CONTACTLESS ILLUMINATION SYSTEM

BACKGROUND
[0001] Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a contactless power transfer system and, more particularly, to a contactless illumination system.

[0002] Illumination devices are used to provide light for different applications. Various systems include the illumination devices to provide light in the systems. Some non-limiting examples of such systems may include heating devices and cooling devices.
[0003] One such cooling device may include a refrigerator. The refrigerator may include the illumination devices to illuminate one or more cooling compartments inside the refrigerator. The illumination devices may be attached at different positions in the one or more cooling compartments. Conventionally, the illumination devices may be attached on one side of one or more cooling compartments. The illumination devices may be attached in the one or more cooling compartments to the refrigerator housing and a respective electrical cable is used to couple the illumination device to an integrated power supply for illuminating the one or more cooling compartments.

[0004] Furthermore, the illumination devices may be attached to panels situated in the one or more cooling compartments. Each of the panels in the one or more cooling compartments includes an electrical connector that is coupled to respective electrical connectors situated at the refrigerator housing. The electrical connectors in the refrigerator housing are positioned at their respective positions such that they require an opening in the refrigerator housing for each of the electrical connectors. The openings for positioning the electrical connectors experiences foaming due to an insulation material provided between the refrigerator housing and a refrigerator casing. The foam infiltrates into the one or more cooling compartments and, in addition to being unsightly, the foam causes degradation of the one or more cooling compartments.

[0005] The electrical connectors in the panels and the refrigerator housing are physically connected to illuminate the illumination devices. However, in order to remove one or more panels from the one or more cooling compartments, a user needs to manually detach the electrical connectors of each of the panels. Therefore, such a configuration requires an additional manual effort of detaching a panel electrical connector from a housing electrical connector for removing the one or more panels from the refrigerator compartment.

[0006] Moreover, the one or more cooling compartments typically provide an environment which leads to corrosion of the electrical connectors, which may result in increased maintenance costs.

[0007] Hence, there is a need for an improved system to address the aforementioned issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION
[0008] Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment, a contactless system for illumination is provided. The contactless system for illumination includes a first coil, a second coil coupled to one or more illumination devices and a field focusing element disposed between the first coil and the second coil. The field focusing element includes an array of a plurality of resonators and the field focusing element is configured to focus a magnetic field onto the second coil for illuminating the one or more illumination devices.

[0009] In another embodiment, a contactless system for illumination including a cooling device is provided. The contactless system includes one or more illumination devices situated inside one or more cooling compartments of the cooling device. The contactless system also includes one or more first coils coupled to a housing of the cooling device and coupled to a power source. The contactless system further includes one or more second coils situated inside the cooling compartment of the cooling device and coupled to the one or more illumination devices. The contactless system also includes at least one field focusing element including an array of a plurality of resonators disposed between the one or more first coils and the one or more second coils. The field focusing element is configured to focus a magnetic field to the one or more second coils for illuminating the one or more illumination devices.

DRAWINGS

[0010] These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

[0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram representation of a contactless system for illumination in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0012] FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of various structures of resonators used in a field focusing element in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0013] FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of plurality of resonators arranged in an array to form a field focusing element in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0014] FIG. 4 is a block diagram representation of a contactless system for illumination including a phase compensation coil in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0015] FIG. 5 is an alternative embodiment of a contactless system for illumination of FIG. 4 including a phase compensation coil situated between a first coil and a second coil in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0016] FIG. 6 is a block diagram representation of a contactless system for illumination coupled to a DC power source and including one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in parallel to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0017] FIG. 7 is a block diagram representation of an alternative embodiment of the contactless system for illumination of FIG. 6 including a DC power source and one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in an anti-parallel configuration to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0018] FIG. 8 is a block diagram representation of an alternative embodiment of the contactless system for illumination of FIG. 6 including an AC power source and one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in parallel to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0019] FIG. 9 is a block diagram representation of an alternative embodiment of the contactless system for illumination of FIG. 8 including an AC power source and one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in an anti-parallel configuration to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0020] FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of a side view of a cooling device including a contactless system for illumination in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0021] FIG. 11 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of a cooling device including at least one movable panel in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0022] Embodiments of the present invention include a contactless system for illumination. The contactless system includes a first coil coupled to a power source, a second coil coupled to one or more illumination devices and a field focusing element disposed between the first coil and the second coil. The field focusing element includes an array of a plurality of resonators and the field focusing element is configured to focus a magnetic field onto the second coil for illuminating the one or more illumination devices. The contactless system for illumination will be described in greater detail with respect to FIG. 1 below.

