Wireless charging of a wrist-mounted sensor platform

Inventors

Mirov, Russell Norman • Lapetina, John

Assignees

Verily Life Sciences LLC

Abstract

Wearable devices are described herein including a housing and a mount configured to mount a contact surface of the housing to an external surface of a wearer. The wearable devices further include a coil disposed in the housing proximate to the contact surface and at least one sensor disposed on the contact surface and configured to detect one or more properties of the body of the wearer. The wearable devices are powered by a rechargeable battery disposed within the wearable devices. The wearable devices additionally include a recharger disposed within the wearable devices and configured to recharge the rechargeable battery using electromagnetic energy received by the coil. The sensor is disposed within a central portion of the contact surface enclosed by the coil.

Core Innovation

The disclosure relates to a wrist-mounted wearable device having a housing with a contact surface for contacting an external body surface. A physiological sensor is provided on a flexible circuit board disposed within the housing, and electronics including a controller are configured to operate the physiological sensor to detect one or more physiological parameters via the external body surface. An onboard coil is arranged to receive electromagnetic energy for powering the electronics, with the coil disposed proximate to the contact surface and comprising a plurality of windings that surround a physiological sensor region.

A magnetic shield is disposed within the housing between the coil and at least one electronic component of the electronics, and the magnetic shield shields the at least one electronic component from electromagnetic energy. The flexible circuit board and the coil are mounted on the magnetic shield, and the flexible circuit board passes through a slot in the magnetic shield to provide an electrical connection between the electronics and the physiological sensor. The physiological sensor and the coil are mounted on a common side of the magnetic shield while the controller is disposed on an opposite side.

Power is supplied through electromagnetic energy captured by the coil and stored in a rechargeable battery, with an internal recharger powered by electromagnetic energy received by the coil. The disclosure further discusses magnetic shielding using ferrite or low-reluctance materials to reduce heating/RF interference and increase charging efficiency, and routing a flexible PCB/interconnect through a slot in the magnetic shield so the sensor and coil reside on a common shield side while electronics reside on the opposite side.

Claims Coverage

The partial content provides two independent claim groupings. The inventive features are centered on the wearable device architecture, the magnetic shield arrangement, and a further limitation regarding an electromagnetically detectable coil property.

Across the independent claim content provided, the main inventive coverage is a wearable device that uses electromagnetic energy via a multi-winding coil positioned around the physiological sensor near the housing contact surface, combined with a magnetic shield that separates the coil/sensor side from electronic components. The flexible circuit board routes through a slot in the magnetic shield to connect the sensor to the electronics while the controller remains on the opposite side, and a battery is positioned between the electronics and the magnetic shield. A further limitation specifies that the electromagnetically detectable property of the coil comprises coil impedance.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications