PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-12183980-B2
Application Number: US-202117368413-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Electronic devices with concurrent radio-frequency transmission and sensing

Abstract:
An electronic device may include communications circuitry, sensing circuitry, and a set of antennas having first and second feeds for covering different polarizations. The communications circuitry may transmit signals with a first polarization using each of the antennas and may concurrently transmit signals with a second polarization using all but a selected one of the antennas. The sensing circuitry may concurrently transmit sensing signals with the first polarization using one of the antennas and may receive sensing signals with the second polarization using the selected antenna. The sensing signals may include chirp signals generated to include muted periods that correspond to a range of frequencies that overlap frequencies at which the wireless circuitry is subject to radio-frequency interference. This may allow for concurrent wireless communications and sensing operations without interference between the communications circuitry and the sensing circuitry.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An electronic device comprising:
 a first antenna having a first antenna feed and a second antenna feed; 
 a second antenna having a third antenna feed and a fourth antenna feed; 
 communications circuitry configured to concurrently transmit first radio-frequency signals with a first polarization over the first antenna feed, second radio-frequency signals with the first polarization over the third antenna feed, and third radio-frequency signals with a second polarization over the second antenna feed, the second polarization being different from the first polarization, wherein the first, second, and third radio-frequency signals carry wireless data for receipt by an external device; 
 a digital signal generator configured to generate a digital chirp signal; 
 a window generator configured to generate a binary periodic windowing signal; 
 a mixer operably coupled to the digital signal generator and the window generator, wherein the mixer is configured to generate a muted chirp signal by mixing the digital chirp signal with the binary periodic windowing signal, the first antenna feed being configured to transmit a radio-frequency sensing signal of the first polarization based on the muted chirp signal 
 concurrent with transmission of the first radio-frequency signals by the communications circuitry; and 
 a sensing receiver configured to receive a reflected radio-frequency sensing signal of the second polarization over the fourth antenna feed. 
 
     
     
       2. The electronic device of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) operably coupled to the mixer and configured to convert the muted chirp signal into an analog muted chirp signal. 
 
     
     
       3. The electronic device of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 an additional mixer coupled between the DAC and the first antenna feed, wherein the additional mixer is configured to generate the radio-frequency sensing signal by mixing the analog muted chirp signal with a local oscillator signal. 
 
     
     
       4. The electronic device of  claim 3 , wherein the muted chirp signal comprises a linear frequency ramp that varies from a first frequency at a first time to a second frequency at a second time and that varies from a third frequency at a third time to a fourth frequency at a fourth time, the second frequency being separated from the third frequency by a frequency range, the second time being separated from the third time by a muted period, and the communications circuitry being configured to transmit the first radio-frequency signals at a frequency within the frequency range. 
     
     
       5. The electronic device of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 one or more processors configured to detect an external object based at least on the reflected radio-frequency sensing signal. 
 
     
     
       6. The electronic device of  claim 5 , wherein the sensing receiver is further configured to receive fourth radio-frequency signals with the second polarization over the third antenna feed, the one or more processors being configured to adjust the frequency range and the muted period of the muted chirp signal by adjusting the binary periodic windowing signal based on the fourth radio-frequency signals received by the sensing receiver. 
     
     
       7. The electronic device of  claim 6 , wherein the one or more processors is configured to:
 generate a root mean square (RMS) of the fourth radio-frequency signals as a function of time, 
 compare the RMS of the fourth radio-frequency signals as a function of time to one or more thresholds to generate interference times, and 
 adjust the binary periodic windowing signal based on a conversion of the interference times to a frequency domain. 
 
     
     
       8. The electronic device of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a third antenna having a fifth antenna feed and a sixth antenna feed, wherein the communications circuitry is configured to transmit fourth radio-frequency signals with the first polarization over the fifth antenna feed and being configured to transmit fifth radio-frequency signals with the second polarization over the sixth antenna feed, and wherein the first antenna, the second antenna, and the third antenna form part of a phased antenna array configured to produce a steerable signal beam using at least the first radio-frequency signals, the second radio-frequency signals, the third radio-frequency signals, the fourth radio-frequency signals, and the fifth radio-frequency signals. 
 
     
     
       9. A method of operating a system having communications circuitry, a sensing transmitter, a sensing receiver, a set of antennas, and one or more processors, the method comprising:
 transmitting, using the communications circuitry, radio-frequency signals that carry wireless data with a first linear polarization over the set of antennas during a first time period; 
 generating, using a first mixer, a muted chirp signal by mixing a digital chirp signal with a binary periodic windowing signal; 
 generating, using a second mixer, a sensing signal by mixing the muted chirp signal with a local oscillator signal; 
 transmitting, using the sensing transmitter, the sensing signal with a second linear polarization over at least one antenna in the set of antennas concurrently with transmission of the radio-frequency signals by the communications circuitry during the first time period, the second linear polarization being orthogonal to the first linear polarization; 
 receiving, using the sensing receiver, a reflected version of the sensing signal; and 
 detecting, using the one or more processors, an external object based on the reflected version of the sensing signal received by the sensing receiver. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 transmitting, using the communications circuitry, radio-frequency signals with the first linear polarization and with the second linear polarization over the set of antennas during a second time period that is different from the first time period, wherein the sensing transmitter is inactive during the second time period. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the communications circuitry with the first linear polarization during the first time period comprise physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signals, random access channel (RACH) signals, sounding reference signals (SRS), or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signals and wherein the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the communications circuitry with the first linear polarization and the second linear polarization during the second time period comprise physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signals or SRS signals. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 transmitting, using the sensing transmitter, the sensing signal with the first linear polarization and the second linear polarization over the set of antennas during a third time period that is different from the first time period and the second time period, wherein the communications circuitry is inactive during the third time period. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 transmitting, using the sensing transmitter, the sensing signal with the first linear polarization and the second linear polarization over the set of antennas during a second time period that is different from the first time period, wherein the communications circuitry foregoes transmission of radio-frequency signals using the set of antennas during the second time period. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the muted chirp signal comprises a frequency ramp that increases linearly from a first frequency at a first time to a second frequency at a second time and that increases linearly from a third frequency at a third time to a fourth frequency at a fourth time, the second frequency is separated from the third frequency by a frequency range, the second time is separated from the third time by a muted period, the binary periodic windowing signal has a magnitude of zero during the muted period, the binary periodic windowing signal has a magnitude of one between the first and second times and between the third and fourth times, and the radio-frequency signals are transmitted by the communications circuitry at a frequency within the frequency range. 
     
     
       15. A method of operating a system having one or more processors and wireless circuitry that includes a sensing transmitter, a sensing receiver, a first antenna, and a second antenna, the method comprising:
 generating, using the sensing transmitter, a linear frequency ramp that varies from a first frequency at a first time to a second frequency at a second time and that varies from a third frequency at a third time to a fourth frequency at a fourth time, wherein the second time is separated from the third time by a muted period, the third frequency being separated from the second frequency by a range of frequencies; 
 transmitting, using the sensing transmitter, the linear frequency ramp over the first antenna; 
 receiving, using the sensing receiver, a reflected version of the linear frequency ramp over the second antenna; 
 detecting, using the one or more processors, an external object based at least on the reflected version of the linear frequency ramp received by the sensing receiver; and 
 transmitting, using a transmitter in the wireless circuitry, wireless data during the muted period and at a frequency within the range of frequencies. 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 15 , wherein generating the linear frequency ramp comprises multiplying an un-muted frequency ramp by a binary periodic windowing signal having a magnitude of zero during the muted period. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 16 , wherein the binary periodic windowing signal has a magnitude of one from the first time to the second time and from the third time to the fourth time. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 receiving, using the sensing receiver, radio-frequency signals over the second antenna; and 
 identifying the range of frequencies by
 generating a root mean square of the received radio-frequency signals as a function of time, 
 identifying interference times based on the root mean square, and 
 converting the identified interference times to a frequency domain. 
 
 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 adjusting the muted period based on a change in a transmit frequency of the wireless data. 
 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the linear frequency ramp increases from the first time to the second time, increases from the third time to the fourth time, has a constant slope from the first time to the second time, and has the constant slope from the third time to the fourth time.

