JPH11103274A - Portable communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable communication terminal allowed to be easily and suitably charged with electricity without exerting influence upon communication. SOLUTION: The portable communication terminal includes an AC/DC converter 3 for converting charging AC power supplied from the external into DC power and supplying the DC power to a secondary battery 5. Basically the battery 5 supplies the DC power to a function part related to the communication processing of a radio part 15 or the like, the function part executes radio communication processing by the DC power, and when charging AC power is supplied from an AC power supply source through a power supply connection cord 1 and a power supply connecting connector 2, the converter 3 converts the AC power into DC power and supplies the DC power to the battery 5. A frame counter 9 detects the execution state of radio communication processing by the communication function part, the converter 3 is allowed to execute its operation by the counter 9, a central processing unit 8 and a charging control circuit during the stop period of the radio communication processing to charge the battery 5. Thereby charging processing can be suitably executed without exerting influence upon the radio communication processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal for performing wireless communication processing using DC power supplied from a secondary battery, and more particularly, to converting a charging AC power supplied from the outside into DC power to convert it into DC power. The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal that charges a secondary battery.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, pagers, mobile phones, PHSs
(Personal Handy phone System) and the like are known. Such a mobile communication terminal includes a battery and performs wireless communication processing and the like using DC power supplied from the battery. As the battery, a secondary battery that can be repeatedly used by charging may be used. Many.

First, an example of a conventional portable communication terminal will be described with reference to FIG. The portable communication terminal 31 includes a battery pack 32 and a terminal main unit 36, and each of the functional units 37 to 42 of the terminal main unit 36 is supplied with DC power supplied from the secondary battery 33 of the battery pack 32. Performs processing such as wireless communication processing. In the portable communication terminal 31, the power plug 44 of the charger 43 is connected to AC100V.
The charging process of the secondary battery 33 of the battery pack 32 is performed by inserting the battery pack 32 into the power supply (home connector) and bringing the charger-side connector 45 of the charger 43 into contact with the battery pack-side connector 34 of the battery pack 31. Is started.

In this charging process, an AC / DC converter 46 converts AC power (100 V AC) supplied via a power plug 44 to DC power (for example, 5.0 V DC), and converts the DC power to the connectors 45 and 34. Then, the power is supplied to the secondary battery 33 via the protection circuit 35. The charge control circuit 37 and the central processing unit 38 of the terminal main unit 36
Detects the full charge of the secondary battery 33 by a diode bridge circuit or the like, monitors a temperature rise of the secondary battery 33 by a thermistor or the like, and monitors the DC power supplied to the secondary battery 33 based on the monitoring. Control.

In the portable communication terminal 31, the voltage monitoring circuit 39 supplies a stable voltage of DC power to the radio control unit 4.
0, by supplying to the peripheral function units such as the control unit 41 and the audio processing unit 42, even during charging of the secondary battery 33,
It is possible to receive a call to the own terminal 31 and make a call with another terminal.

[0006]

However, in the conventional portable communication terminal as described above, in order to charge,
A charger was required in addition to the mobile communication terminal. For this reason,
If the charger is not carried in advance, it is impossible to charge the battery when it is necessary to go out and the like, and there is a possibility that the portable communication terminal cannot be used.

[0007] Such a situation that the portable communication terminal cannot be used can be avoided to some extent by purchasing and preparing a charger, but it is necessary to prepare a charger for the portable communication terminal. This is both time-consuming and wasteful. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional circumstances, and has as its object to provide a portable communication terminal that can be easily charged when needed.

Here, in order to achieve the above object, it is conceivable to incorporate a charger into a portable communication terminal. In this case, a device such as a switching regulator used in an AC / DC converter of the charger is used. May cause noise and adversely affect communication by the mobile communication terminal during charging, and in some cases, a catastrophic situation may occur in which communication cannot be performed. . Therefore, another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication terminal that can be appropriately charged without affecting communication.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a portable communication terminal includes communication means for performing wireless communication processing, a secondary battery for supplying DC power to the communication means, and an externally supplied battery. Conversion means for converting the charging AC power into DC power and supplying the DC power to the secondary battery. In the portable communication terminal described above, basically, the secondary battery supplies DC power to the communication means, and the communication means performs wireless communication processing using the supplied DC power. And
When charging AC power is externally supplied to the converter, the converter converts the charging AC power into DC power and supplies the DC power to the secondary battery.

