Systems and methods herein generally relate to wireless communication systems and more particularly to proper coupling of devices using different sized antennas.
Wireless communication systems are used in many fields. For example, a replaceable unit monitor (RUM), such as a customer replaceable unit monitor/memory (CRUM) or an engineer replaceable unit monitor/memory (ERUM), is used to monitor the status of a replaceable unit (RU), such as a toner cartridge, or the like. A CRUM reader can access a CRUM and obtain information regarding the status of a customer replaceable unit (CRU) using wireless communications. A CRUM reader system may include a host processor and a coupler board that interfaces between the host processor and a CRUM using a wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. Also, radio frequency identification technology provides mechanisms for validation of data integrity during data exchanges, such as cyclic redundancy check (CRC) values, between a coupler board and a tag.
Exemplary systems herein include (among other components) a transponder having a transponder antenna, a transceiver positioned a first distance from the transponder, and an intermediate structure positioned a second distance from the transponder (where the first distance is greater than the second distance). The transceiver has a transceiver antenna, and the intermediate structure has an intermediate antenna (and a capacitor). The transponder antenna is a first size antenna (smallest), the intermediate antenna is a second size antenna (bigger), and the transceiver antenna is a third size antenna (biggest). Thus, the antennas increase in size from the first to the third, with the third antenna being the largest.
The intermediate structure can include a flexible surface (that is connected to the intermediate antenna and the capacitor) that can potentially be self-adhesive (can include a self-adhesive material on at least one side of the flexible surface). The intermediate structure focuses field lines between the transceiver antenna and the transponder antenna that the transponder antenna is otherwise incapable of fully receiving from the transceiver antenna. More specifically, the transceiver antenna generates original field lines, the intermediate antenna focuses the original field lines, and the transponder antenna disturbs the focused original field lines to produce a response to the transceiver antenna.
Because of the different antenna sizes and the different spacing of the different devices, the transponder antenna receives more of the focused field lines from the intermediate antenna relative to the number of original field lines received from the transceiver antenna. To the contrary, the size of the intermediate antenna allows the intermediate antenna to receive more of the original field lines from the transceiver antenna relative to the number of original field lines the transponder antenna receives. This causes the intermediate antenna to transfer the voltage of the original field lines received from the transceiver antenna to the transponder antenna when the intermediate antenna focuses the field lines.
Additionally, the intermediate structure can include a capacitor connected to the intermediate antenna. The transceiver is a powered device connected to a continuous power supply, while the intermediate structure is a passive device powered by field lines received by the intermediate antenna, and the transponder is similarly a passive device powered by field lines received by the transponder antenna. The intermediate antenna builds voltage from the field lines received by the intermediate antenna from the transceiver antenna, and transfers the voltage to the transponder antenna.
Other devices herein include a printing device having, among other components, a printing engine, a controller directly or indirectly connected to the printing engine, and a coupling board directly or indirectly connected to the controller. The coupling board has a transceiver that has a transceiver antenna. Also, a replaceable unit is connected to the printing engine. The replaceable unit includes a transponder that has a transponder antenna, and the transceiver is positioned a first distance from the transponder.
An intermediate structure is directly or indirectly connected to the exterior of the replaceable unit and is positioned a second distance from the transponder. The first distance is greater than the second distance. Also the intermediate structure contains an intermediate antenna with a connected capacitor. Furthermore, the intermediate structure can include a potentially self-adhesive flexible surface connected to the intermediate antenna and the capacitor (that can have a self-adhesive material on at least one side of the flexible surface (e.g., a sticker). The self-adhesive flexible surface can be used to adhere the intermediate structure to the exterior of the replaceable unit, for example.
The intermediate structure focuses field lines between the transceiver antenna and the transponder antenna that the transponder antenna is otherwise incapable of fully receiving from the transceiver antenna. More specifically, the transceiver antenna generates original field lines, the intermediate antenna focuses the original field lines, and the transponder antenna disturbs the focused original field lines to produce a response to the transceiver antenna.
These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.
Various exemplary systems and methods are described in detail below, with reference to the attached drawing figures, in which:
As noted above, a customer replaceable unit monitor/memory (CRUM) can be used to monitor the status of a replaceable unit (RU) within a printing device, such as a toner cartridge, or the like. A CRUM reader can access a CRUM and obtain information regarding the status of a customer replaceable unit (CRU) using wireless communications. A CRUM reader system may include a host processor and a coupler board that interfaces between the host processor and a CRUM using a wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.