Description:
FIELD 
     This disclosure relates generally to electronic devices and, more particularly, to electronic devices with wireless circuitry. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Electronic devices are often provided with wireless capabilities. An electronic device with wireless capabilities has wireless circuitry that includes one or more antennas. The wireless circuitry is used to perform communications using radio-frequency signals transmitted by the antennas. 
     In some scenarios, the wireless circuitry is also used to perform sensing to detect the presence of external objects near the electronic device. If care is not taken, the sensing can undesirably interfere with the communications, or the communications can undesirably interfere with the sensing. 
     SUMMARY 
     An electronic device may include wireless circuitry controlled by one or more processors. The wireless circuitry may include communications circuitry having one or more communications transmitters for performing wireless communications. The wireless circuitry may include sensing circuitry having a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver for performing sensing operations. The wireless circuitry may include a set of antennas. Each antenna in the set of antennas may have a first antenna feed and a second antenna feed for covering orthogonal linear polarizations. 
     The communications circuitry may transmit radio-frequency signals with a first linear polarization using each of the antennas in the set of antennas. The communications circuitry may concurrently transmit radio-frequency signals with the second linear polarization using all but one of the antennas in the set of antennas. The sensing transmitter may concurrently transmit radio-frequency sensing signals with the first linear polarization using one of the antennas in the set of antennas. The sensing receiver may receive radio-frequency sensing signals with the second linear polarization using the antenna in the set of antennas that is not used by the communications circuitry to transmit radio-frequency signals with the second linear polarization. Switching circuitry may be adjusted to change the antennas and polarizations used for performing communications operations and sensing operations over time. 
     The radio-frequency sensing signals may include chirp signals. The received radio-frequency sensing signals may include a reflected version of the chirp signals that has been reflected off an external object. One or more processors may process the chirp signals and the reflected version of the chirp signals to detect the presence, location, orientation, and/or velocity of the external object. The one or more processors may identify interference frequencies at which potential interference may be present between the sensing circuitry and other radio-frequency signals such as the signals transmitted by the communications circuitry or over-the-air signals in the vicinity of the device. The chirp signals may be generated to include muted periods that correspond to a range of frequencies overlapping the interference frequencies. This may mitigate any such potential interference. 
     The one or more processors may control the communications circuitry to transmit radio-frequency signals using both linear polarizations while the sensing circuitry is inactive. The one or more processors may also control the sensing circuitry to perform sensing operations using one or both linear polarizations while the communications circuitry is inactive. In addition, when the communications circuitry only uses one of the linear polarizations for transmitting radio-frequency signals, the one or more processors may control the sensing circuitry to concurrently perform sensing operations using the other linear polarization. In this way, the wireless circuitry can convey wireless communications data concurrently with performing sensing operations without interference between the communications circuitry and the sensing circuitry. 
     An aspect of the disclosure provides an electronic device. The electronic device can include a first antenna having a first antenna feed and a second antenna feed. The electronic device can include a second antenna having a third antenna feed and a fourth antenna feed. The electronic device can include one or more communications transmitters configured to concurrently transmit first radio-frequency signals with a first polarization over the first antenna feed, second radio-frequency signals with the first polarization over the third antenna feed, and third radio-frequency signals with a second polarization over the second antenna feed, the second polarization being different from the first polarization. The electronic device can include a sensing transmitter configured to transmit radio-frequency sensing signals with the first polarization over the first antenna feed concurrently with transmission of the first radio-frequency signals by the one or more communications transceivers. The electronic device can include a sensing receiver configured to receive reflected radio-frequency sensing signals of the second polarization over the fourth antenna feed. 
     An aspect of the disclosure provides a method of operating an electronic device having one or more communications transmitters, a sensing transmitter, a sensing receiver, a set of antennas, and one or more processors. The method can include with the one or more communications transmitters, transmitting radio-frequency signals with a first linear polarization over the set of antennas during a first time period. The method can include with the sensing transmitter, transmitting sensing signals with a second linear polarization over the set of antennas concurrently with transmission of the radio-frequency signals by the one or more communications transceivers during the first time period, the second linear polarization being orthogonal to the first linear polarization. The method can include with the sensing receiver, receiving a reflected version of the sensing signals. The method can include with the one or more processors, detecting an external object based on the reflected version of the sensing signals received by the sensing receiver. 
     An aspect of the disclosure provides a method of operating an electronic device having one or more processors and wireless circuitry that includes a sensing transmitter, a sensing receiver, a first antenna, and a second antenna. The method can include with the one or more processors, identifying a first range of frequencies associated with potential radio-frequency interference at the wireless circuitry. The method can include with the sensing transmitter, generating chirp signals having muted periods that correspond to a second range of frequencies that overlaps the first range of frequencies. The method can include with the sensing transmitter, transmitting the chirp signals over the first antenna. The method can include with the sensing receiver, receiving a reflected version of the chirp signals over the second antenna. The method can include with the one or more processors, detecting an external object based at least on the reflected version of the chirp signals received by the sensing receiver. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a block diagram of an illustrative electronic device having communications circuitry for performing wireless communications using antennas and having sensing circuitry for performing sensing operations using the antennas in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  2    is a perspective view of an illustrative antenna that may convey radio-frequency signals using horizontal and vertical polarizations in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  3    is a circuit block diagram showing how illustrative communications circuitry may perform wireless communications using a set of antennas and multiple polarizations while illustrative sensing circuitry concurrently performs sensing operations using the antennas in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    is a circuit block diagram of illustrative sensing circuitry that performs sensing operations without interfering with concurrent wireless communications in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  5    includes plots showing how illustrative sensing circuitry may generate muted chirp signals for performing sensing operations without interfering with concurrent wireless communications in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  6    is a plot of signal amplitude as a function of frequency showing how illustrative sensing circuitry may perform sensing operations that coexist with wireless communications performed by illustrative communications circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  7    is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in using communications circuitry and sensing circuitry to perform concurrent wireless communications and sensing operations using the same set of antennas in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  8    is a flow chart of illustrative operations that may be performed by sensing circuitry to generate muted chirp signals for performing sensing operations without interfering with concurrent wireless communications in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  9    is a state diagram showing illustrative operating modes for wireless circuitry involved in performing concurrent wireless communications and sensing operations in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  10    is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in adjusting wireless circuitry between operating modes for performing concurrent wireless communications and sensing operations in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  11    is an illustrative table showing how wireless circuitry may use different polarizations to perform sensing operations and wireless communications in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  12    is an illustrative table showing how wireless circuitry may transmit different types of communications signals using a single polarization while another polarization is used to perform concurrent sensing operations in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  13    is a circuit block diagram showing how illustrative sensing circuitry may include circuitry for identifying potential over-the-air interference frequencies that may be used in generating muted chirp signals for performing sensing operations in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG.  14    is a flow chart of illustrative operations that may be performed by sensing circuitry to identify potential over-the-air interference frequencies that may be used in generating muted chirp signals for performing sensing operations in accordance with some embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Electronic device  10  of  FIG.  1    may be a computing device such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a computer monitor containing an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smaller device such as a wristwatch device, a pendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, a device embedded in eyeglasses or other equipment worn on a user&#39;s head, or other wearable or miniature device, a television, a computer display that does not contain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, an embedded system such as a system in which electronic equipment with a display is mounted in a kiosk or automobile, a wireless internet-connected voice-controlled speaker, a home entertainment device, a remote control device, a gaming controller, a peripheral user input device, a wireless base station or access point, equipment that implements the functionality of two or more of these devices, or other electronic equipment. 
     As shown in the functional block diagram of  FIG.  1   , device  10  may include components located on or within an electronic device housing such as housing  12 . Housing  12 , which may sometimes be referred to as a case, may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramics, fiber composites, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, metal alloys, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. In some situations, parts or all of housing  12  may be formed from dielectric or other low-conductivity material (e.g., glass, ceramic, plastic, sapphire, etc.). In other situations, housing  12  or at least some of the structures that make up housing  12  may be formed from metal elements. 
     Device  10  may include control circuitry  14 . Control circuitry  14  may include storage such as storage circuitry  16 . Storage circuitry  16  may include hard disk drive storage, nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory or other electrically-programmable-read-only memory configured to form a solid-state drive), volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamic random-access-memory), etc. Storage circuitry  16  may include storage that is integrated within device  10  and/or removable storage media. 
     Control circuitry  14  may include processing circuitry such as processing circuitry  18 . Processing circuitry  18  may be used to control the operation of device  10 . Processing circuitry  18  may include on one or more processors, microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, host processors, baseband processor integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits, central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), etc. Control circuitry  14  may be configured to perform operations in device  10  using hardware (e.g., dedicated hardware or circuitry), firmware, and/or software. Software code for performing operations in device  10  may be stored on storage circuitry  16  (e.g., storage circuitry  16  may include non-transitory (tangible) computer readable storage media that stores the software code). The software code may sometimes be referred to as program instructions, software, data, instructions, or code. Software code stored on storage circuitry  16  may be executed by processing circuitry  18 . 
     Control circuitry  14  may be used to run software on device  10  such as satellite navigation applications, internet browsing applications, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, email applications, media playback applications, operating system functions, etc. To support interactions with external equipment, control circuitry  14  may be used in implementing communications protocols. Communications protocols that may be implemented using control circuitry  14  include internet protocols, wireless local area network (WLAN) protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocols—sometimes referred to as Wi-Fi®), protocols for other short-range wireless communications links such as the Bluetooth® protocol or other wireless personal area network (WPAN) protocols, IEEE 802.11ad protocols (e.g., ultra-wideband protocols), cellular telephone protocols (e.g., 3G protocols, 4G (LTE) protocols, 3GPP Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) protocols, etc.), antenna diversity protocols, satellite navigation system protocols (e.g., global positioning system (GPS) protocols, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) protocols, etc.), antenna-based spatial ranging protocols, or any other desired communications protocols. Each communications protocol may be associated with a corresponding radio access technology (RAT) that specifies the physical connection methodology used in implementing the protocol. 
