Measurement and Reporting of Received Signal Strength in NFC-Enabled Devices
First Claim
1. A method of operating an NFC-enabled device, comprising:
- detecting, at the NFC-enabled device, an NFC reader field, based on a current induced within an antenna of the NFC-enabled device;
operating reader receiver circuitry at the NFC-enabled device so as to at least determine a strength of a signal received from the NFC reader field;
generating information representative of the determined strength of the signal received from the reader field at a first time; and
performing one or more predetermined actions based on the information.
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Abstract
An NFC-enabled device including tag emulation circuitry and reader emulation circuitry operates so as to provide a signal strength meter function. The signal strength meter function, in tag emulation mode, measures and reports on how well the tag is coupled to a third party reader field. In reader emulation mode, the signal strength meter function measures and reports how well the reader of the NFC-enabled device couples to a tag that is being read. One exemplary method includes detecting an NFC reader field, operating reader receiver circuitry at the NFC-enabled device so as to at least determine the strength of a signal received from the reader field, generating information representative of the determined strength of the signal received from the reader field at a first time, and performing one or more predetermined actions based at least in part on the one or more signals representative of the determined strength. Predetermined actions may include generating visual, audio, and/or other indications of the received signal strength.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of operating an NFC-enabled device, comprising:
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detecting, at the NFC-enabled device, an NFC reader field, based on a current induced within an antenna of the NFC-enabled device; operating reader receiver circuitry at the NFC-enabled device so as to at least determine a strength of a signal received from the NFC reader field; generating information representative of the determined strength of the signal received from the reader field at a first time; and performing one or more predetermined actions based on the information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of operating an NFC-enabled computational platform, comprising:
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detecting a current induced by a NFC reader field in an NFC antenna of the NFC-enabled computational platform, wherein the current represents a measure of coupling between the NFC reader field and a tag; operating a reader receiver to a measure of the current in the NFC antenna and to receive in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) versions of the signal in the antenna; generating one or more signals indicative of the coupling between the NFC reader field and the tag based on levels of the I and Q versions of the signal; and producing a user perceivable output based on the one or more signals. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An NFC-enabled device, comprising:
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a plurality of device specific resources disposed within the NFC-enabled device; an NFC antenna; an NFC tag functional block coupled to at least one of the plurality of device specific resources and to the NFC antenna, the NFC tag functional block including a reader receiver; and a signal strength meter functional block coupled to the reader receiver; wherein the reader receiver is operable to recover in-phase(I) and quadrature (Q) versions of signals induced in the NFC antenna, and wherein the signal strength meter functional block is operable to produce an information signal based on levels of the I and Q versions. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of operating an NFC-enabled device in tag emulation mode, the NFC-enabled device having a tag antenna and a tag antenna shunt regulator coupled thereto, the method comprising:
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determining a coupling strength between the tag antenna and a reader field from a peak voltage across the tag antenna when the peak voltage is below a shunt regulator threshold voltage; and determining the coupling strength from the current in the tag antenna when the tag shunt regulator is shunting.
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Specification