A Rechargeable AA Battery Supporting Qi Wireless Charging

Wireless power transfer is one of the key drivers in modern consumer electronics, as it allows one to enhance the convenience and usability of many devices. However, in most cases, wireless charging is accessible only to devices with incorporated receivers or at least to gadgets with standard charging connectors, such as USB Type-C, that allow to attach an external receiver. We propose a rechargeable battery that has the size and output voltage of a standard AA battery but supports wireless power transfer from charging stations of the widely used Qi standard. The proposed design uses a series resonant circuit with a curved receiving coil, as well as load modulation using detuning capacitors switched by a microcontroller unit to implement a receiver compatible with the Qi Baseline protocol. It also utilizes a number of DC-DC converters to store energy in a Li-ion cell and convert it to the 1.5 V voltage level. Our design is supported by numerical simulations of magnetic field distributions and scattering parameters of the introduced battery coupled to a planar transmitting coil. The performance of the proposed battery has been studied experimentally, including measurements of the maximal distance between the battery and a charging station that allows wireless charging at various rotation angles and the charge curve. The developed battery design facilitates the addition of wireless charging functionality to a wide range of electronic devices in a universal way.