Device for selective power management for a hand held host

• US 7,941,180 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Issued: 05/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Seshadri, Nambi, Karaoguz, Jeyhan
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, PHUOC HUU
• Application Number:
  US11/849,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20070298847A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,344 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1615 Switching on; Switching off, e.g. remotely battery saving circuits associated with selective call operation H04W52/00; details of power consumption reduction in a PLL, H03L7/0802, H03L7/14, H03L2207/08, H03L2207/18; muting amplifiers by gain control see H03G3/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/028 switching on or off only a part of the equipment circuit blocks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A hand held radio host includes circuitry for selectively providing power to radiating transceiver elements and non-radiating application elements according to a plurality of power modes of operation to achieve desired effects and in a way that saves power and extends battery life. In one embodiment of the invention, the hand held host operates in one of three modes. In a full power mode, any selected application element as well as all transceiver elements are powered on at the same time. Thus, for example, a cell phone module, a wireless personal access network module, a wireless local area network module and one of a pager/short message service message module may all be powered on at the same time to receive corresponding messages, calls, data sessions, etc. At the same time that all of the transceiver elements are powered on, any selected application element receives power. Thus, application elements such as address books, calendar functions, games, word processors, etc may receive power when selected.

Claims

1. A hand held radio transceiver, comprising:

wireless communication circuitry for transmitting and receiving radio frequency communication signals, the wireless communication circuitry further including a plurality of transceiver elements;

a processor module coupled to receive and generate digital communication signals from and to the wireless communication circuitry;

wherein the processor module;

determines to operate in one of a plurality of power modes of operation wherein at least one of the plurality of power modes of operation is a user programmable mode of operation for specifying what elements are powered during operation in the at least one user programmable power mode of operation;

determines to deliver power continuously, deliver power intermittently, or to not deliver power to each of the pluralities of transceiver elements, based on the determined one of the plurality of power modes of operation; and

generates corresponding control signals; and

power delivery circuitry operably coupled to corresponding transceiver elements and to a power source, wherein the power delivery circuitry delivers power based on the received control signals;

wherein the hand held radio transceiver delivers power to elements within at least one group of elements that do not generate wireless communication signals during a first of the plurality of power modes of operation and to at least one group of transceiver elements that generate wireless communication signals in a second of the plurality of power of modes of operation.

2. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 wherein the power delivery circuitry further includes switching logic that couple the power source to the corresponding transceiver elements based on the received control signals.

3. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 wherein the power delivery circuitry further includes drivers that selectively provide power to the corresponding transceiver elements based on the received control signals.

4. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 wherein the transceiver elements include application elements.

5. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 further including logic for coupling power to associated transceiver elements wherein the logic comprises at least one of state logic, a programmable gate array or memory further comprising computer instructions defining operational logic wherein the processor module is coupled to receive and execute the computer instructions.

6. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 wherein the processor module determines to deliver power to at least one of a wireless personal area network (WPAN) module or a wireless local area network (WLAN) module, and a cellular radio transceiver module.

7. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 wherein the processor module determines to deliver power to a non-radiating module comprising at least one of a game module, an MP3 module, or an audio module.

8. The hand held radio transceiver of claim 1 wherein the processor module includes logic for selectively powering at least one of an Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standards serial infrared communications data link, a remote I/0 (RIO) module, or cellular phone transceiver front end circuitry.

9. A hand held device, comprising:

a first wireless transceiver element for transmitting and receiving radio frequency communication signals;

a second wireless transceiver element for transmitting and receiving radio frequency communication signals;

a control module for generating control signals based upon the whether the hand held device is operating in a first, a second, a third, or a fourth power mode of operation wherein at least one of the first, the second, the third, or the fourth power modes of operation is user programmable operation for specifying what transceiver elements are powered during operation in the at least one user programmable power mode of operation; and

a power delivery module coupled to selectively deliver power to the first and second radio transceiver elements, wherein;

based on the control signals generated for the first power mode of operation, the power delivery module delivers power to all of the transceiver elements;

based on the control signals generated for the second power mode of operation, the power delivery module delivers power to at least one transceiver element and does not deliver power to at least one transceiver element;

based on the control signals generated for the third power mode of operation, the power delivery module delivers power to elements within at least one group of elements that do not generate wireless communication signals; and

based on the control signals generated for the fourth power mode of operation, the power delivery module delivers power to transceiver elements within at least one group of transceiver elements that do generate wireless communication signals.

10. The hand held device of claim 9 wherein the power delivery module includes a plurality of power delivery agents for delivering power to each of the first and second radio transceiver elements, and an IrDA data link module, wherein each power delivery agent comprises an input node for receiving the control signals from the control module.

11. The hand held device of claim 9 wherein the hand held device delivers power only to user selected elements within at least one group of elements that do not generate wireless communication signals during a first mode of operation.

12. The hand held device of claim 9 wherein the transceiver elements include at least one application element.