Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the present application are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57.
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of wearable devices and, more particularly, to antenna configurations for wearable devices having mm-wave functionality and methods for maintaining wireless connectivity.
Wearable devices often include wireless communication functionality. For example, wearable devices may contain antennae and wireless transceivers for supporting wireless communications. Some wireless communications technologies, such as millimeter-wave communications involve communications at high frequencies. Wireless communications at such high frequencies makes the placement of antennae increasingly important, particularly in compact wearable devices.
According to one embodiment there is provided a wearable device, comprising a body portion including a frontend system, one or more sensors, and a beam management circuit, an external portion connected to the body portion, the external portion including a first antenna array having one or more first antenna elements; the frontend system being electrically connected to the first antenna array and operable to condition a plurality of radio frequency signals each communicated by a corresponding first subset of the one or more first antenna elements of the first antenna array to thereby form a beam, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 6 GHz and 300 GHz, the one or more sensors being configured to generate sensor data; and the beam management circuit for managing the beam, the beam management circuit being configured to control the frontend system to manage the beam based on sensor data generated by the one or more sensors.
In one example the external portion is a strap for securing the wearable device to a user.
In one example the external portion includes a plurality of antennas arranged along the length of the external portion.
In one example the first antenna includes a plurality of first antenna elements and extends along at least 75% the length of the external portion.
In one example the management of the beam includes adjusting an angle of the beam.
In one example the external portion further comprises a second antenna array including one or more second antenna elements.
In one example the management of the beam includes switching transmission from the first antenna array to the second antenna array.
In one example the first antenna array includes a plurality of first antenna elements, and the management of the beam includes switching transmission to a second subset of the one or more first antenna elements of the first antenna array.
In one example the beam management circuit is configured to adjust the angle of the beam based on the generated sensor data to maintain the beam pointed at an external device.
In one example the external device is a base station.
In one example the one or more sensors comprise a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor.
In one example the GPS sensor comprises an L1 and L5 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) module.
In one example the one or more sensors comprise an accelerometer.
In one example the one or more sensors comprise an ultra-wideband positioning system.
In one example the wearable device is a wristwatch.
In one example the wearable device is a pair of smart glasses, the external portion comprising a pair of side arms.
In one example the wearable device includes a plurality of antennas arranged along the length of one or each of the side arms.
In one example the first antenna includes a plurality of first antenna elements and extends along at least 75% of the length of one the side arms.
In one example the beam is a transmit beam.
In one example the beam is a receive beam.
According to a another embodiment there is provided a method of beam management in a wearable device, the wearable device comprising a body portion including a frontend system, one or more sensors, and a beam management circuit; and an external portion connected to the body portion, the external portion including a first antenna array having one or more first antenna elements, the method comprising conditioning, via the frontend system, a plurality of radio-frequency signals using a frontend system, communicating each of the plurality of radio-frequency signals by a corresponding first subset of one or more first antenna elements of a first antenna array to form a beam, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 6 GHz and 300 GHz, and controlling, via the beam management circuit, the frontend system to manage the beam based on sensor data generated by one or more sensors.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to adjust an angle of the beam.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to switch transmission from the first antenna array to a second antenna array.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to switch transmission to a second subset of the first antenna elements of the first antenna array.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to adjust the angle of the beam based on sensor data to maintain the beam pointed at an external device.
According to another embodiment there is provided a wearable device comprising a body portion including a frontend system, one or more sensors, a beam management circuit, and a body antenna, an external portion connected to the body portion, the external portion including a first antenna array having one or more first antenna elements, the frontend system being electrically connected to the first antenna array and operable to condition a plurality of radio frequency signals each communicated by a corresponding first subset of the one or more first antenna elements of the first antenna array to thereby form a beam, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 6 GHz and 300 GHz, the one or more sensors being configured to generate sensor data; and the beam management circuit for managing the beam, the beam management circuit being configured to control the frontend system to manage the beam based on sensor data generated by the one or more sensors.
In one example the body antenna is configured to communicate radio-frequency signals, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency below 6 GHz.
According to another embodiment there is provided a wearable device, comprising a body portion including a frontend system, one or more sensors, and a beam management circuit, an external portion connected to the body portion, the external portion including a first antenna array having one or more first antenna elements, the frontend system being electrically connected to the first antenna array and operable to condition a plurality of radio frequency signals each communicated by a corresponding first subset of the one or more first antenna elements of the first antenna array to thereby form a beam, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 6 GHz and 300 GHz, the one or more sensors being configured to generate sensor data, and the beam management circuit being for managing the beam, the beam management circuit being configured to control the frontend system to manage the beam based on one or more signals received via the first antenna array.
In one example the external portion is a strap for securing the wearable device to a user.
In one example the external portion includes a plurality of antennas arranged along the length of the external portion.
In one example the first antenna includes a plurality of first antenna elements and extends along at least 75% the length of the external portion.
In one example the management of the beam includes adjusting an angle of the beam.
