Systems and methods for far-field communication using a repurposed antenna

• US 10,123,156 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2016
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Butler, Paul Brandon, Wiklund, Magnus Olov, Mofidi, Mahbod, Mohammadian, Alireza Hormoz
• Primary Examiner(s): Urban, Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): Justus, Ralph H
• Application Number:
  US15/050,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20160261976A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411, 455 412
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0724 the arrangement being a circuit for communicating at a plurality of frequencies, e.g. for managing time multiplexed communication over at least two antennas of different types
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07767 the first and second communication means being two different antennas types, e.g. dipole and coil type, or two antennas of the same kind but operating at different frequencies
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07773 Antenna details antennas for wireless devices, e.g. RFID tags, in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10237 the reader and the record carrier being capable of selectively switching between reader and record carrier appearance, e.g. in near field communication [NFC] devices where the NFC device may function as an RFID reader or as an RFID tag
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10316 using at least one antenna particularly designed for interrogating the wireless record carriers antennas in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10336 the antenna being of the near field type, inductive coil
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10346 the antenna being of the far field type, e.g. HF types or dipoles
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/22 Capacitive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A method for performing near-field communication (NFC)-type operations in the far-field region using a repurposed antenna is described. The method includes determining whether to perform NFC-type operations in a near-field mode or a far-field mode. The method further includes performing NFC-type operations outside a near-field region using a repurposed antenna when in the far-field mode.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining whether to perform near-field communication (NFC)-type operations in a near-field mode or a far-field mode;

performing the NFC-type operations inside a near-field region using an NFC loop antenna when in the near-field mode;

performing the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region using a repurposed wireless wide area network (WWAN) antenna when in the far-field mode; and

performing, in response to determining the far-field mode, a packet arbitration procedure for WWAN communication and the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC-type operations include wireless communication based on NFC protocols or radio frequency identification (RFID) protocols.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region comprises transmitting or receiving a carrier signal operating in a far-field region using the repurposed WWAN antenna.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed in a near-radiating region, a transition region or a radiating region.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by a far-field radio.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to perform NFC-type operations in the near-field mode or the far-field mode is based on polling in the near-field region and a far-field region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to perform NFC-type operations in the near-field mode or the far-field mode is based on a user selecting to operate a software application that is configured to operate in near-field mode or far-field mode.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to perform NFC-type operations in the near-field mode or the far-field mode is based on location information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by an NFC controller.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a matching network from a first impedance used in the near-field mode to a second impedance used in the far-field mode, wherein the first impedance produces a first resonant peak that coincides with a near-field frequency and the second impedance produces a second resonant peak that coincides with a far-field frequency.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the WWAN antenna is coupled to an NFC controller and a WWAN block with a diplexer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the repurposed WWAN antenna is used for wireless local area network (WLAN) communication or Bluetooth (BT) communication.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein WLAN operations and NFC-type operations share a common radio and the repurposed WWAN antenna.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the common radio is a WLAN 802.11 ah radio that is reconfigurable for NFC-type operations in a far-field region.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein base band signals from WLAN operations and NFC-type operations are multiplexed to the common radio.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein WLAN operations and NFC-type operations share a low noise amplifier (LNA) and share a power amplifier (PA) for full concurrency.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein a media access control (MAC), modem and radio used for wireless local area network (WLAN) communication are reconfigured for NFC-type operations.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a far-field frequency for NFC-type operations is supported by the repurposed WWAN antenna alone; and

combining the repurposed WWAN antenna and an NFC loop antenna to create a composite antenna for performing NFC-type operations outside the near-field region when the far-field frequency is lower than can be supported by the repurposed WWAN antenna alone.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing concurrent NFC-type operations inside the near-field region using a NFC loop antenna and outside the near-field region using the repurposed WWAN antenna.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NFC-type operations outside a near-field region comprises performing a polling frequency sweep using far-field frequencies.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the WWAN antenna is configured for cellular communication.

22. A wireless communication device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory in communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory, the instructions executable by the processor to;

determine whether to perform near-field communication (NFC)-type operations in a near-field mode or a far-field mode;

perform the NFC-type operations inside a near-field region using an NFC loop antenna when in the near-field mode;

perform the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region using a repurposed wireless wide area network (WWAN) antenna when in the far-field mode; and

perform, in response to determining the far-field mode, a packet arbitration procedure for WWAN communication and the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region.

23. The wireless communication device of claim 22, wherein the NFC-type operations include wireless communication based on NFC protocols or radio frequency identification (RFID) protocols.

24. The wireless communication device of claim 22, wherein performing the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region comprises transmitting or receiving a carrier signal operating in a far-field region using the repurposed WWAN antenna.

25. The wireless communication device of claim 22, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by a far-field radio.

26. The wireless communication device of claim 22, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by an NFC controller.

27. The wireless communication device of claim 22, wherein the repurposed WWAN antenna is used for wireless local area network (WLAN) communication or Bluetooth (BT) communication.

28. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

means for determining whether to perform near-field communication (NFC)-type operations in a near-field mode or a far-field mode;

means for performing the NFC-type operations inside a near-field region using an NFC loop antenna when in the near-field mode;

means for performing the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region using a repurposed wireless wide area network (WWAN) antenna when in the far-field mode; and

means for performing, in response to determining the far-field mode, a packet arbitration procedure for WWAN communication and the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the NFC-type operations include wireless communication based on NFC protocols or radio frequency identification (RFID) protocols.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein performing the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region comprises transmitting or receiving a carrier signal operating in a far-field region using the repurposed WWAN antenna.

31. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by a far-field radio.

32. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by an NFC controller.

33. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the repurposed WWAN antenna is used for wireless local area network (WLAN) communication or Bluetooth (BT) communication.

34. A computer-program product for wireless communications, the computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions thereon, the instructions comprising:

code for causing a wireless communication device to determine whether to perform near-field communication (NFC)-type operations in a near-field mode or a far-field mode;

code for causing the wireless communication device to perform the NFC-type operations inside a near-field region using an NFC loop antenna when in the near-field mode;

code for causing the wireless communication device to perform the NFC-type operations outside a near-field region using a repurposed wireless wide area network (WWAN) antenna when in the far-field mode; and

code for causing the wireless communication device to perform, in response to determining the far-field mode, a packet arbitration procedure for WWAN communication and the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region.

35. The computer-program product of claim 34, wherein the NFC-type operations include wireless communication based on NFC protocols or radio frequency identification (RFID) protocols.

36. The computer-program product of claim 34, wherein performing the NFC-type operations outside the near-field region comprises transmitting or receiving a carrier signal operating in a far-field region using the repurposed WWAN antenna.

37. The computer-program product of claim 34, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by a far-field radio.

38. The computer-program product of claim 34, wherein the NFC-type operations are performed by an NFC controller.

39. The computer-program product of claim 34, wherein the repurposed antenna is used for wireless local area network (WLAN) communication or Bluetooth (BT) communication.