Electronic Devices with Angular Location Detection Capabilities

    公开(公告)号:US20240411006A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-12-12

    申请号:US18814253

    申请日:2024-08-23

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.

    Background noise recorder
    12.
    发明授权

    公开(公告)号:US12047101B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-07-23

    申请号:US17716724

    申请日:2022-04-08

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: H04B1/1027 H04B1/123 H04B15/005

    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry with a transmit antenna that transmits signals and a receive antenna that receives reflected signals. The wireless circuitry may detect a range between the device and an external object based on the transmitted signals and the reflected signals. When the range exceeds a first threshold, the wireless circuitry may use the transmitted signals and received signals to record background noise. When the range is less than a second threshold value, the wireless circuitry may detect the range based on the reflected signals and the recorded background noise. This may allow the range to be accurately measured within an ultra-short range domain even when the device is placed in different device cases, placed on different surfaces, etc.

    Machine-learning based tuning algorithm for duplexer systems

    公开(公告)号:US12040772B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-07-16

    申请号:US17366692

    申请日:2021-07-02

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: H03H7/40 G06N20/00 H04B1/0458 H04B17/104 H04B17/12

    Abstract: This disclosure provides techniques for impedance matching. A radio frequency (RF) device includes a power detector to determine a transmitter leakage and a post-processing unit to determine a receiver leakage, and determines if isolation is acceptable based on the leakages. The RF device may include a device for measuring antenna impedance. Otherwise, the RF device may select multiple tuner settings (e.g., capacitor values) for test signals to be transmitted and received at a target frequency, determine multiple sets of leakage values, determine multiple reflection coefficients based on the multiple sets of leakage values, and determine an estimated antenna impedance at the target frequency based on the reflection coefficients. The RF device then determines impedance tuner settings based on the measured or estimated antenna impedance. Alternatively, the RF device determines impedance tuner settings using an inverse machine-learning model based on a determined matching impedance.

    SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPEDANCE TUNING
    14.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20240097657A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-03-21

    申请号:US17946629

    申请日:2022-09-16

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: H03J3/20 H04B1/18 H03J2200/06

    Abstract: In electronic devices used in radio-frequency communications, impedance matching may result in desirable operating conditions. However, impedance of the antenna may change over time (e.g., due to frequency of signals being transmitted or received, due to ambient conditions, due to age of antenna or related components). Accordingly, it may be desirable to employ antenna tracking circuitry that may operate as an impedance matching network to dynamically match the antenna impedance. To dynamically match the antenna impedance, the matching network may include tunable components. To provide fast, dynamic, and effective impedance matching, antenna tracking circuitry having an architecture with analytically determinable impedance (e.g., determinable via one or more equations) may be implemented. The antenna tracking circuitry may include a variable resistor and three variable impedances. The three variable impedances may include components capable of tuning capacitor ranges of the three variable impedances, among other characteristics of the antenna tracking circuitry.

    Electronic devices having quadratic phase generation circuitry

    公开(公告)号:US11863225B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-01-02

    申请号:US17468482

    申请日:2021-09-07

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: H04B1/40 H03K5/01 H03K2005/00013

    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include a quadratic phase generator for outputting a perfectly interpolated constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence for a transmit path. The quadratic phase generator may include a numerically controlled oscillator, a switch controlled based on a value output from the numerically controlled oscillator, a first integrator stage, and a second integrator stage connected in series with the first integrator stage. The numerically controlled oscillator may receive as inputs a chirp count and a word length. The switch may be configured to switchably feed one of two input values that are a function of the chirp count and the word length to the first integrator stage. The quadratic phase generator may output full-bandwidth chirps or reduced-bandwidth chirps. Bandwidth reduction can be achieved by scaling the two input values of the switches.

    Electronic devices having spatial ranging calibration capabilities

    公开(公告)号:US11828871B2

    公开(公告)日:2023-11-28

    申请号:US17150974

    申请日:2021-01-15

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: G01S7/4056 G01S7/40 G01S7/4073

    Abstract: An electronic device may include radar circuitry. Control circuitry may calibrate the radar circuitry using a multi-tone calibration signal. A first mixer may upconvert the calibration signal for transmission by a transmit antenna. A de-chirp mixer may mix the calibration signal output by the first mixer with the calibration signal as received by a receive antenna or loopback path to produce a baseband multi-tone calibration signal. The baseband signal will be offset from DC by the frequency gap. This may prevent DC noise or other system effects from interfering with the calibration signal. The control circuitry may sweep the first mixer over the radio frequencies of operation of the radar circuitry to estimate the power droop and phase shift of the radar circuitry based on baseband calibration signal. Distortion circuitry may distort transmit signals used in spatial ranging operations to invert the estimated power droop and phase shift.

    DUPLEXER WITH IMPEDANCE INVERTERS
    18.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20230308118A1

    公开(公告)日:2023-09-28

    申请号:US18327705

    申请日:2023-06-01

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: A duplexer may be used to isolate a transmitter and a receiver that share a common antenna. By using impedance gradients to provide impedances that cause balance-unbalance transformers (balun) of the duplexer to cut-off access to the common antenna rather than duplicate the antenna impedance, the duplexer is balanced. Such cut-offs may have a lower insertion loss than a duplexer that merely duplicates the antenna impedance to separate the differential signals of the receiver and transmitter from the common mode signal.

    Electronic Devices with Angular Location Detection Capabilities

    公开(公告)号:US20220381895A1

    公开(公告)日:2022-12-01

    申请号:US17331504

    申请日:2021-05-26

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.

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