Patent Grant
10726683
The present disclosure relates in general to tracking and identifying a mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load, for example, a haptic transducer.
Vibro-haptic transducers, for example linear resonant actuators (LRAs), are widely used in portable devices such as mobile phones to generate vibrational feedback to a user. Vibro-haptic feedback in various forms creates different feelings of touch to a user's skin, and may play increasing roles in human-machine interactions for modern devices.
An LRA may be modelled as a mass-spring electro-mechanical vibration system. When driven with appropriately designed or controlled driving signals, an LRA may generate certain desired forms of vibrations. For example, a sharp and clear-cut vibration pattern on a user's finger may be used to create a sensation that mimics a mechanical button click. This clear-cut vibration may then be used as a virtual switch to replace mechanical buttons.
Among the various forms of vibro-haptic feedback, tonal vibrations of sustained duration may play an important role to notify the user of the device of certain predefined events, such as incoming calls or messages, emergency alerts, and timer warnings, etc. In order to generate tonal vibration notifications efficiently, it may be desirable to operate the haptic actuator at its resonance frequency.
The resonance frequency f0 of a haptic transducer may be approximately estimated as:
where C is the compliance of the spring system, and M is the equivalent moving mass, which may be determined based on both the actual moving part in the haptic transducer and the mass of the portable device holding the haptic transducer.
Due to sample-to-sample variations in individual haptic transducers, mobile device assembly variations, temporal component changes caused by aging, and use conditions such as various different strengths of a user gripping of the device, the vibration resonance of the haptic transducer may vary from time to time.
In a system having an electromagnetic load such as an LRA, it may be desirable to determine the parameters that define an impedance of the electromagnetic load. Knowledge of such parameters may allow for optimization of playback of signals (e.g., playback of haptic waveforms) to the electromagnetic load. In addition, determination of electromagnetic load impedance may be valuable as it may allow for adapting of a playback signal to allow the playback signal to track changing parameters of the electromagnetic load.
An electromagnetic load such as an LRA may be characterized by its impedance ZLra as seen as the sum of a coil impedance Zcoil and a mechanical impedance Zmech:
ZLra=Zcoil+Zmech (2)
Coil impedance Zcoil may in turn comprise a direct current (DC) resistance Re in series with an inductance Le:
Zcoil=Re+sLe (3)
Mechanical impedance Zmech may be defined by three parameters including a resistance at resonance RES, an angular resonant frequency ω0 (e.g., ω0=2πf0), and a quality factor q. Or equivalently, mechanical impedance Zmech may be defined by three parameters including the resistance at resonance RES, a capacitance CMES representing an electrical capacitance representative of an equivalent moving mass M of the spring system of haptic transducer, and inductance LCES representative of a compliance C of the spring system. The relationship among these quantities may be given by the following equations, in which s is the Laplace transform variable:
Traditional approaches for driving an LRA at resonance rely on detecting a time difference between zero crossings of the LRA's back electromotive force (back-EMF) and the load current or voltage. Such difference may then be used to adjust a period of a signal driven to the LRA. One disadvantage of this approach is its sensitivity to noise because all of the noise power is essentially aliased by an effective sampling rate at approximately two times the resonance frequency. Such approach may also suffer from slow convergence if a loop filter is used to reduce sensitivity to noise, because as a rule of thumb, bandwidth of the loop filter should be one-tenth of the effective sampling rate (or less). Further, using such approaches and LRA may be tri-stated at zero crossing events in order to allow a reading of back-EMF, which may result in a loss of drive duty cycle (e.g., maximum power from a driving amplifier may not be delivered to the LRA).
Existing approaches to determining a complex impedance may include using broadband noise to excite a system having an electromagnetic load. For example, using existing approaches, a Fast Fourier Transform of current and voltage waveforms associated with the electromagnetic load may be performed to determine impedance.
In accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, the disadvantages and problems associated with identifying a mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load may be reduced or eliminated.
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a system for identifying a mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load may include a signal generator and mechanical impedance identity circuitry. The signal generator may be configured to generate a waveform signal for driving an electromagnetic load, the waveform signal comprising a first tone at a first driving frequency and a second tone at a second driving frequency. The mechanical impedance identity circuitry may be configured to, during driving of the electromagnetic load by the waveform signal or a signal derived therefrom, receive a current signal representative of a current associated with the electromagnetic load and a back electromotive force signal representative of a back electromotive force associated with the electromagnetic load. The mechanical impedance identity circuitry may further be configured to determine amplitude and phase information of the current signal responsive to the first tone and second tone, determine amplitude and phase information of the back electromotive force signal responsive to the first tone and second tone, and identify parameters of the mechanical impedance of the electromagnetic load based on the amplitude and phase information of the current signal and the amplitude and phase information of the back electromotive force signal.
