Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the field of power supply technology, and particularly to a non-contact power supply circuit.

Background of the invention

Many electrical and electronic devices are composed of a fixed body and a moving part, for example, the moving part includes a rotational part such as washing machine door, refrigerator door etc. as well as a push-pull type moving part, such as refrigerator drawer. Since the end user of the equipment has more and more requirements on the easy-using characteristic and the appearance of the home appliances, many of the control and display functions are integrated on these moving parts. They are usually connected to the fixed body by using a hinge wire physical connection to the appliances via a specific connection means, so as to transfer electrical energy from the fixed body to the moving part. Such connection means is a challenge to the manufacture of these appliances, and because the relative positions of the moving part in use will change constantly, during the use of the appliances it is also prone to cause some physical wear and then cause some problems about safety, equipment life and maintenance issues.

For these reasons, the non-contact power transmission mode is introduced in the design of electrical and electronic devices, this mode is achieved according to the principle of electromagnetic coupling between the coils, and a circuit with such an electromagnetic coupling typically includes an electric power transmitting side and an electric power receiving side. The transmitting side includes a resonant circuit and a transmitting coil; the receiving side includes a receiving coil, a resonance circuit, a rectifier circuit and a DC transformer to supply power to the load. The load may be not only a rechargeable battery, but also a power consumption unit or module. Non-contact transmission of electrical energy may be achieved by an electric field or magnetic field coupled between the transmitting coil and the receiving coil, thus the coupling mode between the transmitting coil and the receiving coil plays a key role for the electric power transmission.

It is conventional to make use of direct correspondence between a transmitter coil and a receiver coil in practice. However, the coil is limited by the size of the installation location and environment in practical applications; in addition, the coupling efficiency of one to one direct correspondence coils will change as the position of the coil changes, which necessarily restricts the efficiency and transmitting power of the electrical energy, and thus the conventional mode cannot meet the needs of some home applications.

Summary of the invention

In view of the above technical problem, it is desirable to provide a multi-coil matching based non-contact power supply circuit to satisfy different power requirements, different efficiency requirements, safety performance requirements, different installation environmental requirements, etc. In the different embodiments of the present invention, the non-contact power supply circuit is achieved by applying various combinations of the transmitting coil and the receiving coil and corresponding circuit.

The present invention provides a non-contact power supply circuit, the circuit comprises a primary circuit and a secondary circuit, the primary circuit transfers energy to the secondary circuit via electromagnetic coupling, wherein the primary circuit has at least one transmitting coil and the secondary circuit has at least one receiving coil, and the normal direction of the at least one transmitting coil and the normal direction of the at least one receiving coil are the same or have a first angle, characterized in that, the quantity of the at least one transmitting coil and the at least one receiving coil is greater than two.

In such a manner, more than one receiving coils or more than one transmitting coils may be arranged, and thus the receiving efficiency or the transmitting efficiency will be improved. Moreover, since more than one receiving coils or more than one transmitting coils may be arranged, the size of the individual coils can be made smaller than that in case of using only one transmitting or receiving coil, and thus the limitation of the size of installation location is reduced. As a result, the non-contact power supply circuit may be applied to supply power to the appliances with different sizes.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the at least one receiving coil is translationally movable with respect to the at least one transmitting coil.

In such a manner, the non-contact power supply circuit may be applied to the obj ect which may be translationally movable, for example the two objects translationally moved with respect to each other, such as the refrigerator drawer mentioned in the part "Background of the invention". The primary circuit and the secondary circuit according to the present invention are arranged on the two objects translationally moved with respect to each other, so as to maintain a stable power supply during the translational movement.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the at least one receiving coil is rotationally movable with respect to the at least one transmitting coil.

