METHOD AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR USING AN ANTENNA AS A SENSOR DEVICE IN GUIDING SELECTION OF OPTIMIZED TUNING NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A wireless communication device comprising:
- multiple radio frequency (RF) transceivers;
multiple antenna matching and tuning circuits (AMTCs) each respectively coupled to a corresponding RF transceiver;
multiple antenna elements (AEs) each respectively coupled to a corresponding AMTC by a first coupling capacitor, wherein each AE is a first component of a corresponding capacitive touch and proximity sensor (CTPS);
a detection integrated circuit (IC) communicatively coupled to each respective CTPS and which detects a change in capacitance of a corresponding CTPS caused by proximity of an object to the antenna element, while the antenna element can be used to communicate RF signals; and
a modem coupled to the detection IC and each of the multiple RF transceivers and which;
responsive to detection of the respective change in capacitance corresponding to each of the multiple CTPSes, determines an antenna loading condition presented to the wireless communication device by the object located within specific proximity of corresponding antenna elements, based on a detected change in antenna self-capacitance associated with a corresponding antenna element;
determines antenna tuning states associated with each respective antenna element by using a pre-established mapping of antenna tuning states and changes in antenna self-capacitance correlated to antenna impedance, based on the determined antenna loading condition; and
performs antenna impedance tuning by respectively providing the determined antenna tuning states to the multiple AMTCs.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system performs antenna tuning using detected changes in antenna self-capacitance in a wireless communication device. A modem detects changes in antenna self-capacitance by utilizing multiple antenna elements. The modem determines a current antenna loading condition using the detected changes in antenna self-capacitance. The modem determines appropriate tuning states for each antenna matching and tuning circuit (AMTC) associated with a respective antenna element. In order to determine the appropriate tuning states, the modem utilizes pre-established antenna self-capacitance information which is mapped to antenna tuning states. The antenna tuning states which are respectively mapped to pre-established antenna self-capacitance are empirically pre-determined by correlating antenna self-capacitance changes to antenna impedance changes. The modem is thus able to change the tuning states of multiple tunable matching circuits and perform antenna tuning using (a) detected real-time changes in antenna self-capacitance and (b) pre-established mappings of antenna self-capacitance and antenna tuning states.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A wireless communication device comprising:
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multiple radio frequency (RF) transceivers; multiple antenna matching and tuning circuits (AMTCs) each respectively coupled to a corresponding RF transceiver; multiple antenna elements (AEs) each respectively coupled to a corresponding AMTC by a first coupling capacitor, wherein each AE is a first component of a corresponding capacitive touch and proximity sensor (CTPS); a detection integrated circuit (IC) communicatively coupled to each respective CTPS and which detects a change in capacitance of a corresponding CTPS caused by proximity of an object to the antenna element, while the antenna element can be used to communicate RF signals; and a modem coupled to the detection IC and each of the multiple RF transceivers and which; responsive to detection of the respective change in capacitance corresponding to each of the multiple CTPSes, determines an antenna loading condition presented to the wireless communication device by the object located within specific proximity of corresponding antenna elements, based on a detected change in antenna self-capacitance associated with a corresponding antenna element; determines antenna tuning states associated with each respective antenna element by using a pre-established mapping of antenna tuning states and changes in antenna self-capacitance correlated to antenna impedance, based on the determined antenna loading condition; and performs antenna impedance tuning by respectively providing the determined antenna tuning states to the multiple AMTCs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. In a wireless communications device having multiple antenna elements that are capacitively coupled to antenna matching and tuning circuits (AMTCs), respectively, and are each connected to at least one radio frequency (RF) choke to constitute a corresponding capacitive touch and proximity sensor (CTPS), a method comprising:
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a detection integrated circuit (IC) detecting a change in antenna self-capacitance caused by an object located within specific proximity of a corresponding antenna element for each antenna element of a wireless communication device; determining an antenna loading condition presented to the wireless communication device by the object located within specific proximity of corresponding antenna elements, based on a detected change in antenna self-capacitance associated with a corresponding antenna element; determining an antenna tuning state corresponding to each of the antenna elements by using a pre-established mapping of antenna tuning states and changes in antenna self-capacitance correlated to antenna impedance, based on the determined antenna loading condition; and performing antenna impedance tuning by using the generated antenna tuning states. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification