Wake-up unit for waking up an electronic device and method of waking up an electronic device

• US 8,441,173 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2009
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Syed, Aly Aamer
• Primary Examiner(s): Budd, Mark
• Application Number:
  US12/937,825
• Publication Number:
  US 20110031846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,489 Days
• Field of Search: 310/321, 310/339
• US Class Current: 310/339
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2057/006 Micromechanical piezoelectric relay
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/94 characterised by the way in which the control signals are generated
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/94005 activated by voice or sound
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 30/306 Cantilevers

Abstract

A wake-up unit for waking up an electronic device is provided. The wake-up unit comprises a resonating unit (C) for resonating at least one specific frequency, at least one first electrode (TE), at least one piezoelectric material (PM) and at least one second electrode (BE). The piezoelectric material (PM) is sandwiched between the at least one first and the at least one second electrode (TE, BE) such that an electronic current is provided to the at least one first and at least one second electrode (TE, BE) when the resonating unit (C) resonates at the at least one specific frequency.

Claims

1. An apparatus for waking up an electronic device, comprising:

a wake-up unit, including;

a resonating unit configured and arranged to resonate, in response to acoustic excitation provided by a sonic wake-up signal, indicating a request to enable the electronic device, in at least one specific frequency,

at least one first electrode,

at least one piezoelectric material, and

at least one second electrode,

wherein the piezoelectric material is sandwiched between the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode, and is configured and arranged to provide an electrical current to the at least one first electrode and to the at least one second electrode in response to resonation of the resonating unit at the at least one specific frequency.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the apparatus further includes a remote control unit configured and arranged to transmit the sonic wake-up signal to the wake-up unit in response to input indicating the request to enable the electronic device; and

the resonating unit includes a cantilever which resonates when it receives the sonic wake-up signal at the at least one specific frequency, and the sonic wake-up signal is an ultra sound.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the wake-up unit is configurable to operate in a system including a remote control unit configured to transmit the sonic wake-up signal in response to a first input; and

the resonating unit includes a plurality of cantilevers which each resonate in response to a sonic signal having a frequency that is different than a sonic signal frequency at which the other ones of the cantilevers resonate, such that one of the at least one first electrode and one of the at least one second electrode provides an electrical current.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resonating unit, the at least one first electrode, the at least one piezoelectric material and the at least one second electrode are implemented as a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS).

5. An electronic device, including at least one wake-up unit according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is configured and arranged to switch between a stand-by mode and an active-mode in response to the current generated by the wake-up unit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the at least one first electrode, piezoelectric material and second electrode include, for each of the plurality of cantilevers, a first electrode, piezoelectric material and a second electrode configured and arranged to generate electrical current in response to the cantilever resonating, and

each resonator/piezoelectric material combination thereby providing electrical current corresponding to the application of a sonic wake-up signal at a particular resonant frequency that is different than a resonant frequency at which the other resonator/piezoelectric material combinations provide electrical current.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resonating unit is further configured to dampen the acoustic excitation in the resonating unit in response to an absence of the sonic signal.

6. A method for waking up an electronic device having a wake-up unit which comprises a resonating unit, at least one first electrode, at least one piezoelectric material and at least one second electrode, wherein the piezoelectric material is sandwiched between the at least one first and at least one second electrode, comprising the steps of:

at the wake up unit;

receiving a sonic wake-up signal, indicating a request to enable the electronic device, in at least one specific frequency,

resonating the resonating unit at the at least one frequency in response to acoustic excitation provided in response to the sonic wake-up signal, and

providing an electrical current to the at least one first and the at least one second electrode, in response to the resonating unit resonating at the at least one frequency.

7. The method according to claim 6, further including providing the sonic wake-up signal to the wake-up unit by emitting an ultra-sound wake-up signal from a remote control device.

8. The method according to claim 6, further including utilizing the current generated by the wake-up unit to activate the electronic device.

14. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

dampening the acoustic excitation in the resonating unit in response to an absence of the sonic signal.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a wake-up unit, configured and arranged to receive a sonic signal indicating a request to enable an electronic device, the wake-up unit including

a resonating unit configured and arranged to resonate in at least one specific frequency in response to acoustic excitation provided by the sonic signal; and

a piezoelectric unit including a top electrode, a bottom electrode and a piezoelectric material between the top and bottom electrodes, the piezoelectric unit being configured and arranged to generate current in response to resonation of the at least one resonating unit; and

wherein the electronic device is coupled to the at least one wake-up unit and is configured and arranged to activate in response to the current generated by the at least one piezoelectric unit by switching from a stand-by mode to an active-mode.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, further including a plurality of the wake-up units, each wake-up unit having a resonating unit configured and arranged to resonate at a specific frequency that is different than a specific frequency at which the resonating units of the other wake-up unit resonate.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, further including a plurality of the electronic devices, each of the electronic devices being connected to receive the generated current from one of the plurality of associated wake-up units, the wake-up units thereby operating the electronic devices based upon the frequency of a sonic signal provided to the apparatus.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a remote control configured and arranged to generate sonic signals at each of the respective resonant frequencies to individually switch the electronic devices from the stand-by mode to the active-mode.