KR102552187B1 - Strap apparatus and wearable apparatus using it - Google Patents

Abstract

A wearable device is disclosed. The wearable device includes a main body having a display for displaying information, and a strap that generates power using a temperature difference and supplies the generated power to the main body, wherein the strap includes a plurality of rigid-type thermoelectric elements and a plurality of thermoelectric elements. A flexible electrode connecting the elements and an exterior member covering the plurality of thermoelectric elements and the flexible electrode using a flexible insulating polymer material are included.

Description

Strap device and wearable device using the same

The present disclosure relates to a strap device and a wearable device using the same, and more particularly, to a strap device having a flexible but Seebuck performance using a rigid thermoelectric element and a flexible polymer material, and a wearable device using the same.

Recently, with the development of computer technology, a wearable device that is provided on clothes or the like and can be worn by a user has been introduced. Wearable devices, which are computers with PC functions in clothing, began to be developed for military training, and are gradually expanding their scope to fashion/mobile communication devices and digital products as well as daily life.

Since wearable devices are implemented in a form wearable on a user's body, they are generally implemented in a small size, and accordingly, it is difficult to provide a large-capacity battery.

However, when a large-capacity battery is not provided, a method for easily charging the wearable device has been required in that the operating time is not sufficient.

Accordingly, in recent years, in order to use heat generated from the human body as electrical energy, a method of utilizing a flexible thermoelectric element composed of a flexible material has been sought, but a flexible thermoelectric element has lower performance than conventional thermoelectric elements. There was a problem.

Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a flexible strap device using a rigid thermoelectric element and a flexible polymer material having Seebucket performance, and a wearable device using the strap device.

A wearable device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure for achieving the above object includes a main body having a display displaying information, and a strap that generates power using a temperature difference and provides the generated power to the main body. wherein the strap includes a plurality of thermoelectric elements of a rigid type, a flexible electrode connecting the plurality of thermoelectric elements, and an exterior member covering the plurality of thermoelectric elements and the flexible electrode using a flexible insulating polymer material. do.

In this case, the flexible electrode may be at least one of an aluminum thin film, a copper thin film, a gold thin film, a silver thin film, and a conductive polymer thin film.

Meanwhile, the flexible insulating polymer material may be PDMS (polydimethyl siloxane).

Meanwhile, the plurality of thermoelectric elements may be arranged at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction of the strip.

Meanwhile, each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements may include a rigid substrate, an n-type thermoelectric material formed in a first region of the substrate, and a p-type thermoelectric material formed in a second region of the substrate.

Meanwhile, the strap further includes a first terminal and a second terminal disposed at one end of the strap, and the flexible electrode includes a plurality of first flexible electrodes connecting each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements, the strap A second flexible electrode connecting one end of a first thermoelectric element disposed on the other end side to the first terminal, and connecting the other end of the second thermoelectric element disposed on one end side of the strap to the second terminal It may include a third flexible electrode to.

Meanwhile, the strap may further include a secondary battery for storing the generated power.

Meanwhile, a strap device generating power using a temperature difference according to the present disclosure uses a plurality of rigid-type thermoelectric elements, a flexible electrode connecting the plurality of thermoelectric elements, and a flexible insulating polymer material to the plurality of thermoelectric elements and an exterior member surrounding the flexible electrode.

The strap device according to the present disclosure uses a generally widely used high-efficiency rigid-type thermoelectric element, while having high Seebuck performance and flexibility.

1 is a diagram for explaining a shape of a wearable device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of the wearable device of FIG. 1;
3 is a view showing a specific configuration of the strap of FIGS. 1 and 2;
4 and 5 are diagrams for explaining the arrangement form of the thermoelectric element;
6 is a view showing the configuration of a strap according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, and,
7 is a view for explaining a method of manufacturing a strap according to the present disclosure.

Terms used in this specification will be briefly described, and the present disclosure will be described in detail.

The terms used in the embodiments of the present disclosure have been selected from general terms that are currently widely used as much as possible while considering the functions in the present disclosure, but they may vary depending on the intention or precedent of a person skilled in the art, the emergence of new technologies, and the like. . In addition, in a specific case, there is also a term arbitrarily selected by the applicant, and in this case, the meaning will be described in detail in the description of the disclosure. Therefore, terms used in the present disclosure should be defined based on the meaning of the term and the general content of the present disclosure, not simply the name of the term.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may apply various transformations and may have various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. However, this is not intended to limit the scope to specific embodiments, and should be understood to include all transformations, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of technology disclosed. In describing the embodiments, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known technology may obscure the subject matter, the detailed description will be omitted.

