Patent Publication Number: US-2023162313-A1

Title: Electronic system

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation application os U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/825,220, filed Mar. 20, 2020, which application claims priority to French Patent Application No. 1903066, filed on Mar. 25, 2019, which applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure generally concerns electronic devices. The present disclosure more particularly applies to an electronic component capable of implementing a plurality of different operating systems. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Complex electronic devices, such as cell phones, tablet computers, computers, etc. integrate, over time, more and more functionalities and enable to implement digital services in order to integrate at best to everyday life. As an example, certain cell phones, and more particularly smart phones, integrated digital services such as a bank payment service, or also a service of use of public transport tickets, event tickets, an authentication of the user by a remote system (bank, public administration, etc.). To implement such functionalities, the devices may integrate electronic components specific to these functionalities, such as for example secure components which enable to keep/store identification, reference, and authentication information, generally called “credentials”, and assets of the digital service provider, motion sensors, a near field communication module (NFC), etc. 
     A difficulty resulting from the addition of new functionalities is that this may compel certain electronic components to implement a plurality of, at least two, operating systems. Further, difficulties may arise from the cohabitation of a plurality of operating systems with different components/peripherals which are connected thereto. 
     SUMMARY 
     In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic device includes a secure element configured to implement a plurality of operating systems; and a near field communication module coupled to the secure element by a single bus and by a routing circuit configured to route routing data between the plurality of operating systems and a receive circuit of the near field communication module. 
     In accordance with another embodiment, a method of operating an electronic device including a secure element and a near field communication module coupled to the secure element by a single bus includes: executing a plurality of operating systems on the secure element; and exchanging, by a routing circuit, routing data between the plurality of operating systems being executed on the secure element and a receive circuit of the near field communication module. 
     In accordance with a further embodiment, a cell phone includes a secure element configured to execute a first operating system implementing a public transport card service and a second operating system implementing a payment card; a near field communication module; a routing circuit coupled between the secure element and the near field communication module; and a single bus coupled in series with the routing circuit. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    schematically shows electronic circuits of an electronic device; 
         FIG.  2    schematically shows in the form of blocks a NFC module and a secure element of an embodiment of an electronic device; 
         FIG.  3    schematically shows in the form of blocks a NFC module and a secure element of another embodiment of an electronic device; 
         FIG.  4    schematically shows in the form of blocks a NFC module and a secure element of another embodiment of an electronic device; 
         FIG.  5    schematically shows in the form of blocks a NFC module and a secure element of another embodiment of an electronic device; and 
         FIG.  6    schematically shows in the form of blocks a NFC module and a secure element of another embodiment of an electronic device. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS 
     The same elements have been designated with the same reference numerals in the different drawings. In particular, the structural and/or functional elements common to the different embodiments may be designated with the same reference numerals and may have identical structural, dimensional, and material properties. 
     For clarity, only those steps and elements which are useful to the understanding of the described embodiments have been shown and are detailed. In particular, the embodiments described hereafter are adapted to the standard near field communication (NFC) technology. This technology will not be described hereafter. 
     Throughout the present disclosure, the term “connected” is used to designate a direct electrical connection between circuit elements with no intermediate elements other than conductors, whereas the term “coupled” is used to designate an electrical connection between circuit elements that may be direct, or may be via one or more other elements. 
     In the following description, when reference is made to terms qualifying absolute positions, such as terms “front”, “back”, “top”, “bottom”, “left”, “right”, etc., or relative positions, such as terms “above”, “under”, “upper”, “lower”, etc., or to terms qualifying directions, such as terms “horizontal”, “vertical”, etc., unless otherwise specified, it is referred to the orientation of the drawings. 
     The terms “about”, “approximately”, “substantially”, and “in the order of” are used herein to designate a tolerance of plus or minus 10%, preferably of plus or minus 5%, of the value in question. 
