CN118843806A - Electronic device with standard-compliant sensing capability - Google Patents

Abstract

The electronic device may include a wireless circuit that communicates data with the base station according to a communication standard and detects a range of an external object using a first antenna that transmits waveforms conforming to the standard. The waveform may be a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform, a transmit data waveform, or another waveform. The second antenna may receive a reflected signal including the transmitted waveform. The communication circuit may perform element-level division on the symbols of the selected subcarriers in the reflected signal using the corresponding phases and magnitudes of the complex set of OFDM symbols used to generate the transmitted waveform. Peak detection may be performed to detect this range. The standard-compliant transmit waveforms are also used to perform spatial ranging, which may allow the communication circuit to avoid dedicated radar circuitry while also minimizing the impact on the transfer of the data.

Description

Electronic device with standard-compliant sensing capability

The present application claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/167,017, filed on day 2023, month 2, and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 63/323,413, filed on day 2022, month 3, and 24, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly to electronic devices having wireless circuitry.

Background

Electronic devices often have wireless capabilities. An electronic device with wireless capability has a wireless circuit that includes one or more antennas. The radio circuit is for performing communication using radio frequency signals transmitted by the antenna.

In some scenarios, the wireless circuitry performs a range sensing operation to detect a distance between an external object and the electronic device. If careless, configuring the wireless circuitry to perform the sensing operation may require excessive hardware on the electronic device to actually use space, and the sensing operation may undesirably interfere with communications.

Disclosure of Invention

The electronic device may include wireless circuitry controlled by one or more processors. The wireless circuitry may include communication circuitry to communicate wireless communication data with a wireless base station in accordance with a wireless communication standard such as the 3gpp 5G NR standard or the 6G standard. The communication circuit may also perform a spatial ranging operation to detect a range between the electronic device and the external object using a standard compliant transmit waveform defined by and compliant with the communication standard. The standard-compliant transmit waveform may be a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform, a transmit data waveform, or another waveform.

In performing the spatial ranging operation, the communication circuitry may obtain a set of complex OFDM symbols, each complex OFDM symbol having a respective phase and magnitude. The communication circuitry may allocate a standard-compliant resource grid based on the complex set of OFDM symbols. The communication circuitry may generate a standard-compliant transmit waveform based on the standard-compliant resource grid. The transmit antenna may transmit a standard-compliant transmit waveform. The receive antenna may receive a reflected version of the standard-compliant transmit waveform that has been reflected from an external object. The use of transmit antennas and receive antennas is merely illustrative and, in general, one or more antennas may be used to perform the techniques described herein.

The communication circuitry may generate the recovered resource grid based on the reflected signal. The communication circuitry may select a subcarrier of interest from the recovered resource grid and may perform element-level division of the symbols of the subcarrier using corresponding phases and magnitudes of a complex set of OFDM symbols used to generate a standard-compliant transmit waveform. This division may remove a single phase and amplitude of the selected subcarrier to produce a time-of-flight related signal (e.g., a time-of-flight related phase signal). The communication circuit may perform a fast fourier transform on the time-of-flight related signal to generate a complex-valued range distribution. The communication circuit may perform a peak detection operation on the complex-valued range distribution to detect a range of the external object. By conforming to the transmit waveforms also for performing spatial ranging, the communication circuit may avoid the use of dedicated radar circuitry while also minimizing the impact on the transfer of wireless communication data.

One aspect of the present disclosure provides an electronic device. The electronic device may include a first antenna. The electronic device may include a second antenna. The electronic device may include one or more processors. The one or more processors may be configured to: wireless communication data is communicated with the wireless base station in accordance with a wireless communication standard using one of the first antenna and the second antenna. The one or more processors may be configured to: transmitting wireless communication data with the wireless base station according to a wireless communication standard using one of the first antenna and the second antenna; transmitting a waveform conforming to a wireless communication standard using a first antenna; using a second antenna to receive a reflected version of the waveform transmitted by the first antenna; and detecting a range of the external object based at least on the reflected version of the waveform received by the second antenna.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides a method of operating a user equipment device. The method may include transmitting wireless communication data to a wireless base station using a wireless communication standard using a first antenna. The method may include transmitting, using a first antenna, a standard-compliant waveform based on a set of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol having a respective phase and magnitude, the standard-compliant waveform defined by a wireless communication standard. The method may include receiving, using a second antenna, a reflected signal including a standard-compliant waveform transmitted by the first antenna. The method may include generating, at the one or more processors, a time-of-flight related signal based on phase and magnitude information of the reflected signal and corresponding phases and magnitudes of the set of OFDM symbols. The method may include detecting, at the one or more processors, a range between the user equipment device and the external object based on the time-of-flight related signal.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides a method of operating an electronic device. The method may include transmitting wireless communication data with a wireless base station according to a wireless communication protocol using at least one antenna. The method may include transmitting a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) as defined by a wireless communication protocol using a transmit antenna. The method may include receiving, using a receive antenna, a signal including an SRS signal reflected from an external object. The method may include detecting, at the one or more processors, a range between the electronic device and the external object based on the SRS transmitted by the transmit antenna and the signal received by the receive antenna.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary user equipment device in a communication network having communication circuitry that uses antennas to perform both wireless communication and sensing operations, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary communication circuit that performs a sensing operation using a standard-compliant transmit waveform that is also used for wireless communication, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a table of exemplary standard-compliant transmit waveforms that may be used by the communication circuitry to perform sensing operations and wireless communications, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of exemplary operations involved in performing a sensing operation using a standard-compliant transmit waveform using communication circuitry, according to some embodiments.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of exemplary operations involved in generating a range to an external object based on transmitted and reflected standard-compliant transmit waveforms, according to some embodiments.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary communication system 8 (sometimes referred to herein as a communication network 8) for communicating wireless data between communication terminals. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 8 may include network nodes (e.g., communication terminals) such as User Equipment (UE) devices 10 and external communication equipment 42. The UE device 10 and the external communication equipment 42 may communicate with each other using a wireless communication link. If desired, the UE device 10 may communicate wirelessly with the external communication equipment 42 without communicating the communication through any other intervening network nodes in the communication system 8 (e.g., the UE device 10 may communicate wirelessly with the external communication equipment 42 directly over the air).