In one example the external portion further comprises a second antenna array including one or more second antenna elements.
In one example the management of the beam includes switching transmission from the first antenna array to the second antenna array.
In one example the first antenna array includes a plurality of first antenna elements, and the management of the beam includes switching transmission to a second subset of the one or more first antenna elements of the first antenna array.
In one example the beam management circuit is configured to adjust the angle of the beam based on the one or more received signals maintain the beam pointed at an external device.
In one example the external device is a base station.
In one example the one or more sensors comprise a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor.
In one example the GPS sensor comprises an L1 and L5 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) module.
In one example the one or more sensors comprise an accelerometer.
In one example the one or more sensors comprise an ultra-wideband positioning system.
In one example the wearable device is a wristwatch.
In one example the wearable device is a pair of smart glasses, the external portion comprising a pair of side arms.
In one example the wearable device includes a plurality of antennas arranged along the length of one or each of the side arms.
In one example the first antenna includes a plurality of first antenna elements and extends along at least 75% of the length of one the side arms.
In one example the beam is a transmit beam.
In one example the beam is a receive beam.
According to another embodiment there is provided a method of beam management in a wearable device, the wearable device comprising a body portion including a frontend system, one or more sensors, and a beam management circuit; and an external portion connected to the body portion, the external portion including a first antenna array having one or more first antenna elements, the method comprising conditioning, via the frontend system, a plurality of radio-frequency signals using a frontend system, communicating each of the plurality of radio-frequency signals by a corresponding first subset of one or more first antenna elements of a first antenna array to form a beam, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 6 GHz and 300 GHz, controlling, via the beam management circuit, the frontend system to manage the beam based on one or more signals received by the first antenna array.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to adjust an angle of the beam.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to switch transmission from the first antenna array to a second antenna array.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to switch transmission to a second subset of the first antenna elements of the first antenna array.
In one example controlling the frontend system includes controlling the frontend system to adjust the angle of the beam based on the one or more received signals to maintain the beam pointed at an external device.
According to another embodiment there is provided a wearable device comprising a body portion including a frontend system, one or more sensors, a beam management circuit, and a body antenna, an external portion connected to the body portion, the external portion including a first antenna array having one or more first antenna elements, the frontend system being electrically connected to the first antenna array and operable to condition a plurality of radio frequency signals each communicated by a corresponding first subset of the one or more first antenna elements of the first antenna array to thereby form a beam, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 6 GHz and 300 GHz, the one or more sensors being configured to generate sensor data; and the beam management circuit for managing the beam, the beam management circuit being configured to control the frontend system to manage the beam based on one or more signals received by the first antenna array.
In one example the body antenna is configured to communicate radio-frequency signals, the radio-frequency signals having a frequency below 6 GHz.
Still other aspects, embodiments, and advantages of these exemplary aspects and embodiments are discussed in detail below. Embodiments disclosed herein may be combined with other embodiments in any manner consistent with at least one of the principles disclosed herein, and references to “an embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “an alternate embodiment,” “various embodiments,” “one embodiment” or the like are not necessarily mutually exclusive and are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described may be included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of such terms herein are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Various aspects of at least one embodiment are discussed below with reference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to be drawn to scale. The figures are included to provide illustration and a further understanding of the various aspects and embodiments, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. In the figures, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every figure. In the figures:
It is to be appreciated that embodiments of the methods and apparatuses discussed herein are not limited in application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The methods and apparatuses are capable of implementation in other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Examples of specific implementations are provided herein for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use herein of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and variations thereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. References to “or” may be construed as inclusive so that any terms described using “or” may indicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) responsible for global issues concerning information and communication technologies, including the shared global use of radio spectrum.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications standard bodies across the world, such as the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), the Telecommunications Technology Committee (TTC), the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI).
Working within the scope of the ITU, 3GPP develops and maintains technical specifications for a variety of mobile communication technologies, including, for example, second generation (2G) technology (for instance, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)), third generation (3G) technology (for instance, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA)), and fourth generation (4G) technology (for instance, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced).
The technical specifications controlled by 3GPP can be expanded and revised by specification releases, which can span multiple years and specify a breadth of new features and evolutions.
In one example, 3GPP introduced carrier aggregation (CA) for LTE in Release 10. Although initially introduced with two downlink carriers, 3GPP expanded carrier aggregation in Release 14 to include up to five downlink carriers and up to three uplink carriers. Other examples of new features and evolutions provided by 3GPP releases include, but are not limited to, License Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IOT), Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), and High Power User Equipment (HPUE).
3GPP introduced Phase 1 of fifth generation (5G) technology in Release 15, and Phase 2 of 5G technology in Release 16. Subsequent 3GPP releases will further evolve and expand 5G technology. 5G technology is also referred to herein as 5G New Radio (NR).