Terms such as first and second may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. Terms are only used to distinguish one component from another.

Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In this application, "comprising." or "made up." The terms such as are intended to specify that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, but one or more other features or numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or It should be understood that it does not preclude the possibility of existence or addition of combinations thereof.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a 'module' or 'unit' performs at least one function or operation, and may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software. In addition, a plurality of 'modules' or a plurality of 'units' may be integrated into at least one module and implemented by at least one processor, except for 'modules' or 'units' that need to be implemented with specific hardware.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present disclosure. However, the present disclosure may be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. And in order to clearly describe the present disclosure in the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and similar reference numerals are attached to similar parts throughout the specification.

Hereinafter, the present disclosure will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

1 is a diagram for explaining a shape of a wearable device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the wearable device 100 according to the present embodiment displays preset information using battery power. In addition, the wearable device 100 charges the power of the battery using the strap 200 therein. Such a wearable device 100 may be a watch type smart watch as shown. Here, a smart watch is a watch-type electronic device capable of not only displaying time information, which is a general function of a watch, but also displaying various information through interworking with other devices.

Accordingly, the wearable device 100 according to the present embodiment is composed of a main body 101 on which a touch display is disposed and a strap 200 fixing the main body 101 to a user's wrist. Meanwhile, although the strap 200 has been shown and described as having a watch strap shape in the illustrated example, when the wearable device 100 is implemented as a device other than a watch, it may have a general long strap shape.

The strap 200 may have a flexible shape in order to wrap a body such as a user's wrist. The strap 200 is connected to one side of the main body 101 and generates power using a temperature difference. Specifically, one surface of the strap 200 is attached to the user's body and can generate power according to a temperature difference between room temperature and the surface of the body. For this operation, a thermoelectric element generating power according to the Seebeck effect is disposed on the strap 200 . The specific configuration and operation of the strap 200 will be described later with reference to FIG. 3 .

At this time, the strap 200 may be connected to the main body 101 using the connecting members 102-1 and 102-2. These connecting members 102-1 and 102-2 not only physically connect the main body 101 and the strap 200, but also electrically connect power provided from the strap 200 to the main body 101. function can also be performed.

As described above, the wearable device 100 according to the present embodiment can generate power using body heat of the user to charge the battery, thereby increasing the driving time of the wearable device 100 .

On the other hand, in the illustrated example, a wearable electronic device in the form of a watch is shown, but if the wearable device 100 can be moved by a user or operated while moving, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, an MP3 player, a PMP (Portable Multimedia) Player), a mobile phone, and the like.

On the other hand, in the illustrated example, it has been described that time information is displayed using an electronic display element (eg, LCD, AMOLED), but in implementation, the wearable device 100 includes a plurality of mechanical movements, and uses the provided movements You can also display the time. In the illustrated example, although the wearable device 100 is shown as being provided with only one strap, a plurality of straps may be provided in implementation.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a specific configuration of the wearable device of FIG. 1 .

Referring to FIG. 2 , the wearable device 100 includes a communication device 110, a touch display 120, a memory 130, a battery 140, a strap 200, and a processor 150. Here, the wearable device 100 may be a laptop computer, a tablet computer, an MP3 player, a portable multimedia player (PMP), a mobile phone, an electronic watch, and the like.

The communication device 110 is configured to be connected to a host device or an Internet network, and may be connected in a wireless or wired manner. Specifically, the communication device 110 may transmit and receive data with an external device (eg, a smart phone) through a wireless communication method such as Bluetooth, RF communication, WiFi, NFC, and the like. At this time, the transmitted/received data may be not only content information such as weather information, but also phone streaming and music streaming data transmitted from the smart phone.

Also, the communication device 110 may be connected to an external device (eg, a PC) through a wired communication method, and may input/output various data through the connected wired communication method. Meanwhile, a port for wired connection with an external device may be used to charge a battery to be described later. That is, the battery may be charged using DC power input through the corresponding port.

The touch display 120 may receive various functions supported by the wearable device 100 and display various types of information provided by the wearable device 100 . Meanwhile, in this embodiment, only an embodiment using a touch display to display information is shown, but in implementation, the wearable device may use a display capable of only displaying information. In this case, various functions may be input as motion gestures using specific sensors (eg, a gyro sensor and an acceleration sensor).