Communication system 8 may form part of a larger communication network that includes network nodes coupled to external communication equipment 42 via wired and/or wireless links. The larger communication network may include one or more wired communication links (e.g., communication links formed using cables such as ethernet cables, radio frequency cables such as coaxial cables or other transmission lines, optical fibers or other fiber optic cables, etc.), one or more wireless communication links (e.g., short range wireless communication links operating in the range of inches, feet, or tens of feet, medium range wireless communication links operating in the range of hundreds of feet, thousands of feet, miles, or tens of miles, and/or long range wireless communication links operating in the range of hundreds or thousands of miles, etc.), communication gateways, wireless access points, wireless base stations (e.g., gnbs), switches, routers, servers, modems, repeaters, telephone lines, network cards, line cards, portals, user equipment (e.g., computing devices, mobile devices, etc.), and the like.

The larger communication network may include communication (network) nodes or terminals coupled together using these components or other components (e.g., some or all of a mesh network, a relay network, a ring network, a local area network, a wireless local area network, a personal area network, a cloud network, a star network, a tree network, or a network of communication nodes having other network topologies), the internet, a combination of these, and the like. The user device 10 may send and/or receive data to/from other nodes or terminals in the larger communication network via the external communication equipment 42 (e.g., the external communication equipment 42 may act as an interface between the UE device 10 and the rest of the larger communication network). The communication network may be operated by a corresponding network operator or service provider, if desired. Portions of communication system 8 other than UE devices such as UE device 10 may sometimes be referred to herein as network equipment of communication network 8. The network equipment may include external communication equipment 42 (e.g., one or more wireless base stations or access points) and/or one or more nodes, terminals, and/or controllers of the communication system 8 (e.g., portions of the communication system 8 that do not include user equipment devices). The network equipment may include one or more processors (e.g., controllers) that perform the operations of the network equipment and/or the external communication equipment 42 as described herein.

The UE device 10 may be a portable electronic device (such as a cellular telephone, portable media player, wearable electronic device (e.g., a wristwatch, pendant, glasses or other head mounted device, etc.), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a game controller, a remote control, an electronic navigation device), other larger electronic device (such as a desktop computer, a television, a camera device, a set-top box, a home entertainment system, a server, or a computer monitor), or may include electronic equipment integrated into a larger system (such as a kiosk, building, or vehicle). The UE device 10 may sometimes be referred to herein as an electronic device 10 or simply as a device 10.

The external communication equipment 42 may include a wireless base station, an access point, a relay station, or a gateway, may include two or more of these, and the like. A specific implementation in which the external communication equipment 42 is a wireless base station (e.g., a wireless base station for transmitting cellular telephone signals in one or more cellular telephone frequency bands according to the 4G LTE communication protocol, the 3gpp 5G communication protocol, the 6G protocol, etc.) is described herein as an example. The wireless communication data communicated between the UE device 10 and the external communication equipment 42 may include any desired information (e.g., message data, voice data, application data, image data, video data, email data, web page data, authentication data such as a two-factor authentication code, real-time chat data, cloud service data, sensor data, etc.).

The UE device 10 may be provided with an electronic device housing such as housing 12. The housing 12 (which may sometimes be referred to as a shell) may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramic, fiber composite, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, metal alloys, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. In some cases, some or all of the housing 12 may be formed of dielectric or other low conductivity material (e.g., glass, ceramic, plastic, sapphire, etc.). In other cases, the housing 12 or at least some of the structures making up the housing 12 may be formed from metal elements.