5G NR supports or plans to support a variety of features, such as communications over millimeter wave spectrum, beamforming capability, high spectral efficiency waveforms, low latency communications, multiple radio numerology, and/or non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). Although such RF functionalities offer flexibility to networks and enhance user data rates, supporting such features can pose a number of technical challenges.
The teachings herein are applicable to a wide variety of communication systems, including, but not limited to, communication systems using advanced cellular technologies, such as LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, and/or 5G NR.
Aspects and embodiments described herein are directed to wearable devices, and in particular the configuration of the antennae used for wireless communications in high frequency bands such as millimeter wave radiofrequency communications. The exemplary embodiments disclosed herein demonstrate ways in which wearable devices having restrictive form factors can be adapted to improve the connectivity thereof. The example used in the application is a smartwatch, wherein the millimeter-wave transmit/receive performance of the smartwatch can be significantly improved by locating the antennae around the wrist strap of the smartwatch. This configuration is particularly advantageous as it allows antenna to maintain 360-degree coverage when the smartwatch is worn by a user. While the primary illustrative example discussed in the application is a smartwatch, it will be appreciated that the invention can be applied to other form factors, as will be described.
Wearable devices are electronic devices that are typically worn as accessories, embedded in clothing, and may be worn close to and/or on the surface of a user's skin. Wearable devices may be hands free devices, or may include some input means such as buttons, and output means such as a screen. Typically, wearable devices include some form of on-board processing, and include means of communicating with other devices nearby such as a user's smartphone. The constant wireless exchange of data between a user's smartphone and their wearable device make wearable devices an ideal candidate for the adoption of next-generation wireless communications technology such as millimeter-wave 5G technology.
As mentioned above, millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology forms part of the development program of 5G NR. In particular, mmWave communications, also known as Frequency Range 2 (FR2), involve communication over high frequencies, such as between 24 GHz and 300 GHz. The high frequency allows communications using mmWave to transfer data even faster than sub-6 GHz communications, and take advantage of a less congested spectrum.
Embodiments of the present invention transmit and/or receive radio-frequency signals in millimeter wave frequency bands in the range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz, or more particularly between 24 GHz and 53 GHz, such as Band n257 (about 26.5 GHz to about 29.5 GHz), Band n258 (about 24.25 GHz to about 27.5 GHz), Band n259 (about 39.5 GHz to 43.5 GHz), Band n260 (about 37 GHz to about 40 GHz), Band n261 (about 27.5 GHz to about 28.35 GHz), and/or Band n262 (about 47.2 GHz to about 48.2 GHz) and/or other equivalent 5G radiofrequency bands in the 5G “Frequency Range 2” range, and/or upper centimeter wave frequencies in the range of 6 GHz to 30 GHz, or more particularly, 24 GHz to 30 GHz.
The increased performance, bandwidth, data-rate, and lower latency of millimeter-wave technology makes it an ideal candidate for incorporation into wearable devices. However, the high-frequency signals themselves present challenges. The transfer distance of mmWave signals tends to be shorter than that of sub-6 GHz (FR1) 5G, and the mmWave signals tend to experience greater attenuation than longer-wavelength communications signals. In addition, mmWave signals can be significantly degraded when the signal is reflected off an object, particularly when data is encoded into differentially-polarized signals. In view of this, performance of mmWave communications is generally improved when the transmit/receive antenna of the device is in direct Line-of-Sight (LoS) of the communications base station. This requirement, in turn, makes the placement of mmWave antennae on wearable devices an important aspect influencing the performance of the wearable device.
Examples of wearable devices include, but are not limited to, smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart glasses, wearable medical alert monitors, safety monitors, body cameras, smart clothing, Bluetooth® headsets, and physiological sensors.
The fact that wearable devices are worn by a user, rather than simply being carried, means that these devices tend to have more varied and more restrictive form factors. Packaging the various electronic modules and circuitry within a compact device can prove challenging.
The wearable device 300 may include active electronic components with the body portion 301. In particular, the wearable device may include a front-end system 305, one or more sensors 306, and a beam management circuit 307. Front-end system 305 is electrically connected to the antenna array. Front-end system may be configured to condition radio-frequency signals transmitted to and/or received from the antenna array 303. Front-end system may include signal conditioning circuitry to provide the signal conditioning functionality. In particular, front-end system 305 may include power amplifiers (PAs), low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), filters, switches, phase shifters, attenuators, duplexers, diplexers, triplexers, circulators, and/or other suitable signal conditioning circuitry for processing RF signals transmitted and/or received from the antenna array 303. For example, front-end system can provide a number of functionalities, including, but not limited to, amplifying signals for transmission, amplifying received signals, filtering signals, filtering signals, switching between different bands, switching between different power modes, switching between transmission and receiving modes, duplexing of signals, multiplexing of signals (for instance, duplexing or triplexing), or some combination thereof. The front-end system 305 may include signal conditioning circuitry including a variable gain amplifier for providing gain control and a variable phase shifter for providing phase control to enable the front-end system 305 to condition radio-frequency signals to perform beam-forming and/or beam steering operations. In particular, for a given antenna array having a first and second antenna element, separated by a separation distance d, by controlling the relative phase of transmit signals provided to the first and second antenna elements, a desired transmit/receive beam angle θ can be achieved. For example, when a first phase shifter associated with the first antenna element has a reference value of 0°, a second phase shifter associated with the second antenna element can be controlled to provide a phase shift of about −2πf(d/v)cos θ radians, where f is the fundamental frequency of the transmit/receive signal, d is the distance between antenna elements, v is the velocity of the radiated wave, and π is the mathematical constant pi.