The memory 130 stores a program for driving the wearable device 100 . Specifically, the memory 130 may store a program that is a set of various commands necessary for driving the wearable device 100 . Here, the program includes an operating system for driving the application program as well as an application program for providing a specified service.

Also, the memory 130 may be implemented as a storage medium in the wearable device 100 and an external storage medium, for example, a removable disk including a USB memory, a web server through a network, and the like.

The battery 140 supplies power to each component in the wearable device 100 . In detail, the battery 140 may include a battery that stores power and a sensor that detects a state of the battery.

On the other hand, such a battery 140 can be charged through a DC power source provided from the outside, and can also be charged using electrical energy generated from the strap 200 to be described later. Meanwhile, although not shown, the battery 140 may be charged using a wireless charging method.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the battery 140 has been described as being charged using the electrical energy transmitted from the strap 200 as it is, but in the implementation, electricity generated in the strap 200 using elements such as transformers and rectifiers. After rectification and/or transformation of energy, battery 140 may be charged. In addition, in implementation, elements such as the above-described transformer and rectifier may be disposed on the strap 200 .

The strap 200 includes a plurality of thermoelectric elements capable of generating power using a temperature difference, and may provide electrical energy generated by the plurality of thermoelectric elements to the battery 140 . The specific shape and operation of the strap 200 will be described later with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6 . Here, the thermoelectric element is an element capable of generating electromotive force according to the Seebeck effect, and may be referred to as a Peltier element, a Seebeck element, and the like.

The processor 150 controls each component in the wearable device 100 . Specifically, the processor 150 determines the operating state of the wearable device 100 . More specifically, when there is no user input for a preset time period or when no task is performed for a preset time period, the processor 150 may determine the operating state of the wearable device 100 as a power saving state.

Meanwhile, when a user's touch is input through the touch display 120 in the power saving state, or when data is received from an external device (not shown) or a wake-up command is received through the communication device 110, the processor 150 An operating state of the wearable device 100 may be determined as a normal state.

Also, the processor 150 may determine an operating state of the wearable device 100 according to a battery state of the wearable device 100 . In detail, if the residual amount of the battery of the wearable device 100 is less than the preset remaining amount, the processor 150 may determine the operating state of the wearable device 100 as a power saving state.

Also, the processor 150 may control each component of the wearable device 100 to correspond to the determined operating state. Specifically, when the operating state of the wearable device 100 is changed to a power saving state, the processor 150 may control the touch display 120 not to display preset information.

Also, the processor 150 may control the operation of the strap 200 according to the battery state of the wearable device 100 . Specifically, when the battery is fully charged, it is possible to control the electrical energy generated by the strap 200 not to be output.

As described above, the wearable device 100 according to the present embodiment can convert the user's body temperature into electrical energy to charge the battery, thereby increasing the driving time of the wearable device 100.

3 is a view showing a specific configuration of the strap of FIGS. 1 and 2 .

Referring to FIG. 3, the strap 200 includes a plurality of thermoelectric elements 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n, flexible electrodes 221, 222, and 223, an exterior It is composed of a member 230, a first terminal 251, and a second terminal 252.

The plurality of thermoelectric elements 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n are of a rigid type and generate electromotive force based on a temperature difference between a lower surface and an upper surface. A specific configuration of each thermoelectric element will be described later with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 .

Each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements (210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n) is a thermoelectric element in the form of a general rectangular solid, arranged at predetermined intervals in the length direction of the strip. It can be. For example, since the thermoelectric element according to the present embodiment is a rigid type, the thermoelectric element itself is not flexible. Therefore, when the interval between the thermoelectric elements is narrow, the flexibility of the strap 200 is reduced, and when the interval between the thermoelectric elements is wide, the flexibility of the strap 200 is increased, but the number of thermoelectric elements that can be disposed in the strap is reduced, so that the strap ( 200) is degraded. Accordingly, an interval between the plurality of thermoelectric elements having sufficient flexibility required for the strap 200 and having power generation performance may be experimentally calculated.

When the strap 200 is implemented in the form of a watch strap, it may have a size corresponding to the width and length of a typical watch strap. In this case, the length of each thermoelectric element may have a width of a typical watch strap (eg, 10 mm), and the number of thermoelectric elements may be determined according to the above-described interval and size of a typical thermoelectric element.