As shown in fig. 1, the UE device 10 may include control circuitry 14 and input/output circuitry 20. The UE device 10 may include a communication bus and/or other data and control paths (not shown) that couple the control circuitry 14 to the input/output circuitry 20. The control circuit 14 may include a memory device, such as the memory circuit 16. The storage circuitry 16 may include volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamic random access memory), non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory or other electrically programmable read-only memory), hard disk drive storage, and the like. The storage circuitry 16 may be integrated within the UE device 10 and/or may include removable storage media. The control circuit 14 may also include a processing circuit 18. The processing circuitry 18 may control the operation of the UE device 10. The processing circuitry 18 may include one or more application specific integrated circuits, microprocessors, microcontrollers, baseband processor integrated circuits, graphics processing units, central processing units, digital signal processors, and the like.

Control circuitry 14 may be used to run software on UE device 10 such as operating system functions, software applications, satellite navigation applications, internet browsing applications, voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, email applications, media playback applications, operating system functions, and the like. To support interaction with external communication equipment 42, control circuitry 14 may be used to implement a communication protocol. Communication protocols that may be implemented using control circuitry 14 include Internet protocol, wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocol-sometimes referred to asSuch asProtocols for other short-range wireless communication links, such as protocols or other Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) protocols, IEEE 802.11ad protocols (e.g., ultra wideband protocols), cellular telephone protocols (e.g., 3G protocols, 4G (LTE) protocols, 3GPP fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR) protocols, sixth generation (6G) protocols, etc.), antenna diversity protocols, satellite navigation system protocols (e.g., global Positioning System (GPS) protocols, global satellite navigation system (GLONASS) protocols, etc.), antenna-based spatial ranging protocols, or any other desired communication protocol. Each communication protocol may be associated with a corresponding Radio Access Technology (RAT) that specifies the physical connection method used to implement the protocol.

The input/output circuitry 20 may include input/output (I/O) devices 22. Input/output device 22 is used to provide input to and output from UE device 10 (e.g., to and/or from an end user of UE device 10). For example, the input/output device 22 may include one or more displays, such as a touch-sensitive display, a force-sensitive display, both a touch-sensitive display and a force-sensitive display, or a display without touch or force sensor capabilities. The display may be a liquid crystal display, a light emitting diode display, an organic light emitting diode display, or the like. The input/output device 22 may include other components such as sensors (e.g., light sensors, proximity sensors, range sensors, image sensors, audio sensors such as microphones, force sensors, moisture sensors, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, fingerprint sensors, pressure sensors, touch sensors, ultrasonic sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, compasses, etc.), status indicators, speakers, vibrators, keyboards, touch pads, buttons, joysticks, and the like.

The input-output circuitry 20 may include wireless circuitry 24 to support wireless communications and radio-based sensing operations. The wireless circuit 24 may include two or more antennas 40, such as at least a first antenna 40TX and a second antenna 40RX. The wireless circuitry 24 may also include communication circuitry 26 coupled to an antenna 40 through a radio frequency transmission line path 34. Communication circuitry 26 may include one or more Transmit (TX) paths 30 (sometimes referred to herein as TX chain 30 or TX circuit 30) and may include one or more Receive (RX) paths 32 (sometimes referred to herein as RX chain 32 or RX circuit 32). The communication circuitry 26 may include baseband circuitry (e.g., one or more baseband processors, baseband processor circuitry, or other baseband circuitry) that generates wireless communication data for transmission and/or processes received wireless communication data. Baseband circuitry may be coupled to and/or included within TX path 30 and/or RX path 32.

TX path 30 may include transceiver circuitry (e.g., transmitter circuitry), mixer circuitry (e.g., up-conversion circuitry), amplifier circuitry (e.g., power amplifier), filter circuitry, impedance matching circuitry, switching circuitry, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, radio frequency transmission lines, and/or any other circuitry for transmitting radio frequency signals using a transmit antenna, such as transmit antenna 40 TX. RX path 32 may include transceiver circuitry (e.g., receiver circuitry), mixer circuitry (e.g., down-conversion circuitry), amplifier circuitry (e.g., low noise amplifier), filter circuitry, impedance matching circuitry, switching circuitry, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuitry, radio frequency transmission lines, and/or any other circuitry for receiving radio frequency signals using a receive antenna, such as receive antenna 40 RX.