In accordance with these and embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for identifying a mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load may include generating a waveform signal for driving an electromagnetic load, the waveform signal comprising a first tone at a first driving frequency and a second tone at a second driving frequency. The method may also include during driving of the electromagnetic load by the waveform signal or a signal derived therefrom, receiving a current signal representative of a current associated with the electromagnetic load and a back electromotive force signal representative of a back electromotive force associated with the electromagnetic load. The method may further include determining amplitude and phase information of the current signal responsive to the first tone and second tone, determining amplitude and phase information of the back electromotive force signal responsive to the first tone and second tone, and identifying parameters of the mechanical impedance of the electromagnetic load based on the amplitude and phase information of the current signal and the amplitude and phase information of the back electromotive force signal.
Technical advantages of the present disclosure may be readily apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art from the figures, description and claims included herein. The objects and advantages of the embodiments will be realized and achieved at least by the elements, features, and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are examples and explanatory and are not restrictive of the claims set forth in this disclosure.
A more complete understanding of the present embodiments and advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:
The description below sets forth example embodiments according to this disclosure. Further example embodiments and implementations will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art. Further, those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various equivalent techniques may be applied in lieu of, or in conjunction with, the embodiment discussed below, and all such equivalents should be deemed as being encompassed by the present disclosure.
Various electronic devices or smart devices may have transducers, speakers, and acoustic output transducers, for example any transducer for converting a suitable electrical driving signal into an acoustic output such as a sonic pressure wave or mechanical vibration. For example, many electronic devices may include one or more speakers or loudspeakers for sound generation, for example, for playback of audio content, voice communications and/or for providing audible notifications.
Such speakers or loudspeakers may comprise an electromagnetic actuator, for example a voice coil motor, which is mechanically coupled to a flexible diaphragm, for example a conventional loudspeaker cone, or which is mechanically coupled to a surface of a device, for example the glass screen of a mobile device. Some electronic devices may also include acoustic output transducers capable of generating ultrasonic waves, for example for use in proximity detection type applications and/or machine-to-machine communication.
Many electronic devices may additionally or alternatively include more specialized acoustic output transducers, for example, haptic transducers, tailored for generating vibrations for haptic control feedback or notifications to a user. Additionally or alternatively an electronic device may have a connector, e.g., a socket, for making a removable mating connection with a corresponding connector of an accessory apparatus and may be arranged to provide a driving signal to the connector so as to drive a transducer, of one or more of the types mentioned above, of the accessory apparatus when connected. Such an electronic device will thus comprise driving circuitry for driving the transducer of the host device or connected accessory with a suitable driving signal. For acoustic or haptic transducers, the driving signal will generally be an analog time varying voltage signal, for example, a time varying waveform.
As previously mentioned, identifying a mechanical impedance of an electromagnetic load may be useful for some types of haptic application. In the present disclosure, and as described in greater detail below, a two-tone stimulus may be used to excite an electromagnetic load to provide four measurable parameters: an amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic load associated with each of the tones. Three of these four measureable parameters may then be chosen to determine the parameters (angular resonant frequency ω0, quality factor q, and resistance at resonance RES) of mechanical impedance Zmech.
In operation, a signal generator 324 of system 300 may generate a waveform signal x(t) with two tones, one at a first frequency f1 and another at a second frequency f2. For example, waveform signal x(t) may be given as:
x(t)=a1 sin(2πf1+ϕ1)+a2 sin(2πf2+ϕ2)
where a1 is the amplitude of the first tone, ϕ1 is the phase of the first tone, a2 is the amplitude of the second tone, and ϕ2 is the phase of the second tone.
Waveform signal x(t) may in turn be amplified by amplifier 306 to generate the driving signal V(t) for driving haptic transducer 301.
Responsive to driving signal V(t), a sensed terminal voltage VT(t) of haptic transducer 301 may be converted to a digital representation by a first analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 303. Similarly, sensed current I(t) may be converted to a digital representation by a second ADC 304. Current I(t) may be sensed across a shunt resistor 302 having resistance Rs coupled to a terminal of haptic transducer 301. The terminal voltage VT(t) may be sensed by a terminal voltage sensing block 307, for example a volt meter.
As shown in
where the parameters are defined as described with reference to
In some embodiments, back-EMF estimate block 308 may be implemented as a digital filter with a proportional and parallel difference path. The estimates of DC resistance Re and inductance Le may not need to be accurate (e.g., within an approximate 10% error may be acceptable), and thus, fixed values from an offline calibration or from a data sheet specification may be sufficient.