[0023] Unless defined otherwise, technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as is commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The terms "first", "second", and the like, as used herein do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another. Also, the terms "a" and "an" do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced items. The term "or" is meant to be inclusive and mean one, some, or all of the listed items. The use of "including," "comprising" or "having" and variations thereof herein are meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

[0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a contactless system for illumination 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The contactless system for illumination 100 includes a first coil 110. The first coil 110 may be coupled to a power source 120. The contactless system for illumination 100 also includes a second coil 130 coupled to one or more illumination devices 140. The first coil 110 receives power from the power source 120 and converts the power into magnetic field 150. The power is transmitted to the second coil 130 via the magnetic field 150. The contactless system for illumination 100 also includes a field focusing element 160 that focuses the magnetic field 150 transmitted by the first coil 110 to the second coil 130. The second coil 130 receives the magnetic field 155 representative of the magnetic field 150 transmitted from the first coil 110 and converts the magnetic field 155 into power. The second coil 130 transmits the power to the one or more illumination devices 140. The one or more illumination devices 140 use the power received from the second coil 130 for illuminating. In one embodiment, the one or more illuminating devices 140 include light emitting diodes (LED).

[0025] The field focusing element 160 includes a resonant coil having ends 162 and 164 that may include various structures as depicted in FIG. 2. In one embodiment, the field focusing element 160 includes a single loop coil 166. In another embodiment, the field focusing element 160 includes multiple turns such as in a split ring structure 168, spiral structure 170, Swiss-roll structure 172, or helical coil 174. Selection of a structure for a particular application is determined by the size and self-resonating frequency of the field focusing element 160. In one embodiment, the ends 162, 164 of the field focusing element 160 are coupled to a field focusing capacitor (not shown) that forms a capacitively loaded coil, which upon excitation, amplifies the magnetic field 150 received from the first coil 110 and transmits an amplified magnetic field 155 to the second coil 130.

[0026] Referring back to FIG. 1, in another embodiment, the ends 162 and 164 of the field focusing element 160 are left open and the field focusing capacitor is not coupled to the ends 162 and 164 of the field focusing element 160. In such an embodiment, the field focusing element 160 behaves as a self-resonant coil and when the first power coil 110 is excited at a resonant frequency of the field focusing element 160, a standing wave current distribution is developed within the field focusing element 160 between the open ends 162, 164. The standing wave current distribution leads to a non-uniform magnetic field distribution around the field focusing element 160. Such non-uniform current distribution is configured to focus the magnetic field 150 in any desired direction, such as, in a direction of the second coil 130. When operating at resonant frequency, even a small excitation to the field focusing element 160 produces large amplitude of current distribution along the length of the field focusing element 160. Large current magnitude of non-uniform distribution leads to an amplified and focused magnetic field 155 in the direction of the second coil 130 that results in higher efficiency of power transfer. Greater details of the operation of the field-focusing element 160 are described in commonly assigned US patent application titled "contactless power transfer system and method", S/N 12/731497, filed on March 25, 2010 and US patent application titled "systems for contactless power transfer", S/N 12/914512, filed on October 28, 2010, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0027] Furthermore, FIG. 3 depicts a schematic representation of the field focusing element 160 that includes an array of a plurality of resonators to focus the magnetic field onto the second coil 130. More specifically, the field focusing element 160 includes the plurality of resonators 176 arranged in the array and the plurality of resonators 176 are configured to operate as a single unit wherein a resultant magnetic field (also referred to as the magnetic field 155) is induced by the respective magnetic fields of the plurality of resonators 176 in the array by interfering constructively (adding) in a first direction to achieve magnetic field focusing and interfering destructively (canceling each other) in the remaining directions, where the first direction is the direction of the second coil. Although, one embodiment of the array is shown, there may be various other forms of array that can be formed from the plurality of resonators 176. The resultant magnetic field 155 is transmitted to the second coil 130 that is coupled to the one or more illumination devices (FIG. 1). Moreover, in a particular embodiment, the plurality of resonators includes at least two different resonance frequencies. For example, one resonator 176 may include two different resonance frequencies or two resonators 176 may each include a different resonant frequency.

