Patent Application
20110197006
This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Serial No. 99103561, filed Feb. 5, 2010, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates in general to a detachable wireless communication module and a method for activating the same, and more particularly to a detachable short-range wireless communication module and a method for activating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a portable electronic device, such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a multimedia player or a positioning navigator product, is designed, the designer always has to re-configure the layout on the host circuitry, such as the motherboard of the host, in order to add a new hardware circuit so that the electronic device with the new communication function can be manufactured. For example, a third generation of mobile telephone having a short-range radio frequency module, such as a radio frequency identification module or a near-field communication module, is available in the current market to make the mobile circuit serve as the reader/writer for the radio frequency label or have various application functions for the near-field communication.
In order to add a new communication module, however, the conventional designer or foundry needs to re-design the host circuitry of the electronic device, such as the power supply of the circuit layout of the motherboard. Thus, the new hardware, such as the communication chip or module, can communicate and cooperate with other circuit elements of the electronic device on the motherboard, and the performance satisfying the requirements of the new communication function can be obtained and the user's requirements can be satisfied. Thus, the overall developing cost and time of the electronic device are significantly increased. From the point of view of the manufacturer, the conventional method lacks the flexibility and is disadvantageous to the customized production.
Embodiments of a detachable wireless communication module and a method for activating the same are provided. The wireless communication module has a communication interface detachably connected to an electronic device, and becomes a portion of a casing of the electronic device after being connected to the electronic device. The wireless communication module is embedded with a short-range radio frequency module, such as a radio frequency identification (RFID) module or a near-field communication (NFC) module. Thus, the detachable wireless communication module can bring the flexibility to the processes of designing and manufacturing the electronic device, can speed up the manufacturing process, and can increase the number of applications of the electronic device.
According to a first aspect, a detachable wireless communication module to be connected to a corresponding host connector of an electronic device is provided. The wireless communication module includes a housing, a radio frequency identification module and a module connector. The housing becomes a portion of a casing of the electronic device when the wireless communication module is detachably connected to the electronic device. The radio frequency identification module is embedded into the housing. The module connector is disposed on the housing and detachably connected to the host connector of the electronic device. The module connector includes a plurality of contacts used for communication between the radio frequency identification module and a host circuitry of the electronic device. When the wireless communication module is detachably connected to the electronic device, a first contact of the contacts is connected to a first contact of the host connector to make the first contact of the host connector have a predetermined signal level to indicate that the radio frequency identification module is embedded in the wireless communication module.
According to a second aspect, a detachable wireless communication module to be connected to a corresponding host connector of an electronic device is provided. The wireless communication module includes a housing, a near-field communication module and a module connector. The housing becomes a portion of a casing of the electronic device when the wireless communication module is detachably connected to the electronic device. The near-field communication module is embedded into the housing. The module connector is detachably connected to the host connector of the electronic device. The module connector includes a plurality of contacts used for communication between the near-field communication module and a host circuitry of the electronic device. When the wireless communication module is detachably connected to the electronic device, a first contact of the contacts is connected to a first contact of the host connector to make the first contact of the host connector have a signal level to indicate that the near-field communication module is embedded in the wireless communication module.
According to a third aspect, a method for activating a detachable wireless communication module adapted to an electronic device is provided. The wireless communication module includes a short-range radio frequency module and a module connector. The module connector is detachably connected to a host connector of the electronic device to make the wireless communication module become a portion of a casing of the electronic device. The method includes the following steps. A first voltage signal is provided at a first contact of the host connector. It is detected whether the first contact of the host connector is changed from a first level to a substantially predetermined signal level to determine whether the module connector of the detachable wireless communication module is connected to the host connector and has the short-range radio frequency module. If the first contact of the host connector is changed to the substantially predetermined signal level, it is determined whether a program, which tends to use the detachable wireless communication module, is launched. Then, if the program is launched, a first power signal is provided to the detachable wireless communication module through the host connector, and a communication procedure is performed on the short-range radio frequency module through the host connector to initialize the short-range radio frequency module. After the communication procedure passes, a host circuitry of the electronic device can communicate with the short-range radio frequency module through the host connector so as to use the short-range radio frequency module.
The disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
It is to be noted that, in the two embodiments, the short-range radio frequency module 123 of the detachable wireless communication module 120 and a short-range radio frequency module 223 of the detachable wireless communication module 220 can adopt a radio frequency identification (RFID) module or a near-field communication (NFC) module according to the functional requirement of the electronic device.
For the designing, manufacturing and product assembling of various electronic devices, such as the digital electronic products including a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a multimedia player and a positioning navigator, the above-mentioned embodiments can bring the significant convenience and simplify the complicated developing process. If the electronic device 100 is the mobile phone, it is necessary to produce a portion of models A adopting the RFID modules, and another portion of models B adopting the NFC modules. In this case, it is only necessary to produce the two batches of detachable wireless communication modules 120 with the embedded RFID modules and the embedded NFC modules, and to respectively assemble the two batches of detachable wireless communication modules 120 with the host device 110 of the model A and the host device 110 of the model B. Thus, the electronic device 100 of the model A with the RFID module and the electronic device 100 of the model B with the NFC module may be manufactured. When the electronic devices 200 with different styles are to be manufactured, the detachable wireless communication module 220 may also bring the convenience to the manufacturing process.
In order to make the short-range radio frequency module of the detachable wireless communication module communicate with the host circuitry of the host device and thus enable the short-range radio frequency module, the host connector 115 and the module connector 125 need to be compatible with the interface of the short-range radio frequency module, and it is further necessary to provide the mechanism of enabling the host device to identify whether the detachable wireless communication module has been inserted and whether the wireless communication module has a certain supported short-range radio frequency module. Regarding the latter, a corresponding contact is defined in each of the host connector 115 and the module connector 125 to provide the module identification mechanism according to an embodiment.
An example of a module identification mechanism will be described with reference to the contact P4. The host device 110 detects whether the detachable wireless communication module 120 has been connected or inserted through the contact P4. Thus, the contact P4 of the host connector 115, for example, is coupled to a host voltage VHOST, such as a high level voltage 3.3V, through a voltage dividing element Rpu, such as a resistor, and the contact P4 of the module connector 125 is coupled to the low level potential, such as the ground potential, through a voltage dividing element Rpd, such as a resistor. After the host connector 115 and the module connector 125 are connected, the host voltage VHOST is divided by the voltage dividing elements Rpu and Rpd, the contact P4 of the host connector 115 has the divided voltage lower than the host voltage VHOST. For the sake of recognition, this divided voltage may be designed to be lower than the low potential range (lower than 0.6V), which may be detected by the host.
When the host device 110 detects that the voltage of the contact P4 has the high level, it is determined that the wireless communication module 120 is not inserted or cannot be used. When the voltage of the contact P4 detected by the host device 110 has the low level (e.g., lower than 0.6V), it is determined that the detachable wireless communication module 120 has been inserted.
In order to further identify the existence of the short-range radio frequency module in the detachable wireless communication module 120, it is possible to further define different resistance values of the voltage dividing element Rpd of the module connector 125 to generate the mechanism of recognizing the existence of the short-range radio frequency module in the wireless communication module 120 in one embodiment. For example, when the wireless communication module 120 is embedded with the RFID module, the voltage dividing element Rpd is defined as a resistor having X ohms (+/−1%). In addition, when the wireless communication module 120 is embedded with the NFC module, the voltage dividing element Rpd is defined as a resistor having Y ohms (+/−1%), wherein X and Y have different values so that the contact P4 has different potentials. In the electronic device 100 of the model A with the RFID module and the electronic device 100 of the model B with the NFC module, the above-mentioned method may be adopted to the implementation, or may be expanded so that it can be applied to recognize more modules. In other application conditions, of course, it is sufficient to recognize whether the contact P4 has a substantially predetermined signal level if it is only needed to recognize whether the wireless communication module 120 is inserted.
In addition to the module recognition mechanism, the communication interface for communicating the short-range radio frequency module of the detachable wireless communication module with the host circuitry of the host device will be described in the example of
As shown in
In Table 1, the definition of input or output is made based on the angle of the host device. In addition, the contacts P1 to P6 are sufficient to provide the communication with the RFID module. The contacts P7 to P9 provide the communication with the NFC module. Because the NFC specification is compatible with the RFID-based contactless communication specification, the NFC and RFID specifications have compatible portions. So, when the host device communicates with the NFC module, the contacts P1 to P9 have to be used. The function of each contact is described in the following. The contact P1 is a power supply terminal used to let the host device supply the digital power to the module (i.e., the communication module). The contact P2 is used for the module to output the interrupt request signal to the host device, wherein the low level represents the enabled state, for example. The contact P3 is a ground terminal, which is to be grounded. The contact P4 is defined to let the host device output the interrupt request signal to the module, wherein the high level represents the enabled state, for example. The contacts P5 and P6 are used for the universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART). For example, the UART receiving end (RX: receiver) of the host device 110 is connected to the UART transmitting end (TX: transmitter) of the module through the contact P5, and the UART transmitting end of the host device 110 is connected to the UART receiving end of the module through the contact P6. The contact P7 is a power supply terminal used to let the subscriber identify module (SIM) of the host device provide the power to the communication module. The contact P8 is a power supply terminal used to receive the power outputted from the communication module to the SIM of the host device. The contact P9 is used to serve as the data link for the SWP of NFC. In addition, the functions of the contacts are defined in order to satisfy the communication interfaces defined by the RFID and NFC specifications, and may be designed according to the associated specification in practice to satisfy the circuit requirements. For example, the contact P1 of the host device 110 can provide the power with the voltage of about 3.3V and the maximum output current of 300 mA when the short-range radio frequency module needs to be enabled.
In the above-mentioned embodiment, the contact P4 of the contacts P1 to P9 is further used to implement the above-mentioned module recognition mechanism. Thus, the contact P4 serves as the input terminal of the host device 110 when the host device 110 is connected to or inserted into the wireless communication module 120. Correspondingly, the contact P4 of the module connector 125, when being connected to or inserted into the contact P4 of the host connector 115, has to drop the potential of the contact P4 to a low level. For example, as shown in
In addition, in some embodiments, the module recognition mechanism using the contact P4 may be modified into another module recognition mechanism using another suitable contact, or another dedicated contact may be adopted. For example, an additional contact P10 may be further defined without the use of the contact P4 having the composite input and output functions.
The number, the arrangement and the definitions of the contacts in the above-mentioned embodiment are only made for the sake of illustration, so another aspect may be adopted for the implementation. For example, in other applications, if it is only necessary to recognize whether the wireless communication module 120 with the embedded RFID module is inserted, it is sufficient to recognize whether the contact P4 has a substantially predetermined signal level, and to define only the contacts P1 to P6.
Altogether, the module connector 125 of the detachable wireless communication module 120 or 220 having the design of making the host device 110 perform the module detection can be regarded as being capable of implementing the embodiment.
In
In
In addition, in other embodiments, if the wireless communication module 120 is removed or detached in the steps S540 to S560 (i.e., it is detected that the wireless communication module is detached in the block S590), as shown in
In the above-mentioned embodiment, the wireless communication module 120 is embedded with the short-range radio frequency module, which is the RFID module or the NFC module serving as an example. Thus, after the host device 110 is connected to the detachable wireless communication module 120, the function of the host device 110 can be increased.
For example, when the wireless communication module 120 according to the embodiment is embedded with the RFID module (reader or writer module) and after the host device 110 is connected to the wireless communication module 120, the electronic device 100 can read or write the data of the RFID level on the external object. The RFID label application mainly focuses on the filed of the supply material flow, and may extend to other field of the daily life, such as electronic bill or an electronic key.
For example, when the wireless communication module 120 according to the embodiment is embedded with the NFC module and after the host device 110 is connected to the wireless communication module 120, the electronic device 100 can enable the apparatus to perform the non-contact peer-to-peer communication, read/write the non-contact card, and simulate the non-contact card in conjunction with the safety chip by way of NFC. At present, the ISO standards for the interface and the communication protocol relating to the NFC have been established. The NFC apparatus may serve as a non-contact smart card, a reader/writer terminal of a smart card and an apparatus-to-apparatus data transmission link. Thus, there are many application types, such as the entrance security control or traffic/activity ticket checking, in which the user only needs to move the apparatus, which stores the ticket or entrance guard program codes, to approach the reader. It is also adapted to the simple data capturing application, such as the application of reading the web address from the intelligent label on the poster. Regarding the application of the mobile payment, the user has to input the password to verify the transaction, or only accept the transaction. In addition, the NFC further has the following peer-to-peer data transmission function. Two apparatuses (e.g., two electronic devices 100) supporting the NFC are connected together to perform the peer-to-peer network data transmission, such as music downloading, image exchanging, synchronous processing of the address book or the like. In addition, the NFC apparatus can provide more than one functions, and the consumer can explore the apparatus functions to find the latent functions and services of the NFC apparatus.
The above embodiments disclose a detachable wireless communication module and an activating method thereof. The detachable wireless communication module brings the flexibility in designing and manufacturing the electronic device, adds more application functions to the electronic device, and can lower the overall cost.
While the disclosure has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99103561 | Feb 2010 | TW | national |
