Apple Inc.

Berke Cetinoneri

Qishan Yu

Ioannis Sarkas

Samia El Amrani

Harish Rajagopalan

Simone Paulotto

Bo Zhang

William Jean Noellert

Ryan Joseph Goedken

Xueting Liu

Timothy Bryan Ogilvie

Xiaofang Mu

Chi V Pham

Mingjuan Zhu

James Tsung-Tai Yang

Bradley David Scoles

Chia-Feng Lin

Evan M Manrique

Jyotirmoy Hore

Systems, methods, and devices are provided for detecting the presence of an object near an electronic device. A radio frequency (RF) system of an electronic device may include a first circuit that includes one or more transmission paths for transmitting a reference signal external to the electronic device. The RF system may include a second circuit that includes one or more receiving paths for receiving a reflection signal based on the reference signal. The RF system may also include a processor that may instruct the RF system to perform a comparison between the reference signal and the reflection signal, determine whether the object is in proximity based at least in part on whether comparison results exceed a comparison threshold, and decrease power output by the RF system below the comparison threshold.

Systems and methods for object detection by radio frequency systems

Techniques for implementing and/or operating a radio frequency system, which includes a logic board that outputs an analog electrical signal indicative of data to be wirelessly transmitted from the radio frequency system and a remote head. The remote head includes an antenna that generates an electromagnetic wave to facilitate wirelessly transmitting the data, an antenna integrated circuit implemented using a first semiconductor manufacturing technique, in which the antenna integrated circuit amplifies the analog electrical signal to generate a first amplified analog electrical signal, and a remote front-end integrated circuit coupled between the antenna integrated circuit and the antenna. The remote front-end integrated circuit is implemented using a second semiconductor manufacturing technique different from the first semiconductor manufacturing technique and amplifies the first amplified analog electrical signal based on a target output power of the antenna to generate a second amplified analog electrical signal indicative of the data.

Radio frequency remote head front-end circuitry systems and methods

Frequency-filtering circuitry is disclosed that rejects power of a wireless signal having an undesired frequency while causing a decreased power loss to a wireless signal having a desired frequency using distributed elements, rather than lumped elements. The frequency-filtering circuitry may reject at least 5 decibels of power of a wireless signal having a frequency over 32 gigahertz, while causing a power loss of at most 1.1 decibels to a wireless signal having a frequency lower than 29.5 gigahertz. The frequency-filtering circuitry may include a main branch, a first parallel branch coupled and parallel to the main branch via a first connecting trace, and a second parallel branch coupled and parallel to the main branch via a second connecting trace. The first connecting trace intersects the main branch and the first parallel branch, and the second connecting trace intersects the main branch and the second parallel branch.

Distributed-element filter for mmWave frequencies

Systems and methods for improving communication reliability of a radio frequency system that includes an antenna integrated circuit, which includes an antenna amplifier unit that outputs a first analog electrical signal that indicates data, a transceiver integrated circuit implemented using a first semiconductor manufacturing technique, in which the transceiver integrated circuit includes a transceiver amplifier unit that outputs a second analog electrical signal that indicates the data, and a driver integrated circuit implemented using a second semiconductor manufacturing technique. The driver integrated circuit includes an intermediate amplifier, which outputs a third analog electrical signal that indicates the data, and intermediate routing circuitry, which routes the first analog electrical signal to the intermediate amplifier and the third analog electrical signal to the transceiver integrated circuit during reception and routes the second analog electrical signal to the intermediate amplifier and the third analog electrical to the antenna integrated circuit during transmission.

Radio frequency front-end circuitry intermediate driver systems and methods

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array controlled by phase and magnitude controllers within an integrated circuit. The array may be formed on antenna layers and the integrated circuit may be mounted to transmission line layers of a dielectric substrate. A ground plane may separate the transmission line layers from the antenna layers. A connector may be mounted to the surface of the transmission line layers and may be coupled to the integrated circuit using conductive traces. A passive resonator may be formed in the antenna layers and may include conductive structures that resonate at one-quarter of the effective wavelength of operation of the array to form an open circuit impedance for surface currents generated on the ground plane by the array. This may serve to block the surface currents from scattering at an edge of the ground plane and leaking onto the integrated circuit.

