Abstract:
A terminal for generating an electromagnetic field, including an oscillating circuit capable of receiving a high-frequency A.C. excitation voltage via an amplifier and a directional coupler, the oscillating circuit having at least one element of variable capacitance, and circuitry for modifying the value of this capacitance according to the amplitude of a signal extracted from the coupler.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to systems using electromagnetic transponders, that is, transceivers (generally mobile) likely to be interrogated, contactless and wireless, by a unit (generally fixed), called a read and/or write terminal. The present invention more specifically relates to read/write terminals of transponders with no autonomous power supply, which extract the power supply required by the electronic circuits included therein from a high-frequency field radiated by an antenna of the terminal.  
         [0003]     2. Discussion of the Related Art  
         [0004]      FIG. 1  very schematically shows in the form of blocks an electromagnetic transponder read terminal  1  and a transponder  10  intended to communicate with such a terminal.  
         [0005]     On the read terminal side, a series oscillating circuit  2  formed of an inductance L 1 , forming an antenna, in series with a capacitor C 1  (and generally a resistor R 1 ), between an output terminal  3  of an antenna coupler  4  and a reference terminal  5 , generally the ground, can be found. Coupler  4  receives from an amplifier  6  (LNA) an excitation signal Tx provided by a modulator (not shown) of signals to be transmitted to transponder  10 . The modulator belongs to circuits  7  (CIR) schematically shown in the form of a block comprising circuits for controlling the oscillating circuit and for exploiting data received from the transponder (among others, a modulator and a microprocessor for processing control and data signals). In the absence of data to be transmitted, the modulator of circuit  7  transmits a remote-supply carrier (generally at 13.56 MHz) directed to transponder  10 . The junction point of capacitor Cl and of the inductance forms, in the example shown in  FIG. 1 , a terminal for sampling a data signal Rx, received from a transponder  10 , and intended for a demodulator  8  (DEM). An output of demodulator  8  communicates the data received from the transponder to digital circuits  7  (generally, the microprocessor via a decoder).  
         [0006]     To adapt the transmit power of the terminal, coupler  4  is generally used to sample an information proportional to the signal provided by amplifier  6  intended for a comparator  9  (COMP) controlling the gain of amplifier  6 . This comparator compares, for example, the voltage sampled from a so-called CPLD terminal of coupler  4  with respect to a predetermined reference voltage Vref. In known fashion, a coupler  4 , be it with coupled lines or local elements, comprises two terminals IN and DIR between which flows the main signal, and a terminal CPLD providing a proportional information. Generally, a fourth terminal ISO is left in the air or connected, by a resistor or a capacitor, to ground.  
         [0007]     On the side of transponder  10 , an inductance L 2  in parallel with a capacitor C 2  forms a parallel oscillating circuit (called a resonant circuit) intended to sense the magnetic field generated by the series oscillating circuit of terminal  1 . Terminals  11  and  12  of the resonant circuit are connected to two A.C. input terminals of a (halfwave or fullwave) rectifying bridge  13  having their rectified output terminals  14  and  15  providing a supply voltage to circuits  16  (IC) of the transponder, generally via a capacitor, not shown, intended to store and smooth the voltage rectified by bridge  13 . Electronic circuits  16  of the transponder generally essentially include a microcontroller and a demodulator of the signals possibly received from terminal  11 . Circuit  16  receives a signal directly sampled across the oscillating circuit (for example, on terminal  11 ) to restore a clock signal from the remote-supply carrier provided by the terminal. Most often, all the electronic circuits of transponder  10  are integrated in a same chip, itself inserted in a smart card.  
         [0008]     The transmission of data from transponder  10  to terminal  1 , is performed under control of a stage of modulation (back modulation) of resonant circuit L 2 -C 2 . This modulation stage is generally formed of an electronic switch  17  (for example, a MOS transistor) and of a resistor R (or of a capacitor), in series between terminals  14  and  15  (or between terminals  11  and  12 ). Switch  17  is controlled at a so-called sub-carrier frequency (for example, 847.5 kHz), much smaller than the frequency of the excitation signal of the oscillating circuit of terminal  1 . When switch  17  is on, the transponder&#39;s oscillating circuit is submitted to an additional damping with respect to the load formed by circuit  16 , so that the transponder draws a more significant amount of power from the high-frequency magnetic field. On the side of terminal  1 , amplifier  6  maintains the amplitude of the high-frequency excitation signal constant due to the control performed by coupler  4  and comparator  9 . Accordingly, the power variation of the transponder translates as an amplitude and current phase variation in antenna L 1 . This variation is detected by demodulator  8  of terminal  1 , generally an amplitude demodulator.  
