Method and system for operating a communications device that communicates via inductive coupling

• US 10,721,604 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2016
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Hueber, Gernot, Macnamara, Ian Thomas, Al-kadi, Ghiath
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Zhitong
• Application Number:
  US15/383,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20180176711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,310 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411, 455 69
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/24 Inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• 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

Embodiments of methods and systems for operating a communications device that communicates via inductive coupling are described. In an embodiment, a method for operating a communications device that communicates via inductive coupling involves obtaining at least one system or environmental parameter related to the communications device and adjusting a communications configuration of the communications device in response to the at least one system or environmental parameter. Other embodiments are also described.

Claims

1. A method for operating a communications device that communicates via inductive coupling, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of system or environmental parameters related to the communications device, wherein the system or environmental parameters comprise;

information regarding a transmitter voltage or a transmitter current from the communications device; and

information regarding a detuning condition in the communications device, wherein the information regarding the detuning condition comprises at least one of load information on a transmitter driver of the communications device and load information on an analog receiver of the communications device; and

adjusting a communications configuration of the communications device for communications via inductive coupling in response to the system or environmental parameters to control a load modulation amplitude (LMA) of the communications device to adjust a transmitter phase of the communications device, and to increase a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a corresponding communications device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the communications configuration of the communications device comprises adjusting the communications configuration of the communications device according to a function or a lookup table of a group of system or environmental parameters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications configuration comprises a transmitter impedance of the communications device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the communications configuration of the communications device comprises adjusting a receiver demodulation configuration of the communications device or a receiver gain in the communications device in response to the system or environmental parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the communications configuration of the communications device comprises adjusting the communications configuration of the communications device in response to the system or environmental parameters before or after reception of an input data frame or before or after transmission of an output data frame.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the system or environmental parameters comprises receiving a control signal from a device that is external to the communications device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the system or environmental parameters further comprise an antenna characteristic of the communications device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises the antenna characteristic of a loop antenna of the communications device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises an antenna geometry of the communications device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises an antenna geometry of a loop antenna of the communications device.

11. A communications device that communicates via inductive coupling, the communications device comprising:

a parameter obtaining unit configured to obtain a plurality of system or environmental parameters related to the communications device, wherein the system or environmental parameters comprise;

information regarding a transmitter voltage or a transmitter current from the communications device; and

information regarding a detuning condition in the communications device, wherein the information regarding the detuning condition comprises at least one of load information on a transmitter driver of the communications device and load information on an analog receiver of the communications device; and

a communications configuration adjusting unit configured to adjust a communications configuration of the communications device for communications via inductive coupling in response to the system or environmental parameters to control a load modulation amplitude (LMA) of the communications device, to adjust a transmitter phase of the communications device, and to increase a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a corresponding communications device.

12. The communications device of claim 11, wherein the communications configuration comprises a transmitter impedance of the communications device.

13. The communications device of claim 11, wherein the communications configuration adjusting unit is configured to adjust a receiver demodulation configuration of the communications device or a receiver gain in the communications device in response to the system or environmental parameters.

14. The communications device of claim 11, wherein the system or environmental parameters further comprise an antenna characteristic of the communications device.

15. The communications device of claim 14, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises the antenna characteristic of a loop antenna of the communications device.

16. The communications device of claim 14, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises an antenna geometry of the communications device.

17. The communications device of claim 14, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises an antenna geometry of a loop antenna of the communications device.

18. A method for operating a communications device that communicates via inductive coupling, the method comprising:

obtaining a group of system or environmental parameters related to the communications device, wherein the group of system or environmental parameters comprise;

information regarding a transmitter voltage or a transmitter current from the communications device; and

information regarding a detuning condition in the communications device, wherein the information regarding the detuning condition comprises at least one of load information on a transmitter driver of the communications device and load information on an analog receiver of the communications device; and

adjusting a communications configuration of the communications device for communications via inductive coupling according to a function or a lookup table of the group of system or environmental parameters to control a load modulation amplitude (LMA) of the communications device, to adjust a transmitter phase of the communications device, and to increase a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a corresponding communications device, wherein the communications configuration comprises a transmitter impedance of the communications device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the system or environmental parameters further comprise an antenna characteristic of the communications device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the antenna characteristic of the communications device comprises an antenna geometry of the communications device.