Systems herein provide an intermediate coil (structure) and capacitor that help a RF (Radio Frequency) tag with a smaller footprint gather energy from a larger area. By having the tag close to the intermediate coil, the tag can be very strongly coupled to the coil. This permits more energy to be gathered by the intermediate coil to provide the tag with an effective larger surface area to allow the tag to interact with the magnetic field produced by the coupler board.
While the small tag can communicate with the larger coupler board, the communications are successfully conducted when the distance between a large coupler board and a small tag is a small distance (e.g., less than 10 mm, 5 mm, 1 mm, etc.). However, many structures position the tag a greater distance from the coupler board (e.g., more than 20 mm, 40 mm, 100 mm, etc.). At such greater distances, the larger footprint of the coupler board's antenna makes it difficult to couple with the smaller footprint of the tag. Therefore, the intermediate coil herein (the LC (inductor capacitor) circuit) effectively gathers the required energy needed for the tag to communicate with the coupler board. When this intermediate LC circuit is introduced near a small tag, the larger coupler board is able to communicate with the small tag at greater distances.
One or more capacitors are included with the intermediate coil so that a voltage builds across the intermediate coil and transfers the voltage to the smaller tag. This system also works in reverse, whereby the tag will then couple its response onto the intermediate coil, which then is transmitted more effectively to the coupler board.
The intermediate coil can be mounted on a self-adhesive, flexible substrate with a parallel capacitor. The self-adhesive “label” intermediate coil can be directly applied to the smaller CRUM footprint to improve communication performance relative to a standard of a larger tag.
In addition to the intermediate coil building voltage and transferring the voltage to the smaller tag, the intermediate coil also compensates for mismatched aspect ratios between the antenna of the tag and the antenna of the coupler board. Field lines in a magnetic coupler are how the passive RFID of the tag and the active transceiver of coupler board communicate. These field lines bend outward (as seen in the
Thus, in addition to the intermediate coil building voltage and transferring the voltage to the smaller tag (e.g., focusing energy to the tag in a similar way a lens focuses light), the intermediate coil also helps mitigate the negative effects of mismatched aspect ratios of the field lines. Effectively, the intermediate coil acts as a bridge between the large coupler coil and the small RFID tag.
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The intermediate structure 110 can include a flexible surface 118, shown in
Note that the intermediate structure 110 may not include any logic circuitry, but instead can be limited to only consisting of the flexible circuit board 118, the intermediate antenna 114, and the capacitor 112 (and the optionally a self-adhesive material). With such a limited number of components, such versions of the intermediate structure 110 are less expensive to manufacture, lighter, use less materials, are more environmentally friendly, etc. Further, the lack of logic circuitry in the passive intermediate structure 110 distinguishes the intermediate structure 110 from the powered transceiver 100 and the passive transponder 120, both of which include logic circuitry that allows the transceiver 100 and the transponder 120 to wirelessly communicate data information between each other.
The intermediate structure 110 focuses the magnetic field lines between the transceiver antenna 104 and the transponder antenna 124 that the transponder antenna 124 is otherwise incapable of fully receiving from the transceiver antenna 104 because the smaller size of the transponder antenna 124 prevents the transponder antenna 124 from inductively receiving voltage from the larger magnetic fields lines generated by the transceiver antenna 104. More specifically, the transponder antenna 124 disturbs the focused magnetic field lines to produce disturbed magnetic field lines 126.
Because of the different antenna sizes and the different distance spacing of the different devices, the transponder antenna 124 receives more of the focused magnetic field lines 116 from the intermediate antenna 114 relative to the number of original magnetic field lines 106 received from the transceiver antenna 104. To the contrary, the size of the intermediate antenna 114 allows the intermediate antenna 114 to receive more of the original magnetic field lines 106 from the transceiver antenna 104 relative to the number of original magnetic field lines 106 the transponder antenna 124 receives. This causes the intermediate antenna 114 to inductively transfer the voltage (power) of the original magnetic field lines 106 received from the transceiver antenna 104 to the transponder antenna 124 when the intermediate antenna 114 provides the focused magnetic field lines 116 using the voltage from the original magnetic field lines 106. The voltage inductively transferred from the intermediate antenna 114 to the transponder antenna 124 is further aided by the capacitor 112 of the intermediate structure 110 because the capacitor 112 stores or accumulates the voltage (power) that is received from the transceiver 100 to allow more voltage to be inductively transferred to the transponder 120.