[0010] Here, means for previously forming a charging AC power supply path between an external charging AC power supply source such as a household plug, a household plug and a cord and the conversion means in the portable communication terminal. In this case, if there is a charging AC power supply source, the portable communication terminal can immediately perform charging on the spot.

[0011] Even if it is not built-in, it can be charged more easily than a conventional portable communication terminal. That is, even if it is necessary to carry a means for forming a charging AC power supply path between the external charging AC power supply source and the conversion means together with the portable communication terminal, it is necessary to carry a conventional charger. It is easier to carry than some portable communication terminals, and even if it is not carried and needs to be purchased and prepared, it can be prepared more easily and at lower cost than preparing a charger. . In addition, by forming the connector forming the supply path on the conversion means side into a general standard shape,
It can be prepared more easily.

[0012] Further, a portable communication terminal according to a second aspect of the present invention is the portable communication terminal according to the first aspect, wherein the communication means intermittently performs a wireless communication process, and further performs wireless communication by the communication means. It is characterized by comprising detection means for detecting the state of execution of the processing, and charging control means for causing the conversion means to perform charging processing during a suspension period of the wireless communication processing based on the detection result by the detection means. Here, the wireless communication process refers to a process of communicating a wireless signal relating to the own mobile communication terminal.

In the above-mentioned portable communication terminal, the detecting means detects the execution status of the wireless communication processing by the communication means, and the charging control means charges the conversion means during the suspension period of the wireless communication processing based on the detection result by the detecting means. Let it be processed. Therefore, the charging process can be appropriately performed without affecting the wireless communication process.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As an embodiment of the portable communication terminal according to the present invention, a PDC (Personal Digital Cellular Telephone) is shown.
communication system) type mobile communication terminal will be described. Hereinafter, the portable communication terminal is referred to as a terminal. First, before describing a terminal according to the present invention, an operation of a PDC system and a general terminal of the PDC system will be described. The PDC scheme is a radio access scheme in which a radio frequency is temporally divided and a plurality of terminals communicate with each other with a radio base station.
ccess) The communication method is used.

In this TDMA communication system, one of the basic periods
A frame is divided into a plurality of time slots (hereinafter, referred to as slots), slots are allocated to terminals, and the slots are used as radio channels. In addition,
Since signals are transmitted in bursts in each slot, burst synchronization is required when receiving. The above-mentioned slot is used as a minimum unit constituting a message. In this embodiment, one frame period is defined as 40 ms (six-slot configuration), and a subframe period in a frame is defined as 20 ms (three-slot configuration). ing.

As the radio channel, a control physical channel for transmitting a control signal required for controlling transmission / reception, etc.,
There is a communication physical channel for transmitting user information such as voice. In the control physical channel, slots are always used in subframe units (full rate). Also,
In the physical channel for communication, a slot in a frame unit (half rate) or a subframe unit is used, and the frame unit and the subframe unit may be mixed in one carrier.

The configuration of the downlink control physical channel transmitted from the base station to the terminal will be described with reference to FIG. The physical channel for downlink control is a BCCH (broadcasting channel).
l), PCH (paging channel), SCCH (signaling
control channel).
It has a super frame configuration. BCCH is a broadcast channel for transferring control information such as location registration and channel structure to the terminal. The SCCH is a bidirectional channel for transferring information required for call connection between a base station and a terminal, and is a signaling channel for an individual cell for transferring independent information for each cell (wireless zone). The PCH is a general paging channel for transferring the same information to the general paging area, and has a configuration in which a channel for transmitting information about the own terminal is assigned to each of a plurality of terminal groups.

In a state where a general terminal of the PDC system is waiting for an incoming call (a so-called standby state), the terminal receives only the PCH allocated to the terminal itself from the receiving operation of receiving all the control physical channels. The operation shifts to the intermittent reception operation. That is, the terminal first receives all the control physical channels, grasps the PCH assigned to the terminal from its own terminal number and the content included in the BCCH of the control physical channel, and thereafter, The operation shifts to an intermittent reception operation of receiving the PCH allocated to the own terminal. According to this PCH, the terminal:
It is possible to detect a change in the position of the own terminal and determine whether there is an incoming call to the own terminal. In the above-described intermittent reception operation, an operation of receiving one PCH for one superframe shown in FIG. 1 is performed, that is, (6.67 ms (1 slot) +
α), the receiving operation is performed. Note that the time α
Is the time required to start up the system for the receiving operation and the time required to control the peripheral circuits, and is a time arbitrarily determined by the performance of the terminal.

