Near-Field Communications with Multiple Transmit and Multiple Receive Antennae

• US 20170077612A1
• Filed: 04/18/2016
• Published: 03/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Lattice Semiconductor Corporation
• Inventors: Aryanfar, Farshid
• Granted Patent: US 9,887,467 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2291 used in bluetooth or WI-FI devices of Wireless Local Area Networks [WLAN] H01Q1/241 takes precedence; WLAN in general H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/24 Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/70 specially adapted for specific purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0469 taking special antenna structures, e.g. cross polarized antennas into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/10 Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Near-field communication (NFC) system provides a plurality of transmit antennae. The transmit antennae of the plurality have at least two different polarizations. A plurality of receive antennae have polarizations arranged to receive signals from respective antennae of the transmit antennae, such that each polarization of the transmit antennae has a receive antennae with a corresponding polarization. The transmitters are tuned to a transmit frequency and each have a dimension. A distance between the receive and the transmit antennae is no greater than a greater of twice a maximum dimension squared of the transmit antennae divided by a wavelength of transmission and a wavelength of transmission divided by 2π.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a plurality of transmit antennae, wherein the transmit antennae of the plurality have at least two different polarizations, each of the transmit antennae have a respective largest physical dimension Di, and a greatest of the respective largest physical dimensions Di of the plurality of transmit antennae is a maximum dimension D, each of the transmit antennae are configured to transmit a respective modulated signal that encodes a respective data stream, at a wavelength λ

;

a plurality of receive antennae, wherein the receive antennae have at least one receive antennae with a polarization matching a polarization of the transmit antennae, wherein each receive antenna is spaced from all of the transmit antennae by a distance less than a greater of 2D̂

2/λ and

λ

/2π

;

a plurality of receivers, coupled to one or more respective receive antenna to recover data streams from signals receive at the respective coupled receive antennae; and

a data recovery unit coupled to the receivers to recover data from recovered data streams.

2. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transmit antennae are configured for single input/single output (SISO) operation.

3. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transmit antennae are configured for Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) operation.

4. A communications systems method, comprising:

transmitting, from a plurality of transmit antennae, a respective modulated transmit signal that encodes a respective data stream at a wavelength A, wherein the transmit signals have at least two different polarizations, and each of the transmit antennae have a largest physical dimension Di and a greatest of the respective largest physical dimensions Di of the plurality of transmit antennae is a maximum dimension D;

receiving, by at least one respective receive antenna, each of the transmit signals; and

during the transmitting and the receiving, maintaining the transmit antennae and the receive antennae within a distance of each other that is less than a greater of 2D̂

2/λ and

λ

/2π

.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising adjusting polarizations of the transmit signals based on signal quality.