[0028] FIG. 4 is a block diagram representation of a contactless system for illumination 200 including a phase compensation coil 280 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In order to further enhance the resonance coupling between a first coil 210 and a second coil 230, the phase compensation coil 280 is coupled to the second coil 230. The first coil 210 transmits a magnetic field 250 to the second coil 230 via a field focusing element 260. The second coil receives a magnetic field 255 representative of the magnetic field 250 and further transmits to one or more illumination devices 240 coupled to the second coil 230. The phase compensation coil 280 matches the impedance of the contactless system for illumination 200 and compensates for the change in phase resulting from any misalignment between the first coil 210, second coil 230 and a field focusing element 260. As used herein, the term "misalignment" means any angular deviation between the first coil 210, the second coil 230 and the field focusing element 260. In one embodiment, the phase compensation coil 280 and the field focusing element 260, each operate at different resonant frequencies with respect to each other. In one embodiment, the resonant frequency of the phase compensation coil 280 is higher than the resonant frequency of the field focusing element 260. This provides a capacitive reactance to the contactless system for illumination 200 and compensates for a lagging power factor in the contactless system for illumination 200. In one example, the phase compensation coil 280 operates at twice the frequency of the second coil 230. In another embodiment, the resonant frequency of the phase compensation coil 280 is lower than the resonant frequency of the field focusing element 260. This provides an inductive reactance to the contactless system for illumination 200 and compensates for a leading power factor in the contactless system for illumination 200. In an exemplary embodiment, the resonant frequency of the field focusing element 260 is equal to the resonant frequency of the first coil 210 and therefore, by extension, the resonant frequency of the phase compensation coil 280 is different from the resonant frequency of the first coil 210.

[0029] During operation, the phase compensation coil 280 behaves as a capacitor due to the relatively higher resonant frequency as compared to the field focusing element 260 and provides capacitive reactance to the contactless system for illumination 200 that increases efficiency and power transfer capabilities of the contactless system for illumination 200. The efficiency of the contactless system for illumination 200 depends on the input power factor of the contactless system for illumination 200 and the efficiency of the contactless system for illumination 200 is enhanced by increasing the input power factor of the contactless system for illumination 200. The capacitive reactance provided by the phase compensation coil 280 results in impedance matching and reduces the current drawn by the first coil 210 from a power source 220 for transmitting power to one or more illumination devices 240 and hence improves the input power factor of the contactless system for illumination 200 resulting in enhanced efficiency.

[0030] Moreover, the capacitive reactance provided by the phase compensation coil 280 increases the power transfer capability of the contactless system for illumination 200 by increasing a power output of the contactless system for illumination 200. The power output at the one or more illumination devices 240 depends on a total reflected impedance of the contactless system for illumination 200 and the capacitive reactance provided by the phase compensation coil 280 reduces the total reflected impedance, which in turn increases the power transfer capability of the contactless system for illumination 200. Due to the enhanced efficiency and the power transfer capability of the contactless system for illumination 200, the first power coil 210 and the second coil 230 are said to have enhanced coupling between each other.