The structure of signals used when a terminal performs a call in the PDC system will be described with reference to FIG. It should be noted that FIG. 2 shows a configuration at the time of communication at full rate, that is, in units of subframes. One subframe (20 ms) has a transmission slot for transmitting data, a reception slot for receiving data, and other idle slots. Here, the terminal
The transmission / reception operation is performed in the transmission slot and the reception slot, and the transmission / reception operation is not performed in the idle slot. Note that when performing communication at the half rate, that is, at the frame unit, the time during which the terminal performs the transmission and reception operations is shorter than when performing the communication at the subframe unit described above.

A portable communication terminal according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The terminal transmits and receives signals by the TDMA method as described above, and a detailed description of transmission and reception will be omitted. This terminal is A
C power connection cord 1, power connection connector 2, AC /
DC converter 3, protection circuit 4, secondary battery 5, charge control circuit 6, AD converter 7, central processing unit 8
, A frame counter 9, a clock generator 10, a clock generator oscillator 11, an RTC (real-time clock) 12, an RTC oscillator 13, and an antenna 14.
, A radio unit 15, a modem 16, and a TDMA processing unit 17
, A CODEC unit 18, a speaker 19, and a microphone 20
A control unit 21, a display unit 22, a key input unit 23,
And a functional unit other than the AC power supply connection cord 1 is built in the terminal body T.

The AC power connection cord 1 is connected to an AC power supply (AC
100 V), and has a power plug connectable to a connector of a supply source for supplying AC power from the supply source.
To enter. Note that the AC power supply connection cord 1 is connected to the terminal body T via the power supply connection connector 2 and can be detached. Further, the AC power supply connection cord 1 has a length sufficient to allow a degree of freedom in the movement range of the terminal during charging.

The AC / DC converter 3 converts AC power (100 VAC) input via the power supply connector 2 into DC power (3.6 VDC), and passes the converted DC power to the protection circuit 4. The protection circuit 4 stabilizes the DC current and supplies the DC power to the secondary battery 5 and performs processing for protecting the secondary battery 5 from damage due to overcurrent or the like. Rechargeable battery 5
Can store DC power, and the terminal power supply O
In the N state, DC power is supplied to the functional unit of the terminal.

The charge control circuit 6 outputs a control signal to the AC / DC converter 3 in accordance with an instruction from the central processing unit 8 to control charging. That is, the charging control circuit 6 stops the operation of the AC / DC converter 3 when receiving the instruction to stop charging, and executes the operation to the AC / DC converter 3 when receiving the instruction to execute charging. Let it. A
The D converter 7 converts the battery voltage of the secondary battery 5 into a digital value, and sends the converted battery voltage level of the digital value to the central processing unit 8.

The central processing unit 8 controls each functional unit in the terminal. For example, when the rechargeable battery 5 is being charged, the battery voltage level sent from the AD converter 7 is monitored at regular intervals, thereby monitoring the rechargeable battery 5 for full charge. Is detected, a charge stop instruction is sent to the charge control circuit 6. On the other hand, if full charge is not detected, nothing is performed and the current state of the charge operation is maintained. In addition, control of the charge control circuit 6 and the like are performed according to an instruction from the frame counter 9.

The frame counter 9 performs a process of synchronizing with the PCH assigned to its own terminal in the super frame based on the timing information in the frame received from the base station when no communication is being performed. . Then, based on the synchronization, the PCH assigned to the own terminal
If the PCH does not include an incoming call addressed to the own terminal, the process of stopping the communication process until the process of receiving the PCH assigned to itself in the next superframe is repeated. At this time, if the terminal can be charged, a process of causing the terminal to perform a charging operation until a process of receiving the PCH allocated to itself in the next superframe is performed is repeated.
Note that a detailed description of the processing will be made in an operation description to be described later.

Further, the frame counter 9 determines whether the transmission frame and the reception frame assigned to the own terminal in the superframe are based on the timing information in the superframe received from the base station during a call. To perform synchronization. Then, if the terminal can be charged, the terminal repeatedly performs a process of performing a charging operation until performing communication processing of the next transmission frame or reception frame based on the synchronization. Note that a detailed description of the processing will be made in an operation description to be described later.

The clock generator 10 generates and supplies a clock signal having a required frequency by a functional unit in a terminal such as the central processing unit 8 from a clock signal oscillated by the clock generator oscillator 11. The RTC 12 measures time using a clock signal transmitted from the RTC oscillator 13 and supplies the time to the frame counter. Note that the RTC oscillator 13 does not require a high-speed clock, and
In this embodiment, the power consumption is suppressed by using a low-speed clock oscillator of about 32 KHz because the terminal continues to operate even when the terminal is turned off.