The antenna 40 may be formed using any desired antenna structure for transmitting radio frequency signals. For example, the antenna 40 may include antennas having resonating elements formed from loop antenna structures, patch antenna structures, inverted-F antenna structures, slot antenna structures, planar inverted-F antenna structures, helical antenna structures, monopole antennas, dipoles, dielectric resonator antennas, waveguide antennas, hybrids of these designs, and the like. Filter circuitry, switching circuitry, impedance matching circuitry, and/or other antenna tuning components may be adjusted to adjust the frequency response and wireless performance of the antenna 40 over time. If desired, two or more antennas 40 may be integrated into the antenna array in combination with any desired method for digital and/or analog beamforming on the transmit and receive sides. As used herein, the term "transmitting radio frequency signals" means transmission and/or reception of radio frequency signals (e.g., for performing unidirectional and/or bidirectional wireless communications with external wireless communication equipment). The antenna 40 may transmit radio frequency signals by radiating radio frequency signals into free space (or through intervening device structures such as dielectric covers). Additionally or alternatively, antenna 40 may receive radio frequency signals from free space (e.g., through an intervening device structure such as a dielectric cover layer). The transmission and reception of radio frequency signals by the antenna 40 each involves the excitation or resonance of antenna currents on antenna resonating elements in the antenna by radio frequency signals within the operating band of the antenna.

Antenna 40 may include zero, one, or more additional antennas for transmission and/or reception of radio frequency signals. In the example of fig. 1, antennas 40 include at least one Transmit (TX) antenna 40TX and at least one Receive (RX) antenna 40RX. The transmit antenna 40TX may transmit a radio frequency signal such as radio frequency signal 46. The receive antenna 40RX may receive radio frequency signals incident on the UE device 10. The communication circuitry 26 may use the transmit antenna 40TX and the radio frequency signal 46 to communicate wireless communication data (e.g., in the uplink direction 43) between the UE device 10 and the external wireless communication equipment 42. The wireless circuitry 24 may use the receive antenna 40RX to receive radio frequency signals (e.g., in the downlink direction 45) including wireless communication data from the external communication equipment 42, which are not shown in fig. 1 for clarity. Wireless communication data may be communicated bi-directionally or uni-directionally by the communication circuitry 26. The wireless communication data may include, for example, data encoded into corresponding data packets/frames, such as wireless data associated with a telephone call, streaming media content, internet browsing, wireless data associated with a software application running on the UE device 10, email messages, and the like.

The communication circuit 26 may transmit and/or receive radio frequency signals within a corresponding band of radio frequencies (sometimes referred to herein as a communication band or simply "band"). The frequency bands processed by communication circuitry 26 may include Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) frequency bands (e.g.,(IEEE 802.11) or other WLAN communication bands) such as the 2.4GHz WLAN band (e.g., 2400MHz to 2480 MHz), the 5GHz WLAN band (e.g., 5180MHz to 5825 MHz), the wireless communication system, and the wireless communication system,6E band (e.g., 5925MHz to 7125 MHz) and/or othersFrequency bands (e.g., 1875MHz to 5160 MHz); wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) bands such as 2.4GHz Frequency bands or other WPAN communication bands; cellular telephone bands (e.g., bands of about 600MHz to about 5GHz, 3G bands, 4G LTE bands, 5G new radio frequency range 1 (FR 1) bands below 10GHz, 5G new radio frequency range 2 (FR 2) bands between 20GHz and 60GHz, 6G bands such as sub THz bands at frequencies above 100GHz, etc.); other centimeter or millimeter wave bands between 10GHz and 1000 GHz; near field communication band (e.g., 13.56 MHz); satellite navigation frequency bands (e.g., GPS frequency band 1565MHz to 1610MHz, global satellite navigation System (GLONASS) frequency band, beidou satellite navigation System (BDS) frequency band, etc.); an Ultra Wideband (UWB) band operating under the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol and/or other ultra wideband communication protocols; communication bands under the 3GPP family of wireless communication standards; a communication band under the IEEE 802.Xx family of standards; and/or any other desired frequency band of interest.

Communication circuitry 26 may couple to antenna 40 using one or more transmit paths, such as TX path 30, and/or one or more receive paths, such as RX path 32. TX path 30 may be coupled to transmit antenna 40TX through a first transmission line path 34, and RX path 32 may be coupled to receive antenna 40RX through a second transmission line path 34. The transmission line paths 34 may each include one or more transmission lines (e.g., coaxial cable, microstrip transmission line, strip transmission line, edge-coupled microstrip transmission line, edge-coupled strip transmission line, transmission line formed from a combination of these types of transmission lines, optical transmission line such as an optical fiber or waveguide, etc.). The transmission line paths in the UE device 10 may be integrated into rigid and/or flexible printed circuit boards, if desired. Communication circuit 26 may use TX path 30 to TX transmit radio frequency signals 46 through transmit antenna 40 and RX path 32 to receive radio frequency signals using receive antenna 40RX. One or more of the transmission lines may be shared between transmission line paths 34 coupled to TX path 30 and RX path 32, if desired. The components of the wireless circuitry 24 may be formed on one or more common substrates or modules (e.g., rigid printed circuit boards, flexible printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, chips, packages, systems on a chip, etc.).