     It would be desirable to be able to at least partly improve certain aspects of known complex electronic devices such as cell phones, and more particularly to be able to at least partly improve certain aspects of the cohabitation of a plurality of operating systems on a same electronic component. Accordingly, there is a need for an electronic component adapted to the cohabitation of a plurality of operating systems and of their applications, and there is a need for an electronic device comprising a near field communication (NFC) module, adapted to the cohabitation of a plurality of operating systems. 
     An embodiment overcomes all or part of the disadvantages of known electronic devices comprising a plurality of operating systems and a near field communication module. 
     An embodiment provides an electronic device comprising at least one secure element capable of implementing at least two operating systems, and at least one near field communication module coupled to the one secure element by a single bus and by a routing circuit routing data between the operating systems. 
     According to an embodiment, the routing circuit is a state machine. 
     According to an embodiment, the state machine forms part of the secure element. 
     According to an embodiment, the routing circuit is a routing table. 
     According to an embodiment, the routing table forms part of the near field communication module. 
     According to an embodiment, the routing circuit is capable of storing parameters characterizing one of the operating systems. 
     According to an embodiment, the parameters are used for each new use of the operating system. 
     According to an embodiment, each output of the routing circuit is coupled to a conversion circuit. 
     According to an embodiment, the near field communication module contains information representative of the number of operating systems present in the secure element. 
     According to an embodiment, the bus between the secure element and the near field communication module is a bus having its type and its associated protocol selected from the group: single-wire type, MIPI DSI type, I2C type, I3C type, SPI type. 
     According to an embodiment, a first group of the conductors of the bus is capable of transmitting data intended for a first operating system, and a second group of the conductors of the bus is capable of transmitting data intended for a second operating system. 
     According to an embodiment, each operating system ignores the existence of other operating systems sharing the bus. 
     According to an embodiment, the device is a cell phone. 
     According to an embodiment, one of the operating systems is the operating system of a SIM card or of a payment card. 
     According to an embodiment, one of the operating systems is the operating system of a public transport card. 
     The foregoing and other features and advantages will be discussed in detail in the following non-limiting description of specific embodiments in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
       FIG.  1    schematically shows some of the electronic circuits of an electronic device  100 . Device  100  is for example a cell phone, for example, of smart phone type, a touch tablet or a tablet computer, etc. 
     According to an embodiment, device  100  comprises an electronic component ( 107 ) capable of implementing a plurality of operating systems, for example, at least two. Device  100  is compatible with the near field communication (NFC) technology. Thus, device  100  comprises, among others, at least one processor  101 , at least one near field communication module, NFC controller, or NFC module,  103 , at least one antenna  105 , and at least one secure element  107 . 
     Processor  101  is, for example, considered as the main processor of device  100 . Processor  101  is capable of executing orders, transmitted, for example, by secure element  107  or by NFC module  103 . Processor  101  is further capable of executing other orders and functionalities of other components of device  100 . 
     NFC module  103  is capable of transmitting and of receiving data via antenna  105 . NFC module  103  is further capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or control signals from processor  101  and secure element  107 . 
     Antenna  105  is adapted to the near field communication technology. 
     Secure element  107  is capable of receiving and of transmitting data to NFC module  103  and to processor  101 . Secure element  107  enables to implement secure functionalities of device  100 . Secure element  107  is, for example, an embedded secure element (eSE) or an integrated secure element (iSE). Secure element  107  may be implemented, for example, using circuitry, such as a processor, capable of executing software code such as an operating system. 
     According to an embodiment, secure element  107  is capable of implementing a plurality of, at least two, operating systems. Each operating system has no knowledge of the other operating systems which cohabitate therewith on the same electronic component. It cannot communicate, interact, or access the data of the other operating systems. In other words, when it is “activated”, an operating system believes that it is the only one to be able to access the components of device  100 . As an example, in the case where device  100  is a cell phone, the main operating system or first operating system is that of a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, where identification information of the owner of the phone are stored, as well as other information enabling to connect/register the device in a mobile network. The first operating system may, possibly, contain other services such as a public transport card service. In this case, a digital application may be supplied by the operating system of the public transport card by using a bus, for example, a single-wire bus, to establish the communication between NFC module  103  and secure element  107 . As an example, in this case, a second operating system may be an operating system of a payment card. 
