Patent ID: 11880253
Assignee: HIGH SEC LABS LTD.
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H  Y | IPC G

Claim 13:
14. A smartphone configured to be powered by add-on device, the smartphone comprises a combined data/power interface comprising:
one or more data pins configured to transfer data between the add-on device and the smartphone; and
one or more power delivery pins,
wherein the smartphone comprises a rechargeable battery that is protected by battery protection circuitry that is configured to protect the battery by cutoff or limit the current or voltage on the battery electrodes, and the smartphone comprises an interface controller configured to negotiate a power delivery mode with an interface controller of the add-on device,
wherein the smartphone is configured to be charged from an add-on device's rechargeable battery that is protected by battery protection circuitry that is configured to protect the battery by cutting off or limiting the current or voltage on the battery electrodes,
wherein the add-on device is configured to be attached to the smartphone using the combined data/power interface,
wherein responsive to a power delivery negotiation between the interface controller of the add-on device and the interface controller of the smartphone, and responsive to the add-on device properties and the smartphone properties, which include at least the monitoring information regarding the difference between the battery voltage of the add-on device and the battery voltage of the smartphone, the power delivery mode is selected from at least one of:
(1) a protected-battery power delivery mode, and
(2) a regulated power delivery mode,

wherein the protected-battery power delivery mode directly connects between the battery protection circuitries of the smartphone and the add-on device over the power delivery pins without any voltage conversion or voltage regulation, thereby achieving minimal power loss in the power transfer between the batteries, and
wherein the regulated power delivery mode performs a voltage conversion or a voltage regulation between the battery protection circuitries to keep the voltage of the power delivery pins within a fixed pre-defined voltage range.