a special design, in which the ID pin (ID) is short-circuited to the ground pin (GND), and its D+ pin (D+) and D-pin (D-). Short circuit.

Returning to FIG. 2, based on the cable design of FIG. 3, the mutual charge controller 206 can be designed to be more coupled to the ID pin (ID), D+ pin (D+), D-foot of the serial bus port 110. Bit (D-) and ground pin (GND) to determine whether the cable connected to the universal serial bus port 110 is the special design cable shown in Figure 3 (the ID pin is shorted to the GND pin and D+ Short circuit with D-pin). If the universal sequence bus port 110 is connected to the universal sequence bus bar shown in FIG. 3, the mutual charge controller 206 can control the signal CSA[1] to turn on the power switch 208, so that the power of the battery 106 can be transmitted to the universal sequence. Bus port 110 power pin VBUS. The mutual charge controller 212 in the portable electronic device 104 can thus know the potential of the battery 106 and compare the potential of the battery 106 with the potential of the battery 112 to output a control signal CSB[0] and a CSB[1] to the charging switch 214. Control is provided with the power switch 216. Based on the similar operation, the inter-charge controller 212 of the portable electronic device 104 turns on the power switch 216 when it is determined that the universal sequence bus port 116 is connected to the cable of the third figure, so that the power of the battery 112 can be borrowed from the universal sequence. The power supply port VBUS is transmitted to the mutual charge controller 206 of the portable electronic device 102, so that the mutual charge controller 206 can compare the power of the batteries 106 and 112 to provide the control signals CSA[0] and CSA. [1] The charging switch 202 and the power supply switch 208 are operated.

Looking at the operation of all the components shown in Fig. 2, the arrangement is as follows. When the universal serial bus ports 110 and 116 are connected by the cable shown in FIG. 3, the mutual charge controllers 206 and 212 respectively detect the link and temporarily turn on the power switches 208 and 216, respectively. The portable electronic devices 102 and 104 can thus transmit their own battery (106 and 112) power information to the other party for potential comparison operations. After the mutual charge controllers 206 and 212 perform the potential comparison, the conduction/non-conduction states of the charging switch 202, the power supply switch 208, the charging switch 214, and the power supply switch 216 are controlled to set the charging/power supply path. If the power of the battery 106 is less than the power of the battery 112, the charging switch 202 is turned on, the power supply switch 208 is not turned on, and the charging switch 214 is not turned on, and the power supply switch 216 is turned on, so that the battery 112 can be charged with the battery 106. If the condition is reversed, the battery 106 power is greater than the battery 112 power, the charging switch 202 is not turned on, the power supply switch 208 is turned on, and the charging switch 214 is turned on, and the power supply switch 216 is not turned on, so that the battery 106 power can charge the battery 112.

Figure 4 further illustrates another structure of the portable electronic device. As shown, the inter-charge ports (110, 116) are implemented in another manner. For convenience of description, the following description mainly takes one of the portable electronic devices 102 as an example, and the other portable electronic device 104 can be implemented in a similar structure.

Referring to FIG. 4, the interfill port 110 includes at least one charge contact pad 410. The battery 112 power of the portable electronic device 104 will be input to the portable electronic device 102 from the charging contact pad 410. The charge contact pad 410 can be a metal contact piece that is separately designed on the outer casing of the portable electronic device 102 and is not built into any conventional connection port (for example, the universal serial bus port of FIG. 2).

In conjunction with the design of the charging contact pad 410, the portable electronic device 102 can be specially designed in its mutual charging port 110 and the mutual charging module 108. As shown, the inter-charge port 110 can further include a wireless communication interface 404, and the inter-charge module 108 can further include a current limiting circuit 406 and an inter-charge controller 408. The wireless communication interface 404 will receive the battery 112 power information transmitted by the portable electronic device 104 in a wireless communication manner. The current limiting circuit 406 is configured to couple the charging contact pad 410 to the battery 106, and the switch (not shown) in the current limiting circuit 406 is controlled by the mutual charge controller 408 to control the conduction state of the current limiting circuit 406. The inter-charge controller 408 is coupled between the battery 106 and the wireless communication interface 404 for comparing the battery 106 power with the battery 112 power information received by the wireless communication interface 404. If the power of the battery 112 is greater than the power of the battery 106, the mutual charge controller 408 turns on the current limiting circuit 406 with the control signal CSA to enable the battery 112 received by the charging contact pad 410 to charge the battery 106.