     Thus, with a plurality of operating systems, device  100  may, according to the situations of use, provide the functionalities linked either to the first or to the second operating system. In other words, the device may, for example, be used as a payment card or as a public transport card. 
     Different connection circuits between secure element  107  and NFC module  103  will be detailed in relation with  FIGS.  2  to  4   . 
       FIG.  2    schematically shows in the form of blocks an embodiment of connection circuits between NFC module (NFC)  103  and secure element  107  of the embodiment of device  100  described in relation with  FIG.  1   . Element  107  is capable of implementing two operating systems, each symbolized by a block bearing reference (OS1)  107 - 1 , (OS2)  107 - 2 . Secure element  107  comprises and implements an interface, or interface layer, or abstraction layer,  108  of the communication bus. 
     In this embodiment, NFC module  103  is coupled to secure element  107  via two buses B 1  and B 2 . Each bus B 1 , B 2  is capable of transmitting and of receiving data and control signals relative to a single operating system or to an application executed from the application system. In the case of  FIG.  2   , NFC module (NFC)  103  is capable of routing the data towards the adequate bus B 1 , B 2 . As an example, NFC module  103  may use part of the data or of the control signals to know towards which operating system it should be directed. As an example, buses B 1  and B 2  are single-wire buses using a single-wire bus protocol, SWP, or are multiple-wire buses using a multiple-wire bus protocol of MIPI DSI type (Mobile Industry Processor Interface Display Serial Interface), of I2C type (Inter-Integrated Circuit), of I3C type (a development of the I3C type), or of SPI type (Serial Peripheral Interface). As a variation, the buses are formed of any appropriate communication support between the near field communication module and the secure element. 
     Abstraction layer  108  for example enables operating system  107 - 1  to send control signals via the bus without having to be concerned about whether it should use bus B 1  or B 2 . Operating system  107 - 1  only sees (for itself) the existence of a bus. Interface layer  108  thus enables to establish the relation between the operating system/bus pairs  107 - 1 /B 1  and  107 - 2 /B 2 , without for each operating system  107 - 1 ,  107 - 2  to know that the other one exists. For this purpose, an embodiment comprises the modeling/creation, by layer  108 , of a routing or translation table between the pairs. Operating systems  107 - 1  and  107 - 2 , when they communicate over bus B 1  or B 2 , talk to the bus in “generic” fashion. In other words, the two operating systems  107 - 1  and  107 - 2  do not know the existence of the two buses B 1  and B 2 . For each of them, there exists a single bus. Layer  108  may for example limit the number of operating systems (or the number of operating systems requiring access to the bus that it manages) to the number of available communication buses required by the operating systems, which may be useful in the case where the number of buses is smaller than the number of operating systems managed by the secure element. According to an embodiment, NFC module  103  contains information representative of the number of operating systems implemented by secure element  107 . 
     According to an alternative embodiment, device  100  may comprise a secure element capable of implementing more than two operating systems capable of receiving data from and/or transmitting data to the NFC module. In this case, the NFC module may be connected to the secure element by as many buses as there are operating systems implemented by the secure element. 
       FIG.  3    schematically shows in the form of blocks an embodiment of connection circuits between NFC module  103  and secure element  107  of the embodiment of device  100  described in relation with  FIG.  1   . As in  FIG.  2   , element  107  is capable of implementing two operating systems, each symbolized by a block bearing reference (OS1)  107 - 1 , (OS2)  107 - 2 . 