The radio frequency signal 46 transmitted by the transmit antenna 40TX in the uplink direction 43 may also sometimes be referred to herein as an Uplink (UL) signal 46 or a transmit signal 46. The communication circuitry 26 generates (e.g., modulates, structures, organizes, synthesizes, constructs, forms, etc.) and transmits UL signals 46 according to a RAT and a wireless communication standard (sometimes also referred to as a wireless communication protocol, wireless standard, wireless protocol, communication standard or communication protocol) that governs wireless communication between a UE device, such as the UE device 10, and the external communication equipment 42. Thus, UL signals 46 may sometimes be referred to herein as standards-compliant signals that conform to and are specified, organized, and structured based on the corresponding wireless communication standards. The wireless communication standard may be, for example, a 3GPP standard such as the 3GPP 5G NR standard or the 6G standard. The standard is described by a corresponding technical specification issued by an associated standard or regulatory body (e.g. 3 GPP) for controlling communications under the standard (protocol). The technical specifications dictate how the signal waveforms, such as the transmit waveforms of UL signal 46, are structured, organized, timed, modulated, and/or transmitted such that external communication equipment 42 is able to properly receive, differentiate, sense, and/or decode wireless communication data communicated within UL signal 46 (e.g., for transmission to other portions of network 8). These signal waveforms may be defined herein as Transmit (TX) waveforms compliant with a (wireless communication) standard, transmit (TX) waveforms compliant with a (wireless communication) protocol, or (transmit signal) waveforms compliant with a wireless communication standard governing UL signals 46 and wireless communication data transfer between the UE device 10 and external communication equipment 42.

In addition to transmitting wireless communication data, the wireless circuitry 24 may also use the antenna 40 to perform radio frequency sensing operations such as spatial ranging operations (sometimes referred to herein as range sensing operations, ranging operations, or simply sensing operations). The spatial ranging operation generally involves transmission of a radio frequency sensing signal using a transmit antenna 40TX and reception of a corresponding reflected sensing signal using a receive antenna 40 RX. In some scenarios, wireless circuitry 24 includes additional spatial ranging circuitry for transmitting and receiving radio frequency sensing signals separate from communications circuitry 26. For example, wireless circuitry 24 may include dedicated radar circuitry such as Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar circuitry, orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) radar circuitry, frequency modulated step wave (FMSCW) radar circuitry, phase encoded radar circuitry, or other types of radar circuitry separate from communications circuitry 26. Such radar circuits do not transmit wireless communication data to the external communication equipment 42 and do not receive wireless communication data from the external communication equipment 42. Instead, the radar circuit transmits and receives dedicated spatial ranging signals, such as frequency ramps (e.g., chirp signals), frequency stepping signals, or other sensing specific waveforms, that are used only for spatial ranging operations (and not for communicating wireless communication data with the external communication equipment 42). These sense-specific waveforms are generally not compatible with, and not specified, controlled, or organized by, the wireless communication standard governing UL signal 46. Such sensing specific waveforms may therefore sometimes be referred to herein as non-compliant waveforms or signals because the signals are not compliant with, and not specified by, the technical specifications governing communication and wireless communication data transfer between the UE device 10 and the external communication equipment 42.

Implementing separate spatial ranging circuitry in wireless circuitry 24 and performing spatial ranging operations using non-compliant waveforms may consume excessive power within UE device 10, may occupy excessive space within UE device 10 (hardware real-world space) that may otherwise be occupied by other components or used to reduce the form factor of UE device 10), may undesirably increase the design complexity and expense of UE device 10, and may undesirably reduce the overall wireless performance of communication circuitry 26 when transmitting wireless communication data (e.g., by generating undesirable interference with UL signal 46 and/or by reducing the amount of time that wireless communication data may be transmitted without using UL signal 46, while also accommodating sensing transmissions of particular waveforms). To alleviate these problems, communication circuit 26 may use UL signal 46 itself (e.g., a standard-compliant transmit waveform) to perform the spatial ranging operation. Such an arrangement may sometimes be referred to as a joint communication and sensing (JC and S) arrangement. In some scenarios, a wireless base station such as external communication equipment 42 may perform JC and S under control of a corresponding network operator or provider. However, it may be desirable for the UE device 10 to perform JCs and S itself in order to perform a number of different device operations, such as body proximity sensing, health monitoring, gesture recognition, light independent camera auto-focusing, etc., while minimizing interference with wireless data communications.

To perform a spatial ranging operation in the JC and S arrangement, the communication circuit 26 may transmit an UL signal 46 (e.g., a radio frequency signal having a waveform that meets a standard) for performing the spatial ranging operation. The UE device 10 may perform a spatial ranging operation to detect a range R between the UE device 10 and an external object, such as external object 50. External object 50 may be one or more body parts of a user of UE device 10 or another person or animal, furniture, a floor, ceiling or wall surrounding UE device 10, a geographic feature, a building, a vehicle, an obstacle or hazard, a peripheral device or another UE device (such as a game controller, a remote control device, a wearable device or a head-mounted device), or any other object external to UE device 10 having a reasonably detectable radar cross section.