In such a manner, the non-contact power supply circuit may be applied to the obj ect which may be rotationally movable, for example the two obj ects rotationally moved with respect to each other, such as the refrigerator door mentioned in the part "Background of the invention". The primary circuit and the secondary circuit according to the present invention are arranged on the two objects rotationally moved with respect to each other, so as to maintain a stable power supply during the movement.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the at least one receiving coil and the at least one transmitting coil are disposed spaced. In such a manner, a better coupling can be ensured, and thus the electrical energy transmission efficiency can be improved.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the normal direction of the at least one transmitting coil and the normal direction of the at least one receiving coil are the same. In such a manner, a better coupling can be ensured, and thus the electrical energy transmission efficiency can be improved. In one embodiment of the present invention, the normal direction of the at least one receiving coil is parallel to the normal direction of the at least one transmitting coil, and the at least one receiving coil is rotationally movable around the normal direction of the at least one transmitting coil or the at least one transmitting coil is rotationally movable around the normal direction of the at least one transmit receiving coil. In such a manner, the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention can be applied in the solutions in which the primary coil may rotate around the secondary coil or the secondary coil may be rotate around the primary coil.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the secondary circuit including a rectifier, wherein the rectifier is configured to rectify the voltage generated by the at least one receiving coil into direct voltage. In such a manner, the voltage generated by the at least one receiving coil is rectified into direct voltage, so as to satisfy the requirements of the appliance which needs to use direct voltage.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the secondary circuit including a DC transformer coupled to the rectifier, wherein the DC transformer is configured to convert the voltage rectified by the rectifier into the voltage required by the load. In such a manner, a DC voltage corresponding to the DC appliance may be provided.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the load is a rechargeable battery. In such a manner, the rechargeable battery may be recharged by the electrical energy induced in the secondary coil, so as to save the electrical energy for using later.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the quantity of the at least one receiving coil is larger than or equal to two and the receiving coils are connected in series. Optionally, the quantity of the at least one transmitting coil is larger than or equal to two and the transmitting coils are connected in parallel. Alternatively or additionally, the quantity of the at least one transmitting coil is larger than or equal to two and the transmitting coils are connected in series. In such a manner, the transmitting power or transmitting efficiency of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention is improved. Brief description of drawings

In the following, embodiments illustrated in connection with the drawings will be described in details, and the forgoing and other features of the invention will become more apparent.

Fig. l illustrates a circuit diagram 100 of two different embodiments of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention;

Fig.2a and Fig.2b illustrate two coil arrangement diagrams of two embodiments of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention;

Fig.3a and Fig.3b illustrate two coil arrangement diagrams of another two embodiments of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention;

Fig.4a and Fig.4b illustrate two diagrams of two embodiments of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention, in these two embodiments the coils may be translationally movable with respect to each other; and

Fig.5a and Fig.5b illustrate two diagrams of two embodiments of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention; in these two embodiments the coils may be rotationally movable with respect to each other.

Identical or similar components will be denoted with identical or similar reference numerals throughout the drawings

Detailed description of embodiments

In the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, reference will be made to the drawings which constitute a part of the invention. By way of examples, the drawings illustrate particular embodiments in which the invention can be practiced. The illustrated embodiments are not intended to exhaust all of embodiments of the invention. It can be appreciated that other embodiments can be utilized instead thereof or structural and logic modifications can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following detailed description will not be limiting, and the scope of the invention will be defined in the appended claims.

Fig. l illustrates a non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention, the non-contact power supply circuit comprises a primary circuit and a secondary circuit, the primary circuit transfers energy to the secondary circuit via electromagnetic coupling, wherein the primary circuit has at least one transmitting coil 120 and the secondary circuit has at least one receiving coil 130, and the normal direction of the at least one transmitting coil 120 and the normal direction of the at least one receiving coil 130 are the same or have a first angle, and the quantity of the at least one transmitting coil and the at least one receiving coil is greater than two. As can be seen from Figure 1 , the whole circuit is vertically symmetrical, wherein the primary circuit side has a power source 1 10, which supplies power to the two circuits parallel connected with each other, wherein one of the two circuits is circuit 160, and the other is the circuit composed of C I, Rsl and the coil 120. Primary circuit transmits power to the secondary coil 130 or to the receiving coil of the additional circuit 170 via electromagnetic coupling respectively, and electrical energy generated in the secondary circuit is rectified by the rectifier 140 and then converted into a direct voltage with a certain voltage by the transformer 150, so as to supply power to the appliance Rs.

However, the embodiment illustrated in Figure 1 is only illustrative and not used for limiting. As long as the principle shown in Figure 1 is applied and the quantity of at least one transmitting coil 120 and at least one receiving coil 130 is greater than the number of two, such a circuit would fall within the scope claimed in the present invention. That is, the skilled person will appreciate that the two transmitting circuits of the primary circuit can also be connected in series, so that the two transmitting circuits are incorporated into a transmitting circuit having two transmitting coils (meanwhile only one set of the two set of capacitors and resistors for filtering needs to be kept); accordingly, the secondary circuit of the two receiving circuits can be connected in parallel, so that the two circuits are used as a backup circuit to each other.

Further, the quantity of the coils in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 1 is only illustrative and not restrictive, i.e., as long as the total quantity of the coils is more than two, for example, a combination of one transmitting coil and at least two receiving coils, a combination of at least two transmitting coils and one receiving coil, and a combination of at least two transmitting coils and at least two receiving coils are intended to fall within the scope of the invention.