Electronic devices having antenna module isolation structures

A communication device has multiple antennas in an antenna array, and applies the same input power to each antenna. A controller of the communication device instructs phase shifters to form a first subarray with a first pair of the antennas and a second subarray with a second pair of the antennas. The controller causes the first subarray to generate a first beam and causes the second subarray to generate a second beam, wherein the first beam combines in phase with the second beam to generate a coarse beam. The coarse beam may have increased beam width while exhibiting decreased peak gain loss.

Systems and methods for coarse scan beamforming using subarrays

Techniques for implementing and/or operating a radio frequency system, which includes a logic board having a transceiver integrated circuit and a remote head coupled to the logic board via a one or more electrical connectors. The remote head includes an antenna circuit board having a pad, an antenna formed on a surface of the antenna circuit board opposite the pad, and a remote head system-in-package. The remote head system-in-package includes a system-in-package circuit board having a pin that interfaces with the pad on the antenna circuit board and an integrated circuit device coupled to a surface of the system-in-package circuit board opposite the pin, in which the integrated circuit device includes one or more amplifier units that each amplifies a corresponding analog electrical signal communicated with the antenna.

Systems and methods for driving using a radio-frequency integrated circuit to drive one or more front end modules. The front end modules provide signal flexibility to an electronic device. The radio-frequency integrated circuit drives the one or more front end modules via dual-pole, dual-throw switches that enable a pair of radio-frequency chains in the radio-frequency integrated circuit to drive two pairs of radio-frequency chains in each of two connected front end modules.

Radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) external front-end module

Systems, methods, and devices are provided for correcting compression distortion of wireless signals due to variations in operation parameters of the radio frequency system. The method may include using circuitry to generate a reference signal that is not pre-distorted by a processing block. The method may involve receiving an envelope signal representative of a signal being transmitted by a transceiver. The method may also involve determining a first peak-to-average ratio of the envelope signal and receiving a second peak-to-average ratio of the reference signal. The method may additionally involve determining a difference between the first peak-to-average ratio and the second peak-to-average ratio. The method may also include adjusting a gain of an amplifier of the transceiver based on the difference.

Systems and methods for compression distortion compensation for wireless signals

Systems and methods for improving communication reliability of a radio frequency system that includes an antenna integrated circuit, which includes an antenna amplifier unit that outputs a first analog electrical signal that indicates data, a transceiver integrated circuit implemented using a first semiconductor manufacturing technique, in which the transceiver integrated circuit includes a transceiver amplifier unit that outputs a second analog electrical signal that indicates the data, and a driver integrated circuit implemented using a second semiconductor manufacturing technique. The driver integrated circuit includes an intermediate amplifier unit, which outputs a third analog electrical signal that indicates the data, and intermediate routing circuitry, which routes the first analog electrical signal to the intermediate amplifier unit and the third analog electrical signal to the transceiver integrated circuit during reception and routes the second analog electrical signal to the intermediate amplifier unit and the third analog electrical to the antenna integrated circuit during transmission.

An electronic device may include wireless communications circuitry, control circuitry, and sensor circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include amplifier circuitry that amplifies radio-frequency signals using on a bias voltage to generate amplified radio-frequency signals transmitted over an antenna. Power supply circuitry may generate the bias voltage based on an envelope mapping setting and an envelope signal associated with the radio-frequency signals. The sensor circuitry may generate sensor data that characterizes the performance of the wireless communications circuitry and provide the sensor data to the control circuitry. The control circuitry may use the provided sensor data to generate control signals for the power supply circuitry. The control signals may adjust the envelope mapping setting of the power supply circuitry.

Wireless communications systems with envelope tracking capabilities

An electronic device may include processing circuitry having a first impedance coupled to a first circuit board, where the electronic device uses the processing circuity to generate one or more radio frequency signals. The electronic device may also include power circuitry to amplify the one or more radio frequency signals, where the power circuitry is coupled to a second circuit board. An interposer may be disposed between the first circuit board and the second circuit board. The interposer may include a via structure having a characteristic impedance to match the first impedance and the second impedance, where the via structure may transmit the one or more radio frequency signals through the interposer between the processing circuitry and the power circuitry.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Berke Cetinoneri