When performing spatial ranging operations, the transmitted UL signal 46 may reflect off of the external object 50 and back toward the UE device 10, as indicated by the radio frequency signal 48. The radio frequency signals 48 may sometimes be referred to herein as reflected signals 48, which are reflected versions of the UL signals 46 that have been reflected from the external object 50. The receive antenna 40RX may receive the reflected signal 48 and may pass the reflected signal up to the RX path 32. The communication circuit 26 may include a range processing circuit such as range processing circuit 28. The range processing circuitry 28 may process the transmitted UL signal 46 and the received reflected signal 48 to detect (e.g., measure, estimate, calculate, identify, generate, etc.) a range R between the UE device 10 and the external object 50. If desired, the range processing circuit 28 may also process the transmitted signals and the received signals to identify a two-or three-dimensional spatial position (location) of the external object 50, a velocity of the external object 50, and/or an angle of arrival of the reflected signal 48. Because the range R is detected using standard-compliant waveforms in the UL signal 46, the range processing circuit 28 can use the existing hardware of the communication circuit 26 (e.g., TX path 30 and RX path 32) that was originally used to communicate wireless communication data with the external communication equipment 42 without any additional hardware in the wireless circuit 24.

The example of fig. 1 is merely illustrative. Although, for clarity, in the example of fig. 1, control circuit 14 is shown separate from wireless circuit 24, wireless circuit 24 may include processing circuitry that forms part of processing circuit 18 and/or memory circuitry that forms part of memory circuit 16 of control circuit 14 (e.g., portions of control circuit 14 may be implemented on wireless circuit 24). As one example, some or all of the baseband circuitry in the radio circuit 24 and/or some or all of the range processing circuitry 28 may form part of the control circuit 14. In addition, the wireless circuitry 24 may include any desired number of antennas 40. Antennas 40 may include more than one transmit antenna 40TX, more than one receive antenna 40RX (e.g., multiple transmit and/or receive antennas may be used to perform spatial ranging and signal beamforming may be performed as one or more phased antenna arrays if desired), and zero, one, or more than one other antennas 40. Each antenna 40 may be coupled to the communication circuit 26 by one or more dedicated and/or shared transmission line paths 34. The UE device 10 may perform spatial ranging operations using all antennas 40 in the radio circuitry 24 or using only a subset of the antennas 40 in the radio circuitry 24. Although described herein as a transmit antenna for simplicity, transmit antenna 40TX may also be used to receive radio frequency signals for communication circuit 26 if desired (e.g., an additional RX path (not shown) may be coupled to transmit antenna 40 TX). Similarly, receive antenna 40RX may also be used for transmission of radio frequency signals if desired (e.g., an additional TX path (not shown) may be coupled to receive antenna 40 RX).

Fig. 2 is a circuit schematic diagram illustrating how communication circuit 26 may detect range R between UE device 10 and external object 50 using a standard-compliant transmit waveform in UL signal 46. As shown in fig. 2, communication circuit 26 may include a TX path 30 coupled to a transmit antenna 40TX and an RX path 32 coupled to a receive antenna 40 RX.

TX path 30 may include an OFDM symbol generator (such as complex OFDM symbol generator 54), a resource grid generator (such as standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56), a conversion circuit (such as Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) circuit 62, and an up-conversion circuit (such as up-converter 64). An output of up-converter 64 may be coupled to transmit antenna 40TX. An input of up-converter 64 may be coupled to an output of IFFT 62. An input of IFFT 62 may be coupled to an output of standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56. An input of standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56 may be coupled to a first output of complex OFDM symbol generator 54 through data path 58. Complex OFDM symbol generator 54 may have a second output coupled to range processing circuit 28 through control path 60. TX path 30 may include other circuits (e.g., switching circuits, filter circuits, amplifier circuits, digital-to-analog converter circuits, additional converter circuits, radio frequency front end circuits, impedance matching circuits, transformer circuits, clock circuits, coupling circuits, etc.) that are not shown in FIG. 2 for clarity.

The RX path 32 may include down-conversion circuitry such as a down-converter 80, a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and resource grid reconstructor 82, and a subcarrier selector 84. An input of the down-converter 80 may be coupled to the receive antenna 40RX. An output of the down-converter 80 may be coupled to an input of an FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82. An output of the FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82 may be coupled to an input of a subcarrier selector 84. The subcarrier selector 84 may have a first output 88 coupled to the range processing circuit 28 and, if desired, a second output 86 coupled to other circuitry in the RX path 32 (e.g., for receiving and processing wireless data in downlink signals received from external wireless communication equipment). The FFT and resource grid allocator 82 and/or the down converter 80 may have outputs coupled to the second output 86, if desired. The RX path 32 may include other circuits (e.g., switching circuits, filter circuits, amplifier circuits, analog-to-digital converter circuits, additional down-converter circuits, radio frequency front-end circuits, impedance matching circuits, transformer circuits, clock circuits, coupler circuits, etc.) that have been omitted from fig. 2 for clarity.