The plurality of flexible electrodes 221, 222, and 223 are conductive electrodes made of a flexible material, and may be implemented with at least one of an aluminum thin film, a copper thin film, a gold thin film, a silver thin film, and a conductive polymer thin film. The plurality of flexible electrodes 221, 222, and 223 connect one side of the plurality of first flexible electrodes 221 connecting the plurality of thermoelectric elements and the first thermoelectric element 210-1 to the first terminal 251. It may be composed of a second flexible electrode 222 and a third flexible electrode 223 connecting the other side of the n-th thermoelectric element 210-n to the second terminal 252.

The plurality of first flexible electrodes 221 are flexible electrodes disposed between two thermoelectric elements to connect the plurality of thermoelectric elements in series. For example, in order to connect the first thermoelectric element 210-1 and the second thermoelectric element 210-2, the other side of the first thermoelectric element 210-1 and the second thermoelectric element 210-2 are connected. One side may be connected using one first flexible electrode 221 .

The second flexible electrode 222 connects one end of the first thermoelectric element 210-1 disposed at the other end of the strap 200 to the first terminal 251 disposed at one end of the strap 200. It is a flexible electrode for As shown, the second flexible electrode 222 may be disposed in a form surrounding the left and top sides of the strap 200 .

The third flexible electrode 223 connects one end of the n-th thermoelectric element 210-n disposed on one side of the strap 200 to the second terminal 252 disposed on one end of the strap 200. It is a flexible electrode for

The exterior member 230 surrounds the plurality of thermoelectric elements and the flexible electrode. The exterior member 230 may be made of a flexible insulating polymer material. Here, the insulating polymer material may be PDMS (polydimethyl siloxane), but is not limited thereto.

One surface (for example, the surface in contact with the user's skin) of the exterior member 230 may be padded with a low-hardness rubber, silicone, or urethane material to secure a soft touch. In addition, the other surface of the exterior member 230 may be covered with various materials such as metal and leather in order to express the material of a general watch strap.

4 and 5 are diagrams for explaining an arrangement of thermoelectric elements.

4 and 5, the thermoelectric element 210 includes a substrate 211, a first thermoelectric electrode layer 212, an N-type thermoelectric material 213, a P-type thermoelectric material 214, and a conductive bonding layer 215. , may be composed of the second thermoelectric electrode layer 216 . Here, the N-type thermoelectric element 213 and the P-type thermoelectric material 214 are alternately disposed as shown.

The substrate 211 has a hard material. That is, it may have a rectangular shape as a rigid type substrate. Also, the substrate 211 may be insulated.

The first thermoelectric electrode layer 212 is disposed on the substrate 211 and may be partially disposed in one region of the substrate 211 .

The N-type thermoelectric material 213 is formed on the first region of the substrate. For example, the N-type thermoelectric material may be bismuth-tellurium (BixTe1-x). Here, the first region may be an odd-numbered region among regions of the first thermoelectric electrode layer on which the thermoelectric element is disposed.

The P-type thermoelectric material 214 is formed in the second region of the substrate. For example, the P-type thermoelectric material may be antimony-tellurium (SbxTe1-x). Here, the second region may be an even-numbered region among regions of the first thermoelectric electrode layer on which the thermoelectric element is disposed.

The conductive bonding layer 215 is a component for connecting the N-type thermoelectric material 213 and the P-type thermoelectric material 214 to the second thermoelectric electrode layer 216 . Meanwhile, when implemented, the conductive bonding layer 215 may be implemented in an omitted form.

The second thermoelectric electrode layer 216 serves to electrically connect the N-type thermoelectric material 213 and the P-type thermoelectric material 214 in series, and may be implemented with a metal material having excellent electrical conductivity. For example, nickel (Ni), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), platinum (Pt), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), gold (Au), tungsten (W), cobalt (Co), palladium (Pd), titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta), iron (Fe), molybdenum (Mo), hafnium (Hf), lanthanum (La), iridium (Ir), silver (Ag), and any combination thereof It can be a single material.

6 is a view showing the configuration of a strap according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the strap 200' according to the second embodiment further includes a battery.

Referring to FIG. 6, the strap 200' includes a plurality of thermoelectric elements 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n, flexible electrodes 221, 222, 223, It is composed of an exterior member 230 , a first terminal 251 , a second terminal 252 , and a secondary battery 240 .