In addition, the embodiment of FIG. 4 further designs a power supply path for outputting the battery 106 of the portable electronic device 102 to the battery 112 of the portable electronic device 104. As shown, the mutual charging module 108 can further include a protection circuit 412 for coupling the battery 106 to the charging contact pad 410 to output the battery 106 power to the portable electronic device 104 to charge the battery 112.

In addition, the wireless communication interface 404 can transmit the power information of the battery 106 to the portable electronic device 102 in a wireless communication manner for the portable electronic device 104 to receive and use.

In addition, regarding the connection of the portable electronic devices 102 and 104, the embodiment of FIG. 4 is further designed with a magnetic induction method. As shown, the inter-charge port 110 of the portable electronic device 102 further includes a magnet 414 and a magnetic sensor 416. When the charging contact pad 410 is coupled to the charging contact pad 420 of the portable electronic device 104, the magnet 414 and the magnetic sensor 416 on the portable electronic device 102 are respectively aligned with the magnetic sensor 422 on the portable electronic device 104. And a magnet 424. The magnetic sensors 416 and 422 respectively output the connection prompts MA and MB. Taking the portable electronic device 102 as an example, the connection prompt MA will drive the mutual charge controller 408 to initiate an inter-charge operation: comparing the power of the batteries 106 and 112 to generate a control signal CSA conducting or not conducting the current limiting circuit 406 and the protection circuit 412. . The link prompt MB also drives the inter-charge controller 426 to initiate its inter-charge operation. In this embodiment, the control signal CSA can turn on or off the current limiting circuit 406 and the protection circuit 412 by controlling the switches in the current limiting circuit 406 and the protection circuit 412. Alternatively, the control signal CSA can be used to control the current limiting circuit 406 and the switch outside the protection circuit 412 (such as the power supply switch 208 and the charging switch 202 of FIG. 2) to turn on or off the current limiting circuit 406 and the protection circuit 412.

The interaction of all the elements of the embodiment of Figure 4 is organized as follows. After the portable electronic devices 102 and 104 are connected in the manner shown in FIG. 4, the magnetic sensors 416 and 422 respectively provide the connection prompts MA and MB to the mutual charge controllers 408 and 426 to drive the mutual charge controllers 408 and 426. The power of batteries 106 and 112. If the power of the battery 106 is higher than the power of the battery 112, the control signal CSA generated by the mutual charge controller 408 will cause the current limiting circuit 406 to be non-conducting and the protection circuit 412 to be turned on, and the control signal CSB generated by the mutual charge controller 426 will The current limiting circuit 428 is turned on and the protection circuit 430 is not turned on, so that the power of the battery 106 can flow out through the protection circuit 412 to supply the charging contact pad 410 and then flow into the charging contact pad 420 to be transferred from the current limiting circuit 428 to the battery 112 for charging. On the other hand, if the power of the battery 106 is lower than the power of the battery 112, the control signal CSA generated by the mutual charge controller 408 causes the current limiting circuit 406 to be turned on and the protection circuit 412 is not turned on, and the control signal generated by the mutual charge controller 426 is generated. The CSB will cause the current limiting circuit 428 to be non-conducting and the protection circuit 430 to be turned on, so that the power of the battery 112 can flow out through the protection circuit 430 to supply the charging contact pad 420 and then flow into the charging contact pad 410 to be transferred by the current limiting circuit 406 to the battery 106 for charging.

The various embodiments described above are intended to aid in the understanding of the invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Please refer to the following patent application scope for the scope of this case.