     Device  10  may include input-output circuitry  20 . Input-output circuitry  20  may include input-output devices  22 . Input-output devices  22  may be used to allow data to be supplied to device  10  and to allow data to be provided from device  10  to external devices. Input-output devices  22  may include user interface devices, data port devices, and other input-output components. For example, input-output devices  22  may include touch sensors, displays (e.g., touch-sensitive and/or force-sensitive displays), light-emitting components such as displays without touch sensor capabilities, buttons (mechanical, capacitive, optical, etc.), scrolling wheels, touch pads, key pads, keyboards, microphones, cameras, buttons, speakers, status indicators, audio jacks and other audio port components, digital data port devices, motion sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/or compasses that detect motion), capacitance sensors, proximity sensors, magnetic sensors, force sensors (e.g., force sensors coupled to a display to detect pressure applied to the display), temperature sensors, etc. In some configurations, keyboards, headphones, displays, pointing devices such as trackpads, mice, and joysticks, and other input-output devices may be coupled to device  10  using wired or wireless connections (e.g., some of input-output devices  22  may be peripherals that are coupled to a main processing unit or other portion of device  10  via a wired or wireless link). 
     Input-output circuitry  20  may include wireless circuitry  24  to support wireless communications and radio-based sensing operations. Wireless circuitry  24  (sometimes referred to herein as wireless communications circuitry  24 ) may include two or more antennas  30 . Wireless circuitry  24  may also include baseband processor circuitry, transceiver circuitry, amplifier circuitry, filter circuitry, switching circuitry, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuitry, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, radio-frequency transmission lines, and/or any other circuitry for transmitting and/or receiving radio-frequency signals using antennas  30 . 
     Antennas  30  may be formed using any desired antenna structures for conveying radio-frequency signals. For example, antennas  30  may include antennas with resonating elements that are formed from loop antenna structures, patch antenna structures, inverted-F antenna structures, slot antenna structures, planar inverted-F antenna structures, helical antenna structures, monopole antennas, dipoles, hybrids of these designs, etc. Filter circuitry, switching circuitry, impedance matching circuitry, and/or other antenna tuning components may be adjusted to adjust the frequency response and wireless performance of antennas  30  over time. If desired, two or more of antennas  30  may be integrated into a phased antenna array (sometimes referred to herein as a phased array antenna) in which each of the antennas conveys radio-frequency signals with a respective phase and magnitude that is adjusted over time so the radio-frequency signals constructively and destructively interfere to produce a signal beam in a given pointing direction. The term “convey radio-frequency signals” as used herein means the transmission and/or reception of the radio-frequency signals (e.g., for performing unidirectional and/or bidirectional wireless communications with external wireless communications equipment). Antennas  30  may transmit the radio-frequency signals by radiating the radio-frequency signals into free space (or to free space through intervening device structures such as a dielectric cover layer). Antennas  30  may additionally or alternatively receive the radio-frequency signals from free space (e.g., through intervening devices structures such as a dielectric cover layer). The transmission and reception of radio-frequency signals by antennas  30  each involve the excitation or resonance of antenna currents on an antenna resonating element in the antenna by the radio-frequency signals within the frequency band(s) of operation of the antenna. 
     Wireless circuitry  24  may include communications circuitry  26  (sometimes referred to herein as wireless communications circuitry  26 ) for transmitting and/or receiving wireless communications data using antennas  30 . Communications circuitry  26  may include baseband circuitry (e.g., one or more baseband processors) and one or more radios (e.g., radio-frequency transceivers, modems, etc.) for conveying radio-frequency signals using one or more antennas  30 . Communications circuitry  26  may use antennas  30  to transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals that convey the wireless communications data between device  10  and external wireless communications equipment (e.g., one or more other devices such as device  10 , a wireless access point or base station, etc.). The wireless communications data may be conveyed bidirectionally or unidirectionally. The wireless communications data may, for example, include data that has been encoded into corresponding data packets such as wireless data associated with a telephone call, streaming media content, Internet browsing, wireless data associated with software applications running on device  10 , email messages, etc. 
     Communications circuitry  26  may transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals within corresponding frequency bands at radio frequencies (sometimes referred to herein as communications bands or simply as “bands”). The frequency bands handled by communications circuitry  26  may include wireless local area network (WLAN) frequency bands (e.g., Wi-Fi® (IEEE 802.11) or other WLAN communications bands) such as a 2.4 GHz WLAN band (e.g., from 2400 to 2480 MHz), a 5 GHz WLAN band (e.g., from 5180 to 5825 MHz), a Wi-Fi® 6E band (e.g., from 5925-7125 MHz), and/or other Wi-Fi® bands (e.g., from 1875-5160 MHz), wireless personal area network (WPAN) frequency bands such as the 2.4 GHz Bluetooth® band or other WPAN communications bands, cellular telephone frequency bands (e.g., bands from about 600 MHz to about 5 GHz, 3G bands, 4G LTE bands, 5G New Radio Frequency Range 1 (FR1) bands below 10 GHz, 5G New Radio Frequency Range 2 (FR2) bands between 20 and 60 GHz, etc.), other centimeter or millimeter wave frequency bands between 10-300 GHz, near-field communications frequency bands (e.g., at 13.56 MHz), satellite navigation frequency bands (e.g., a GPS band from 1565 to 1610 MHz, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) band, a BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) band, etc.), ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency bands that operate under the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol and/or other ultra-wideband communications protocols, communications bands under the family of 3GPP wireless communications standards, communications bands under the IEEE 802.XX family of standards, and/or any other desired frequency bands of interest. 
     In addition to conveying wireless communications data, wireless circuitry  24  may also use antennas  30  to perform radio-frequency sensing operations (sometimes referred to herein as radio-based sensing operations or simply as sensing operations). The sensing operations may allow device  10  to detect (e.g., sense or identify) the presence, location, orientation, and/or velocity (motion) of objects external to device  10 . Detecting, sensing, or identifying the presence, location, orientation, and/or velocity (motion) of an external object at any given time or over a given time period may sometimes be referred to herein simply as detecting the external object. The sensing operations may be performed over a relatively short range such as ranges of a few cm from antennas  30  (e.g., using voltage standing wave ratio detector(s) coupled to antennas  30 ) or over longer ranges such as ranges of dozens of cm, a few meters, dozens of meters, etc. 
     Control circuitry  14  may use the detected presence, location, orientation, and/or velocity of the external objects to perform any desired device operations. As examples, control circuitry  14  may use the detected presence, location, orientation, and/or velocity of the external objects to identify a corresponding user input for one or more software applications running on device  10  such as a gesture input performed by the user&#39;s hand(s) or other body parts or performed by an external stylus, gaming controller, head-mounted device, or other peripheral devices or accessories, to determine when one or more antennas  30  needs to be disabled or provided with a reduced maximum transmit power level (e.g., for satisfying regulatory limits on radio-frequency exposure), to determine how to steer a radio-frequency signal beam produced by antennas  30  for communications circuitry  26  (e.g., in scenarios where antennas  30  include a phased array of antennas  30 ), to map or model the environment around device  10  (e.g., to produce a software model of the room where device  10  is located for use by an augmented reality application, gaming application, map application, home design application, engineering application, etc.), to detect the presence of obstacles in the vicinity of (e.g., around) device  10  or in the direction of motion of the user of device  10 , etc. 
     Wireless circuitry  24  may include sensing circuitry  28  for performing sensing operations using antennas  30 . Sensing circuitry  28  may include a sensing transmitter (e.g., transmitter circuitry including signal generators, synthesizers, etc.), a sensing receiver, mixer circuitry, amplifier circuitry, filter circuitry, baseband circuitry, ADC circuitry, DAC circuitry, and/or any other desired components used in performing sensing operations using antennas  30 . Sensing circuitry  28  may perform the sensing operations using radio-frequency sensing signals that are transmitted by antennas  30  and using reflected versions of the radio-frequency sensing signals that have reflected off external objects around device  10 . Antennas  30  may include separate antennas for conveying wireless communications data for communications circuitry  26  and for conveying sensing signals or may include one or more antennas  30  that are used to both convey wireless communications data and to perform sensing operations. Using a single antenna  30  to both convey wireless communications data and perform sensing operations may, for example, serve to minimize the amount of space occupied in device  10  by antennas  30 . 
     Sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  may be coupled to antennas  30  over radio-frequency transmission line paths  32 . If desired, sensing circuitry  28  may perform sensing operations and communications circuitry  26  may perform wireless communications using radio-frequency signals of different polarizations (e.g., a linear horizontal polarization, a linear vertical polarization, a circular polarization, an elliptical polarization, etc.). Radio-frequency transmission line paths  32  may include a first set of radio-frequency transmission line paths  32 V for conveying radio-frequency signals for sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  with a first polarization (e.g., a vertical (V) polarization) and may include a second set of radio-frequency transmission line paths  32 H for conveying radio-frequency signals for sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  with a second polarization that is different from the first polarization (e.g., a horizontal (H) polarization). 
     Radio-frequency transmission lines  32 H and  32 V may include coaxial cables, microstrip transmission lines, stripline transmission lines, edge-coupled microstrip transmission lines, edge-coupled stripline transmission lines, transmission lines formed from combinations of transmission lines of these types, etc. Radio-frequency transmission lines  32 H and  32 V may be integrated into rigid and/or flexible printed circuit boards if desired. The example of  FIG.  1    in which different radio-frequency transmission lines  32 V and  32 H are coupled to sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  is merely illustrative. If desired, one or more radio-frequency lines  32 V may be shared by both sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  (e.g., for coupling both sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  to the same antenna feed on the same antenna  30 ). Similarly, one or more radio-frequency lines  32 H may be shared by both sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26 . Radio-frequency front end (RFFE) modules may be interposed on one or more radio-frequency transmission lines  32 H and/or  32 V. The radio-frequency front end modules may include substrates, integrated circuits, chips, or packages that are separate from sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  and may include filter circuitry, switching circuitry, amplifier circuitry, impedance matching circuitry, radio-frequency coupler circuitry, and/or any other desired radio-frequency circuitry for operating on the radio-frequency signals conveyed over radio-frequency transmission lines  32 H and/or  32 V. 
     The example of  FIG.  1    is merely illustrative. While control circuitry  14  is shown separately from wireless circuitry  24  in the example of  FIG.  1    for the sake of clarity, wireless circuitry  24  may include processing circuitry (e.g., one or more processors) that forms a part of processing circuitry  18  and/or storage circuitry that forms a part of storage circuitry  16  of control circuitry  14  (e.g., portions of control circuitry  14  may be implemented on wireless circuitry  24 ). As an example, control circuitry  14  may include baseband circuitry (e.g., one or more baseband processors), digital control circuitry, analog control circuitry, and/or other control circuitry that forms part of communications circuitry  26  and/or sensing circuitry  28 . The baseband circuitry may, for example, access a communication protocol stack on control circuitry  14  (e.g., storage circuitry  20 ) to: perform user plane functions at a PHY layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, SDAP layer, and/or PDU layer, and/or to perform control plane functions at the PHY layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, RRC, layer, and/or non-access stratum layer. If desired, the PHY layer operations may additionally or alternatively be performed by radio-frequency (RF) interface circuitry in wireless circuitry  24 . 
     Any desired antenna structures may be used to form antennas  30 . If desired, antennas  30  may each have multiple antenna feeds that allow the antennas to support multiple polarizations. Each antenna  30  may, for example, have a first antenna feed coupled to a corresponding radio-frequency transmission line  32 V for handling a first polarization and a second antenna feed coupled to a corresponding radio-frequency transmission line  32 H for handling a second polarization.  FIG.  2    is a perspective view showing one example in which an antenna  30  is formed using patch antenna structures for covering multiple polarizations. 
     As shown in  FIG.  2   , antenna  30  may have a patch antenna resonating element  42  that is separated from and parallel to a ground plane such as antenna ground  40 . Patch antenna resonating element  42  may lie within a plane such as the A-B plane of  FIG.  2    (e.g., the lateral surface area of element  42  may lie in the A-B plane). Patch antenna resonating element  42  may sometimes be referred to herein as patch  42 , patch element  42 , patch resonating element  42 , antenna resonating element  42 , or resonating element  42 . Antenna ground  40  may lie within a plane that is parallel to the plane of patch element  42 . Patch element  42  and antenna ground  40  may therefore lie in separate parallel planes that are separated by distance  49 . Patch element  42  and antenna ground  40  may be formed from conductive traces patterned on a dielectric substrate such as a rigid or flexible printed circuit board substrate or any other desired conductive structures. 