The signal conditioning circuitry can be used to condition signals for transmission and/or reception via the antenna array 303. With respect to signal transmission, the signal conditioning circuitry can provide transmit signals to the antenna array 303 such that signals radiated from the antenna array 303 combine using constructive and destructive interference to generate an aggregate transmit signal exhibiting beam-like qualities with more signal strength propagating in a given direction away from the antenna array 303.
In the context of signal reception, the signal conditioning circuitry process the received signals (for instance, by separately controlling received signal phases and amplitudes) such that more signal energy is received when the signal is arriving at the antenna array 303 from a particular direction. Accordingly, the wearable device 300 provides directivity for reception of signals.
The relative concentration of signal energy into a transmit beam or a receive beam can be enhanced by increasing the size of the antenna array 303.
The front-end system 305 may be configured to condition radio-frequency signals having a frequency between 10 GHz and 300 GHz. Front-end system 305 may be implemented as a mmWave transmit/receive module. In some embodiments, wearable device 300 may include an additional antenna for communications using alternative communications technologies including, but not limited to, 2G, 3G, 4G (including LTE, LTE-Advanced, and LTE-Advanced Pro), WLAN (for instance, WiFi), WPAN (for instance, Bluetooth® and ZigBee®), and/or WMAN (for instance, WiMax) technologies. Front-end system 305 may be further configured to condition wireless signals according to any of the aforementioned communications technologies.
The one or more sensors 306 are configured to generate sensor data. For example, the one or more sensors 306 may comprise a location sensor configured to generate data indicating the location of the wearable device. The one or more sensors may comprise a movement sensor configured to generate data indicating movement of the device. The one or more sensors 306 may comprise various types of sensor including, but not limited to location sensors, movement sensors, light sensors, sound sensors, vibration sensors, proximity sensors, electromagnetic field sensors. The one or more sensors 306 may include a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor. The GPS sensor may be an L1 & L5 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) module. In some embodiments, the one or more sensors 306 may comprise an accelerometer and/or a gyroscope. In some embodiments, the one or more sensors 306 may comprise an ultra-wideband positioning system, where the sensor data from the ultra-wideband positioning system is used to infer the position and orientation of the wearable device by comparing signal reception times and signal strengths from various signals received by the antenna array 303. The sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 306 may comprise location, position, and/or orientation data. The one or more sensors 306 may output the generated sensor data to the beam management circuit 307.
Beam management circuit 307 may be electrically connected to the one or more sensors 306 and the front-end system 305. The beam management circuit 307 may be configured to control the front-end system 305 to manage transmission and/or receive beams of the antenna array 303. The beam management circuit 307 provides one or more control signals to the front-end system 305 for controlling phase and/or magnitude signal values used by the signal conditioning circuitry of the front-end system 305. Thus, the beam management circuit 307 can manage the transmit or receive beams via the front-end system 305.
The beam management 307 may be configured to manage the transmission and/or receive beams based on one or more signals received by the antenna array 303 and/or sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 306. In certain implementations, the beam management circuit is configured to control beam steering based on one or more signals received via the antenna array 303 and/or sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 306. For example, sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 306 can be used to adjust an angle of the transmit beam so as to maintain the transmit beam pointed at an external device, such as a base station. Additionally or alternatively, sensor data and/or signals received by the antenna array can be used by the beam management circuit 307 for adjusting an angle of a receive beam to maintain a direction of the receive beam aimed toward a base station.
As shown in
In some embodiments, the body portion 301 can further include at least one body antenna. For example, the body antenna may be arranged on an edge of the body portion 301 like the antennas 204 on the body portion 201 of the device 200 of
The body portion 401 of wearable device 400 includes active electronic components corresponding to those of wearable device 300 described above in connection to
The front-end system 405, one or more sensors 406, and beam management circuit 407 of wearable device 400 may be configured to operate correspondingly to front-end system 305, one or more sensors 306, and beam management circuit 307 described above.
As shown in
In embodiments of wearable device 400 including an external portion 402 having a plurality of antenna arrays 403a-c, the beam management circuit 407 may be configured to control the front-end system 405 to switch transmission or reception from a first antenna array of the plurality of antenna arrays 403a-c to a second antenna array of the plurality of antenna arrays 403a-c. In particular, when wearable device 400 is transmitting or receiving data to/from an external device via a first antenna array, beam management circuit 407 may be configured to switch transmission from the first antenna array to a second antenna array based on one or more signals received via one or more of the antenna arrays and/or sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 406.