The antenna 14 receives a signal in the radio frequency band from the air, or receives a digitally modulated audio signal or the like from the radio unit 15 and transmits the signal to the air. Radio unit 1
5 converts the radio frequency band signal received from the antenna 14 into an intermediate frequency signal (IF signal) and passes it to the modem 16, and converts the transmission data received from the modem 16 into a radio frequency band signal. Hand over to antenna 14. The modem 16 demodulates the IF signal received from the radio unit 15 and passes the demodulated signal to the TDMA processing unit 17.
The data received from 7 is modulated and passed to the radio unit 15. In this embodiment, π / 4 shift QPSK is used as modulation / demodulation.
(QuadraturePhase Shift Keying) method is used.
The TDMA processing unit 17 performs a TDMA frame synchronization process,
Assemble and retrieve data.

The CODEC 18 decodes the received audio signal and encodes the audio to be transmitted. In the present embodiment, VSELP of 11.2 kbits / s is used as audio coding.
(Vector Sum Excited Linea Prediction). The speaker 19 converts the digital audio signal decoded by the CODEC unit 18 into an analog signal, and notifies the user as audio. The microphone 20 converts the voice uttered by the user into a digital voice signal and outputs the digital voice signal to the CODEC unit 18. The control unit 21 controls the peripheral function unit regarding processing such as transmission and reception of audio data. The display unit 22 displays a message, a telephone number, and the like in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 21 in accordance with a command from the central processing unit 8. The key input unit 23 receives power ON / OFF, input of ten keys, and the like. The memory 24 stores a program executed by the central processing unit 8 and the like.

First, a method of using the portable communication terminal will be described. When the portable communication terminal is used in a portable manner, the AC power connection cord 1 is usually connected to the power supply connector 2.
Used in a form removed from By connecting the AC power connection cord 1 to the power connection connector 2 of the portable communication terminal and connecting the power plug of the AC power connection cord 1 to the home power supply connector, the secondary battery 5 is connected.
Can be charged. Therefore, it is possible to easily charge the secondary battery of the portable communication terminal from the AC power supply only by carrying the light and bulky AC power supply connection cord 1.

Next, the operation of the above-described portable communication terminal will be described focusing on the charging operation. First, an operation when the mobile communication terminal is in a standby state will be described. Frame counter 9
Synchronizes with the PCH assigned to the terminal on the basis of the timing information included in the frame from the base station received by the antenna 14, the radio unit 15, the modem 16, and the TDMA processing unit 17. When there is no incoming call to the own terminal in the PCH assigned to the own terminal in the superframe, the frame counter 9 performs processing until receiving the PCH assigned to the own terminal in the next superframe. Put your device into sleep mode.
That is, the frame counter 9 stops the operation of the central processing unit and the operation of the functional unit related to the communication process controlled by the central processing unit by stopping the generation of the clock signal by the clock generation unit 10 by the central processing unit 8. .

Here, when the terminal is in a chargeable state,
That is, when the terminal is connected to the AC power supply source, the frame counter 9 sends a charge start instruction to the charge control circuit 6 by the central processing unit 8 before stopping the operation of the clock generation unit 10. Let me send. As a result, the charging control circuit 6 that has received the instruction to start charging starts the operation of the AC / DC converter 3 and causes the secondary battery 5 to be charged. Charging is started in this manner, and the functional units related to communication processing, such as the central processing unit 8, enter a sleep state. Note that the RTC unit 1 is operating in the sleep state.
2, the frame counter 9 and only the functional units related to charging, such as the AC / DC converter 3 and the protection circuit 4, and the frame counter 9 counts the frame period using the low-speed clock of the RTC unit 12. Therefore, power consumption can be suppressed.

Before the frame counter 9 receives the PCH allocated to the next terminal based on the synchronization, the frame counter 9 outputs an interrupt signal to the clock generator 10 to start the operation. The operation of the processing device 8 is started. Next, the frame counter 9 causes the central processing unit 8 to instruct the charging control circuit 6 to stop the charging process. As a result, the charge control circuit 6 receiving the instruction
Stops the operation of the AC / DC converter 3 and stops charging the secondary battery 5. Thereafter, the communication operation of each functional unit related to the communication processing is started according to the instruction of the central processing unit 8, and the PCH allocated to the terminal is received. Thus, when receiving a signal from a base station,
Since the charging process is not performed, noise of the switching regulator used in the AC / DC converter 3 and other noise generated in the charging process do not occur, and the signal reception is not affected.