[0031] FIG. 5 is an alternative embodiment of a contactless system for illumination 300 of FIG. 4 including a phase compensation coil 380 situated between a first coil 310 and a second coil 330 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the phase compensation coil 380 is positioned between the first coil 310 and a field focusing element 360. However, in another embodiment (not shown) the phase compensation coil 380 may also be positioned between the field focusing element 360 and the second coil 330. The second coil 330 is coupled to one or more illumination devices 340 that receive power from a power source 320 via the first coil 310, the second coil 330 and the field focusing element 360 for illumination.

[0032] FIG. 6 is a block diagram representation of a contactless system for illumination 400 coupled to a DC power source 420 and including one or more illumination devices 440 coupled in parallel to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The contactless system for illumination 400 includes an inverter 470 coupled to the DC power source 420. The inverter 470 converts DC power received from the DC power source 420 to AC power and transmits the AC power to a first coil 410 coupled to the inverter 470. The first coil 410 converts the AC power to a magnetic field 450 that is transmitted to a second coil 430. The magnetic field 450 is focused on to the second coil 430 by a field focusing element 460 situated between the first coil 410 and the second coil 430. The field focusing element 460 includes an array of plurality of resonators (FIG. 3) that interfere constructively with each other in a first direction 455 and interferes destructively in remaining directions to focus the magnetic field 450 in the first direction 455, where the first direction 455 is the direction of the second coil 430. The contactless system for illumination 400 also includes a phase compensation coil 480 (PCC) that matches an impedance of the contactless system for illumination 400 and compensates a change in phase resulting from a misalignment between the first coil 410, the second coil 430 and the field focusing element 460. The second coil 430 receives a magnetic field 465 representative of the magnetic field 450 received from the first coil 410 and converts the magnetic field 465 back to AC power. The second coil 430 is coupled to one or more illumination devices 440 that are distributed in one or more sets 442, 444 of illumination devices. In the illustrated embodiment, each set of illumination devices 442, 444 is coupled in a parallel configuration to each other. In order to illuminate each set of illumination devices 442, 444 in such a configuration, a first rectifier 490 is coupled between the second coil 430 and the one or more illumination devices 440 to convert the AC power in the second coil 430 to DC power. The DC power is fed to the one or more illumination devices 440 and is used for illuminating the one or more illumination devices 440.

[0033] FIG. 7 is a block diagram representation of an alternative embodiment 500 of the contactless system for illumination of FIG. 6 including the DC power source 420 and one or more sets 542, 544 of illumination devices 540 coupled in an anti-parallel configuration with respect to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The contactless system for illumination 500 includes the inverter 470 coupled to the DC power source 420. The inverter 470 is coupled to the first coil 410 and the first coil 410 transmits a magnetic field 450 to the second coil 430 via the field focusing element 460. In such a configuration, where the one or more sets 542, 544 of illumination devices 540 are coupled in the anti-parallel configuration, the need of having the first rectifier (e.g., 490 in FIG. 6) is eliminated as the two sets 542, 544 of illumination devices 540 act as a rectifier due to their anti-parallel configuration. In one embodiment, the one or more illumination devices 540 include light emitting diodes (LED).

[0034] FIG. 8 is a block diagram representation of an alternative embodiment 600 of the contactless system for illumination of FIG. 6 including an AC power source 620 and one or more sets of illumination devices 640 coupled in parallel to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the contactless system for illumination 600 includes a second rectifier 690 coupled to the inverter 470 in addition to the first coil 410, the second coil 430, the field focusing element 460, the phase compensation coil 480 and the first rectifier 490 as discussed in FIG. 6. The second rectifier 690 is coupled to the AC power source 620 and converts the AC power received from the AC power source 620 to DC power that is fed to the inverter 470.