     The length of the sides of patch element  42  may be selected so that antenna  30  resonates (radiates) at a desired operating frequency. For example, the sides of patch element  42  may each have a length  46  that is approximately equal to half of the wavelength of the signals conveyed by antenna  30  (e.g., the effective wavelength given the dielectric properties of the materials surrounding patch element  42 ). In one suitable arrangement, length  46  may be between 0.8 mm and 1.2 mm (e.g., approximately 1.1 mm) for covering a millimeter wave frequency band between 57 GHz and 70 GHz or between 1.6 mm and 2.2 mm (e.g., approximately 1.85 mm) for covering a millimeter wave frequency band between 37 GHz and 41 GHz, as just two examples. 
     The example of  FIG.  2    is merely illustrative. Patch element  42  may have a square shape in which all of the sides of patch element  42  are the same length or may have a different rectangular shape. Patch element  42  may be formed in other shapes having any desired number of straight and/or curved edges. 
     To enhance the polarizations handled by antenna  30 , antenna  30  may be provided with multiple antenna feeds. As shown in  FIG.  2   , antenna  30  may have a first antenna feed at antenna port P 1  that is coupled to a corresponding radio-frequency transmission line path  32 V. Antenna  30  may have a second antenna feed at antenna port P 2  that is coupled to a corresponding radio-frequency transmission line path  32 H. The first antenna feed may have a first ground feed terminal coupled to antenna ground  40  (not shown in  FIG.  2    for the sake of clarity) and a first positive antenna feed terminal  38 V coupled to patch element  42 . The second antenna feed may have a second ground feed terminal coupled to antenna ground  40  (not shown in  FIG.  2    for the sake of clarity) and a second positive antenna feed terminal  38 H on patch element  42 . 
     Holes or openings such as openings  34  and  36  may be formed in antenna ground  40 . Radio-frequency transmission line path  32 V may include a vertical conductor (e.g., a conductive through-via, conductive pin, metal pillar, solder bump, combinations of these, and/or other vertical conductive interconnect structures) that extends through opening  34  to positive antenna feed terminal  38 V on patch element  42 . Radio-frequency transmission line path  32 H may include a vertical conductor that extends through opening  36  to positive antenna feed terminal  38 H on patch element  42 . This example is merely illustrative and, if desired, other transmission line structures may be used (e.g., coaxial cable structures, stripline transmission line structures, etc.). 
     When using the first antenna feed associated with port P 1 , antenna  30  may transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals having a first polarization (e.g., the electric field E 1  of radio-frequency signals  48  associated with port P 1  may be oriented parallel to the B-axis in  FIG.  2   ). When using the antenna feed associated with port P 2 , antenna  30  may transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals having a second polarization (e.g., the electric field E 2  of radio-frequency signals  48  associated with port P 2  may be oriented parallel to the A-axis of  FIG.  2    so that the polarizations associated with ports P 1  and P 2  are orthogonal to each other). 
     One of ports P 1  and P 2  may be used at a given time so that antenna  30  operates as a single-polarization antenna or both ports may be operated at the same time so antenna  30  operates as a dual-polarization antenna (e.g., where antenna  30  concurrently conveys horizontal and vertically polarized signals) or with other polarizations (e.g., as a circularly-polarized antenna, an elliptically-polarized antenna, etc.). 
     If desired, antenna  30  may include one or more additional patch elements  44  that are stacked over patch element  42 . Each patch element  44  may partially or completely overlap patch element  42 . The lower-most patch element  44  may be separated from patch element  42  by distance D, which is selected to provide antenna  30  with a desired bandwidth without occupying excessive volume within device  10 . Patch elements  44  may have sides with lengths other than length  46 , which configure patch elements  44  to radiate at different frequencies than patch element  42 , thereby extending the overall bandwidth of antenna  30 . Patch elements  44  may include directly-fed patch antenna resonating elements (e.g., patch elements with one or more positive antenna feed terminals directly coupled to transmission lines) and/or parasitic antenna resonating elements that are not directly fed by antenna feed terminals and transmission lines. One or more patch elements  44  may be coupled to patch element  42  by one or more conductive through vias if desired (e.g., so that at least one patch element  44  and patch element  42  are coupled together as a single directly fed resonating element). In scenarios where patch elements  44  are directly fed, patch elements  44  may include two positive antenna feed terminals for conveying signals with different (e.g., orthogonal) polarizations and/or may include a single positive antenna feed terminal for conveying signals with a single polarization. The combined resonance of patch element  42  and each of patch elements  44  may configure antenna  30  to radiate with satisfactory antenna efficiency across the entirety of any desired frequency band. 
     The example of  FIG.  2    is merely illustrative. Patch elements  44  may be omitted if desired. Patch elements  44  may be rectangular, square, cross-shaped, or any other desired shape having any desired number of straight and/or curved edges. Patch elements  44  may be provided at any desired orientation relative to patch element  42 . Antenna  30  may have any desired number of feeds. Other antenna types may be used if desired (e.g., dipole antennas, monopole antennas, slot antennas, inverted-F antennas, planar inverted-F antennas, waveguide antennas, dielectric resonator antennas, etc.). 
     In some scenarios, communications circuitry  26  and sensing circuitry  28  use antennas  30  in a time-interleaved manner (e.g., where communications circuitry  26  performs wireless communications using antennas  30  while sensing circuitry  28  is inactive and sensing circuitry  28  performs sensing operations using antennas  30  while communications circuitry  26  is inactive). Time-division duplexing wireless communications and sensing operations may prevent interference between the wireless communications and the sensing operations but can consume an excessive amount of time. Performing wireless communications using antennas  30  concurrently with performing sensing operations using antennas  30  may maximize the time efficiency of wireless circuitry  24  but, if care is not taken, there can be coexistence challenges where the sensing operations undesirably interfere with wireless communications or vice versa. For example, the radio-frequency signals transmitted by sensing circuitry  28  can couple onto one or more receivers in communications circuitry  26  to disturb signal reception by the receivers. Similarly, the relatively high output power level of transmitters in communications circuitry  26  can adversely affect a receiver in sensing circuitry  28 . 
     In order to mitigate these issues, wireless circuitry  24  may leverage the multiple polarizations covered by antennas  30  to perform concurrent wireless communications and sensing operations with minimal interference between the wireless communications and sensing operations.  FIG.  3    is a circuit block diagram showing one example of how communications circuitry  26  and sensing circuitry  28  may concurrently use antennas  30 . In the example of  FIG.  3   , there is a set of N=4 antennas  30  (e.g., a first antenna  30 - 1 , a second antenna  30 - 2 , a third antenna  30 - 3 , and a fourth antenna  30 - 4 ) that are used to perform wireless communications. This example is merely illustrative and, in general, N be any number greater than or equal to two. 
     As shown in  FIG.  3   , each antenna  30  may be coupled to a respective radio-frequency transmission line path  32 V and to a respective radio-frequency transmission line path  32 H. Switching circuitry such as switching circuitry  50  may be communicably coupled between radio-frequency transmission line paths  34 H/ 32 V and communications circuitry  26 . Switching circuitry  50  may include switches  52  (e.g., single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switches). Each switch  52  may have a first terminal  56  coupled to a corresponding radio-frequency transmission line path  32 H or  32 V. Each switch  52  may have a respective second terminal  54  coupled to a corresponding transmit port  72  of communications circuitry  26  over a respective transmit chain  60  (sometimes referred to herein as transmit path  60 ). Each switch  52  may also have a respective third terminal  56  coupled to a corresponding receive port  74  of communications circuitry  26  over a respective receive chain  62  (sometimes referred to herein as receive path  62 ). One or more power amplifiers such as power amplifier (PA)  66  may be interposed on each transmit chain  60 . One or more low-noise amplifiers such as low-noise amplifier (LNA)  64  may be interposed on each receive chain  62 . 
     Transmit ports  72  may include first transmit ports  72 V that transmit radio-frequency signals for a first polarization (e.g., V polarization) and may include second transmit ports  72 H that transmit radio-frequency signals for a second polarization (e.g., H polarization). Transmit ports  72 H may therefore sometimes be referred to herein as horizontal-polarization transmit ports  72 H and transmit ports  72 V may therefore sometimes be referred to herein as vertical-polarization transmit ports  72 V. Similarly, receive ports  74  may include first receive ports  74 V that receive radio-frequency signals of the first polarization (e.g., V polarization) and may include second receive ports  74 H that receive radio-frequency signals of the second polarization (e.g., H polarization). Receive ports  74 H may therefore sometimes be referred to herein as horizontal-polarization receive ports  74 H and receive ports  74 V may therefore sometimes be referred to herein as vertical-polarization receive ports  74 V. 
     Transmit ports  72 H may be located on respective transmitters, transceivers, radios, or integrated circuit chips in communications circuitry  26  or two or more transmit ports  72 H may be located on the same transmitter, transceiver, radio, or integrated circuit chip in communications circuitry  26 . Transmit ports  72 V may be located on respective transmitters, transceivers, radios, or integrated circuit chips in communications circuitry  26  or two or more transmit ports  72 V may be located on the same transmitter, transceiver, radio, or integrated circuit chip in communications circuitry  26 . Similarly, receive ports  74 H may be located on respective receivers, transceivers, radios, or integrated circuit chips in communications circuitry  26  or two or more receive ports  74 H may be located on the same receiver, transceiver, radio, or integrated circuit chip in communications circuitry  26 . Receive ports  74 V may be located on respective receivers, transceivers, radios, or integrated circuit chips in communications circuitry  26  or two or more receive ports  74 V may be located on the same receiver, transceiver, radio, or integrated circuit chip in communications circuitry  26 . Transmit ports  72 H/ 72 V and receive ports  74 H/ 74 V may be located on different transceivers, radios, or integrated circuit chips or a single transceiver, radio, or integrated circuit chip may include one or more transmit ports  72 H, one or more transmit ports  72 V, one or more receive ports  74 V, and/or one or more receive ports  74 H. 
     Each switch  52  may have a first state in which switch  52  couples terminal  56  to terminal  54  to couple the corresponding antenna  30  to the corresponding transmit port  72  on communications circuitry  26 . While switch  52  is in the first state, the power amplifier  64  coupled to the switch may receive radio-frequency signals sigcom from the corresponding transmit port  72  and may amplify the radio-frequency signals, which are then forwarded to the corresponding antenna  30  by switch  52  for transmission (e.g., as radio-frequency signals  84 ). Each switch  52  may also have a second state in which switch  52  couples terminal  56  to terminal  58  to couple the corresponding antenna  30  to the corresponding receive terminal  74  on communications circuitry  26 . While switch  52  is in the second state, switch  52  may forward radio-frequency signals received by the corresponding antenna  30  to the corresponding receive port  74 . Radio-frequency signals sigcom may be transmitted (e.g., in radio-frequency signals  84 ) to external communications equipment such as external communications equipment  82  (e.g., another device such as device  10 , a wireless access point, a wireless base station, etc.). Control circuitry  14  ( FIG.  1   ) may provide control signals that toggle switches  52  to couple the horizontally-polarized antenna feed for each antenna  30  to a given transmit port  72 H or receive port  74 H (e.g., for transmitting horizontally-polarized signals or receiving horizontally-polarized signals) or to couple the vertically-polarized antenna feed for each antenna  30  to a given transmit port  72 V or receive port  74 V (e.g., for transmitting vertically-polarized signals or receiving vertically polarized signals). 
     Sensing circuitry  28  may include at least one sensing transmitter  76  and at least one sensing receiver  78 . In the example of  FIG.  3   , sensing transmitter  76  is coupled to the transmit chain  60  for the horizontally-polarized antenna feed for antenna  30 - 1  and sensing receiver  78  is coupled to the receive chain  62  for the vertically-polarized antenna feed for antenna  30 - 4 . This example is merely illustrative and, in general, sensing transmitter  76  may be coupled to either the horizontally-polarized transmit chain or the vertically-polarized transmit chain for any of antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4 . Similarly, sensing receiver  78  may be coupled to either the horizontally-polarized receive chain or the vertically-polarized receive chain for any of antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4 . If desired, wireless circuitry  24  may include an additional stage of switching circuitry such as switching circuitry  80 . Switching circuitry  80  may be interposed on transmit chains  60  and receive chains  62 . Control circuitry  14  ( FIG.  1   ) may control switching circuitry  80  to selectively couple sensing transmitter  76  to any of the transmit chains in wireless circuitry  24  and to selectively couple sensing receiver  78  to any of the receive chains in wireless circuitry  24  at any given time. In other words, control circuitry  14  may use switching circuitry  80  to adjust/change which antennas  30  and which polarizations are used for performing sensing operations over time. 