The range processing circuit 28 may include an OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover circuit 90, an FFT 94, and a peak search circuit (such as a coarse peak searcher and range finder 104 and optionally a fine peak searcher and range finder 106). The OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 may have a first input coupled to the complex OFDM symbol generator 54 through the control path 60 and may have a second input coupled to a first output 88 of the subcarrier selector 84. An output of the OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 may be coupled to an input of an FFT 94. The output of the FFT 94 may be coupled to a coarse peak searcher and range finder 104. An output of the coarse peak searcher and range finder 104 may be coupled to an input of the fine peak searcher and range finder 106. The fine peak searcher and range finder 106 may have an output 108 (e.g., an output of the range processing circuit 28).

The complex OFDM symbol generator 54, standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56, IFFT 62, subcarrier selector 84, FFT resource grid reconstructor 82, and range processing circuit 28 may be implemented, for example, in digital logic 52 of the communication circuit 26, and may be implemented in software (e.g., running on a memory circuit and executed by one or more processors) and/or hardware (e.g., using one or more logic gates, adders, subtractors, multipliers, dividers, other circuit components, diodes, transistors, switches, arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs), registers, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, one or more processors, look-up tables, etc.). For example, some or all of these components may form part of the control circuitry 14 of fig. 1, and the operations of some or all of these components may be performed by one or more processors on the UE device 10.

When transmitting wireless communication data, components of TX path 30 may generate UL signal 46 that transmits wireless communication data (e.g., as a series of data packets modulated onto a baseband signal that is upconverted to radio frequency), and transmit antenna 40TX may transmit UL signal 46 to external communication equipment 42 of fig. 1. The UL signal conveying the wireless communication data includes standard-compliant waveforms organized and generated according to a wireless communication standard governing communication between the UE device 10 and external communication equipment. Similarly, components of RX path 32 may receive downlink signals conveying wireless communication data from a wireless communication device. The downlink signal conveying the wireless communication data includes a standard-compliant waveform that is organized and generated (and received and decoded) according to a wireless communication standard that governs communication between the UE device 10 and external communication equipment.

When performing the spatial ranging operation, TX path 30, transmit antenna 40TX, RX path 32, and receive antenna 40RX are active simultaneously. TX path 30 may generate and transmit a standard-compliant waveform (e.g., uplink signal 46) for performing spatial ranging. To generate a standard-compliant waveform, a complex OFDM symbol generator 54 (sometimes referred to herein as complex OFDM symbol generation circuitry 54, complex OFDM symbol generation engine 54, or complex OFDM symbol generation block 54) may obtain (e.g., receive or generate) a complex OFDM symbol set sig from a higher layer for inclusion in UL signal 46. Complex OFDM symbol generator 54 may transmit complex OFDM symbol set sig over data path 58 to a standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56. Complex OFDM symbol generator 54 may also transmit a single OFDM symbol information sym to OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 via control path 60. The single OFDM symbol information sym may include respective amplitude and phase information associated with each of the complex OFDM symbols in the complex OFDM symbol set sig. For example, each of the symbols in the complex OFDM symbol set sig may be represented by a corresponding complex number in the sequence of complex numbers, and a single OFDM symbol information sym may identify each of these complex numbers. OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 may use a single OFDM symbol information sym to remove the known phase and amplitude of each corresponding complex OFDM symbol received over RX path 32 (described further below). The complex OFDM symbol set sig may also be represented by in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) curves whose amplitude varies with the subcarrier (frequency).

A standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56 (sometimes referred to herein as a standard-compliant resource grid allocation circuit 56, a standard-compliant resource grid allocation engine 56, or a standard-compliant resource grid allocation box 56) may allocate (e.g., generate, calculate, account, allocate, fill, compute, etc.) a resource grid rg based on the complex OFDM symbol set sig received from the complex OFDM symbol generator 54. An illustration 68 of fig. 2 shows an exemplary resource grid rg which can be generated on the basis of the complex OFDM symbol set sig received from the complex OFDM symbol generator 54. As shown in inset 68, the resource grid rg may include a set 70 of allocated resources (e.g., resource elements or blocks) in units of time (e.g., as divided into OFDM symbols) and frequency (e.g., as divided into subcarriers) corresponding to the complex OFDM symbol set sig received from the complex OFDM symbol generator 54. The resource grid rg may be organized and structured according to the wireless communication standard that manages the UL signal 46, and thus is sometimes referred to herein as a standard-compliant resource grid rg (e.g., a resource grid organized and structured according to the wireless communication standard that manages the UL signal 46 may be defined herein as a standard-compliant resource grid). In general, different criteria may specify different resource grid allocations and/or structures. The standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56 may transmit the standard-compliant resource grid rg to the IFFT 62.

