MAGNETICALLY COUPLING RADIO FREQUENCY ANTENNAS

• US 20100264211A1
• Filed: 05/07/2010
• Published: 10/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DeviceFidelity, Inc. (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: DeviceFidelity, Inc. (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Inventors: Jain, Deepak, Dao, Tuan Quoc
• Granted Patent: US 9,304,555 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/041 Constructional details G06K19/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0727 the arrangement being a circuit facilitating integration of the record carrier with a hand-held device such as a smart phone of PDA
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07732 the record carrier having a housing or construction similar to well-known portable memory devices, such as SD cards, USB or memory sticks housings for electrical equipment in general, see H05K5/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07749 the record carrier being capable of non-contact communication, e.g. constructional details of the antenna of a non-contact smart card
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07779 the inductive antenna being a coil
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07794 the record carrier comprising a booster or auxiliary antenna in addition to the antenna connected directly to the integrated circuit
• 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 7/10297 arrangements for handling protocols designed for non-contact record carriers such as RFIDs NFCs, e.g. ISO/IEC 14443 and 18092 cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; network security protocols H04L63/00; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; network protocols for data switching network services H04L67/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10336 the antenna being of the near field type, inductive coil
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/352 Contactless payments by cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3574 Multiple applications on card
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3576 Multiple memory zones on card
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0806 Details of the card record carriers per se G06K
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0833 Card having specific functional components
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2225 used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 19/005 : Patch antenna using one or more coplanar parasitic elements
• 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: H04M 1/0274 : for an electrical connector module
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 : by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 : Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/02 : Coin-freed or check-freed systems , e.g. mobile- or card-operated phones, public telephones or booths
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0196 : Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 : Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 : using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 : Wireless channel access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/00 : Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for using magnetically coupled antennas to enhance receptivity and/or reading range of radio frequency (RF) transaction devices. In some implementations, a method for boosting RF signals includes wirelessly receiving an RF signal from a transaction terminal at a passive antenna. The passive antenna is magnetically coupled to the antenna of a transaction card. The transaction card is inserted in a mobile host device and configured to execute a payment application using user credentials in response to at least a transaction request and transmits at least one transaction response to the transaction terminal based, at least in part, on the executed transaction application and using the antenna either standalone or through the coupled antenna configuration. The RF signal is transmitted to the transaction card using the inductive coupling with the terminal.

Claims

1. A transaction system, comprising:

a transaction card, comprising;

a dynamic antenna;

a memory-card interface that connects to a mobile host device;

a communication module that wirelessly receives Radio Frequency (RF) signals from and transmits RF signals to a transaction terminal;

secure memory that stores user credentials and a payment application used to execute financial transactions with the transaction terminal, the user credentials and the transaction application associated with an institution;

a user-interface module that presents and receives information through the GUI of the mobile host device;

a processing module that executes the transaction using the user credentials in response to at least a transaction request received by the RF module and transmits at least one transaction response to the terminal based, at least in part, on the executed transaction application; and

a boosting element including a passive antenna configured to magnetically couple with the dynamic antenna and increase an operating range of RF signal communication between the dynamic antenna and the transaction terminal.

2. The transaction system of claim 1, the passive antenna included in a first layer, further comprising a second layer coupled to the first layer and including an adhesive configured to affix the passive antenna to a device hosting the transaction card and at least proximate a card slot of the host device.

3. The system of claim 1, the passive antenna included in a first layer, further comprising a second layer including substantially planar ferrite and a first surface and a second surface, the first surface affixed to the first layer and the second surface affixed to the second layer.

4. The system of claim 1, the passive antenna substantially planar and at least twice as large as the dynamic antenna.

5. The system of claim 4, the passive antenna comprising an antenna in a shape of a coil.

6. The system of claim 1, the passive antenna configured to magnetically couple to the dynamic antenna inside the transaction card to substantially operate as a single antenna.

7. The system of claim 6, the single antenna tuned to perform at an operating range greater than an operating range of the dynamic antenna inside the transaction card.

8. The system of claim 1, the boosting element integrated in a housing of the host device for the transaction card.

9. The system of claim 1, the mobile host device operates independent of interference from the boosting element.

10. The system of claim 1, the boosting element affixed to an inner surface of a battery cover of the mobile host device.

11. The system of claim 1, the boosting element affixed to the terminal, the terminal operates independent of interference from the boosting element.

12. The system of claim 1, the transaction card configured to execute transactions with RF enabled terminals using RF signals transmitted in accordance with contactless standards ISO 14443 Type A and Type B, MiFare, RFID, Felica, NFC, ISO 15693, or Bluetooth.

13. The system of claim 1, the user credentials associated with one of a credit card account, a checking account, a debit account, a gift account, or a prepaid account.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing module comprises:

a security module that generates the transaction response based, at least in part, on the user credentials and the transaction application; and

an operating system with a runtime environment that executes the transaction application independent of the mobile host device.

15. A method for boosting an RF-signal communication range between a transaction card and a terminal, comprising:

magnetically coupling an antenna of a transaction terminal and a passive antenna inside a boosting element;

magnetically coupling the passive antenna inside the boosting element with a dynamic antenna of a transaction card, the transaction card inserted in a mobile host device, the boosting element coupled with the terminal antenna regenerating a terminal magnetic field with a higher flux density near the transaction card effecting an indirect magnetic coupling of the terminal antenna with the dynamic antenna; and

wirelessly communicating RF signals between the terminal and the transaction card using indirect magnetic coupling.

16. The method of claim 15, the indirect magnetic coupling through the boosting element allowing communication between the terminal and the transaction card at a greater operating range than direct coupling between the terminal antenna and the dynamic antenna inside the transaction card.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising substantially reducing interference generated by material of the mobile host device.

18. The method of claim 15, the passive antenna adjacent a surface of the mobile host device or a surface of the terminal.

19. The method of claim 15, the passive antenna magnetically coupled to the dynamic antenna to substantially operate as an antenna larger than the dynamic antenna.

20. The method of claim 15, the passive antenna boosts a communication range of the terminal independent of interfering with operations of the mobile host device or the terminal.