     In this embodiment, NFC module  103  is coupled to secure element  107  via a single bus B 3  which transmits data and control signals indifferently intended for the two operating systems. Secure element  107  comprises a routing/abstraction layer  120 , or routing circuit, enabling to direct the data and control signals towards the concerned operating system. Routing circuit  120  further allows to modify or to adapt data and control signals transmitted by circuit  120  to the operating systems, so that each operating system has no knowledge of the existence of the other operating systems. Doing so, each operating system believes or considers that it is the only one to operate the secure element  107 . The routing/abstraction layer is driven by an external arbitration entity (ARBITER)  122 , or arbiter, which is controlled, for example, by main processor  101 . Such an arbiter interacts with secure element  107 , and more particularly with routing/abstraction layer  120 , to signify thereto which operating system will be in charge of processing the incoming data. The routing/abstraction layer also has the function that, when an operating system is activated for the first time, the operating system will want to configure the NFC controller with its own parameters (as defined in standard ETSI TS 102 622). When another operating system will be activated for the first time, it will also have to configure the NFC module with its own parameters. Without the routing circuit, this last operation would erase the configuration of the first operating system. The routing layer should thus “store” the configuration achieved by each operating system and recharge it into the NFC controller for each change of activation of a different operating system. The routing circuit may take a plurality of forms and may vary according to the application, but the stored configuration remains usable and internally stored by the routing circuit, which can then complete it with new configuration information supplied by each operating system for the NFC controller. In the embodiment illustrated in  FIG.  3   , the routing circuit is a state machine comprising an input, coupled to bus B 3 , and two outputs, each in communication with an operating system of secure element  107 - 1 ,  107 - 2 . 
     According to an embodiment, device  100  may comprise a secure element capable of implementing more than two operating systems, in this case, the routing circuit comprises as many outputs as there are operating systems capable of receiving data from and/or transmitting data to the NFC module and implemented by secure element  107 . 
     Routing circuit  120  uses, for example, information contained in the data or the control signals to determine which operating system is the addressee thereof. According to an embodiment, the routing circuit may be controlled by secure element  107  or by NFC module  103  to direct the data towards the concerned operating system  107 - 1 ,  107 - 2 . The routing circuit is particularly used to assign pipes to ports of the NFC router. The routing circuit created by routing/translation layer  120  is for example implemented by a lookup table, for example, stored in a non-volatile memory. According to a variation, routing circuit  120  may be implemented by a state machine. 
       FIG.  4    schematically shows in the form of blocks an embodiment of an architecture for coupling NFC module  103  and secure element  107  of the embodiment of device  100  described in relation with  FIG.  1   . As in  FIGS.  2  and  3   , element  107  is capable of implementing two operating systems, each symbolized by a block designated with reference (OS1)  107 - 1 , (OS2)  107 - 2 . 
     In this embodiment, NFC module  103  is coupled to secure element  107  via a single bus B 3  which indifferently transmits data and control signals intended for the two operating systems. The data and control signals are directed by a routing circuit  121  comprised within NFC module  103  towards the concerned operating system. In the embodiment illustrated in  FIG.  4   , routing circuit  121  comprises an input, receiving data from a receive circuit  123 , and an output, coupled to bus B 3 . According to an alternative embodiment, device  100  may comprise a secure element capable of implementing more than two operating systems, in this case, routing circuit  121  comprises as many outputs as there are operating systems capable of receiving data from and/or transmitting data to the NFC module and implemented by the secure element. According to an embodiment, routing circuit  121  is a routing table. NFC module  103  generally comprises a routing table, but routing table  121  is an additional routing table. If the system supports an undetermined number of operating systems, the NFC module is informed thereof (for example, during the establishing of the communication with module  107  or processor  101 ) to target a specific operating system  107 - 1  or  107 - 2  and not generally secure element  107 . 
     Routing circuit  121  for example uses information contained in the data or the control signals to determine which operating system is the addressee thereof. Routing circuit  121  is for example implemented by a lookup table, for example, stored in a non-volatile memory, interpreted by conversion circuits  131  and  132 . 
