Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8503931B2/en
Timestamp: 2020-02-20 04:49:05
Document Index: 199783187

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 2', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 1', 'art 1']

US8503931B2 - Tuneable NFC-enabled device - Google Patents
Tuneable NFC-enabled device Download PDF
US8503931B2
US8503931B2 US13/534,888 US201213534888A US8503931B2 US 8503931 B2 US8503931 B2 US 8503931B2 US 201213534888 A US201213534888 A US 201213534888A US 8503931 B2 US8503931 B2 US 8503931B2
US13/534,888
US20120270499A1 (en
2005-02-24 Priority to GB0503848.4 priority Critical
2005-02-24 Priority to GB0503848A priority patent/GB0503848D0/en
2005-02-24 Priority to GBGB0503848.4 priority
2005-08-26 Priority to GB0517497A priority patent/GB0517497D0/en
2005-08-26 Priority to GB0517497.4 priority
2005-08-26 Priority to GBGB0517497.4 priority
2005-10-05 Priority to GB0520260A priority patent/GB0520260D0/en
2005-10-05 Priority to GB0520260.1 priority
2005-10-05 Priority to GBGB0520260.1 priority
2006-02-24 Priority to US11/362,311 priority patent/US8249500B2/en
2012-06-27 Priority to US13/534,888 priority patent/US8503931B2/en
2012-06-27 Assigned to INNOVISION RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY PLC reassignment INNOVISION RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY PLC ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: WILSON, ROBIN
2012-06-27 Application filed by Broadcom Innovision Ltd filed Critical Broadcom Innovision Ltd
2012-10-25 Publication of US20120270499A1 publication Critical patent/US20120270499A1/en
2013-08-06 Publication of US8503931B2 publication Critical patent/US8503931B2/en
An NFC-enabled device configured at least in part as an integrated circuit, the integrated circuit including a controller and a plurality of capacitors. The controller is operable to control one or more of the plurality of capacitors to vary an operating parameter of the NFC-enabled device.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/362,311, filed Feb. 24, 2006, which claims priority to United Kingdom patent application nos. GB0503848.4, filed Feb. 24, 2005, GB0517497.4, filed Aug. 26, 2005, and GB0520260.1, filed Oct. 5, 2005, each disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
One such system is generally known as a near field RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system, and employs a near field RFID tag and a near field RFID reader for reading information stored on the tag by means of magnetic field (H-field) inductive coupling between the reader and the tag. Near field RFID tags are referred to below as tags. Near field RFID readers are referred to below as readers. Readers and tags are together referred to below as RFID devices.
Referring now specifically to FIG. 1, there is shown a schematic representation of two NFC communications enabled devices and the communications session between them. In FIG. 1 the representations of the NFC communications enabled devices have been show, partly cut-away and the functionality provided by the NFC communications enabled devices has been illustrated by way of a functional block diagram within the NFC communications enabled devices.
Similarly the portable computer 102 has the usual features of a portable computer including portable computer functionality 1020 in the form of, usually, a processor with associated memory in the form of ROM, RAM and/or a hard disk drive, one or more removable media drives such as a floppy disk drive and/or a CDROM or DVD drive, and possibly a communications device for enabling the portable computer to connect to a network such as an Internet. The portable computer 102 also includes a user interface 1021 including a display 1022, a keyboard 1023 and a pointing device, as shown a touchpad 1024.
The portable computer 102 also has a chargeable battery 1025 coupled to a charging socket 1026 via which a mains adapter (not shown) may be connected to enable charging of the battery 1025.
In addition the NFC operational components 101 include components for enabling modulation of an RF signal to enable data to be communicated to another RFD device in near field range of the NFC device 100 a.
When an NFC communicator as shown in FIG. 2 is operating in target mode, it will wait to receive an RF signal from an initiator mode NFC communicator or RFID reader through the coupler 102. On receipt of such an RF signal, the demodulator 114 will demodulate the RF signal to extract any data carried by the RF signal and will supply a digital data signal to the controller 107. The demodulated signal may be, for example, a wake-up instruction (for example REQA). The controller 107 will respond to such received data in accordance with its programming and /or data stored in the data store 108. Response in target mode may be through load modulation of the received RF signal (through modulation of load on inductor 112). Alternatively certain NFC communicators may respond through interference with the received RF signal or alternatively through transmission of a modulated RF signal (as described above).
1. A near field communications (NFC)-enabled device, comprising:
a magnetic field sensor configured to sense a magnetic field strength to provide a sensed field strength signal; and
a controller configured to vary an operating parameter of the NFC-enabled device in response to the sensed field strength signal using a peak detection process, the controller being further configured to:
change the operating parameter in a plurality of increments until a final increment adversely affects the operating parameter; and
set the operating parameter to an increment immediately before the final increment;
wherein the magnetic field sensor is further configured to generate the sensed field strength signal to cause the controller to vary the operating parameter when the magnetic field strength is less than a threshold.
2. The NFC-enabled device of claim 1, further comprising:
a plurality of capacitors, coupled to the controller, at least one of the plurality of capacitors being configurable to be activated or deactivated by the controller to vary the operating parameter.
3. The NFC-enabled device of claim 2, further comprising:
a plurality of switches, each switch from among the plurality of switches being associated with at least one capacitor from among the plurality of capacitors,
wherein the controller is configured to control at least one of the plurality of switches to activate or deactivate its associated at least one capacitor to vary the operating parameter.