In even greater detail, the transponder antenna 124 comprises a first planar coil of one or more non-intersecting first wires. The intermediate antenna 114 comprises a second planar coil of one or more non-intersecting second wires. The transceiver antenna 104 comprises a third planar coil of one or more non-intersecting third wires.
Additionally, the intermediate structure 110 can include a capacitor 112 connected to the intermediate antenna 114. As noted above, the capacitor 112 stores or accumulates the voltage (power) that is received from the transceiver 100 to allow more voltage to be inductively transferred to the transponder 120. The transceiver 100 is a powered device connected to a continuous power supply, while the intermediate structure 110 is a passive device powered by magnetic field lines received by the intermediate antenna 114, and the transponder 120 is similarly a passive device powered by magnetic field lines received by the transponder antenna 124. The intermediate antenna 114 builds voltage from the magnetic field lines received by the intermediate antenna 114 from the transceiver antenna 104, and inductively transfers the voltage to the transponder antenna 124.
Additionally, while the intermediate structure 110 is useful in focusing field lines from the transceiver 100 to transfer such voltage to the transponder 120, the intermediate structure 110 also acts as a intermediate data transfer structure (e.g., a repeater) because the magnetic field lines operate at a specific frequency and contain data. Thus, the transceiver 100 includes data within the original magnetic field lines 106, and such data is received by the intermediate structure 110 and repeated in the focused magnetic field lines 116 that are focused by the intermediate structure 110 and received by the transponder 120. The transponder 120 processes the received data, using the logic within the circuitry 122, and provides a response if necessary by disturbing the original magnetic fields lines (shown as disturbed magnetic field lines 126 that contain altered data). The intermediate structure 110 receives the altered data within the disturbed magnetic field lines 126 that were disturbed by the transponder 120. The transceiver 100 then evaluates the altered data of the disturbed magnetic field lines 126 for various purposes, such as authentication, data capture, etc.
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For a passive device such as an RFID to function properly it should be in the presence of a strong magnetic flux. In general, as shown in the
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The input/output device 214 is used for communications to and from the computerized device 200 and comprises a wired device or wireless device (of any form, whether currently known or developed in the future). The tangible processor 216 controls the various actions of the computerized device. A non-transitory, tangible, computer storage medium device 210 (which can be optical, magnetic, capacitor 112 based, etc., and is different from a transitory signal) is readable by the tangible processor 216 and stores instructions that the tangible processor 216 executes to allow the computerized device to perform its various functions, such as those described herein. Thus, as shown in
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The one or more printing engines 240 are intended to illustrate any marking device that applies a marking material (toner, inks, etc.) to continuous media or sheets of media, whether currently known or developed in the future and can include, for example, devices that use a photoreceptor belt or an intermediate transfer belt, or devices that print directly to print media (e.g., inkjet printers, ribbon-based contact printers, etc.).
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Thus, other devices herein include a printing device 204 having, among other components, a printing engine 240, a controller 224 directly or indirectly connected to the printing engine 240, and a coupling board 130 directly or indirectly connected to the controller 224. The coupling board 130 has a transceiver 100 that has a transceiver antenna 104. Also, a replaceable unit 140 is connected to the printing engine 240. The replaceable unit 140 includes a transponder 120 that has a transponder antenna 124, and the transceiver 100 is positioned a first distance from the transponder 120.
An intermediate structure 110 is directly or indirectly connected to the exterior of the replaceable unit 140 and is positioned a second distance from the transponder 120. The first distance is greater than the second distance. Also, the intermediate structure 110 contains an intermediate antenna 114 with a connected capacitor 112. Furthermore, the intermediate structure 110 can include a potentially self-adhesive flexible surface 118 connected to the intermediate antenna 114 and the capacitor 112 (that can have a self-adhesive material on at least one side of the flexible surface 118 (e.g., a sticker)). The self-adhesive flexible surface 118 can be used to adhere the intermediate structure 110 to the exterior of the replaceable unit 140, for example.