For example, beam management circuit 407 may receive one or more signals from a first antenna array of the plurality of antenna arrays 403a-c. The beam management circuit 407 may measure the signal intensity of the received one or more signals, or receive a measure of the signal intensity from the front-end system 405. The beam management circuit 407 may compare the measured signal intensity to a predetermined threshold. If the measured signal intensity value is below the predetermined threshold value, the beam management circuit 407 may switch transmission or reception from the first antenna array to a second antenna array. In embodiments of the wearable device 400 comprising three or more antenna arrays, the beam management circuit 407 may determine which antenna array of the remaining antenna arrays transmission or reception should be switched to by comparing signals received by each of the remaining antenna arrays. In particular, beam management circuit 407 may receive one or more signals from each of the remaining antennas. Beam management circuit 407 may measure the signal intensity of the received one or more signals from each remaining antenna, and compare the measured signal intensities from the remaining antennas with each other, and with the measured signal intensity from the first antenna. The beam management circuit 407 may then switch transmission or reception to the antenna with the highest measured signal intensity. In other embodiments, the beam management circuit 407 may determine to switch transmission or reception from a first antenna to a second antenna based on a comparison of reception times of a signal received by a subset of the plurality of antenna arrays 403a-c. For example, an external device such as a base station may transmit a signal at time t0, which is received by antenna array 403a at time to, antenna array 403b at time tb, and antenna array 403c at time L. The beam management circuit 407 may calculate, based on the reception times ta-c, the orientation of the wearable device 400 relative to the external device. In this regard, the beam management circuit 407 may use the known positions and orientations of each of the plurality of antennas 403a-c relative to each other. Based on the calculated orientation of the wearable device 400, beam management circuit 407 may determine that one of the other antenna arrays is in a more suitable orientation relative to the external device. For example, beam management circuit 407 may determine that the external device is at the edge of the field-of-view (FoV) of the first antenna array, but closer to the center of the FoV of a second antenna, and may therefore determine to switch transmission or reception from the first antenna array to the second antenna array.
Alternatively or additionally, beam management circuit 407 may receive sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 406. For example, beam management circuit 407 may receive position data generated by the one or more sensors. The position data received from the one or more sensors may comprise an orientation of the wearable device 400. The beam management circuit 407 may determine, based on the received position data, that one or the other antenna arrays is in a more suitable orientation relative to the external device. In other examples, the position data received from the one or more sensors 406 may comprise accelerometer data. The beam management circuit 407 may determine, based on the accelerometer data, an angle and axis of rotation of the wearable device 400. For example, the beam management circuit 407 may receive accelerometer data from the one or more sensors and determine that the wearable device 400 has been rotated through an angle of 90 degrees with a rotation axis perpendicular to the external portion 402. In response to the determination, the beam management circuit 407 may decide to switch transmission to a second antenna array. In this regard, beam management circuit 407 may use the known positions and orientations of each of the plurality of antennas 403a-c relative to each other. In particular, the beam management circuit 407 may use the determined angle and axis of rotation, and known relative antenna array positions, to calculate whether one of the remaining antenna arrays is in a more suitable orientation relative to the external device, and may control the front-end system 405 to switch transmission or reception to this antenna array.
In certain embodiments wearable device 400 may be used to augment connectivity of user's additional wireless device. The user of wearable device 400 may have in their possession an additional wireless communications device, such as a smartphone, tablet, laptop computer etc. The additional wireless communications device may or may not be configured to communicate using millimeter-wave 5G communications technology. The wearable device 400 may be configured to connect to the user's additional device using other wireless communications technology such as Bluetooth®, sidelink, WiFi, LTE/NR, or other suitable means. By providing a wireless data connection between the wearable device 400 and the user's additional device, the wearable device is able to supplement the connectivity of the user's additional device by receiving data via the one or more antenna arrays, and transmit the received data to the user's additional wireless device. For example, the user's device may not be able to communicate using millimeter-wave 5G communications, in which case the wearable device 400 can provide millimeter-wave wireless communications capability to the user's device by transmitting/receiving over millimeter-wave 5G technology, then communicating the data with the user's device. Alternatively, the user's device may be millimeter-wave 5G enabled, but the millimeter-wave 5G antenna of the user's device may be blocked by an environmental obstacle such as the user's clothing, or the user's hand. In such a case, the millimeter-wave 5G antenna of the wearable device 400 may still have line-of-sight of the communications base station, and can transmit/receive data to/from the base station and then communicate the data to the user's device over another wireless connection. It should be appreciated that the methods described herein need not be limited to millimeter-wave 5G communications, and are equally applicable to other wireless communications technologies.