     As shown in  FIG.  3   , sensing transmitter  76  may transmit radio-frequency signals such as sensing signals sigsens over the horizontal polarization transmit chain  60  coupled to antenna  30 - 1 . Sensing signals sigsens may include chirp signals, as an example (e.g., in implementations where sensing circuitry  28  has a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) architecture). If desired, sensing signals sigsens may also be routed from transmit chain  60  to a de-chirp mixer in sensing receiver  78 . Sensing signals sigsens may include continuous waves of radio-frequency energy, wideband signals, one or more signal tones, or any other desired transmit signals, as other examples. The switch  52  coupled to sensing transmitter  76  may route sensing signals sigsens to antenna  30 - 1  over the corresponding radio-frequency transmission line path  32 H. Antenna  30 - 1  may radiate sensing signals sigsens as radio-frequency signals  66 . Unlike radio-frequency signals  84 , radio-frequency signals  66  may be free from wireless communications data (e.g., cellular communications data packets, WLAN communications data packets, etc.). Sensing transmitter  76  may transmit sensing signals sigsens at one or more carrier frequencies in any desired frequency band(s) (e.g., frequency band that includes frequencies greater than around 10 GHz, greater than around 20 GHz, less than 10 GHz, 20-30 GHz, greater than 40 GHz, 20-60 GHz, less than 1 GHz, etc.). 
     Radio-frequency signals  66  may reflect off of objects external to device  10 , such as external object  68 , as reflected signals  70 . External object  68  may be, for example, the ground, a building, part of a building, a wall, furniture, a ceiling, a person, a body part (e.g., the head, hand, or other body part of the user of device  10  or other humans in the vicinity of device  10 ), an animal, a vehicle, a landscape or geographic feature, an obstacle, external communications equipment such as external wireless communications equipment  82 , another device of the same type as device  10  or a peripheral device such as a gaming controller, stylus, or remote control, or any other physical object or entity that is external to device  10 . 
     In the example of  FIG.  3   , antenna  30 - 4  may be used to receive reflected signals  70  (e.g., a reflected version of radio-frequency signals  66  that have reflected off of external object  68 ). Antenna  30 - 4  may pass reflected signals  70  to the switch  52  coupled to the receive chain  62  that is coupled to sensing receiver  78  (e.g., as reflected sensing signals sigsens′). Reflected sensing signals sigsens′ may include sensing signals sigsens (e.g., chirp signals) that have reflected off of external object  68  and that have been received by antenna  30 - 4 . The switch and the receive path may pass reflected sensing signals sigsens′ to sensing receiver  78  for processing. Sensing circuitry  28  may process the transmitted sensing signals sigsens and the reflected sensing signals sigsens′ to identify (e.g., generate, estimate, determine, compute, calculate, deduce, etc.) the position, location, presence, orientation, and/or velocity of external object  68 . 
     As shown in  FIG.  3   , switching circuitry  50  and/or  80  may configure each of antennas  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 ,  30 - 3 , and  30 - 4  to transmit horizontally-polarized radio-frequency signals  66  (e.g., horizontally-polarized radio-frequency signals sigcom) for communications circuitry  26 . The switching circuitry may configure antennas and  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 , and  30 - 3  to concurrently transmit vertically-polarized radio-frequency signals  66  (e.g., vertically-polarized radio-frequency signals sigcom) for communications circuitry  26 . The switching circuitry may configure antenna  30 - 1  to concurrently transmit horizontally-polarized radio-frequency signals  84  (e.g., horizontally-polarized sensing signals sigsens) for sensing circuitry  28 . The switching circuitry may configure antenna  30 - 4  to concurrently receive vertically-polarized reflected signals  70  (e.g., vertically-polarized reflected sensing signals sigsens′). In other words, wireless circuitry  24  may concurrently transmit sensing signals sigsens and radio-frequency signals sigcom using the horizontal polarization of one of the N antennas  30  (e.g., antenna  30 - 1 ) and may sacrifice one of the polarizations of the N antennas  30  (e.g., the vertical polarization of antenna  30 - 4 ) to receive reflected signals  70  for use in performing sensing operations (e.g., while the other antennas  30  are used to transmit radio-frequency signals  84  with both polarizations for communications circuitry  26 ). This may allow sensing operations to be performed with a minimal impact on the throughput of communications circuitry  26 , for example. 
     The example of  FIG.  3    is merely illustrative. There may be more than four antennas  30  or fewer than four antennas  30  coupled to communications circuitry  26  and sensing circuitry  28  (e.g., only a pair of antennas such as antennas  30 - 1  and  30 - 4 ). Either polarization of any of the antennas may be used to provide reflected sensing signals sigsens′ to sensing receiver  78 . Either polarization of any of the antennas may be used to transmit sensing signals sigsens. In some implementations, antenna  30 - 1  may transmit sensing signals sigsens with a first polarization (e.g., with an H polarization in horizontally-polarized radio-frequency signals  66 ) while transmitting radio-frequency signals sigcom with the first polarization (e.g., with an H polarization in radio-frequency signals  84 ) and with the second polarization (e.g., with a V polarization in radio-frequency signals  84 ) (e.g., as shown in  FIG.  3   ), while antenna  30 - 4  transmits radio-frequency signals sigcom with the second polarization (e.g., with a V polarization in radio-frequency signals  84 ) and while antenna  30 - 4  receives reflected sensing signals sigsens′ with the first polarization (e.g., with an H polarization in reflected signals  70 ). In other words, the polarization arrangement of antenna  30 - 4  as shown in  FIG.  3    may be reversed if desired. The first and second polarizations handled by antennas  30  need not be limited to vertical and horizontal polarizations and may, in general, include any desired polarizations. Other switching architectures, transmit chain architectures, and/or receive chain architectures may be used if desired. Antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  may, if desired, form a phased antenna array that transmits radio-frequency signals  84  within a steerable signal beam (e.g., a signal beam that is adjusted to point towards external communications equipment  82 ). In these scenarios, phase and magnitude controllers may be interposed on the transmit chains  60  to perform beam steering for radio-frequency signals  84 . 
     Sensing circuitry  28  may include circuitry to prevent interference between the sensing signals sigsens transmitted by sensing transmitter  76  and the radio-frequency signals sigcom transmitted by communications circuitry  26  (e.g., because sensing transmitter  76  transmits sensing signals sigsens concurrently with the transmission of radio-frequency signals sigcom by communications circuitry  26 ).  FIG.  4    is a circuit block diagram showing how sensing circuitry  28  may include circuitry to prevent interference between sensing signals sigsens and radio-frequency signals sigcom. 
     As shown in  FIG.  4   , sensing circuitry  28  may include window controller circuitry  116 , window generator circuitry  120 , and coexistence manager circuitry  110 . Sensing transmitter  76  in sensing circuitry  28  may include sensing controller circuitry  86 , digital chirp generator circuitry  90 , multiplier  94 , DAC  98 , upconversion circuitry such as mixer  100 , and clocking circuitry such as local oscillator (LO)  102 . Window controller circuitry  116  may sometimes be referred to herein as window controller  116  or window control engine  116 . Window generator circuitry  120  may sometimes be referred to herein as window generator  120  or window generation engine  120 . Sensing controller circuitry  86  may sometimes be referred to herein as sensing controller  86  or sensing control engine  86 . Digital chirp generator circuitry  90  may sometimes be referred to herein as digital chirp generator  90  or digital chirp generation engine  90 . Coexistence manager circuitry  110  may sometimes be referred to herein as coexistence manager  110  or coexistence management engine  110 . Sensing controller circuitry  86 , digital chirp generator circuitry  90 , multiplier  94 , window controller circuitry  116 , window generator circuitry  120 , and coexistence manager circuitry  110  may be implemented in software (e.g., running on storage circuitry and executed by one or more processors) and/or in hardware (e.g., using one or more digital logic gates, circuit components, diodes, transistors, switches, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), registers, application-specific integrated circuits, field-programmable gate arrays, one or more processors, look-up tables, etc.). Some or all of these components may form part of control circuitry  14  of  FIG.  1   , if desired. 
     Sensing controller  86  may have outputs coupled to the input of digital chirp generator  90  over control path  88  and coupled to an input of window controller  116  over control path  112 . Coexistence manager  110  may have an output coupled to an input of window controller  116  over control path  114 . If desired, coexistence manager  110  may also have an input coupled to communications circuitry  26  (not shown). Window controller  116  may have an output coupled to window generator  120  over control path  118 . Window generator  120  may have an output coupled to a first input of multiplier  94  over control path  122 . Digital chirp generator  90  may have an output coupled to a second input of multiplier  94 . Multiplier  94  may have an output coupled to DAC  98 . DAC  98  may have an output coupled to a first input of mixer  100 . Mixer  100  may have a second input coupled to LO  102  and may have an output coupled to transmit chain  60 . Switching circuitry  80  of  FIG.  3    may communicably couple transmit chain  60  to the horizontal antenna feed of antenna  30 - 1  or to any other desired antenna feed of any of the antennas  30  in device  10 . 
     As shown in  FIG.  4   , sensing circuitry  28  may also include ADC  108  and mixer  106 . Mixer  106  may have a first input coupled to receive chain  62 . Switching circuitry  80  of  FIG.  3    may communicably couple receive chain  62  to the vertical antenna feed of antenna  30 - 4  or to any other desired antenna feed of any of the antennas  30  in device  10 . Mixer  106  may have a second input coupled to transmit chain  60  over de-chirp path  104 . Mixer  106  may sometimes also be referred to herein as de-chirp mixer  106 . De-chirp mixer  106  may have an output coupled to the input of ADC  108 . ADC  108  may have an output coupled to sensing receiver  78 . The example of  FIG.  4    is merely illustrative. De-chirp mixer  106  may be interposed between the output of ADC  108  and sensing receiver  78  and de-chirp path  104  may be coupled to the output of multiplier  94  if desired. Other sensing circuitry architectures may be used if desired. 
     When sensing circuitry  28  performs sensing operations, sensing controller  86  may generate chirp configuration control signal chirp_config and trigger signal trig. Sensing controller  86  may provide chirp configuration control signal chirp_config to digital chirp generator  90  over control path  88 . Digital chirp generator  90  may generate chirp signals chirp based on chirp configuration control signal chirp_config. The chirp signals have a frequency that periodically ramps up over time (e.g., where the chirp signals are sawtooth signals in frequency as a function of time). Chirp configuration control signal chirp_config may, for example, identify a slope (e.g., in frequency as a function of time) for the chirp signals and a duration for each frequency ramp (e.g., each chirp) in the chirp signals. Digital chirp generator  90  may provide the chirp signals to the second input of multiplier  94 . Sensing controller  86  may also provide chirp configuration control signal chirp_config and trigger signal trig to window controller  116  over control path  112 . 
     Coexistence manager  110  may identify interference frequencies INF at which sensing signals sigsens will interfere with the radio-frequency signals transmitted and/or received by communications circuitry  26 . Coexistence manager  110  may, for example, receive control information from communications circuitry  26  that identifies the frequencies used by communications circuitry  26 . Coexistence manager  110  may identify interference frequencies INF based on the control information received from communications circuitry  26 . Coexistence manager  110  may generate a control signal intfreq that identifies the interference frequencies INF. Coexistence manager  110  may pass control signal intfreq to window controller  116  over control path  114 . 
     Window controller  116  may generate (e.g., identify, produce, compute, calculate, estimate, deduce, etc.) window timing for muting certain frequencies of the chirp signals generated by digital chirp generator  90 . Window controller  116  may generate the window timing based on the interference frequencies INF identified by control signal intfreq, the chirp configuration control signal chirp_config, and/or trigger signal trig. For example, window controller  116  may identify time periods of the chirp signals generated by digital chirp generator  90  that need to be muted for the chirp signals to have zero magnitude at interference frequencies INF. Window controller  116  may generate window configuration control signal win_config that identifies the generated window timing and may pass window configuration control signal win_config to window generator  120  over control path  118 . Window controller  116  may also pass trigger signal trig to window generator  120  over control path  118 . 
     Window generator  120  may generate window signal win (sometimes referred to herein as windowing signal win, windowing function win, muting signal win, or muting function win) based on the window timing identified by window configuration control signal win_config and based on trigger signal trig. Window signal win may, for example, be a circular time window or digital square wave having an amplitude of logic “0” during the time periods where the chirp signals need to be muted (e.g., to have zero magnitude at interference frequencies INF) and having an amplitude of logic “1” between the time periods. Window controller  116  and window generator  120  may use trigger signal trig to synchronize window signal win with the chirp signals produced by digital chirp generator  90 . Window controller  120  may pass window signal win to the first input of multiplier  94  over control path  122 . 