     Conversion circuits  131  and  132  are data conversion circuits capable of converting the received data and control signals so that they become comprehensible and executable by the concerned operating system, and so that the conversion circuits remove routing data or control signals which would have been added by the NFC controller. Similarly, if a message should be sent from a specific operating system ( 107 - 1  or  107 - 2 ), conversion circuits  131  and  132  have to add the information necessary for the routing. As an example, conversion circuits  131  and  132  are partially or totally comprised within secure element  107 . Conversion circuits  131 ,  132  thus allow to let each operating system  107 - 1 ,  107 - 2  to consider that it is the only one to be able to operate the secure element  107 . Indeed, each operating system only receive data and control signals, which are directly intended to this operating system and which it is capable of interpreting and/or implementing. 
     According to an alternative embodiment, since bus B 3  may be formed of a plurality of conductors, a first group of conductors may be delegated to the transmission of data and control signals concerning a single operating system  107 - 1  and a second group of data may be delegated to the transmission of data and control signals to the other operating system. 
       FIG.  5    schematically shows in the form of blocks another embodiment of connection circuits between NFC module  103  and secure element  107  of the embodiment of device  100  described in relation with  FIG.  1   . Element  107  is capable of implementing two operating systems called OS1 and OS2, and is identical to element  107  described in relation with  FIG.  2   . Thus, element  107  comprises abstraction layer  108 . 
     The embodiment described herein is an alternative embodiment of the embodiment described in relation with  FIG.  2   , where buses B 1  and B 2  are each replaced with a memory. More particularly, each bus B 1 , B 2  is replaced with a volatile memory  141  (RAM1),  142  (RAM2). Each memory  141 , respectively  142 , is coupled to NFC module  103  by a bus B 41 , respectively B 43 , and is coupled to element  107  by a bus B 42 , respectively B 44 . Volatile memories  141  and  142  may be implemented, for example, using volatile memory circuits known in the art including, but not limited to random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and static random access memory (SRAM). 
     In this embodiment, NFC module (NFC)  103  is capable of routing the data towards the adequate memory  141 ,  142 . 
     In this embodiment, the data sent by NFC module  103  to element  107 , and intended for operating system OS1 are, first, transmitted, by bus B 41 , and then written into memory  141  by NFC module  103 . Then, element  107  recovers the data from memory  141 , via bus B 42 . The data then reach the level of abstraction layer  108  as described in relation with  FIG.  2   . 
     Similarly, the data sent by NFC module  103  to element  107 , and intended for operating system OS2 are, first, transmitted, by bus B 43 , and then written into memory  142  by NFC module  103 . Then, element  107  recovers the data from memory  142 , via bus B 44 . The data then reach the level of abstraction layer  108  as described in relation with  FIG.  2   . 
     According to an embodiment, volatile memories  141  and  142  are two memory areas of a same volatile memory. 
       FIG.  6    schematically shows in the form of blocks another embodiment of connection circuits between NFC module  103  and secure element  107  of the embodiment of device  100  described in relation with  FIG.  1   . 
     The embodiment described herein is an alternative embodiment of the embodiments described in relation with  FIGS.  3  and  4   , where bus B 3  is replaced with a volatile memory. More particularly, bus B 3  is replaced with a volatile memory  151  (RAM3), coupled to NFC module  103  by a bus B 51  and to element  107  by a bus B 52 . 
     In such variations, the data sent by NFC module  103  to element  107  are, first, transmitted by bus B 51 , and then written into memory  151  by NFC module  103 . Then, element  107  recovers the data from memory  151 , via bus B 52 . 
     The NFC module and element  107  may be identical to the NFC module and to the element  107  described in relation with  FIG.  3    or may be identical to the NFC module and to the element  107  described in relation with  FIG.  4   . 
     Various embodiments and variations have been described. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that certain features of these various embodiments and variations may be combined, and other variations will occur to those skilled in the art. 
     Finally, the practical implementation of the described embodiments and variations is within the abilities of those skilled in the art based on the functional indications given hereinabove.