The methods implemented by wearable device 400 described above can be particularly beneficial in a wearable device having a plurality of antenna arrays located on an external portion 402, in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. The external portion 402 of the wearable device 400 is located on the outside of the device, and therefore antennas mounted on the external portion 402 are likely to have improved visibility and line-of-sight to any external device. In certain embodiments, the external portion 402 may be a strap for securing the wearable device 400 to a user. In such cases, providing a plurality of antennas mounted on the external portion, and utilizing the methods described herein to switch between antennas as required, can help ensure 360-degree antenna coverage and improve connection performance of the wearable device 400.
In some embodiments, the body portion 401 can further include at least one body antenna. For example, the body antenna may be arranged on an edge of the body portion 401 like the antennas 204 on the body portion 201 of the device 200 of
The body portion 501 of wearable device 500 includes active electronic components corresponding to those of wearable device 300 described above in connection to
The front-end system 505, one or more sensors 506, and beam management circuit 507 of wearable device 500 may be configured to operate correspondingly to front-end system 305, one or more sensors 306, and beam management circuit 307 described above. In addition, though wearable device 500 is described as having one antenna array 503, it will be appreciated that wearable device 500 may include multiple antenna arrays, and implement any of the methods described above in relation to wearable device 400 shown in
As shown in
In embodiments of wearable device 500 including an external portion having an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements, the beam management circuit 507 may be configured to control the front-end system 505 to switch transmission or reception from a first subset of antenna elements to a second subset of antenna elements. In particular, when wearable device 500 is transmitting or receiving data to/from an external device via a first subset of antenna elements 504a-f, beam management circuit 507 may be configured to switch transmission from the first subset to a second subset based on one or more signals received via one or more of the antenna elements and/or sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 506.
For example, beam management circuit 507 may receive one or more signals from a second subset of antenna elements 504a-f. The beam management circuit 507 may measure the signal intensity of the received one or more signals, or receive a measure of the signal intensity from the front-end system 505. The beam management circuit 507 may compare the measured signal intensity to a predetermined threshold. If the measured signal intensity value is below the predetermined threshold value, the beam management circuit 507 may switch transmission or reception from the first subset of antenna elements 504a-f to a second subset of antenna elements 504a-f. Beam management circuit 507 may control front-end system 505 to iteratively scan through subsets of antenna elements 504a-f to determine which subset of antenna elements should be switched to. For example, when wearable device is transmitting or receiving to/from an external device via the first four adjacent antenna elements 504a to 504d of antenna array 503, the beam management circuit 507 may control front-end system 505 to measure a signal intensity received when activating antenna elements 504b to 504e, then elements 504c to 504f and so on. The beam management circuit 507 may then compare the measured signal intensities from each subset of antenna elements 504a-f, and switch transmission or reception to the subset of antenna elements 504a-f with the highest measured signal intensity.
Alternatively or additionally, beam management circuit 507 may receive sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 506. The beam management circuit 507 may implement methods corresponding to those set out above in relation to wearable device 400, in order to switch transmission or reception from a first subset of antenna elements 504a-f to a second subset of antenna elements 504a-f based on the received sensor data generated by the one or more sensors 506.
Embodiments of wearable device 500 including one or more antenna arrays 503 having a plurality of antenna elements 504a-f may also implement methods to improve the performance of signal transmission and reception. As is known, the relative concentration of signal energy into a transmit beam or a receive beam can be enhanced by increasing the size of the antenna array. When wearable device 500 is transmitting or receiving signals to/from an external device via a first subset of antenna elements 504a-f, the beam management circuit 507 may be configured to activate and transmit or receive using additional antenna elements adjacent to the antenna elements of the first subset in order to increase the size of the transmit/receive array, and thereby boost transmission/reception performance. For example, if wearable device 500 is transmitting a signal to a base station using antenna elements 504b, 504c, 504d, and 504e, the beam management circuit 507 may control front-end system 505 to activate antenna elements 504a and 504f Wearable device 500 may then transmit the signal using antenna elements 504a-f, thereby achieving a stronger transmit beam.
Although in
In some embodiments, the body portion 501 can further include at least one body antenna. For example, the body antenna may be arranged on an edge of the body portion 501 like the antennas 204 on the body portion 201 of the device 200 of
The body portion 601 of wearable device 600 includes a baseband system 612, a transceiver 611 (implemented as a millimeter-wave transmit/receive module, in this example), sensor module 606, front-end module 605, a power management system 610, and a battery 610.
The external portion 602 of wearable device 600 includes one or more antenna arrays 603, each comprising one or more antenna elements 604.
The transceiver 611 generates RF signals for transmission and processes incoming RF signals received from the one or more antenna arrays 603. It will be understood that various functionalities associated with the transmission and receiving of RF signals can be achieved by one or more components that are collectively presented in
The front-end system 605 aids in conditioning signals transmitted and/or received from the one or more antenna arrays 603.
In the illustrated embodiment, the front-end system 605 includes antenna tuning circuitry, power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), filters, switches, and signal splitting/combining circuitry. However, other implementations are possible.