     Multiplier  94  may multiply chirp signals chirp (e.g., un-muted chirp signals) with window signal win to generate (e.g., produce, output, calculate, compute, etc.) muted chirp signals chirp′. Multiplier  94  may pass muted chirp signals chirp′ to DAC  98 . Muted chirp signals chirp′ may sometimes also be referred to herein as windowed chirp signals chirp′. DAC  98  may convert muted chirp signals chirp′ from the digital domain to the analog domain. Mixer  100  may upconvert the analog muted chirp signals (e.g., using LO  102 ) to radio frequencies (as sensing signals sigsens). Sensing circuitry  28  may transmit sensing signals sigsens over transmit chain  60 . A signal splitter or coupler may also couple some of sensing signals sigsens off of transmit chain  60  and may route sensing signals sigsens to the second input of de-chirp mixer  106  in sensing circuitry  28 . If desired, an amplifier (not shown) may be interposed on de-chirp path  104  to boost the amplitude of the sensing signals provided to de-chirp mixer  106 . De-chirp mixer  106  may receive reflected sensing signals sigsens′ at its first input (e.g., from receive chain  62 ). De-chirp mixer  106  may mix sensing signals sigsens with reflected sensing signals sigsens′ to produce (e.g., generate) baseband signals sigbb. ADC  108  may convert baseband signals sigbb to the digital domain. Sensing receiver  78  may receive baseband signals sigbb. Sensing circuitry  28  may process the baseband signals sigbb received by sensing receiver  78  and the sensing signals sigsens transmitted by sensing transmitter  76  to identify the presence, location, orientation, and/or velocity of external object  68  ( FIG.  3   ). For example, doppler shifts may be detected and processed to identify the velocity of external object  68 , the time dependent frequency difference between radio-frequency signals  66  and reflected signals  70  ( FIG.  3   ) may be detected and processed to identify the range between device  10  and external object  68 , etc. Use of continuous wave signals for performing sensing operations may allow sensing circuitry  28  to reliably distinguish between external object  68  and other background or slower-moving objects, for example. 
     The time periods where window signal win has zero magnitude may cause multiplier  94  to provide muted chirp signals chrip′ with zero amplitude (e.g., without changing the amplitude of the chirp signals when window signal has a magnitude of 1). The zero amplitude during these time periods may cause muted chirp signals chrip′ to have zero amplitude at the interference frequencies INF used by communications circuitry  26  for transmitting and/or receiving radio-frequency signals. In other words, muted chirp signals chrip′ may be the same as chirp signals chirp but while skipping the frequencies occupied by communications circuitry  26 . This may prevent interference between the muted chirp signals and the radio-frequency signals handled by communications circuitry  26 . For example, when sensing circuitry  28  is the victim, this may prevent the baseband receiver from saturating, because the interference is filtered by the de-chirp operation. When sensing circuitry  28  is the aggressor, there is no chirp signal transmitted over-the-air at frequencies that would interfere with the operation of communications circuitry  26 . The example of  FIG.  4    in which sensing circuitry  28  uses an FMCW architecture is merely illustrative and in general, sensing circuitry  28  may use other object sensing architectures. 
       FIG.  5    is a plot showing how sensing circuitry  28  may generate muted chirp signals chrip′. Plot  124  of  FIG.  5    illustrates exemplary chirp signals chirp as produced by digital chirp generator  90 . As shown by plot  124 , the chirp signals include a periodic ramp up in frequency (e.g., where the slope and duration of each ramp is determined based on chirp configuration control signal chirp_config). 
     Plot  126  of  FIG.  5    illustrates exemplary window signals win as produced by window generator  120 . As shown by plot  126 , the window signals are a periodic binary signal having an amplitude (magnitude) of 0 during time periods (windows) P and an amplitude of 1 between time windows P. Generator  120  may determine time periods P based on window configuration control signal win_config and trigger signal trig (e.g., where time periods P are time-aligned with frequencies of the chirp signals that overlap interference frequencies INF). 
     Multiplier  94  may multiply the chirp signals shown in plot  124  with the window signals shown in plot  126  to produce muted chirp signals chrip′ as shown in plot  128  of  FIG.  5   . When multiplied by the chirp signals, the zero magnitude of window signals win during time periods P may cause muted chirp signals chrip′ to have zero magnitude during time periods P (e.g., without changing the chirp signals outside of time periods P). In frequency, muted chirp signals chrip′ have zero magnitude between frequencies FA and FB (e.g., the frequencies corresponding to the edges of time periods P). Interference frequencies INF may lie between frequencies FA and FB (e.g., IFB−FAI may be greater than or equal to the bandwidth of interference frequencies INF and interference frequencies INF may overlap with or lie within the frequency range between frequencies FA and FB). In this way, sensing circuitry  28  may generate muted chirp signals chrip′ that are silent (e.g., muted, attenuated, provided with zero amplitude/magnitude, provided with an attenuated amplitude/magnitude that is close to zero or otherwise substantially less than the amplitude/magnitude of the unmuted chirp signals at the same frequencies, etc.) at interference frequencies INF, thereby preventing interference with the radio-frequency signals conveyed by communications circuitry  26 . The example of  FIG.  5    is merely illustrative. The signals shown by plots  124 ,  126 , and  128  may have other shapes in practice. 
       FIG.  6    is a plot of signal amplitude as a function of frequency showing how the signals transmitted by sensing circuitry  28  and communications circuitry  26  may coexist in frequency space. Curves  132  of  FIG.  6    plots the sensing signals sigsens transmitted by sensing circuitry  28 . Curve  130  plots the radio-frequency signals sigcom transmitted by communications circuitry  26 . As shown but curves  132 , muting the interference frequencies INF in sensing signals sigsens (e.g., by generating muted chirp signal chrip′) may allow communications circuitry  26  to convey radio-frequency signals at interference frequencies INF without interfering with the sensing signals. Interference frequencies INF may cover a bandwidth of up to 400 MHz or higher, as an example. 
       FIG.  7    is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in using communications circuitry  26  and sensing circuitry  28  ( FIG.  3   ) to perform concurrent wireless communications and sensing operations while leveraging the polarizations of antennas  30 . 
     At operation  134 , control circuitry  14  may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or switching circuitry  80  of  FIG.  3    to couple one or more transmitters in communications circuitry  26  to the H antenna feed (or the antenna feed of any first polarization) of each antenna  30  in a set of N antennas  30 . For example, the switching circuitry may be adjusted to couple transmit ports  72 H of communications circuitry  26  to the H antenna feed of antennas  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 ,  30 - 3 , and  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3    (e.g., in a scenario where N=4). At the same time, control circuitry  14  may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or switching circuitry  80  to couple one or more transmitters in communications circuitry  26  to the V antenna feed (or the antenna feed of any second polarization) of all but a selected on of the antennas  30  in the set of N antennas  30 . For example, the switching circuitry may be adjusted to couple transmit ports  72 V of communications circuitry  26  to the V antenna feed of antennas  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 , and  30 - 3  of  FIG.  3    (e.g., in the scenario where N=4), whereas antenna  30 - 4  may be selected to use its V antenna feed for sensing operations rather than conveying wireless communications data. 
     At operation  136 , control circuitry  14  may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or switching circuitry  80  to couple sensing transmitter  76  to the H antenna feed (or the antenna feed of the first polarization) of one of the antennas  30  in the set of N antennas  30 . For example, the switching circuitry may be adjusted to couple sensing transmitter  76  to the H antenna feed of antenna  30 - 1  of  FIG.  3   . At the same time, control circuitry  14  may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or switching circuitry  80  to couple sensing receiver  78  to the V antenna feed (or the antenna feed of the second polarization) of the selected antenna  30  in the set of N antennas  30  (e.g., the antenna  30  having a vertical antenna feed that is not coupled to communications circuitry  26 ). For example, the switching circuitry may be adjusted to couple sensing receiver  78  to the V antenna feed of antenna  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3   . In this way, one of the polarizations of one of the antennas  30  is used for both performing sensing operations and conveying wireless communications data whereas one of the polarizations of another of the antennas  30  is used only to perform sensing operations without conveying wireless communications data. 
     At operation  138 , the communications transmitter(s) in communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom with the first polarization using each of the antennas  30  in the set of N antennas  30 . For example, transmit ports  72 H may transmit H-polarized radio-frequency signals sigcom using antennas  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 ,  30 - 3 , and  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3   . At the same time, the communications transmitter(s) in communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom with the second polarization using each of the antenna  30  in the set of N antennas  30  except for the selected antenna  30  having a V antenna feed that is coupled to sensing receiver  78 . For example, transmit ports  72 V may transmit V-polarized radio-frequency signals sigcom using antennas  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 , and  30 - 3  of  FIG.  3   . The transmitted radio-frequency signals may collectively form radio-frequency signals  84  of  FIG.  3   , for example. 
     At operation  140 , sensing transmitter  76  may transmit sensing signals sigsens (e.g., radio-frequency signals that include muted chirp signals chrip′) with the first polarization over the antenna  30  coupled to sensing transmitter  76 . For example, sensing transmitter  76  may transmit H-polarized sensing signals sigsens using antenna  30 - 1  of  FIG.  3    (e.g., as radio-frequency signals  66  of  FIG.  3   ). 
     At operation  142 , sensing receiver  78  may receive reflected sensing signals sigsens′ with the second polarization over the selected antenna  30  in the set of N antennas  30 . For example, sensing receiver  78  may receive V-polarized reflected sensing signals sigsens′ using antenna  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3    (e.g., from reflected signals  70  of  FIG.  3   ). 
     At operation  144 , control circuitry  14  may perform subsequent processing based on (using) the transmitted sensing signals sigsens and the reflected sensing signals sigsens′. For example, control circuitry  14  may process sensing signals sigsens and reflected sensing signals sigsens′ to identify (e.g., detect, compute, calculate, determine, deduce, etc.) the presence, location, orientation, position, and/or velocity of external object  68 . Control circuitry  14  may perform any desired processing operations based on the identified presence, location, orientation, position, and/or velocity of external object  68 . As examples, control circuitry  14  may use the detected presence, location, orientation, position, and/or velocity of external object  68  to identify a corresponding user input for one or more software applications running on device  10  such as a gesture input performed by the user&#39;s hand(s) or other body parts or performed by an external stylus, gaming controller, head-mounted device, or other peripheral devices or accessories, to determine when one or more antennas  30  needs to be disabled or provided with a reduced maximum transmit power level (e.g., when the one or more antennas  30  is being blocked by or is in close proximity to a human body part), to determine how to steer a radio-frequency signal beam produced by antennas  30  for communications circuitry  26  (e.g., to steer the signal beam formed by radio-frequency signals  66  of  FIG.  3    around external object  68  so the signals can be properly received at external communications equipment  82  without subjecting external object  68  to excessive radio-frequency exposure), to map or model the environment around device  10  (e.g., to produce a software model of the room where device  10  is located for use by an augmented reality application, gaming application, map application, home design application, engineering application, etc.), to detect the presence of obstacles in the vicinity of (e.g., around) device  10  or in the direction of motion of the user of device  10 , etc. 
     While illustrated sequentially in the example of  FIG.  7    for the sake of clarity, operations  138 - 142  may be performed concurrently (e.g., in parallel). Because muted chirp signals chrip′ (e.g., as transmitted at operation  140 ) are muted at interference frequencies INF, the transmitted sensing signals sigsens will not interfere with the radio-frequency signals sigcom transmitted by communications circuitry  26  (e.g., as transmitted at operation  138 ). This may allow device  10  to accurately detect the presence, location, position, orientation, and/or velocity of external object  68  while concurrently performing radio-frequency communications with external communications equipment  82  at satisfactory levels of radio-frequency performance using the same set of N antennas  30  in wireless circuitry  24 . If desired, processing may loop from operation  144  back to operation  134  as shown by path  145  to update, change, or adjust the polarizations used for transmitting wireless communications data and sensing signals sigsens over time. 
       FIG.  8    is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in generating muted chirp signals chrip′ for transmission using the set of N antennas  30 . Operations  152 - 164  of  FIG.  8    may, for example, be performed by sensing circuitry  28  of  FIG.  4    while processing operation  140  of  FIG.  7   . 
     At operation  150 , communications circuitry  26  may transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals sigcom in one or more frequency bands. The frequency bands may span interference frequencies INF. When sensing operations are needed, processing may proceed to operation  152 . Processing may proceed to operation  152  periodically, in response to a user input, in response to an application call by a software application running on device  10 , or in response to any desired trigger condition. 
     At operation  152 , coexistence manager  110  of  FIG.  4    may identify (e.g., generate, determine, estimate, produce, etc.) interference frequencies INF based on the one or more frequency bands used by communications circuitry  26  to transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals. Coexistence manager  110  may provide control signal intfreq identifying interference frequencies INF to window controller  116 . 