As further shown below, mechanical impedance Zmech may be defined by the relationship between back-EMF voltage VB(t) and current I(t). Accordingly, system 300 may include amplitude and phase detectors 312 configured to receive back-EMF voltage VB(t) and current I(t) respectively. Each amplitude and phase detector 312 may include a pair of notch filters 314: one notch filter 314 for filtering out the tone at first frequency f1 and the other notch filter 314 for filtering out the tone at second frequency f2. In some embodiments, notch filters 314 may be eliminated if the filter bandwidth of demodulators 310 (e.g., the low pass filters demodulators 310 discussed below) are limited to less than that of the difference of the frequencies frequency f1 and f2.
Each of the signals modulated by notch filters 314 may be demodulated by respective demodulators 310 to generate an amplitude and phase for such signal. For example, a first demodulator 310 may demodulate the estimated back-EMF voltage VB(t) generated from the tone at first frequency f1 to generate a measured amplitude a1_B and measured phase ϕ1_B (relative to the carrier) for such signal. In addition, a second demodulator 310 may demodulate the estimated back-EMF voltage VB(t) generated from the tone at second frequency f2 to generate a measured amplitude a2_B and measured phase ϕ2_B (relative to the carrier) for such signal. Further, a third demodulator 310 may demodulate the current I(t) generated from the tone at first frequency f1 to generate a measured amplitude a1_I and measured phase ϕ1_I (relative to the carrier) for such signal. Moreover, a fourth demodulator 310 may demodulate the current I(t) generated from the tone at second frequency f1 to generate a measured amplitude a2_I and measured phase ϕ2_I (relative to the carrier) for such signal.
Turning briefly to
Turning again to
For example, in some embodiments, impedance identity module 316 may use the amplitudes of back-EMF voltage VB(t) and measured current I(t) at one of first frequency f1, the phase differences of back-EMF voltage VB(t) and measured current I(t) at first frequency f1, and the phase differences of back-EMF voltage VB(t) and measured current I(t) at second frequency f2, to generate intermediate calculations for a mechanical impedance Zmech_f
Δϕ1=ϕ1_B−ϕ1_I (10)
Δϕ2=ϕ2_B−ϕ2_I (11)
Using these intermediate values, resonant frequency
quality factor q, and resistance at resonance RES of mechanical impedance Zmech may be identified as follows:
While the foregoing contemplates the calculation of particular parameters of mechanical impedance Zmech, namely resonant frequency f0, quality factor q, and resistance at resonance RES, it is understood that systems and methods similar to that disclosed herein may be used to identify one or more other parameters for mechanical impedance Zmech.
As used herein, when two or more elements are referred to as “coupled” to one another, such term indicates that such two or more elements are in electronic communication or mechanical communication, as applicable, whether connected indirectly or directly, with or without intervening elements.
This disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodiments herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend. Similarly, where appropriate, the appended claims encompass all changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodiments herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend. Moreover, reference in the appended claims to an apparatus or system or a component of an apparatus or system being adapted to, arranged to, capable of, configured to, enabled to, operable to, or operative to perform a particular function encompasses that apparatus, system, or component, whether or not it or that particular function is activated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as that apparatus, system, or component is so adapted, arranged, capable, configured, enabled, operable, or operative. Accordingly, modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems, apparatuses, and methods described herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. For example, the components of the systems and apparatuses may be integrated or separated. Moreover, the operations of the systems and apparatuses disclosed herein may be performed by more, fewer, or other components and the methods described may include more, fewer, or other steps. Additionally, steps may be performed in any suitable order. As used in this document, “each” refers to each member of a set or each member of a subset of a set.
Although exemplary embodiments are illustrated in the figures and described below, the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or not. The present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations and techniques illustrated in the drawings and described above.
Unless otherwise specifically noted, articles depicted in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended for pedagogical objects to aid the reader in understanding the disclosure and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, and are construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Although embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
Although specific advantages have been enumerated above, various embodiments may include some, none, or all of the enumerated advantages. Additionally, other technical advantages may become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after review of the foregoing figures and description.
To aid the Patent Office and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims or claim elements to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
The present disclosure claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/825,970, filed Mar. 29, 2019, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6580796 | Kuroki | Jun 2003 | B1 |
| 9697450 | Lee | Jul 2017 | B1 |
| 10032550 | Zhang | Jul 2018 | B1 |
| 20190341903 | Kim | Nov 2019 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62825970 | Mar 2019 | US |
