Electronic Device With Impedance Measurement Circuitry

• US 20160204821A1
• Filed: 12/28/2015
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Han, Liang, Lee, Victor C., Mow, Matthew A., Biedka, Thomas E., Tsai, Ming-Ju, Judkins, James G., Pascolini, Mattia
• Granted Patent: US 9,523,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 29/10 Radiation diagrams of antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0458 Arrangements for matching and coupling between power amplifier and antenna or between amplifying stages matching circuits in general H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/18 Input circuits, e.g. for coupling to an antenna or a transmission line coupling networks between antennas or lines and receivers independent of the nature of the receiver H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/40 Circuits

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include wireless transceiver circuitry that transmits signals towards an antenna. A signal path may carry the transmitted signals to the antenna. Reflected signals from the antenna may be carried along the signal path towards the transceiver circuitry. Coupler circuitry may include a forward coupler that taps the transmitted signals, a first reverse coupler that taps the reflected signals from the antenna, and a second reverse coupler that taps the reflected signals that have passed through the first reverse coupler. Analog processing circuitry and digital processing circuitry may be used to produce an impedance measurement from the tapped signals from the coupler circuitry. The analog processing circuitry may include analog signal mixers, low pass filters, and analog-to-digital converter circuitry.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

wireless circuitry that includes an antenna and a radio-frequency transceiver that transmits signals to the antenna, wherein some of the transmitted signals reflect from the antenna as reflected signals; and

an impedance measurement circuit having;

a forward coupler that taps the transmitted signals;

a first reverse coupler that taps the reflected signals; and

a second reverse coupler that taps the reflected signals after the reflected signals have passed through the first reverse coupler.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the impedance measurement circuit further comprises analog processing circuitry.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the analog processing circuitry includes analog mixing circuitry that receives the transmitted signals tapped by the forward coupler, the reflected signals tapped by the first reverse coupler, and the reflected signals tapped by the second reverse coupler.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the analog processing circuitry further comprises low pass filter circuitry that filters signals from the analog mixing circuitry to produce filtered signals.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the analog processing circuitry further comprises analog-to-digital converter circuitry that digitizes the filtered signals.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 5 wherein the impedance measurement circuitry further comprises digital processing circuitry.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the digital processing circuitry processes the digitized filtered signals to produce an antenna impedance measurement.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the forward coupler and the first and second reverse couplers are coupled in series between the radio-frequency transceiver and the antenna.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the antenna comprises a tunable antenna having a tunable circuit.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the impedance measurement circuit further comprises analog processing circuitry that includes analog mixing circuitry that receives the transmitted signals tapped by the forward coupler, the reflected signals tapped by the first reverse coupler, and the reflected signals tapped by the second reverse coupler.

11. Wireless circuitry, comprising:

an antenna;

a radio-frequency transceiver coupled to the antenna;

a path that carries radio-frequency signals as the radio-frequency transceiver transmits signals with the antenna; and

an impedance measurement circuit having first, second, and third couplers that tap signals flowing on the path.

12. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 11 wherein the first coupler is a forward coupler that taps signals flowing in a forward direction on the path.

13. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 12 wherein the second and third couplers comprise reverse couplers that tap into signals flowing in a reverse direction on the path that is opposite to the forward direction.

14. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 13 wherein the second and third couplers are coupled in series in the path.

15. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 14 wherein the third coupler receives signals that have passed through the second coupler.

16. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 15 wherein the impedance measurement circuit further comprises analog signal processing circuitry and digital signal processing circuitry that process signals from the first, second, and third couplers of the impedance measurement circuit to produce an impedance measurement.

17. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 16 wherein the analog signal processing circuitry includes:

a first analog signal mixer that receives signals from the first coupler and the second coupler;

a second analog signal mixer that receives signals from the first coupler; and

a third analog signal mixer that receives signals from the first coupler and the third coupler.

18. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 17 further comprising low pass filter circuitry that filters signals from the first, second, and third analog signal mixers.

19. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 18 further comprising analog-to-digital converter circuitry that digitizes signals from the low pass filter circuitry, wherein the digital signal processing circuitry produces the impedance measurement using the digitized signals.

20. The wireless circuitry defined in claim 19 wherein the analog signal processing circuitry and the digital signal processing circuitry are formed from an integrated circuit.

21. An impedance measurement circuit coupled in a signal path that carries radio-frequency signals within wireless circuitry in an electronic device, comprising:

a forward coupler that taps into transmitted signals flowing on the signal path, wherein the transmitted signals are reflected to form reflected signals;

a first reverse coupler that taps into the reflected signals;

a second reverse coupler that taps into the reflected signals after the reflected signals have passed through the first reverse coupler; and

analog signal processing circuitry including mixer circuitry that receives the tapped transmitted signals, the tapped reflected signals from the first reverse coupler, and the tapped reflected signals from the second reverse coupler.

22. The impedance measurement circuit defined in claim 21 further comprising:

digital signal processing circuitry that processes signals from the analog signal processing circuitry to produce an impedance measurement.