         [0009]     The resonant circuit (L 2 -C 2 ) of transponder  10  and the oscillating circuit (R 1 -L 1 -C 1 ) of terminal  1  are generally tuned to a same frequency which most often corresponds to the remote-supply carrier frequency.  
         [0010]     The impedance of the oscillating circuit of terminal  1  is generally adapted to the output of coupler  4 , said coupler further having an input impedance adapted to the output of amplifier  6 . For the impedance of the oscillating circuit to be adapted to the output of coupler  4 , the imaginary parts of the respective impedances of inductance L 1  and of capacitor C 1  must mutually cancel at the tuning frequency, and resistance R 1  (plus the series resistance of inductance L 1 ) must have the value of the output impedance of the coupler (generally, 50 ohms).  
         [0011]     A problem of conventional read/write terminals is that in case of a mismatch of the impedance of the oscillating circuit&#39;s antenna, the signal received by the demodulator is disturbed.  
         [0012]     Now, any element entering the terminal&#39;s magnetic field is likely to create an additional reactive element in this field and to then modify the impedance of the oscillating circuit.  
         [0013]     Further, the tuning of the resonance frequency to the carrier frequency is performed manually by means of a variable capacitor C 1 , once the terminal has been manufactured. This need for adjustment of capacitor C 1  is especially due to the manufacturing tolerances of the capacitive and inductive elements. Generally, capacitor C 1  has a capacitance value tolerance on the order of 20% and antenna L 1  is manufactured with a tolerance on the order of 10%. Such tolerances are incompatible with the fulfilling of tuning accuracy constraints. Similarly, such tolerances adversely affect the impedance matching between amplifier  6  and the oscillating circuit.  
         [0014]     A manual adjustment of a capacitor C 1  requires a maintenance operation once the terminal has been arranged in its definitive environment. Further, maintenance problems linked to the impedance matching drift according to environment modifications, for example, after temperature and/or humidity changes, can also be observed.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0015]     The present invention aims at overcoming the disadvantages of known systems and, in particular, at making the impedance matching stable even in case of a variation in the environmental conditions of terminal operation.  
         [0016]     The present invention also aims at avoiding manual setting for an impedance matching of the antenna.  
         [0017]     To achieve these and other objects, the present invention provides a terminal for generating an electromagnetic field, comprising an oscillating circuit capable of receiving a high-frequency A.C. excitation voltage via an amplifier and a directional coupler, the oscillating circuit comprising at least one element of variable capacitance, and a means for modifying the value of this capacitance according to the amplitude of a signal extracted from the coupler.  
         [0018]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, said means is formed of a comparator comparing the voltage extracted from the coupled line of the coupler with a reference voltage selected to maintain the impedance of the oscillating circuit at a predetermined value.  
         [0019]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, the oscillating circuit is formed of a capacitor, in series with an inductance and a resistor, the variable-capacitance element comprising a MOS transistor, controlled by said means and connected in parallel with the series connection of the inductance and of the resistor, the stray capacitance of the MOS transistor being used to modify the capacitance of the oscillating circuit.  
         [0020]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, said coupler comprises discrete elements.  
         [0021]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, the electromagnetic field remotely supplies at least one transponder.  
         [0022]     The foregoing objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be discussed in detail in the following non-limiting description of specific embodiments in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0023]      FIG. 1 , previously described, very schematically shows the conventional architecture of a terminal and of a transponder to which the present invention applies;  
         [0024]      FIG. 2  partially shows a first embodiment of an impedance matching circuit of a terminal according to the present invention; and  
         [0025]      FIG. 3  shows a second embodiment of an impedance matching circuit according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0026]     For clarity, the same elements have been designated with the same reference numerals in the different drawings. Further, only those elements that are necessary to the understanding of the present invention have been shown in the drawings and will be described hereafter. In particular, the circuits for controlling and exploiting the transmitted and received data have not been described in detail. Further, the structure of a transponder has not been described in detail since the present invention requires no modification of conventional transponders.  
         [0027]     A feature of the present invention is to use the information provided by an antenna coupler, interposed between an amplifier and the oscillating circuit of a read/write terminal of a transponder, to control the capacitive value of this oscillating circuit.  