[0035] FIG. 9 is a block diagram representation of yet another alternative embodiment 700 of the contactless system for illumination of FIG. 8 including the AC power source 620 and one or more sets 742, 744 of illumination devices 740 coupled in an anti-parallel configuration to each other in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the contactless system for illumination 700 includes the second rectifier 690 coupled to the inverter 470 in addition to the first coil 410, the second coil 430, the field focusing element 460 and the phase compensation coil 480 as discussed in FIG. 6. However, the one or more sets 742, 744 of illumination devices 740 are coupled in the anti-parallel configuration and the first rectifier (e.g., 490 in FIG. 8) is eliminated as the two sets 742, 744 of illumination devices 740 act as a rectifier due to their anti-parallel configuration.

[0036] FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of a side view of a cooling device 800 including a contactless system for illumination in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The cooling device 800 includes a housing 810 that acts as a mount for various components (not shown) employed for operating the cooling device 800. The cooling device 800 also includes one or more fixed partitions 815 that are used to create one or more cooling compartments 820 that are cooled by the cooling device 800. The one or more cooling compartments 820 include one or more illumination devices 830 situated inside the one or more cooling compartments 820. The one or more illumination devices 830 are used to illuminate the one or more cooling compartments 820 of the cooling device 800. In one embodiment, the one or more illumination devices 830 may include one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in parallel configuration or an antiparallel configuration. In another embodiment, a first rectifier (FIG. 6) is coupled to the one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in the parallel configuration. The one or more illumination devices 830 receive power from a power source 850 via one or more first coils 860 mounted on the housing 810. The one or more first coils 860 are physically separated from the one or more cooling compartments 820 by a housing sheet 815. The housing sheet 815 may be defined as a sheet fabricated from a polymer, plastic or any other material that may be useful for fabricating the sheet, and the sheet is used for physically separating the housing 810 from the one or more cooling compartments 820. The size, shape and thickness of the housing sheet 815 may depend on the cooling device in which the housing sheet may be used for physically separating the housing 810 and the one or more cooling compartments 820. The one or more first coils 860 are positioned at their respective positions in the housing 810 without creating an opening in the one or more cooling compartments 820 in contrast to the conventional cooling devices (not shown). The one or more first coils 860 are coupled to the power source 850 and convert power received from the power source 850 to a magnetic field 870. In one embodiment, the power source 850 may include an AC power source or a DC power source. In the specific embodiment including the DC power source, as described above in FIGs. 6-7, an inverter is coupled between the DC power source and the one or more first coils. The inverter may be mounted on the housing 810 of the cooling device 800. The inverter converts the DC power received from the DC power source to an AC power and transmits the AC power to the one or more first coils 860. In another embodiment including the AC power source, as discussed above in FIGs. 8-9, a second rectifier may be coupled to the AC power source and mounted on the housing 810 for converting AC power received from the AC power source to DC power that is fed to the inverter. The one or more first coils 860 convert the power received from the power source 850 to the magnetic field 870 that is transmitted towards one or more second coils 880 situated inside the one or more cooling compartments 820. The one or more second coils 880 are coupled to the one or more illumination devices 830 and transmit the power received from the one or more first coils 860 to the one or more illumination devices 830 for illuminating the one or more cooling compartments 820. The cooling device also includes at least one field focusing element 890 that is configured to focus the magnetic field 870 received from the one or more first coils 860 towards the one or more second coils 880. The at least one field focusing element 890 is positioned between the one or more first coils 860 and the one or more second coils 880. In one embodiment, the at least one field focusing element 890 may be situated in the housing 810 of the cooling device 800 or inside the one or more cooling compartments 820 of the cooling device 800. In embodiments including the field focusing element 890 situated in the housing 810, the at least one field focusing element 890 is physically separated from the one or more cooling compartments 820 by the housing sheet 815. The at least one field focusing element 890 includes an array of a plurality of resonators (FIG.3). As discussed above in detail, the plurality of resonators in the array interferes constructively in a first direction and interferes destructively in the remaining directions to focus the magnetic field in the first direction, where the first direction is the direction towards the one or more second coils 880. Furthermore, a phase compensation coil 900 is coupled to the one or more second coils 880 that compensates for a change in phase resulting from a misalignment between the one or more first coils 860, the one or more second coils 880 and the at least one field focusing element 890 and matches an impedance of the one or more first coils 860, the one or more second coils 880 and the at least one field focusing element 890.

