The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 05, 1998
Filed:
May. 08, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
Loek d'Hont, Garland, TX (US);
Assignee:
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01S / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
342 42 ; 342 44 ;
Abstract
The invention is an improved method and apparatus for synchronizing wireless communications utilizing a master source (10) for a transmitting a synchronizing pulse to multiple reader modules (20 and 28) each of which has an internal crystal oscillator (22 and 30). The synchronizing pulse periodically resets the interrogation cycle, the power burst and receive cycle, for all of the reader modules (20 and 28). Between pulses, the internal crystal oscillator (22 and 30) is used to run interrogation cycles, and thus functions as a 'flywheel' to absorb fluctuations in the synchronizing pulse such as when a particular synchronizing pulse is missed.