     At operation  154 , sensing controller  86  may provide trigger signal trig to window controller  116 . Sensing controller  86  may also provide chirp configuration control signal chirp_config to window controller  116  and digital chirp generator  90 . 
     At operation  156 , digital chirp generator  90  may generate (e.g., synthesize, produce, output, etc.) chirp signals chirp (e.g., as shown by plot  124  of  FIG.  5   ) based on chirp configuration control signal chirp_config. Digital chirp generator  90  may provide the chirp signal to multiplier  94 . 
     At operation  158 , window controller  116  may generate (e.g., identify, produce, compute, calculate, determine, deduce, estimate, etc.) window timing for window signal win based on the interference frequencies INF identified by control signal intfreq, trigger signal trig, and/or chirp configuration control signal chirp_config. Window controller  116  may provide window configuration control signal win_config and trigger signal trig to window generator  120 . Window configuration control signal win_config may identify the window timing for window signal win. In other words, window controller  116  may convert interference frequencies INF into corresponding time periods P of  FIG.  5    (e.g., window controller  116  may identify time periods P) based on chirp configuration control signal chirp_config and trigger signal trig. 
     At operation  160 , window generator  120  may generate (e.g., produce, output, synthesize, etc.) window signal win (e.g., as shown by plot  126  of  FIG.  5   ) based on trigger signal trig and window configuration control signal win_config. Window generator  120  may provide window signal win to multiplier  94 . 
     At operation  162 , multiplier  94  may multiply chirp signals chirp with window signal win to generate (e.g., produce, compute, calculate, output, etc.) muted chirp signals chrip′ (e.g., as shown by plot  128  of  FIG.  5   ). Multiplier  94  may provide muted chirp signals chrip′ to DAC  98 . 
     At operation  164 , DAC  98  may convert muted chirp signals chrip′ to the analog domain. Mixer  100  may upconvert muted chirp signals chrip′ to radio frequencies, producing sensing signals sigsens. Sensing transmitter  76  may transmit sensing signals sigsens over transmit chain  60 . Sensing transmitter  76  may also route sensing signals sigsens to de-chirp mixer  106  over de-chirp path  104  for de-chirp mixing with reflected sensing signals sigsens′ to produce baseband signals sigbb. Control circuitry  14  may perform subsequent processing using baseband signals sigbb (e.g., at operation  144  of  FIG.  7   ). The example of  FIG.  8    is merely illustrative. Operations  150 ,  152 ,  154 ,  156 , and/or  158  may be performed concurrently if desired. 
     If desired, control circuitry  14  may intelligently decide when communications circuitry  26  can sacrifice a polarization on one of the antennas  30  in the set of N antennas  30  for use in performing sensing operations (e.g., to determine when and/or how to perform operations  134 - 136  of  FIG.  7    and operation  150  of  FIG.  8   ). Control circuitry  14  may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or  80  of  FIG.  3    to place wireless circuitry  24  in a selected one of at least three operating modes or states. 
     A state diagram  166  of illustrative operating modes (states) for wireless circuitry  24  is shown in  FIG.  9   . As shown in  FIG.  9   , control circuitry  14  may place wireless circuitry  24  (and thus device  10 ) into one of three different operating modes such as a first operating mode  168  (sometimes referred to herein as dual-polarization communications mode  168 ), a second operating mode  170  (sometimes referred to herein as single polarization communications mode  170 ), and a third operating mode  172  (sometimes referred to herein as sensing-only mode  172 ). 
     Control circuitry may place wireless circuitry  24  into a selected one of modes  168 - 172  while processing operations  134 - 136  of  FIG.  7   , for example. If desired, control circuitry  24  may determine which of operating modes  168 - 172  to use based on the type of wireless communications data being conveyed or to be conveyed by communications circuitry  26 . The type of wireless communications data being conveyed or to be conveyed by communications circuitry  26  may be determined by the communications protocol governing wireless communications by communications circuitry  26  (e.g., a 3GPP 5G NR FR2 protocol or other protocols) and/or by control signals or other commands transmitted to device  10  by external communications equipment  82  of  FIG.  3   , which is also be governed by the communications protocol. Control circuitry  14  may control switching circuitry  50  and/or  80  of  FIG.  3    to place wireless circuitry  24  into a selected one of modes  168 - 172  at a given time and to transition wireless circuitry  24  between modes  168 - 172  as needed. 
     When wireless circuitry  24  is in dual-polarization communications mode  168 , communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom over a set of one or more antennas  30  using both first and second polarizations (e.g., H and V polarizations). At the same time, sensing circuitry  28  is inactive (e.g., inactive on the set of one or more antennas  30 ). Control circuitry  14  may configure sensing circuitry  28  to be inactive by powering off sensing circuitry  28 , by providing control signals to switching circuitry on power supply or enable lines for sensing circuitry  28 , and/or by providing control signals to switching circuitry within sensing circuitry  28 . When sensing circuitry  28  is inactive, some or all of sensing circuitry  28  may be disabled (e.g., powered off) or sensing circuitry  28  may remain powered on but without transmitting sensing signals sigsens over transmit chains  60  (e.g., sensing circuitry  28  may forego transmission of sensing signals sigsens). Communications circuitry  26  may have maximum throughput in dual-polarization communications mode  168  because no polarizations are sacrificed for performing sensing operations. 
     When wireless circuitry  24  is in single polarization communications mode  170 , communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom over the set of one or more antennas  30  using only one of the first and second polarizations (e.g., using the H or V polarization). At the same time, sensing circuitry  28  may perform sensing operations using the set of one or more antennas  30  using the other of the first and second polarizations (e.g., using the V or H polarization). In other words, communications circuitry  26  may sacrifice a polarization for use during sensing operations. Performing communications using communications circuitry  26  and performing sensing operations using sensing circuitry  28  using respective polarizations may serve to prevent interference between the communications and sensing operations, for example. 
     For some communications protocols such as a 3GPP 5G NR FR2 protocol, the communications protocol may only allow certain types of wireless data or signals to be transmitted with just a single polarization. As examples, the protocol may allow single-polarization transmission when the transmitted radio-frequency signals include physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signals, random access channel (RACH) signals, sounding reference signals (SRS) (e.g., depending on usage and the gNB configuration of external communications circuitry  82  of  FIG.  3   ), or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signals (e.g., depending on the gNB configuration of external communications circuitry  82 ), but may require using both the first and second polarization for transmitting other types of signals (e.g., data and/or control signals). 
     A single-polarization configuration for SRS may be possible when combined with antenna switching usage and a time division duplex (TDD) mode, when combined with codebook-based uplink transmission usage, no channel reciprocity, and when device  10  has no MIMO capability or MIMO capability with the gNB configuring SRS with one port in radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration, when combined with non-codebook based uplink usage, channel reciprocity, and when the gNB asks device  10  to send SRS from one or two ports and then combines the results dynamically, or when combined with beam management usage, when beam correspondence is not supported, and when the gNB decides to use one port (e.g., depending if H and V beam shapes match), as examples. A single-polarization configuration for PUSCH may be possible with downlink channel information (DCI) format 0_0, when the number of codebook-based PUSCH transmission polarizations is determined by transmit precoding matrix index (TPMI) (based on associated SRS ports) from DCI 0_1 or RRC IE configuredGrantConfig, or when the number of non-codebook based PUSCH transmission polarizations is determined by SRS resource indicator (SRI) (based on associated SRS ports) from DCI 0_1 or RRC IE configuredGrantConfig, as examples. In general, simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmission is not allowed by the protocol, but different PUSCH can be transmitted on different carriers. In case one of the carriers uses two polarizations, PUSCH in all carriers use two polarizations. 
     When wireless circuitry  24  is in sensing-only mode  172 , communications circuitry  26  may be inactive. Control circuitry  14  may configure communications circuitry  26  to be inactive by powering off communications circuitry  26 , by providing control signals to switching circuitry on power supply or enable lines for communications circuitry  26 , and/or by providing control signals to switching circuitry within communications circuitry  26 . When communications circuitry  26  is inactive, some or all of communications circuitry  26  may be disabled (e.g., powered off) or communications circuitry  26  may remain powered on but without transmitting sensing signals sigsens over transmit chains  60  (e.g., communications circuitry  26  may forego transmission of radio-frequency signals). At the same time, sensing circuitry  28  may perform sensing using the set of one or more antennas and one or both of the first and second polarizations (e.g., switching circuitry  80  and  50  of  FIG.  3    may couple sensing circuitry  28  to one or both polarizations of one, more than one, or all of the antennas in the set of one or more antennas such as antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3   ). There may be no interference between communications circuitry  26  and sensing circuitry  28  in operating modes  168  and  172  because only one of communications circuitry  26  or sensing circuitry  28  is active at a given time in operating modes  168  and  172 . 
       FIG.  10    is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in adjusting wireless circuitry  24  between operating modes  168 - 172  over time. At operation  174 , control circuitry  14  may identify (determine) which polarizations are being used or are going to be used by communications circuitry  26  (if any) for a current time period. Control circuitry  14  may determine which polarizations are being used or are going to be used based on the communications protocol governing communications by communications circuitry  26 . For example, control circuitry  14  may determine that communications circuitry  26  will use only a single polarization (e.g., H or V) when communications circuitry  26  is or will transmit PUCCH signals, RACH signals, SRS signals (e.g., given an appropriate gNB configuration), or PUSCH signals (e.g., given an appropriate gNB configuration) during the current time period, and may determine that communications circuitry  26  will use both polarizations when communications circuitry  26  is or will transmit other signals. Control circuitry  14  may also identify when communications circuitry  26  is not or is not going to transmit using either polarization (e.g., when communications circuitry  26  is inactive or not assigned uplink transmission slots for the current time period by external communications equipment  82 ). Operation  174  may, for example, be performed prior to operation  134  of  FIG.  7    and/or during or prior to operation  150  of  FIG.  8   . 
     At operation  176 , control circuitry  14  may place wireless circuitry  24  into a selected one of dual-polarization communications mode  168 , single polarization communications mode  170 , and sensing-only mode  172  based on the identified polarizations that are being or will be used by control circuitry  14  during the current time period. For example, control circuitry  14  may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or  80  to place wireless circuitry  24  into dual-polarization mode  168  when communications circuitry  26  is or will transmit radio-frequency signals using both polarizations, may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or  80  to place wireless circuitry  24  into single polarization mode  170  when communications circuitry  26  is or will transmit radio-frequency signals using a single polarization, and may adjust switching circuitry  50  and/or  80  to place wireless circuitry  24  into sensing-only mode  172  when communications circuitry  26  is or will be inactive. Operation  176  may, for example, be performed while processing operations  134 - 136  of  FIG.  7    and/or prior to or during operation  150  of  FIG.  8   . 
     At operation  178 , communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom and/or sensing circuitry  28  may transmit sensing signals sigsens using the set of one or more antennas  30  according to the selected operating mode. For example, when wireless circuitry  24  is in dual-polarization communications mode  168 , communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom using both H and V polarizations. When wireless circuitry  24  is in single polarization communications mode  170 , communications circuitry  26  may transmit radio-frequency signals sigcom using one polarization (e.g., the H or V polarization) while sensing circuitry  28  transmits sensing signals sigsens using the other polarization (e.g., the V or H polarization). When wireless circuitry  24  is in sensing-only mode  172 , sensing circuitry  28  may transmit sensing signals sigsens using one or both polarizations while communications circuitry  26  is inactive. Operation  178  may, for example, be performed during operations  138 - 142  of  FIG.  7   . 
     At operation  180 , the time period may be incremented and processing may loop back to operation  174  via path  182 . This may allow control circuitry  14  to actively update the operating mode of wireless circuitry  14  based on the wireless data to be transmitted by communications circuitry  26  during each time period of a series (sequence) of time periods. In other words, control circuitry  14  may switch wireless circuitry  24  between the operating modes as needed over time. 
       FIG.  11    shows a table  184  that illustrates one example of how control circuitry  14  may adjust wireless circuitry  24  between operating modes over time depending on the polarizations required by communications circuitry  26  for transmission. In the example of  FIG.  11   , the one or more antennas of  FIGS.  9  and  10    include antennas  30 - 1 ,  30 - 2 ,  30 - 3 , and  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3   . 
