Patent ID: 11951945
Assignee: ENTERPRISE ELECTRONIC LLC
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 8:
9. A method of unlocking a door of a vehicle having a body, the door, a door actuator, and a remote keyless entry (RKE) control unit, the method comprising:
inducing an electric current in an inductor coil of an NFC chipset of an NFC entry device, via electromagnetic induction, using an NFC signal from an external NFC-enabled mobile device, wherein the NFC entry device is mounted to the body and includes an NFC receiver integrated circuit (IC) that is coupled to the inductor coil, and wherein the NFC receiver IC includes a steering diode and a voltage regulator;
storing energy in a capacitor of the NFC chipset of the NFC entry device as passively harvested energy, the capacitor being coupled to the NFC receiver IC;
establishing near-field communication (NFC) between the NFC entry device and the external NFC-enabled mobile device;
confirming, via the NFC entry device, that the external NFC-enabled mobile device is an approved device;
in response to confirming that the external NFC-enabled mobile device is the approved device, selectively powering a radio frequency (RF) antenna of an RF transmitter chipset of the NFC chipset using the energy in the capacitor, via a microcontroller connected to the NFC receiver IC and the capacitor, when a voltage level of the capacitor exceeds a calibrated threshold voltage to thereby transmit a control signal to the RKE control unit, the control signal being indicative of a request to unlock the door from a previously locked state.