Next, the operation in the talking state will be described. In the call state, the terminal is performing communication at the full rate as shown in FIG. In such a call state,
Based on the timing information included in the superframe received by the communication-related functional units such as the antenna 14, the radio unit 15, the modem 16, and the TDMA processing unit 17, the frame counter 9 transmits the transmission assigned to its own terminal. Synchronize the slot and the receiving slot, the functional unit related to the communication process performs transmission using the transmission slot,
Also, reception is performed using the reception slot. Note that idle slots are not used for transmission and reception.

Here, when the terminal is in a chargeable state,
That is, when the terminal is connected to the AC power supply, the frame counter 9 performs a process of executing charging in slots other than the reception slot and transmission slot used by the terminal based on the synchronization. That is, the frame counter 9 causes the central processing unit 8 to send a charge start instruction to the charge control circuit 6 in a slot other than the reception slot and the transmission slot of the terminal. As a result, the charge control circuit 6 receiving the charge start instruction sets the AC / D
The operation of the C converter 3 is started, and the secondary battery 5 is charged.

Next, based on the synchronization, the frame counter 9 causes the central processing unit 8 to instruct the charging control circuit 6 to stop the charging process before the next transmission slot or reception slot of the own terminal. As a result, the charge control circuit 6 that has received the instruction stops the operation of the AC / DC converter 3 and stops charging the secondary battery 5. As described above, charging is performed except when communication is performed with the base station, and noise of a switching regulator used in the AC / DC converter 3 and other noise generated in charging processing affect communication. Never give.

In the above-described embodiment, the portable communication terminal is carried and used with the AC power connection cable 1 removed, but the portable communication terminal is usually used with the AC power connection cord built in. You may do
In this case, if there is a power supply source, the portable communication terminal can easily perform charging. Further, in the above-described embodiment, a description has been given of a portable communication terminal using the TDMA method as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The present invention can also be applied to a mobile communication terminal that performs wireless communication processing at a predetermined time interval. In short, the present invention can be applied to a mobile communication terminal that performs intermittent wireless communication processing.

[0038]

As described above, according to the portable communication terminal of the present invention, means for converting charging AC power supplied from the outside into DC power and supplying the DC power to the secondary battery is incorporated. In advance, in the portable communication terminal, by incorporating a means for forming a supply path of the charging AC power from the external charging AC power supply such as a power plug, a power plug and a cord to the portable communication terminal, If there is a charging AC power supply source, the portable communication terminal can immediately perform charging on the spot. Also, even if it is not built-in, it can be charged more easily than a conventional portable communication terminal. That is, even if it is necessary to carry a means for forming a charging AC power supply path between the external charging AC power supply source and the portable communication terminal together with the portable communication terminal, the conventional charger is carried. It is easier to carry than a portable communication terminal that requires it, and even if you do not carry it and need to purchase and prepare it, it is easier and less expensive to prepare than a charger it can. Furthermore,
The mobile communication terminal according to the present invention performs the wireless communication process intermittently, detects the execution state of the wireless communication process, and performs the charging process during the suspension period of the wireless communication process based on the detection result. The charging process can be appropriately performed without affecting the wireless communication process.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of a configuration of a control physical channel transmitted from a base station to a terminal in a TDMA scheme.

FIG. 2 is an example of a signal configuration used when a terminal talks in the TDMA system.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a mobile communication terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a portable communication terminal according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. AC power connection cord, 2. Power supply connector, 3. AC / DC converter, 4. Protection circuit, 5. Secondary battery, 6. Charge control circuit, 7. AD converter, 8・
· Central processing unit, 9 · · · frame counter,
10. · Clock generator, 11 ·· Clock generator oscillator, 12 ·· RTC, 13 ·· RTC oscillator,
14. Antenna, 15 Radio section,
16. Modem, 17 TDMA processing unit,
18. CODEC part, 19 speaker
20 · · microphone, 21 · · · control unit,
22. Display part, 23. Key input part, 24. Memory.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A communication means for performing wireless communication processing, a secondary battery for supplying DC power to the communication means, and a conversion for converting charging AC power supplied from the outside into DC power and supplying the DC power to the secondary battery And a means for incorporating the portable communication terminal. 2. The portable communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein said communication means intermittently performs a wireless communication process, and further comprises a detection means for detecting an execution state of the wireless communication process by the communication means; And a charging control unit for performing a charging process by the conversion unit during a suspension period of the wireless communication process based on the detection result of the mobile communication terminal.