Hybrid techniques for antenna retuning utilizing transmit and receive power information

• US 9,119,152 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2014
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Blin, Guillaume
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Tuan A
• Application Number:
  US14/294,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20140342677A1
• Time in Patent Office: 448 Days
• Field of Search: 455/67.11, 455 6713- 6716, 455 68- 70, 455/522, 455120-126, 4551151-1154, 4552261-2264, 455/193.1, 455 78- 82
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 1/0008 using a central processing unit, e.g. a microprocessor digital tuning in general H03J5/0245
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0209 in terminal devices terminal devices per se H04W88/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising a transceiver, an antenna tuner connecting said transceiver to an antenna, a power sensor adapted to acquire measurements about transmit power, a receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) adapted to acquire measurements about receive power and wherein said tuner tunes said antenna based upon said transmit and receive measurements to optimize said antenna in both the receive and transmit bands.

Claims

1. A machine-readable storage device comprising executable instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

obtaining first data associated with transmit power of a wireless communication device;

obtaining second data associated with receive power of the wireless communication device; and

adjusting a tunable matching network of the wireless communication device for each frame based upon the first and second data to adjust performance of an antenna of the wireless communication device in both receive and transmit bands,

wherein both of the first and second data is utilized in determining each adjustment to the tunable matching network.

2. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving an output of a receive signal strength indicator device, wherein a modulator drives a power amplifier module, wherein a low noise amplifier receives an output of the power amplifier module via a switch, wherein a variable gain amplifier receives an output of the low noise amplifier, wherein an output of the variable gain amplifier is received by the receive signal strength indicator device.

3. The machine-readable storage device of claim 2, wherein the processor is coupled to the output of the power amplifier module via a coupler and a switch to enable determining the first data.

4. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing the first and second data to an application specific programmable integrated circuit to control the tunable matching network.

5. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein transmit and receive states are specified to the processor based on a base-band specification.

6. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein a receive state without a transmit state is specified to the processor based on a base-band specification.

7. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing a default received state to an application specific programmable integrated circuit.

8. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the second data is via an receive signal strength indicator device.

9. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a controller of a communication device, data associated with transmit power and associated with receive power; and

adjusting, by the controller, a tunable matching network of the communication device for each frame based upon the data to adjust performance of an antenna of the communication device in both receive and transmit bands.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the data is first and second data, and wherein the first and second data is utilized in determining each adjustment to the tunable matching network.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising:

driving a power amplifier module using a modulator;

receiving an output of the power amplifier module at a low noise amplifier via a switch; and

receiving an output of the low noise amplifier at a variable gain amplifier.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising receiving an output of the variable gain amplifier at an receive signal strength indicator device.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising coupling the output of the power amplifier module via a coupler and switch to the controller to determine the first and second data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the controller comprises an application specific programmable integrated circuit.

15. A wireless communication device comprising:

an antenna;

a tunable matching network coupled with the antenna; and

a controller coupled with the tunable matching network,

wherein the controller obtains first data associated with transmit power based on measurements of a power sensor,

wherein the controller obtains second data associated with receive power based on an receive signal strength indicator device, and

wherein the tunable matching network is adjusted for each frame based upon the first data and the second data to adjust performance of the antenna in both receive and transmit bands.

16. The wireless communication device of claim 15, wherein both of the first data and the second data are utilized in determining each adjustment to the tunable matching network.

17. The wireless communication device of claim 15, further comprising:

a modulator driving a power amplifier module;

a low noise amplifier adapted to receive an output of the power amplifier module via a switch;

a variable gain amplifier receiving an output of the low noise amplifier; and

a processor, wherein the output of the variable gain amplifier is received by the controller and outputted to the processor.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 17, further comprising:

a coupler and a switch that couples the output of the power amplifier module to the controller to determine the first data.

19. The wireless communication device of claim 15, further comprising a processor, wherein the controller provides the first and second data to an application specific programmable integrated circuit to control the tunable matching network.

20. The wireless communication device of claim 19, wherein one of a default received state only or an optimized transmit or receive state based on a base-band specification is provided by the controller to the application specific programmable integrated circuit.