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US 12,476,181 B2Granted
Electrical contact array for harvesting power from a power circuit
AssigneeUniversity of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorCindy Harnett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Circuitry and circuit elements allow harvesting of power. Some embodiments of the invention are circuits that include a contact array, with redundant external electrical contacts, providing a physical interface configured to extract power from a power source for an electronic device in contact with a larger underlying circuit without needing any alignment. The contact array includes a mesh.
Claims15
An electrical contact array for harvesting power from a power circuit, comprising
- a plurality of external electrical contacts configured with redundancy such that the electrical contact array is capable of harvesting power from the power circuit when only some of the external electrical contacts make an electrical connection with the power circuit while some others of the external electrical contacts do not contact any power circuit, wherein the external electrical contacts are electrically exposed to an external environment of the electrical contact array;
- a plurality of power collection diodes or transistors, at least one per external contact, configured to extract power from the power circuit;
- signal pass-throughs;
- a power output configured to output maximum and minimum voltages to which the external electrical contacts are exposed;
- a mesh;
- and
- electrically conductive grippers configured to bring electronic contacts from one side of the mesh to another side of the mesh.
4 more elements
An electrical contact array for harvesting power from a power circuit, comprising
- a plurality of external electrical contacts configured with redundancy such that the electrical contact array is capable of harvesting power from the power circuit when only some of the external electrical contacts make an electrical connection with the power circuit while some others of the external electrical contacts do not contact any power circuit, wherein the external electrical contacts are electrically exposed to an external environment of the electrical contact array;
- and
- a plurality of power collection diodes or transistors, at least one per external contact, configured to extract power from the power circuit;
- a mesh;
- and
- electrically conductive grippers configured to bring electronic contacts from one side of the mesh to another side of the mesh.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.