[0037] FIG. 11 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of a cooling device 1000 including at least one movable panel 1010 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The cooling device 1000 includes at least one movable panel 1010 positioned inside the one or more cooling compartments 1020. In one embodiment, the cooling device 1000 may include a refrigerator. For example, the refrigerator may include a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment. Each of the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment may include one or more movable panels 1010 that may be positioned inside the respective compartments of the refrigerator. The at least one movable panel 1010 may include a shelf or a tray that is used to store various perishable items in the refrigerator. In another embodiment, the at least one movable panel 1010 may be designed to move in any direction depending on the refrigerator and its application. For example, the at least one movable panel 1010 may move in and out of the cooling device 1000. In such embodiments, the one or more illumination devices 1030 may be situated on the at least one movable panel 1010. In another embodiment, the one or more illumination devices 1030 may include one or more sets of illumination devices. The one or more sets of illumination devices may be disposed in a parallel configuration or an antiparallel configuration on the at least one movable panel 1010. In an exemplary embodiment, the one or more sets of illumination devices may be integrated into the at least one movable panel 1010. The cooling device 1000 also includes one or more second coils 1040 that are situated on the at least one movable panel 1010 and receive power from one or more first coils 1050 situated in a housing 1060. The housing 1060 and the at least one movable panel 1010 are physically separated by a housing sheet 1065. The housing sheet 1065 is positioned between the one or more first coils 1050 and the at least one movable panel 1010 situated in the one or more cooling compartments 1020. The housing sheet 1065 provides a physical barrier between the one or more first coils 1050 and the at least one movable panel 1010 and does not include any opening for positioning the one or more first coils 1050 or respective electrical connectors. The absence of openings in the housing sheet 1065 eliminates foaming caused from the insulation material in contrast to the conventional cooling devices. Moreover, due to a contactless transmission of power from the one or more first coils 1050 to the one or more second coils 1040 via the magnetic field, the need for electrical connectors is eliminated and thus the manual effort to detach panel electrical connectors from housing electrical connectors in the conventional cooling devices is also eliminated. The one or more second coils 1040 are coupled to the one or more illumination devices 1030 and transmit the power received from the one or more first coils 1050 to the one or more illumination devices 1030 for illuminating the one or more cooling compartments 1020.

[0038] In operation, the one or more first coils 1050 are coupled to a power source that provides power to the one or more first coils 1050. The one or more first coils 1050 receive the power and convert the power to a magnetic field 1070. Furthermore, when at least one movable panel 1010 including the one or more illumination devices 1030 is inserted in the cooling device 1000, the one or more second coils 1040 receive the magnetic field 1070 from the one or more first coils 1050. The one or more second coils 1040 start receiving the magnetic field 1070 once the one or more second coils 1040 enter an active region 1075 of the one or more first coils 1050. The active region 1075 may be defined as a region where a field focusing element 1090 focuses the magnetic field 1070 received from the one or more first coils 1050. The field focusing element 1090 receives the magnetic field 1070 from the one or more first coils 1050 and focuses the magnetic field 1070 towards the one or more second coils 1040. The one or more second coils 1040 receive the magnetic field 1070 and convert the magnetic field 1070 to power. The one or more second coils 1040 transmit the power to the one or more illumination devices 1030 for illuminating the one or more cooling compartments 1020. Similarly, if the at least one movable panel 1010 is removed from the one or more cooling compartments 1020, the one or more second coils 1040 stop receiving the magnetic field 1070 and the one or more illumination devices 1030 cease to illuminate. Moreover, in one embodiment, the cooling device 1000 may include one or more sensors (not shown) to detect insertion 1012 or extraction 1014 of the at least one movable panel 1010. Upon detection of the insertion 1012, the cooling device 1000 may initiate operation of the one or more first coils 1050 and on extraction 1014, the cooling device 1000 may cease the operation of the one or more first coils 1050 to save power.