Thermoelectric elements 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n, flexible electrodes 221, 222, 223, exterior member 230, first terminal 251, The configuration of the second terminal 252 is the same as that of FIG. 3, so redundant description is omitted.

The secondary battery 240 charges the power generated by the thermoelectric elements 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n. Specifically, the electromotive force output from the plurality of thermoelectric elements is not constant according to a person's body temperature, connection area, and the like. Therefore, the secondary battery 240 primarily stores the electromotive force output from the serially connected thermoelectric elements 210-1, 210-2, 210-3, 210-4, ..., 210-n, and uses the charged power. A constant power may be output to the main body 100 .

Meanwhile, in the drawings and descriptions of FIGS. 3 to 6, although a plurality of thermoelectric elements are connected in series and described, in implementation, a plurality of thermoelectric elements may be connected in parallel. It may be configured in a parallel combined form.

7 is a view for explaining a method of manufacturing a strap according to the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7 , a plurality of thermoelectric elements are provided (710). Here, each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements is a rigid type thermoelectric element having a predetermined interval, and a general commercial element may be used.

When a plurality of thermoelectric elements are provided, the plurality of thermoelectric elements may be disposed at predetermined intervals, and each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements may be wired using a flexible electrode (720).

In addition, a plurality of thermoelectric elements connected by flexible electrodes may be wrapped and packaged with a flexible polymer material (730).

Therefore, in the strap manufacturing method according to the present embodiment, a plurality of rigid-type thermoelectric elements are wrapped with a flexible electrode and a polymer material, so that a strap having high Seebuck performance and flexibility can be produced. In addition, the strap can be more easily produced by using a commercially available thermoelectric element.

In addition, although the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described above, the present disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the technical field to which the disclosure belongs without departing from the subject matter of the present disclosure claimed in the claims. Of course, various modifications are possible by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical spirit or perspective of the present disclosure.

100: wearable device 110: communication device
120: touch display 130: memory
140: battery 150: process
200: strap 210: thermoelectric element
220: flexible electrode 230: exterior member

Claims (8)

In the wearable device,
a main body having a display displaying information; and
A strap for generating power using a temperature difference and providing the generated power to the main body,
The strap is
A plurality of rigid type thermoelectric elements;
a flexible electrode connecting the plurality of thermoelectric elements; and
Using a flexible insulating polymer material, an exterior member surrounding the plurality of thermoelectric elements and the flexible electrode; including,
Each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements may include a rigid type substrate; an n-type thermoelectric material formed on a first region of the substrate; and a p-type thermoelectric material formed in a second region of the substrate,
The strap further includes a first terminal and a second terminal disposed at one end of the strap,
The flexible electrode may include a plurality of first flexible electrodes connecting each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements; a second flexible electrode connecting one end of the first thermoelectric element disposed on the other end side of the strap to the first terminal; And a third flexible electrode connecting the other end of the second thermoelectric element disposed on one end side of the strap to the second terminal; includes,
The plurality of thermoelectric elements are arranged at predetermined intervals in the length direction of the strap, the wearable device. According to claim 1,
The flexible electrode,
A wearable device comprising at least one of an aluminum thin film, a copper thin film, a gold thin film, a silver thin film, and a conductive polymer thin film. According to claim 1,
The flexible insulating polymer material,
A wearable device that is PDMS (polydimethyl siloxane). delete delete delete According to claim 1,
The strap is
A wearable device further comprising a secondary battery storing the generated power. In the strap device for generating power using a temperature difference,
A plurality of rigid type thermoelectric elements;
a flexible electrode connecting the plurality of thermoelectric elements; and
An exterior member using a flexible insulating polymer material to surround the plurality of thermoelectric elements and the flexible electrode,
Each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements may include a rigid type substrate; an n-type thermoelectric material formed on a first region of the substrate; and a p-type thermoelectric material formed in a second region of the substrate,
Further comprising a first terminal and a second terminal disposed at one end of the strap,
The flexible electrode may include a plurality of first flexible electrodes connecting each of the plurality of thermoelectric elements; a second flexible electrode connecting one end of the first thermoelectric element disposed on the other end side of the strap to the first terminal; And a third flexible electrode connecting the other end of the second thermoelectric element disposed on one end side of the strap to the second terminal; includes,
Wherein the plurality of thermoelectric elements are arranged at predetermined intervals in the length direction of the strap, the strap device.

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