For example, the front-end system 605 can provide a number of functionalities, including, but not limited to, amplifying signals for transmission, amplifying received signals, filtering signals, switching between different bands, switching between different power modes, switching between transmission and receiving modes, duplexing of signals, multiplexing of signals (for instance, diplexing or triplexing), or some combination thereof.
In certain implementations, the wearable device 600 supports carrier aggregation, thereby providing flexibility to increase peak data rates. Carrier aggregation can be used for both Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Divi-sion Duplexing (TDD), and may be used to aggregate a plurality of carriers or channels. Carrier aggregation includes contiguous aggregation, in which contiguous car-riers within the same operating frequency band are aggre-gated. Carrier aggregation can also be non-contiguous, and can include carriers separated in frequency within a common band or in different bands.
The one or more antenna arrays 603 can include antennas used for a wide variety of types of communications. For example, the one or more antenna arrays 603 can include antennas for transmitting and/or receiving signals associated with a wide variety of frequen-cies and communications standards.
In certain implementations, the one or more antenna arrays 603 sup-port MIMO communications and/or switched diversity com-munications. For example, MIMO communications use multiple antennas for communicating multiple data streams over a single radio frequency channel. MIMO communica-tions benefit from higher signal to noise ratio, improved coding, and/or reduced signal interference due to spatial multiplexing differences of the radio environment. Switched diversity refers to communications in which a particular antenna is selected for operation at a particular time. For example, a switch can be used to select a particular antenna from a group of antennas based on a variety of factors, such as an observed bit error rate and/or a signal strength indi-cator.
The wearable device 600 can implement beam-forming and beam-steering in accordance with the methods described herein. Beam management circuit 607 is integrated into the baseband system 612, and configured to perform the beam-forming, beam-steering, antenna-switching, and antenna-subset-switching methods described above in relation to
The baseband system 612 is coupled to the user interface 608 to facilitate processing of various user input and output (I/O), such as voice and data. The baseband system 612 provides the transceiver 611 with digital repre-sentations of transmit signals, which the transceiver 611 processes to generate RF signals for transmission. The baseband system 612 also processes digital representations of received signals provided by the transceiver 611. As shown in
The memory 609 can be used for a wide variety of purposes, such as storing data and/or instructions to facili-tate the operation of the mobile device 600 and/or to provide storage of user information.
The power management system 613 provides a number of power management functions of the mobile device 600. In certain implementations, the power manage-ment system 613 includes a PA supply control circuit that controls the supply voltages of the power amplifiers. For example, the power management system 613 can be con-figured to change the supply voltage(s) provided to one or more of the power amplifiers to improve efficiency, such as power added efficiency (PAE).
As shown in
In some embodiments, the body portion 601 can further include at least one body antenna. For example, the body antenna may be arranged on an edge of the body portion 601 like the antennas 204 on the body portion 201 of the device 200 of
The body portion 701 of the wearable device 700 includes active electronic components, including those described in relation to
The active electronic components of wearable device 700 may be configured to operate correspondingly to the wearable devices described above in relation to
As shown, the wearable device 700 also includes a display, for displaying information to the user, and buttons for receiving input from the user. In other embodiments, the display of the wearable device 700 may be a touch-screen, allowing user input as well as output. The presence of the display may prevent a millimeter-wave antenna from being mounted within the body portion 701 of the wearable device 700, especially an antenna arranged to transmit/receive through the display of the wearable device 700. This is due to the increased attenuation experienced by millimeter-wave RF signals.
As shown in
As will be appreciated, when the wearable device 700 is secured to the wrist of the user, the strap on which the plurality of antennas are mounted forms a loop around the user's wrist, as also shown in
As can be seen, each of the plurality of antenna arrays 803 has a different field-of-view, and each antenna array 803 has a plurality of antenna elements 804 allowing the beam management circuit to perform beam-forming and beam-steering operations on each of the antenna arrays. In addition, the presence of multiple antenna arrays 803 allows the beam management circuit to implement the methods described above in relation to
The body portion 901 of the wearable device 900 includes active electronic components, including those described in relation to
The active electronic components of wearable device 900 may be configured to operate correspondingly to the wearable devices described above in relation to
As shown, the wearable device 900 also includes a display, for displaying information to the user, and buttons for receiving input from the user. In other embodiments, the display of the wearable device 900 may be a touch-screen, allowing user input as well as output. The presence of the display may prevent a millimeter-wave antenna from being mounted within the body portion 901 of the wearable device 900, especially an antenna arranged to transmit/receive through the display of the wearable device 900. This is due to the increased attenuation experienced by millimeter-wave RF signals.
As shown in
The plurality of antenna elements 1004 allows the beam management circuit to perform beam-forming and beam-steering operations on the antenna array 1003. In addition, the configuration of the antenna elements 1004 allows the beam management circuit to implement the beam scanning, and antenna-element-switching operations described above in relation to
In the embodiment shown, the body portion 1101 of wearable device 1100 may be the face portion of the smart glasses frame, configured to hold the lenses of the smart glasses in position. The body portion 1101 includes active electronic components, including those described in relation to
The active electronic components of wearable device 1100 may be configured to operate correspondingly to those of the wearable devices described above in relation to
As shown, the body portion 1100 of wearable device 1100 presents a particularly restrictive form factor, having little room to fit the active electronic components of the wearable device 1100.
