NFC SYSTEM WAKEUP WITH ENERGY HARVESTING
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- detecting, by an energy harvesting unit associated with a near field communication (NFC) system, an active external radio frequency (RF) field;
generating, by the energy harvesting unit associated with the NFC system in response to the detecting, an output signal; and
using the output signal to enable a switch to a power supply or an NFC protection circuit,wherein the switch allows for the power supply to provide power to the NFC system, or the switch allows for the NFC protection circuit to protect the NFC system.
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Abstract
The present invention provides for a system that makes use of a system power supply enable switch controlled by a near field communications (NFC) frontend with energy harvesting. In one embodiment, RF power in the 13.56 MHz band generated by a NFC counterpart (such as a mobile phone) is detected by the energy harvesting unit being part of the battery-unpowered NFC communication device. After activation, the system can perform actions required to communicate to the presented device (i.e., the NFC counterpart). Later, the system can switch itself into the unpowered state again. In another embodiment, this feature can also be used to control an NFC protection circuitry very quickly after the NFC device is exposed to an external HF (high frequency) field.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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detecting, by an energy harvesting unit associated with a near field communication (NFC) system, an active external radio frequency (RF) field; generating, by the energy harvesting unit associated with the NFC system in response to the detecting, an output signal; and using the output signal to enable a switch to a power supply or an NFC protection circuit, wherein the switch allows for the power supply to provide power to the NFC system, or the switch allows for the NFC protection circuit to protect the NFC system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A device comprising:
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an energy harvesting unit associated with a near field communication (NFC) system, the energy harvesting unit configured to detect an active external radio frequency (RF) field, the energy harvesting unit configured to generate an output signal in response to detecting the active external radio frequency (RF) field; and a switch to enable or disable a power supply, the switch configured to enable the power supply in response to receiving the output signal, wherein the switch allows for the power supply to provide power to the device. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A device comprising:
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an energy harvesting unit associated with a near field communication (NFC) system, the energy harvesting unit configured to detect an active external radio frequency (RF) field, the energy harvesting unit configured to generate an output signal in response to detecting the active external radio frequency (RF) field; and a switch to enable or disable an NFC protection circuit, the switch configured to enable the NFC protection circuit in response to receiving the output signal, wherein the switch allows for the NFC protection circuit to protect the device. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification