Short range wireless communication

• US 9,991,751 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2015
• Issued: 06/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Inventors: Taghivand, Mazhareddin, Rajavi, Yashar, Aggarwal, Kamal, Poon, Ada Shuk Yan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Lee
• Application Number:
  US15/309,934
• Publication Number:
  US 20170237469A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/001 Energy harvesting or scavenging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/20 using microwaves or radio frequency waves
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/70 involving the reduction of electric, magnetic or electromagnetic leakage fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/48 Transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/4902 Pulse width modulation; Pulse position modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/04 Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits

Abstract

An apparatus can have a power supply circuit configured to receive, from an antenna, a first signal at a frequency exceeding a GHz, and including a rectifier circuit that is impedance matched to the antenna at the first frequency and that is configured to generate a supply voltage by rectifying the first signal at the first frequency. A signal generation circuit can be configured to use the supply voltage to generate a second signal at as higher frequency and to operate in two different power modes in response to a data signal. A transmitter circuit can be configured to use the supply voltage to create pulse at the higher frequency of the signal and in response to the data signal, and that includes an amplifier circuit configured to receive the data signal and provide an amplification of the data signal to the antenna.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a power supply circuit configured to receive, from an antenna, a first signal having a first frequency exceeding a GHz, and including a rectifier circuit that is impedance matched to the antenna at the first frequency and that is configured to generate a supply voltage by rectifying the first signal at the first frequency;

a signal generation circuit configured to use the supply voltage to generate a second signal having a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency and to operate in two different power modes in response to a data signal; and

a transmitter circuit that is configured to use the supply voltage to create pulses from the second signal and in response to the data signal, and that includes an amplifier circuit configured to receive the pulses and provide an amplification of the pulses to the antenna.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising semiconductor chip that includes a semiconductor substrate, the antenna and another antenna on the semiconductor substrate and wherein the transmitter circuit is configured to generate two versions of the pulses and to provide the two versions of the pulses to a respective and different one of the antennas.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the antennas are each dipole antennas that are configured for transmission at 60 GHz.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising another signal generation circuit and wherein each of the signal generation circuits includes a voltage controlled oscillator circuit with a tank circuit and wherein each of the signal generation circuits is configured to phase align by applying a voltage initial condition that places at least one of the transistors of the tank circuit in a triode condition.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the antennas are separated by a distance that is less than ½

wavelength of the second frequency in air.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver circuit that includes the transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit that is configured to process an RF signal received on the antenna.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a transmit-receive switch that is configured to couple the receiver circuit to the antenna while isolating the transmitter circuit from the antenna and to couple the transmitter circuit to the antenna while isolating the receiver circuit from the antenna.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a pulse width control circuit configured to adjust a pulse width for the pulses as a function of a data rate of transmission.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power supply circuit is configured to store energy for the supply voltage in a capacitor and to regulate the supply voltage using voltage thresholds that provide hysteresis for the supply voltage.

10. An apparatus comprising:

an encoding circuit configured to generate a data signal that has pulses occurring according to data and a first frequency;

an oscillator circuit configured to

enter, in response to the pulses, a first mode in which the oscillator circuit is configured to generate an output signal that oscillates at a second carrier frequency that is higher than the first frequency, and

enter, in response to the pulses, a second mode in which the oscillator circuit is configured to reduce power consumption by disabling the generation of the output signal; and

a power amplifier circuit configured to

enter, in response to the pulses, a third mode in which the power amplifier circuit is configured to amplify the output signal and provide the output signal, as amplified, to an antenna, and

enter, in response to the pulses, a fourth mode in which the power amplifier circuit is configured to reduce power consumption by disabling the amplification of the output signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the encoding circuit is configured to generate the data signal and pulses according to a return-to-zero on-off keying modulation.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the oscillator circuit is a voltage controlled oscillator.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a pulse-width controller circuit that is configured to modify a width of the pulses of the data signal according to a power control signal, and wherein the oscillator circuit is configured to enter the first and second modes in response to a presence or absence of the pulses, and the power amplifier circuit is configured to enter the third and fourth modes in response to the presence or absence of the pulses.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first frequency is about 2.5 GHz and the second carrier frequency is about 60 GHz.

21. The semiconductor chip of claim 15, further including the encoding, oscillator, and power amplifier circuits of the apparatus of claim 10.

15. A semiconductor chip comprising:

a semiconductor substrate;

a first antenna on the semiconductor substrate;

a second antenna on the semiconductor substrate and located at a distance from the first antenna;

a multiple-input multiple-output transceiver circuit configured to use the first and second antenna to transmit data using signals having a wavelength that is more than twice the distance; and

a conductive plate that is configured to improve gain of the first and second antennas for the signals having the wavelength.

16. The semiconductor chip of claim 15, wherein the distance is less than 1/10 of the wavelength.

17. The semiconductor chip of claim 15, wherein the distance is about 1/20 of the wavelength.

18. The semiconductor chip of claim 15, wherein the conductive plate is metal.

19. The semiconductor chip of claim 15, wherein the first and second antennas are dipole antennas, further including a power supply circuit configured to receive, from the first antenna, a first signal having a first frequency exceeding a GHz, and including a rectifier circuit that is impedance matched to the first antenna at the first frequency and that is configured to generate a supply voltage by rectifying the first signal at the first frequency, and wherein the transceiver circuit includes a transmitter circuit configured and arranged to generate two versions of pulses and to provide the two versions of the pulses to a respective and different one of the first and second antennas.

20. The semiconductor chip of claim 15, wherein the wavelength is about 5 mm.