Because the power carried by a single coil is limited, in order to improve the power of the whole system, a plurality of transmitting and receiving coils are used, and accordingly the circuits have different combinations: in an embodiment of the present invention, the quantity of at least one receiving coil is greater than or equal to the number of two and the receiving coils are connected in series. Optionally, the quantity of the at least one transmitting coil is larger than or equal to two and the transmitting coils are connected in parallel. Alternatively or additionally, the quantity of the at least one transmitting coil is larger than or equal to two and the transmitting coils are connected in series. In such a manner, the transmitting power or transmitting efficiency of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention is improved.

In such a manner, more than one receiving coil or more than one transmitting coil may be arranged, and thus the receiving efficiency or the transmitting efficiency will be improved. Moreover, since more than one receiving coil or more than one transmitting coil may be arranged, the size of the individual coils can be made smaller than that in case of using only one transmitting or receiving coil, and thus the limitation of the size of installation location is reduced. As a result, the non-contact power supply circuit may be applied to supply power to the appliances with different sizes.

The efficiency of electrical energy transmission in non-contact power supply circuit is mainly determined by the strength of magnetic coupling between the transmitting coil and the receiving coil, and thereby a plurality of receiving coils are placed around a single transmitting coil, so that the receiving coils can receive a sufficient magnetic flux to improve the utilization of the flux of the transmitting coil, and thereby to improve efficiency. The following drawings description will illustrate how to adapt the coils of the present invention to different application scenarios, in which the position of the coils placement is important.

Figure 2a and Figure 2b show two embodiments 200 of a non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention, it can be seen from Figures 2a, a first coil 210 is placed on both sides of the second coil 220, so that the use of two second coils will greatly improve the efficiency of energy transfer.

Here, the skilled person will appreciate that, the quantity of the transmitting coil can also be two or more like the quantity of the receiving coil, so as to improve the transmitted power, and the efficiency is also improved while improving the overall transmitted power to meet the needs of the load which needs more power. Specifically, as shown in Figure 2b, the first coil 210 and the second coil 220 is disposed spaced.

In the embodiments illustrated in Figures 2a and 2b, at least one transmitting coil and at least one receiving coil are disposed spaced. In such a way, a better coupling is ensured to improve the power transmission efficiency. In the above embodiment, the normal direction of the at least one receiving coil and the normal direction of the at least one transmitting coil are the same. In such a way, a better coupling is ensured to improve the power transmission efficiency.

However, other forms are also possible to be placed, for example, the coil placement 300 of non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention as shown in Figures 3a and 3b, the first coils 310a, 3 10b, 310c and the second coils 320 (Figure 3a) or 320a, 320b, and 320c are placed opposite to each other, so that the power transmission efficiency or absolutely transmitted power can be improved.

The following description will describe the relative position of coils in the specific embodiments of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention.

Fig.4a and Fig.4b illustrate two diagrams of two embodiments 400 of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention, in these two embodiments the coils may be translationally movable with respect to each other. As shown in Figs. 4a and 4b, the first coils 410a, 410b and 410c form a passageway, through which the second coil 420 (Figure 4a) or the second coils 420a, 420b may pass, so that the first coil and second coil may be translationally movable with respect to each other, the embodiments illustrated in Fig.4a and 4b are especially advantageous for applications such as refrigerator drawer, namely in such a way, the non-contact power supply circuit may be applied to the object which may be translationally movable, for example the two objects translationally moved with respect to each other, such as the refrigerator drawer mentioned in the part "Background of the invention". The primary circuit and the secondary circuit according to the present invention are arranged on the two objects translationally moved with respect to each other, so as to maintain a stable power supply during the translational movement.

Fig.5a and Fig.5b illustrate two diagrams of two embodiments 500 of the non-contact power supply circuit according to the present invention; in these two embodiments the coils may be rotationally movable with respect to each other. As shown in Figs. 5a and 5b, the first coils 510a, 510b, 510c, 510d, 510e and 51 Of surrounds the second coil 520 (Figure 5a) or the second coils 520a, 520b, 520c, 520d, 520e, and 520f , so that the first coils and second coils may be rotationally movable with respect to each other, the embodiments illustrated in Fig.5 a and 5b are especially advantageous for applications such as refrigerator doors, namely in such a way, the non-contact power supply circuit may be applied to the object which may be rotationally movable, for example the two objects rotationally moved with respect to each other, such as the refrigerator doors mentioned in the part "Background of the invention". The primary circuit and the secondary circuit according to the present invention are arranged on the two objects rotationally moved with respect to each other, so as to maintain a stable power supply during the movement.

Those ordinarily skilled in the art can appreciate and make other variants to the disclosed embodiments upon study of the description, the disclosure, the drawings and the claims. In the claims, the term "comprise" will not preclude another element or step, and the term "a/an" will not prelude plural. In a practical application of the invention, an element may perform functions of a plurality of technical features recited in a claim. Any reference numerals in the claims shall not be construed to be limiting of the scope of the invention.