     As shown by table  184  of  FIG.  11   , communications circuitry  26  may need to use antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  to transmit radio-frequency signals using a single polarization such as the H polarization during a first time period T 1 . Control circuitry  14  may therefore place wireless circuitry  24  into single polarization communications mode  170  (e.g., at operation  176  of  FIG.  10   ) during time period T 1 . This configures communications circuitry  26  to transmit horizontally-polarized radio-frequency signals using antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  (“H COMMS”) while sensing circuitry  28  concurrently transmits vertically-polarized sensing signals using antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  (“V SENSING”). Sensing circuitry  28  may receive the corresponding reflected sensing signals using one or more of antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  (e.g., using the V antenna feed for the antenna(s)). 
     During subsequent time periods T 2  and T 3  (e.g., during subsequent iterations of the operations of  FIG.  10   ), communications circuitry  26  may need to use antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  to transmit radio-frequency signals using both the H and V polarizations. Control circuitry  14  may therefore place wireless circuitry  24  into dual-polarization communications mode  168  during time periods T 2  and T 3 . This configures communications circuitry  26  to transmit horizontally-polarized and vertically-polarized radio-frequency signals using antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  (“H+V COMMS”) while sensing circuitry  28  is concurrently inactive (“NO SENSING”). 
       FIG.  12    shows a table  186  that illustrates another example of how control circuitry  14  may adjust wireless circuitry  24  between operating modes over time depending on the type of wireless signals to be transmitted by communications circuitry  26  (e.g., based on the communications protocol governing communications circuitry  26 ). 
     As shown by table  186  of  FIG.  12   , communications circuitry  26  may need to use antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  to transmit PUCCH, RACH, SRS, or PUSCH signals during time period T 1 . These signals may support transmission using only a single polarization such as the H polarization (e.g., under the 3GPP 5G NR FR2 protocol). Control circuitry  14  may therefore place wireless circuitry  24  into single polarization communications mode  170  during time period T 1 . This configures communications circuitry  26  to transmit horizontally-polarized radio-frequency signals (e.g., H-polarized PUCCH, RACH, SRS or PUSCH signals) using antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  while sensing circuitry  28  concurrently transmits vertically-polarized sensing signals using antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4 . The PUCCH signals may include control information such as a hybrid-automatic repeat request (HARD) acknowledgement (ACK) or scheduling request (SR), channel state information (CSI)-P 1 , and/or CSI-P 2  signals, as examples. 
     During subsequent time periods T 2  and T 3 , communications circuitry  26  may need to use antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  to transmit radio-frequency signals that include data and/or control information that requires use of both the H and V polarizations (e.g., according to the 3GPP 5G NR FR2 protocol). Such signals may include data and/or control information (e.g., data or control information and data) transferred on a PUSCH channel (e.g., when the gNB does not limit the configuration of PUSCH to one polarization). In general, data and/or control may need to be transferred using a PUSCH channel or, even for SRS, two polarizations may be needed to transfer control signals (e.g., without the gNB limiting the configuration to a single polarization). In other words, the channels used during time periods T 2  and T 3  may be PUSCH and/or SRS, but with two polarizations (e.g., rather than PUCCH and RACH which only use a single polarization under the protocol). Control circuitry  14  may therefore place wireless circuitry  24  into dual-polarization communications mode  168  during time periods T 2  and T 3 . This configures communications circuitry  26  to transmit horizontally-polarized and vertically-polarized radio-frequency signals (e.g., containing data and/or control information) using antennas  30 - 1  through  30 - 4  while sensing circuitry  28  is concurrently inactive. 
     The examples of  FIGS.  11  and  12    are merely illustrative. In general, control circuitry  14  may place wireless circuitry  24  into any of the operating modes during any of the time periods, there may be any number of time periods, the V and H polarizations shown in  FIGS.  11    and  12  may be swapped or replaced with any desired first and second polarizations, and operations need not be the same for each antenna  30  (e.g., the set of one or more antennas in  FIGS.  9  and  10    can include any desired number of antennas  30 ). 
     The example of  FIGS.  3 - 12    in which coexistence manager  110  ( FIG.  4   ) identifies the interference frequencies INF for generating muted chirp signals chrip′ based on information identifying frequencies handled by communications circuitry  26  is merely illustrative. Additionally or alternatively, muted chirp signals chrip′ may be generated to avoid any external interference in the air. To support this type of arrangement, sensing circuitry  28  may be provided with spectrum analyzer functionality to detect such potential over-the-air interference (e.g., interference frequencies) so muted chirp signals chrip′ can be generated to avoid the over-the-air interference. 
       FIG.  13    is a circuit block diagram showing one example of how sensing circuitry  28  may include circuitry for mitigating over-the-air interference. As shown in  FIG.  13   , sensing circuitry  28  may include root mean square (RMS) calculation circuitry  190 , interference thresholding circuitry  194 , and time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198 . RMS calculation circuitry  190  may sometimes be referred to herein as RMS calculator  190  or RMS calculation engine  190 . Interference thresholding circuitry  194  may sometimes be referred to herein as interference thresholder  194  or interference thresholding engine  194 . Time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  may sometimes be referred to herein as time-to-frequency converter  198  or time-to-frequency conversion engine  198 . RMS calculation circuitry  190 , interference thresholding circuitry  194 , and time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  may be implemented in software (e.g., running on storage circuitry and executed by one or more processors) and/or in hardware (e.g., using one or more digital logic gates, circuit components, diodes, transistors, switches, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), registers, application-specific integrated circuits, field-programmable gate arrays, one or more processors, look-up tables, etc.). 
     As shown in  FIG.  13   , receive chain  62  (e.g., the receive chain coupled to sensing receiver  78  of  FIG.  3   ) may include an ADC such as ADC  188 . ADC  188  may be the same ADC as ADC  108  of  FIG.  4    or may be a different ADC in receive chain  62 . ADC  188  may receive radio-frequency signals at input  189 . The radio-frequency signals may be received over-the-air by the antenna  30  coupled to receive chain  62  (e.g., antenna  30 - 4  of  FIG.  1   ). ADC  188  may convert the received radio-frequency signals to the digital domain. 
     RMS calculation circuitry  190  may have an input coupled to ADC  188  and may have an output coupled to interference thresholding circuitry  194  over control path  192 . RMS calculation circuitry  190  may generate (e.g., calculate, produce, compute, identify, etc.) the RMS of the received radio-frequency signals (in the digital domain) as a function of time. RMS calculation circuitry  190  may provide control signal rmst to interference thresholding circuitry  194  over control path  192 . Control signal rmst may identify the RMS of the received radio-frequency signals as a function of time. 
     Interference thresholding circuitry  194  may have an output coupled to time-to-frequency converter  198  over control path  196 . Interference thresholding circuitry  194  may identify interference times associated with when the RMS identified by control signal rmst should be considered as interference for sensing circuitry  28 . For example, interference thresholding circuitry  194  may compare the RMS identified by control signal rmst to one or more threshold values (e.g., where the RMS values that exceed the threshold values may be considered as interference for sensing circuitry  28 ). Interference thresholding circuitry  194  may provide control signal inttime to time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  over control path  196 . Control signal inttime may identify the detected interference in the radio-frequency signals as a function of time. 
     Time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  may have an additional input  199  that receives trigger signal trig and/or chirp configuration control signal chirp_config from sensing controller  86  ( FIG.  4   ). Time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  may convert the detected interference in the radio-frequency signals as a function of time into corresponding interference frequencies INF (e.g., based on the trigger signal trig and/or chirp configuration control signal chirp_config). Time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  may generate control signal intfreq that identifies interference frequencies INF. Time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  may provide control signal intfreq to window controller  116  ( FIG.  4   ) over control path  200 . Window controller  116  may use the control signal intfreq transmitted by time-to-frequency converter circuitry  198  instead of the control signal intfreq transmitted by coexistence manager  110  of FIG.  4  to generate muted chirp signals chrip′, if desired. Muted chirp signals chrip′ may thus be generated to actively mitigate any interference between sensing circuitry  28  and radio-frequency signals in the air around device  10 . 
       FIG.  14    is a flow chart of illustrative operations that may be performed by sensing circuitry  28  to generate control signal intfreq identifying potential over-the-air interference frequencies for use in generating muted chirp signals chrip′. 
     At operation  202 , receive chain  62  may receive radio-frequency signals from a corresponding antenna  30  (e.g., antenna  30 - 4  of  FIG.  3   ). 
     At operation  204 , ADC  188  may convert the received radio-frequency signals to the digital domain. ADC  188  may provide the converted radio-frequency signals to RMS calculation circuitry  190 . 
     At operation  206 , RMS calculation circuitry  190  may calculate the RMS of the digital-domain signals received from ADC  188 . RMS calculation circuitry  190  may provide control signal rmst identifying the RMS to interference thresholding circuitry  194 . 
     At operation  208 , interference thresholding circuitry  194  may process the RMS identified by control signal rmst to identify the interference time associated with when the RMS should be considered as interference (e.g., by comparing the RMS to one or more threshold values). Interference thresholding circuitry  194  may provide control signal inttime identifying detected interference as a function of time to time-to-frequency converter  198 . 
     At operation  210 , time-to-frequency converter  198  may convert the interference as a function of time identified by control signal inttime into corresponding interference frequencies INF. Time-to-frequency converter  198  may provide control signal intfreq to window controller  116  ( FIG.  4   ) that identify interference frequencies INF. Sensing circuitry  28  may then generate muted chirp signals chrip′ that have zero magnitude at interference frequencies INF, thereby mitigating interference between sensing circuitry  28  and the over-the-air signals. 
     The operations described herein may allow for simultaneous wireless communications using communications circuitry  26  and sensing operations using sensing circuitry  28  (e.g., using the same set of antennas  30 ) without producing excessive interference between the wireless communications and the sensing operations. Performing sensing at the same time as performing wireless communications may serve to maximize the sensing airtime. Maximizing sensing airtime may, for example, relax requirements for the receiver design and noise figure in communications circuitry  26 . Doubling sensing airtime may, for example, relax the noise figure requirement by as much as 3 dB. 
     Device  10  may gather and/or use personally identifiable information. It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users. 
     The methods and operations described above in connection with  FIGS.  1 - 14    (e.g., the operations of  FIGS.  7 - 12  and  14   ) may be performed by the components of device  10  using software, firmware, and/or hardware (e.g., dedicated circuitry or hardware). Software code for performing these operations may be stored on non-transitory computer readable storage media (e.g., tangible computer readable storage media) stored on one or more of the components of device  10  (e.g., storage circuitry  16  of  FIG.  1   ). The software code may sometimes be referred to as software, data, instructions, program instructions, or code. The non-transitory computer readable storage media may include drives, non-volatile memory such as non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM), removable flash drives or other removable media, other types of random-access memory, etc. Software stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage media may be executed by processing circuitry on one or more of the components of device  10  (e.g., processing circuitry  18  of  FIG.  1   , etc.). The processing circuitry may include microprocessors, central processing units (CPUs), application-specific integrated circuits with processing circuitry, or other processing circuitry. 
     The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can be made to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented individually or in any combination.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20210706
Publication Date: 20241231
Grant Date: 20241231
Priority Date: 20210706
Inventors: KERNER, Michael
DE ANGELIS, FLAVIO
KIRSHENBERG, GILAD
COHEN, MIK
RAINOV, ROMAN
SAMBHWANI, SHARAD
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04B7/10", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B1/69", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B2001/6912", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01Q21/065", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01Q21/245", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01Q21/245", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B2001/6912", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/10", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B1/69", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01Q21/065", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01Q21/245", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 84798063