[0039] It is to be understood that a skilled artisan will recognize the interchangeability of various features from different embodiments and that the various features described, as well as other known equivalents for each feature, may be mixed and matched by one of ordinary skill in this art to construct additional systems and techniques in accordance with principles of this disclosure. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

[0040] While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

CLAIMS:

1. A contactless system for illumination comprising:

a first coil;

a second coil coupled to one or more illumination devices;

a field focusing element comprising an array of a plurality of resonators disposed between the first coil and the second coil and configured to focus a magnetic field onto the second coil for illuminating the one or more illumination devices.

2. The contactless system of claim 1, further comprising a phase compensation coil for matching an impedance of the contactless system for illumination and compensating a change in phase resulting from a misalignment between the first coil, the second coil and the field focusing element.

3. The contactless system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of resonators in the array interferes constructively with each other in a first direction and interferes destructively in remaining directions to focus the magnetic field in the first direction.

4. The contactless system of claim 1, further comprising an inverter coupled between the first coil and the power source.

5. The contactless system of claim 1, wherein the one or more illumination devices comprises one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in a parallel or an anti-parallel configuration.

6. The contactless system of claim 5, further comprising a first rectifier coupled to the one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in the parallel configuration.

7. The contactless system of claim 1, further comprising an AC power source and a second rectifier to convert AC power received from the AC power source to DC power.

8. A contactless system for illumination comprising:

a cooling device;

one or more illumination devices situated inside one or more cooling compartments of the cooling device;

one or more first coils coupled to a housing of the cooling device and coupled to a power source;

one or more second coils situated inside the one or more cooling compartments of the cooling device and coupled to the one or more illumination devices; and

at least one field focusing element comprising an array of a plurality of resonators disposed between the one or more first coils and the one or more second coils and configured to focus a magnetic field to the one or more second coils for illuminating the one or more illumination devices.

9. The contactless system of claim 8, further comprising at least one movable panel positioned inside the one or more cooling compartments.

10. The contactless system of claim 9, wherein one or more illumination devices are situated on the at least one movable panel.

11. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the one or more illumination devices comprises one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in a parallel configuration or an anti-parallel configuration.

12. The contactless system of claim 11, further comprising a first rectifier coupled to the one or more sets of illumination devices coupled in the parallel configuration.

13. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the at least one field focusing element is situated in the housing of the cooling device or on at least one movable panel situated inside the cooling compartment of the cooling device.

14. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the one or more second coils are situated on at least one movable panel situated inside the cooling compartment.
 
15. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the one or more second coils are configured to receive magnetic field from the one or more first coils.

16. The contactless system of claim 8, further comprising one or more inverters coupled to the one or more first coils.

17. The contactless system of claim 8, further comprising a phase compensation coil for matching an impedance of the contactless system for illumination and compensating a change in phase resulting from a misalignment between the one or more first coil, the one or more second coil and the field focusing element of the contactless system.

18. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of resonators in the array interferes constructively in a first direction and interferes destructively in remaining directions to focus the magnetic field in the first direction.

19. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the power source comprises an AC power source or a DC power source and wherein the power source comprises the AC power source, the contactless system further comprises a second rectifier coupled to the AC power source for converting AC power received from the AC power source to DC power.

20. The contactless system of claim 8, wherein the cooling device comprises a refrigerator.