Tuning matching circuits for transmitter and receiver bands as a function of the transmitter metrics

• US RE47,412 E1
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Greene, Matthew Russell
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Minh Dieu
• Application Number:
  US14/716,014
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• Field of Search: 455 77, 455522, 455 73, 455125
• CPC Class Codes: N/A

Abstract

A system can obtain an operational metric associated with the transceiver, determine a target figure of merit based on a compromise between a desired transmitter performance and a desired receiver, determine a current figure of merit based on the operational metric, and adjust the variable reactance component of the impedance matching circuit based on a comparison of the current figure of merit with the target figure of merit. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a processor of a communication device, an a non-receiver operational metric for a transceiver of the communication device;

identifying a desired transmitter performance and a desired receiver performance;

determining, by the processor, a target figure of merit based on a compromise between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance;

determining, by the processor, a current figure of merit based on the non-receiver operational metric;

comparing, by the processor, the current figure of merit to the target figure of merit; and

adjusting, by the processor, a variable reactance component of an impedance matching circuit operably coupled with between the transceiver and an antenna of the communication device to obtain an adjusted variable reactance, the adjusting of the variable reactance component being performed based on the comparing of the current and the target figures of merit, wherein the adjusted variable reactance facilitates operation during a transmit mode of the transceiver and during a receive mode of the communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the non-receiver operational metric is during a the transmit mode of the transceiver, wherein the variable reactance component is adjusted without utilizing operational metrics measured during a the receive mode of the communication device.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising communicating, by the communication device, utilizing frequency division multiplexing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the target figure of merit includes selecting a mid-point between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

storing a tuning value based on the adjusting of the variable reactance component; and

utilizing the tuning value as a default value for subsequent tuning of the antenna.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising:

determining an operational state of the communication device; and

utilizing information associated with the operational state as a default value for subsequent tuning of the antenna.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the operational state comprises a use case scenario selected from the group consisting essentially of hand held operation, antenna position and slider position.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the compromise between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance is based on an evaluation of total radiated power.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the compromise between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance is based on an evaluation of total isotropic sensitivity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the compromise between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance is based on an evaluation of transmitter linearity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the compromise between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance is based on an evaluation of transmitter efficiency.

12. A communication device comprising:

an antenna;

a transceiver;

an impedance matching network coupled with between the antenna and the transceiver, wherein the impedance matching network includes a variable reactance component;

a memory to store computer instructions; and

a controller coupled with the memory and the impedance matching network, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

obtaining an a non-receiver operational metric associated with the transceiver;

identifying a desired transmitter performance and a desired receiver performance;

determining a target figure of merit based on a compromise between the desired transmitter performance and the desired receiver performance;

determining a current figure of merit based on the non-receiver operational metric; and

adjusting the variable reactance component of the impedance matching circuit network based on a comparison of the current figure of merit with the target figure of merit to obtain an adjusted variable reactance, wherein the adjusted variable reactance facilitates operation during a transmit mode of the transceiver and during a receive mode of the communication device.

13. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the variable reactance component includes a voltage tunable capacitor, and wherein the operations of the controller further comprise:

determining a use case for the communication device; and

performing an initial adjustment of the voltage tunable capacitor based on the use case without utilizing any operational metrics associated with the transceiver, wherein the initial adjustment of the voltage tunable capacitor is performed prior to the adjusting based on the comparison of the current figure of merit with the target figure of merit.

14. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the variable reactance component includes a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) variable reactance component.

15. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the operations of the controller further comprise:

storing a tuning value based on the adjusting of the variable reactance component; and

utilizing the tuning value as a default value for subsequent tuning of the antenna.

16. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the obtaining of the non-receiver operational metric is during a the transmit mode of the transceiver, and wherein the variable reactance component is adjusted without utilizing operational metrics measured during a the receive mode of the communication device.

17. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the adjusting of the variable reactance component is associated with a communication session that utilizes frequency division multiplexing.

18. A method comprising:

obtaining an a non-receiver operational metric for a transceiver of a communication device;

determining a target figure of merit based on transceiver performance of the communication device;

determining a current figure of merit based on the non-receiver operational metric, wherein the determining of the target figure of merit is not based on phase information;

comparing the current figure of merit to the target figure of merit to determine a figure of merit comparison;

and

monitoring previous tuning results by determining a change in the current figure of merit based on different reactance values for a variable reactance component of an impedance matching circuit coupled between the tranceiver and an antenna of the communication device; and

adjusting, by a processor of the communication device, a the variable reactance component of an the impedance matching circuit operably coupled with an between the transceiver and the antenna of the communication device, the adjusting of the variable reactance component being performed based on the figure of merit comparison and based on the previous tuning results associated with previous adjusting of the variable reactance component.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the non-receiver operational metric for the transceiver comprises a return loss.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the variable reactance component includes a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) variable reactance component.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the variable reactance component includes a voltage tunable capacitor.

22. A communication device comprising:

an antenna;

a transceiver;

an impedance matching network coupled between the antenna and the transceiver, wherein the impedance matching network includes a variable reactance component;

a memory that stores computer instructions; and

a controller coupled with the memory and the impedance matching network, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

obtaining a non-receiver operational metric associated with the transceiver;

identifying a first desired performance of the communication device;

identifying a second desired performance of the communication device;

determining a target figure of merit based on a compromise between the first desired performance and the second desired performance;

determining a current figure of merit based on the non-receiver operational metric; and

adjusting the variable reactance component of the impedance matching network based on a comparison of the current figure of merit with the target figure of merit.

23. The communication device of claim 22, wherein the first desired performance is associated with a first component of the communication device, and wherein the second desired performance is associated with a second component of the communication device.

24. The communication device of claim 22, wherein the variable reactance component includes a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) variable reactance component.

25. The communication device of claim 22, wherein the variable reactance component includes a voltage tunable capacitor.

26. A communication device comprising:

an antenna;

a transceiver;

an impedance matching network coupled between the antenna and the transceiver, wherein the impedance matching network includes a variable reactance component;

a memory that stores computer instructions; and

a controller coupled with the memory and the impedance matching network, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

obtaining a non-receiver operational metric for communications of a communication device;

determining a target figure of merit based on communications performance of the communication device;

determining a current figure of merit based on the non-receiver operational metric;

comparing the current figure of merit to the target figure of merit to determine a figure of merit comparison; and

adjusting the variable reactance component based on the figure of merit comparison and based on previous tuning results associated with previous adjusting of the variable reactance component.

27. The communication device of claim 26, wherein the non-receiver operational metric comprises a return loss.

28. The communication device of claim 26, wherein the communications performance is associated with total radiated power, total isotropic sensitivity, linearity or a combination thereof.

29. The communication device of claim 26, wherein the variable reactance component includes a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) variable reactance component.

30. The communication device of claim 26, wherein the variable reactance component includes a voltage tunable capacitor.