102, 104. . . Portable electronic device

106, 112. . . battery

108, 114. . . Mutual charging module

110, 116. . . Intercharge port

202, 214. . . Charging switch

204, 406, 428. . . Current limiting circuit

206, 212, 408, 426. . . Intercharge controller

208, 216. . . Power switch

210, 412, 430. . . protect the circuit

404. . . Wireless communication interface

410, 420. . . Charging contact pad

414, 424. . . magnet

416, 422. . . Magnetic sensor

CSA, CSA[0], CSA[1], CSB, CSB[0], CSB[1]. . . control signal

MA, MB‧‧‧ link reminder

The first diagram illustrates an application of the portable electronic device of the present invention;

Figure 2 further illustrates a structure of a portable electronic device;

Figure 3 illustrates a universal sequence bus cable applied to Figure 2;

Figure 4 further illustrates another structure of the portable electronic device.

102, 104. . . Portable electronic device

106. . . battery

108. . . Mutual charging module

110. . . Intercharge port

112. . . battery

114. . . Mutual charging module

as well as

116. . . Intercharge port

Claims (14)

A portable electronic device includes: a first battery; an inter-charge port for connecting with another portable electronic device to receive power of a second battery of the other portable electronic device, or Outputting the power of the first battery to the second battery of the other portable electronic device; an inter-charge module coupled between the first battery and the mutual charging port, the mutual charging module having An intercharge controller, a current limiting circuit and a protection circuit, wherein the mutual charge controller is configured to compare the power of the first battery with the power of the second battery; wherein: when the power of the second battery is greater than the When the power of the first battery is, the power of the second battery received by the mutual charging port charges the first battery via the current limiting circuit; and when the power of the second battery is less than the power of the first battery The power of the first battery is transmitted to the intercharge port via the protection circuit to charge the second battery. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the mutual charging port is a universal serial bus port, and a power pin of the universal serial bus port is configured to receive power of the second battery. . The portable electronic device of claim 2, wherein the mutual charging module further comprises a charging switch for coupling the power pin to the first battery; The mutual charge controller turns on the charging switch when the power of the second battery is greater than the power of the first battery, so that the first battery is charged via the current limiting circuit using the power of the second battery. The portable electronic device of claim 3, wherein the mutual charging module further comprises a power supply switch for coupling the first battery to the power pin; and the mutual charge controller is further The power switch is turned on when the power of the second battery is lower than the power of the first battery, so that the power of the first battery is transmitted to the power pin via the protection circuit to charge the second battery. The portable electronic device of claim 4, wherein the universal serial bus port is connected to the other portable electronic device by a universal serial bus, the universal serial bus cable One ID pin is shorted to a ground pin, and one D+ pin is shorted to a D-pin. The portable electronic device of claim 5, wherein the mutual charge controller is further coupled to a first ID pin of the universal serial bus port, a first D+ pin, and a first D a pin and a first ground pin to determine whether the universal serial bus port is connected to the other portable electronic device by the universal serial bus. The portable electronic device of claim 6, wherein the mutual charge controller further detects that the universal serial bus port connects the other portable electronic device by using the universal serial bus cable. The power switch is turned on, so that the power of the first battery is transmitted to the other portable electronic device via the power pin. The portable electronic device of claim 5, wherein the universal serial bus port is a female. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the mutual charging port comprises a first charging contact pad for receiving power of the second battery. The portable electronic device of claim 9, wherein the mutual charging port further comprises: a wireless communication interface for receiving power information of the second battery by wireless communication. The portable electronic device of claim 10, wherein: the current limiting circuit is configured to couple the first charging contact pad to the first battery; and the mutual charge controller is coupled to Between the first battery and the wireless communication interface, and when the power of the second battery is higher than the power of the first battery, the current limiting circuit is turned on, so that the power of the second battery can charge the first battery . The portable electronic device of claim 11, wherein the protection circuit is configured to couple the first battery to the first power contact pad to output power of the first battery to the other portable device Electronic device. The portable electronic device of claim 12, wherein the wireless communication interface transmits the power information of the first battery to the other portable electronic device in a wireless communication manner. The portable electronic device of claim 13, wherein the mutual charging port further comprises a first magnet and a first magnetic sensor. When the first charging contact pad is connected to one of the second portable charging pads of the other portable electronic device, each of the second magnetic sensors and one of the other portable electronic devices are respectively aligned The two magnets cause the first magnetic sensor to output a first connection prompt to the mutual charge controller to drive the mutual charge controller to compare the power of the first battery and the second battery.