4. The NFC-enabled device of claim 2, wherein the at least one capacitor comprises:
first and second conductive track portions provided in a common layer of the NFC -enabled device, the first and second conductive track portions being spaced from one another to form, respectively, first and second electrodes of a first capacitor.
5. The NFC-enabled device of claim 4, wherein the first and second electrodes each include a plurality of transversely extending spaced conducting tabs, the first and second electrodes being arranged such that the plurality of transversely extending spaced conducting tabs of the first electrode are interleaved with the plurality of transversely extending spaced conducting tabs of the second electrode.
6. The NFC-enabled device of claim 4, further comprising:
third and fourth conductive track portions provided in a second common layer of the NFC-enabled device that is different from the common layer and which is spaced therefrom by an insulating layer, the third and fourth conductive track portions being spaced from one another to form, respectively, first and second electrodes of a second capacitor from among the plurality of capacitors.
7. The NFC-enabled device of claim 6, wherein the first electrode of the first capacitor is coupled to the first electrode of the second capacitor, and the second electrode of the first capacitor is coupled to the second electrode of the second capacitor, the first and the second capacitors being arranged one above the other such that laterally extending tabs of the first capacitor overlie laterally extending tabs of the second capacitor.
8. The NFC-enabled device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of capacitors comprises:
a fixed capacitor; and
a plurality of switchable capacitors in parallel with the fixed capacitor.
9. The NFC-enabled device of claim 1, wherein the operating parameter comprises at least one of:
an induced voltage; and
10. The NFC-enabled device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to implement the peak detection process using a proportional, integral, differential (PID) processing algorithm, the PID processing algorithm being represented by:
PE ⁡ ( t ) + 1 I ⁢ ∫ ⁢ E ⁡ ( t ) ⁢ ⅆ ( t ) + D ⁢ ⅆ ⅆ t ⁢ E ⁡ ( t ) ,
wherein t is a time, E is the sensed field strength signal, P is a proportional error, I is an integral of an error, and D is a derivative of the error.
11. The NFC-enabled device of claim 1, further comprising:
wherein the controller is further configured to vary the operating parameter of the NFC-enabled device to vary a resonant frequency of the inductive coupler.
12. A method of operating a near field communications (NFC) -enabled device, comprising:
generating a magnetic field strength signal from a detected magnetic field near the NFC-enabled device when the magnetic field strength signal is less than a threshold;
adjusting a capacitance of a plurality of capacitors by a first increment to vary an operating parameter of the NFC-enabled device upon receipt of the magnetic field strength signal;
adjusting the capacitance of the plurality of capacitors by a second increment to vary the operating parameter; and
determining whether the second increment adversely affects the operating parameter when compared to the first increment.
adjusting the capacitance by the first increment when the second increment adversely affects the operating parameter.
adjusting the capacitance of the plurality of capacitors by a third increment to vary the operating parameter when the second increment does poi adversely affect the operating parameter.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining comprises:
determining a first and a second magnetic field strength in response to the first and second increments, respectively; and
comparing the first magnetic field strength and the second magnetic field strength to determine whether the second increment adversely affects the operating parameter.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the adjusting the capacitance by the first increment comprises:
adjusting the capacitance by the first increment to vary a resonant frequency of an inductive coupler.
17. A near field communications (NFC)-enabled device, comprising:
an inductive coupler configured to inductively receive a signal;
a magnetic field sensor configured to sense a magnetic field strength of the signal;
a controller configured to vary an operating parameter of the NFC-enabled device in response to the magnetic field strength using a peak detection process, the controller being further configured to:
wherein the magnetic field sensor is further configured to generate a sensed field strength signal from the sensed magnetic field strength to cause the controller to vary the operating parameter when the magnetic field strength is less than a threshold.
18. The NFC-enabled device of claim 17, further comprising:
19. The NFC-enabled device of claim 18, further comprising:
20. The NFC-enabled device of claim 18 wherein the plurality of capacitors comprises:
21. The NFC-enabled device of claim 17, wherein the controller is further configured to vary the operating parameter of the NFC-enabled device to vary a resonant frequency of the inductive coupler.
US13/534,888 2005-02-24 2012-06-27 Tuneable NFC-enabled device Active US8503931B2 (en)
US11/362,311 US8249500B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2006-02-24 Tuneable NFC device
US13/534,888 US8503931B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2012-06-27 Tuneable NFC-enabled device
US13/922,548 US9305192B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2013-06-20 Tuneable NFC-enabled device
US11/362,311 Continuation US8249500B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2006-02-24 Tuneable NFC device
US13/922,548 Continuation US9305192B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2013-06-20 Tuneable NFC-enabled device
US20120270499A1 US20120270499A1 (en) 2012-10-25
US8503931B2 true US8503931B2 (en) 2013-08-06
US11/362,311 Active 2029-05-31 US8249500B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2006-02-24 Tuneable NFC device
US13/534,888 Active US8503931B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2012-06-27 Tuneable NFC-enabled device
US13/922,548 Active US9305192B2 (en) 2005-02-24 2013-06-20 Tuneable NFC-enabled device
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2013-06-20 US US13/922,548 patent/US9305192B2/en active Active
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US8249500B2 (en) 2012-08-21
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US8588682B2 (en) 2013-11-19 Near field RF communicators having refined energy sharing characterisitics utilizing improved shunt current control
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:WILSON, ROBIN;REEL/FRAME:028455/0262