         [0028]      FIG. 2  partially and schematically shows a first embodiment of a read/write terminal  1 ′ of an electromagnetic transponder (not shown) according to the present invention. Only part of the terminal&#39;s components have been shown in  FIG. 2 , the rest being similar to the structure of a conventional terminal such as illustrated in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0029]      FIG. 2  shows an amplifier  6  (LNA) for providing an excitation signal to an oscillating circuit  2 ′ formed of a resistor R 1 , of an inductance L 1 , and of a capacitive element  20  in series, and a directional antenna coupler  4  connected between the output of amplifier  6  and oscillating circuit  2 ′.  
         [0030]     According to the present invention, capacitive element  20  is a variable-capacitance element controllable by a signal CTRL. Signal CTRL is provided by a circuit  21  (REG) having the function of comparing the signal provided by antenna coupler  4  (terminal CPLD) with a reference value REF to control the value of the capacitance of element  20  to maintain the impedance of oscillating circuit  2 ′ at a predetermined value. The information provided by antenna coupler  4  is further still used by a comparator  9  for controlling the gain of amplifier  6  to maintain the amplitude of the high-frequency excitation signal constant.  
         [0031]     When the impedance of the oscillating circuit varies, for example, under the effect of environmental variations modifying the equivalent capacitance of the oscillating circuit, the amplitude of signal CPLD is modified. This variation is detected by comparator  21  (preferentially, analog) which causes a modification in the value of variable capacitance  20  in a direction such that it compensates for the disturbance in the equivalent capacitance, value REF being selected to bring the amplitude of the signal measured on terminal CPLD back to a predetermined nominal value which is a function of the desired impedance (for example, 50 ohms), set by the value of resistance R 1  (plus the series resistance of inductance L 1 ). Of course, another value than  50  ohms may be selected according to the output impedance of the coupler, which may have a non-unity impedance ratio between the output and the input.  
         [0032]     The selection of reference value REF of circuit  21  depends on the characteristics of the coupler and of circuit  21  itself, and are within the abilities of those skilled in the art.  
         [0033]     An advantage of this embodiment of the present invention is that the impedance control modifies the value of capacitive element  20  in the same direction as the variation required for maintaining the tuning to the remote-supply carrier frequency. In other words, the impedance is controlled at the same time as the tuning.  
         [0034]      FIG. 3  shows a second embodiment of a control circuit according to the present invention. In this example, circuit  21  providing control signal CTRL controls a MOS transistor  22  assembled in parallel on a series association of inductance L 1  with resistor R 1 . Capacitor C 1  being, for example, between this parallel assembly and output DIR of coupler  4  (as an alternative, between this parallel assembly and the ground if this is compatible with the control of switch  22 ). In this example, the respective positions of capacitor C 1  and of inductance L 1  have been inverted with respect to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . This has however no incidence upon the operation.  
         [0035]     Preferably, received signal Rx is sampled from output CPLD of the coupler, which improves the signal-to-noise ratio. Such a connection is also possible in the embodiment of  FIG. 2 . The only precaution is for the time constant of the regulation loop to be much greater (at least ten times) than the back-modulation period to avoid loosing the back-modulation information.  
         [0036]     According to the embodiment of  FIG. 3 , resistor R 1  is in series with inductance L 1  between junction point  24  with transistor  22  and the ground. The stray capacitance of MOS transistor  22  is in parallel with series association L 1 -R 1  and is used to modify the impedance of oscillating circuit  2 ′.  
         [0037]     According to an alternative, an additional capacitor grounds junction point  24 .  
         [0038]     An advantage of the embodiment of  FIG. 3  is that it enables modifying the quality factor Qs (Qs=ωL 1 /(Rs+R 1 ), where Rs designates the series resistance of inductance L 1  and where co designates the tuning pulse) independently from the impedance matching. Resistor R 1  may, for example, be made variable to adapt the quality factor according to resistance Rs.  
         [0039]     An advantage of the present invention is that it enables automatic matching of the impedance of an oscillating circuit according to its environment.  
         [0040]     Another advantage of the present invention is that it avoids manual setting of its components for impedance matching or tuning purposes.  
         [0041]     Another advantage of the present invention is that this matching does not adversely affect the rest of the terminal&#39;s operation. Conversely, this improves the capacitance of its demodulation circuit  8 .  
         [0042]     Of course, the present invention is likely to have various alterations, modifications, and improvements which will readily occur to those skilled in the art. In particular, the selection of the reference value on which the voltage derived from coupler  4  is to be controlled depends on the application and especially on the parameters of the actual coupler.  
         [0043]     Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. The present invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.