The intermediate structure 110 focuses the magnetic field lines between the transceiver antenna 104 and the transponder antenna 124 that the transponder antenna 124 is otherwise incapable of fully receiving from the transceiver antenna 104. More specifically, the transponder antenna 124 disturbs the focused magnetic field lines to produce disturbed magnetic field lines 126, the intermediate antenna 114 generates focused magnetic field lines 116, and the transceiver antenna 104 generates original magnetic field lines 106.
Because of the different antenna sizes and the different spacing of the different devices, the transponder antenna 124 receives more of the focused magnetic field lines 116 from the intermediate antenna 114 relative to the number of original magnetic field lines 106 received from the transceiver antenna 104. To the contrary, the size of the intermediate antenna 114 allows the intermediate antenna 114 to receive more of the original magnetic field lines 106 from the transceiver antenna 104 relative to the number of original magnetic field lines 106 the transponder antenna 124 receives. This causes the intermediate antenna 114 to transfer the voltage of the original magnetic field lines 106 received from the transceiver antenna 104 to the transponder antenna 124 when the intermediate antenna 114 produces the focused magnetic field lines 116 using the voltage from the original magnetic field lines 106.
Additionally, the intermediate structure 110 can include a capacitor 112 connected to the intermediate antenna 114. The transceiver 100 is a powered device connected to a continuous power supply 134, while the intermediate structure 110 is a passive device powered by magnetic field lines received by the intermediate antenna 114, and the transponder 120 is similarly a passive device powered by magnetic field lines received by the transponder antenna 124. The intermediate antenna 114 builds voltage from the magnetic field lines received by the intermediate antenna 114 from the transceiver antenna 104, and transfers the voltage to the transponder antenna 124.
In the structures herein, the antennas can be of any shape and size.
While some exemplary structures are illustrated in the attached drawings, those ordinarily skilled in the art would understand that the drawings are simplified schematic illustrations and that the claims presented below encompass many more features that are not illustrated (or potentially many less) but that are commonly utilized with such devices and systems. Therefore, Applicants do not intend for the claims presented below to be limited by the attached drawings, but instead the attached drawings are merely provided to illustrate a few ways in which the claimed features can be implemented.
Many computerized devices are discussed above. Computerized devices that include chip-based central processing units (CPU's), input/output devices (including graphic user interfaces (GUI), memories, comparators, tangible processors, etc.) are well-known and readily available devices produced by manufacturers such as Dell Computers, Round Rock Tex., USA and Apple Computer Co., Cupertino Calif., USA. Such computerized devices commonly include input/output devices, power supplies, tangible processors, electronic storage memories, wiring, etc., the details of which are omitted herefrom to allow the reader to focus on the salient aspects of the systems and methods described herein. Similarly, printers, copiers, scanners and other similar peripheral equipment are available from Xerox Corporation, Norwalk, Conn., USA and the details of such devices are not discussed herein for purposes of brevity and reader focus.
The terms printer or printing device as used herein encompasses any apparatus, such as a digital copier, bookmaking machine, facsimile machine, multi-function machine, etc., which performs a print outputting function for any purpose. The details of printers, printing engines, etc., are well-known and are not described in detail herein to keep this disclosure focused on the salient features presented. The systems and methods herein can encompass systems and methods that print in color, monochrome, or handle color or monochrome image data. All foregoing systems and methods are specifically applicable to electrostatographic and/or xerographic machines and/or processes.
In addition, terms such as “right”, “left”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “upper”, “lower”, “under”, “below”, “underlying”, “over”, “overlying”, “parallel”, “perpendicular”, etc., may be used herein and are understood to be relative locations as they are oriented and illustrated in the drawings (unless otherwise indicated). Terms such as “touching”, “on”, “in direct contact”, “abutting”, “directly adjacent to”, etc., mean that at least one element physically contacts another element (without other elements separating the described elements). Further, the terms automated or automatically mean that once a process is started (by a machine or a user), one or more machines perform the process without further input from any user.
It will be appreciated that the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims. Unless specifically defined in a specific claim itself, steps or components of the systems and methods herein cannot be implied or imported from any above example as limitations to any particular order, number, position, size, shape, angle, color, or material.