As shown in
As will be appreciated, when the wearable device 1100 is being worn by a user, the pair of side arms on which the plurality of antenna arrays 1103 are mounted provide a substantial communications field-of-view to the wearable device 1100. The field-of-view of the antenna arrays 1103 can be further improved by adjusting the dimensions, and number of antenna elements 1104 of the plurality of antenna arrays 1103. Since all the antenna arrays 1103 are arranged to face outwards from the user's head, challenges associated with tissue absorption of millimeter-wave RF signals are minimized.
With reference to
Although specific examples of base stations and user equipment are illustrated in
For instance, in the example shown, the communication network 1 includes the macro cell base station 11 and the small cell base station 13. The small cell base station 13 can operate with relatively lower power, shorter range, and/or with fewer concurrent users relative to the macro cell base station 11. The small cell base station 13 can also be referred to as a femtocell, a picocell, or a microcell. Although the communication network 1 is illustrated as including two base stations, the communication network 1 can be implemented to include more or fewer base stations and/or base stations of other types.
Although various examples of user equipment are shown, the teachings herein are applicable to a wide variety of user equipment, including, but not limited to, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, IoT devices, wearable electronics, customer premises equipment (CPE), wireless-connected vehicles, wireless relays, and/or a wide variety of other communication devices. For example, the user equipment can include any of the wearable devices described herein, including any of the wearable devices of
The illustrated communication network 1 of
Various communication links of the communication network 1 have been depicted in
In certain implementations, user equipment can communication with a base station using one or more of 4G LTE, 5G NR, and Wi-Fi technologies. In certain implementations, enhanced license assisted access (eLAA) is used to aggregate one or more licensed frequency carriers (for instance, licensed 4G LTE and/or 5G NR frequencies), with one or more unlicensed carriers (for instance, unlicensed Wi-Fi frequencies).
The communication links can operate over a wide variety of frequencies. In certain implementations, communications are supported using 5G NR technology over one or more frequency bands that are less than 6 Gigahertz (GHz) and/or over one or more frequency bands that are greater than 6 GHz. In one embodiment, one or more of the mobile devices support a HPUE power class specification.
In certain implementations, a base station and/or user equipment communicates using beamforming. For example, beamforming can be used to focus signal strength to overcome path losses, such as high loss associated with communicating over high signal frequencies. In certain embodiments, user equipment, such as one or more mobile phones, communicate using beamforming on millimeter wave frequency bands in the range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and/or upper centimeter wave frequencies in the range of 6 GHz to 30 GHz, or more particularly, 24 GHz to 30 GHz.
Different users of the communication network 1 can share available network resources, such as available frequency spectrum, in a wide variety of ways.
In one example, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) is used to divide a frequency band into multiple frequency carriers. Additionally, one or more carriers are allocated to a particular user. Examples of FDMA include, but are not limited to, single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) and orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA). OFDM is a multicarrier technology that subdivides the available bandwidth into multiple mutually orthogonal narrowband subcarriers, which can be separately assigned to different users.
Other examples of shared access include, but are not limited to, time division multiple access (TDMA) in which a user is allocated particular time slots for using a frequency resource, code division multiple access (CDMA) in which a frequency resource is shared amongst different users by assigning each user a unique code, space-divisional multiple access (SDMA) in which beamforming is used to provide shared access by spatial division, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in which the power domain is used for multiple access. For example, NOMA can be used to serve multiple users at the same frequency, time, and/or code, but with different power levels.
Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) refers to technology for growing system capacity of LTE networks. For example, eMBB can refer to communications with a peak data rate of at least 10 Gbps and a minimum of 100 Mbps for each user. Ultra-reliable low latency communications (uRLLC) refers to technology for communication with very low latency, for instance, less than 2 milliseconds. uRLLC can be used for mission-critical communications such as for autonomous driving and/or remote surgery applications. Massive machine-type communications (mMTC) refers to low cost and low data rate communications associated with wireless connections to everyday objects, such as those associated with Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
The communication network 1 of
Having described above several aspects of at least one embodiment, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure and are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only, and the scope of the invention should be determined from proper construction of the appended claims, and their equivalents.
While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those ordinary skilled in the relevant art will recognize in view of the disclosure herein.
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” The words “coupled” or connected”, as generally used herein, refer to two or more elements that may be either directly connected, or connected by way of one or more intermediate elements. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or” in reference to a list of two or more items, that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.
Moreover, conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” “for example,” “such as” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or states. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or states are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or states are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
The teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the systems described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.
While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63314170 | Feb 2022 | US | |
63314251 | Feb 2022 | US |