Systems and methods to adjust transmission power in electronic devices

• US 10,652,832 B1
• Filed: 05/30/2019
• Issued: 05/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hegde, Uday Sooryakant, Agrawal, Prateek, Lochin, Andre Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferguson, Keith
• Application Number:
  US16/426,756
• Time in Patent Office: 348 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/18 TPC being performed according to specific parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/242 taking into account path loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/367 Power values between minimum and maximum limits, e.g. dynamic range
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method of controlling wireless communication performance in an electronic device includes accessing data containing material properties relating to a plurality of materials, transmitting a first test signal on a first transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device, receiving the first test signal on the first transmission channel with a second antenna at a second location in the electronic device, determining a housing material of the electronic device based on a measured attenuation of the first test signal received by the second antenna based upon the data containing transmission properties relating to a plurality of materials, and adjusting a transmission power of one of the first antenna and the second antenna based upon the material properties of the housing material.

Claims

1. A method for controlling wireless communication performance in an electronic device, the method including:

accessing data containing material properties relating to a plurality of materials;

transmitting a first test signal on a first transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device;

receiving the first test signal on the first transmission channel with a second antenna at a second location in the electronic device;

determining a housing material of the electronic device based on a measured attenuation of the first test signal received by the second antenna based upon the data containing transmission properties relating to a plurality of materials; and

adjusting a transmission power of one of the first antenna and the second antenna based upon the material properties of the housing material.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a second test signal on a second transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device; and

receiving the second test signal on the second transmission channel with a second antenna at a second location in the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting and receiving on at least two channels.

4. The method of claim 1, the first transmission channel having a frequency of 2.4 GHz.

5. The method of claim 1, adjusting the transmission power of a third antenna based upon the material properties of the housing material.

6. The method of claim 1, the first antenna being a Wi-Fi antenna.

7. The method of claim 1, the first antenna being a cellular antenna.

8. The method of claim 1, the first antenna being a near field communications antenna.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a first test signal on a first transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device during a startup procedure of the electronic device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a first test signal on a first transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device during a transmission initialization procedure of the first antenna.

11. The method of claim 1, determining a housing material further including determining a location of a component including the housing material.

12. The method of claim 1, transmitting a first test signal including transmitting at 20 decibel milliwatts (dBm).

13. The method of claim 1, determining a housing material further including determining a combination of housing materials.

14. The method of claim 1, determining a housing material further including determining the housing material is not present in the plurality of materials and adjusting the transmission power including adjusting the transmission power to a safe transmission level.

15. An electronic device comprising:

a first antenna;

a second antenna;

a processor in data communication with the first antenna and second antenna; and

a hardware storage device in data communication with the processor, the hardware storage device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

access data containing material properties relating to a plurality of materials,

transmit a first test signal on a first transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device,

receive the first test signal on the first transmission channel with a second antenna at a second location in the electronic device,

determine a housing material of the electronic device based on a measured attenuation of the first test signal received by the second antenna based upon the data containing material properties relating to the plurality of materials, and

adjust a transmission power of one of the first antenna and second antenna based upon the material properties of the housing material.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a housing defining an interior space, the housing having the housing material, where the first antenna and the second antenna are positioned in the interior space.

17. The electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a first housing and a second housing that is movable relative to the first housing, the first housing having the housing material, where the first antenna is located in the first housing and the second antenna is located in the second housing.

18. The electronic device of claim 15, further comprising an electrically insulating layer directly between the first antenna and the second antenna.

19. A method for controlling wireless communication performance in an electronic device, the method including:

accessing data containing transmission properties relating to a plurality of materials;

transmitting a first test signal on a first transmission channel with a first antenna at a first location in the electronic device;

receiving the first test signal on the first transmission channel with a second antenna at a second location in the electronic device;

transmitting a second test signal on the first transmission channel with the second antenna at the first location in the electronic device;

receiving the second test signal on the first transmission channel with the first antenna at the second location in the electronic device;

determining a housing material of the electronic device based on a measured attenuation of the first test signal received by the second antenna, the second test signal received by the first antenna, and the data containing transmission properties relating to a plurality of materials; and

adjusting a transmission power of a primary antenna based upon the transmission properties of the housing material.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising selecting a primary antenna from the first antenna and the second antenna.