IFFT 62 may perform IFFT operations and parallel-to-serial conversion on the standard compliant resource grid rg and may add a cyclic prefix (e.g., as required by the communication standard) to produce a standard compliant transmit waveform (e.g., an OFDM waveform) that is then passed to up-converter 64. Up-converter 64 may up-convert a standard-compliant transmit waveform to radio frequency as UL signal 46. Transmit antenna 40TX may then transmit UL signal 46 (and thus transmit a standard-compliant transmit waveform) for performing spatial ranging operations. An illustration 72 of fig. 2 shows one example of a standard-compliant transmit waveform (in a manner that varies in amplitude over time) that may be transmitted in UL signal 46 by up-converter 64 and transmit antenna 40 TX. For example, as shown in inset 72, a standard-compliant transmit waveform may include a signal burst beginning at time T1 and having a peak amplitude A1. The time domain signal burst may correspond to the case where the allocated subcarriers are in a standard-compliant resource grid rg (e.g., as shown by the allocated resources 70 in the inset 68).

In one example, the standard-compliant transmit waveform may include a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform (e.g., UL signal 46 for performing spatial ranging operations may be an SRS signal). The SRS waveform is particularly useful for performing spatial ranging operations because in many communication standards (e.g., the 3gpp 5g standard), SRS signals are sent out periodically and continuously at frequent and predictable intervals to allow nearby wireless base stations to estimate the UL channel quality of the UE device. During normal wireless data communication operations (e.g., without performing a spatial ranging operation), RX path 32 and receive antenna 40RX are inactive while TX path 30 and transmit antenna 30TX transmit SRS signals in UL signal 46 according to a wireless communication standard that governs communication between UE device 10 and a wireless base station. However, when communication circuit 26 is performing a spatial ranging operation using the SRS signal in UL signal 46, RX path 32 and receive antenna 40RX remain active while TX path 30 and transmit antenna 30TX transmit the SRS signal. In another example, the standard-compliant transmit waveform for spatial ranging operations may include the wireless communication data waveform itself (e.g., wireless data packets conveying message data, application data, web browser data, email data, video data, audio data, etc.) transmitted over a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or another channel. Thus, the UL signals 46 used to perform spatial ranging operations may be used simultaneously to convey control, reference, channel quality assessment, or signaling functions specified by the wireless communication data and/or other standards, thereby minimizing the impact of spatial ranging operations on wireless data communication.

For example, in an example where the standard-compliant transmit waveform for spatial ranging with UL signal 46 is an SRS waveform, the higher layer (or complex OFDM symbol generator 54) may define a corresponding subcarrier spacing (e.g., 120 kHz), may define a number of resource blocks (e.g., 275 for a 400MHz bandwidth number), and may define carriers with default properties to modify the carrier properties of interest. The higher layer (or complex OFDM symbol generator 54) may also define SRS with default properties, may define the number of OFDM symbols (e.g., length of signal in time), may define the number of elements (e.g., signal bandwidth), and may define positioning within the radio frame slot grid to modify SRS properties of interest (also modify SRS properties relative to carrier properties). The standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56 may use the modified carrier attribute of interest and the modified SRS attribute of interest to create a standard-compliant radio frame slot grid of the resource grid rg from the carrier definition and allocate from the SRS definition (e.g., as shown in inset 68). IFFT 62 and/or other circuitry in TX path 30 may generate a standard-compliant (e.g., OFDM) transmit waveform for UL signal 46 by performing IFFT operations and parallel-to-serial conversion on standard-compliant resource grid rg and by adding a cyclic prefix.

The transmitted UL signal may be reflected as a reflected signal 48 from an external object 50 located at a range (distance) R from the UE device. The receive antenna 40RX may receive the reflected signal 48. Meanwhile, receive antenna 40RX may also receive some of UL signals 46 transmitted by TX path 30 and transmit antenna 40TX that have not been reflected from external object 50 (as TX/RX leakage 66). TX/RX leakage 66 may include air leakage and/or conduction leakage. Downconverter 80 in RX path 32 may receive a signal including a combination of reflected signal 48, TX/RX leakage 66, and any other signal incident at receive antenna 40 RX.

The inset 74 of fig. 2 shows one example (in a manner that amplitude varies over time) of a signal (RX waveform) that may be received at the down converter 80. For example, as shown in inset 74, the received signal may include a signal burst beginning at time T2 and having a peak amplitude A2. The signal burst may be delayed by a time (T2-T1) relative to a time T1 associated with the time of flight of UL signal 46 toward and away from external object 50. The peak amplitude A2 may be lower than the peak amplitude A1 due to free space path loss and radar cross section of the external object 50. The received signal may also be much more noisy than the UL signal 46 transmitted by the transmit antenna 40 TX. In other words, the signal at down converter 80 may include a delayed and attenuated version of the transmitted standard-compliant waveform in UL signal 46 that may be compared to the transmitted standard-compliant waveform in UL signal 46 for identifying range R.

The down converter 80 may down convert the received signal from radio frequency (e.g., to baseband) and may pass the down converted signal to an FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82.FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82 may shift the RX waveform received from downconverter 80 to synchronize signal samples in the RX waveform with corresponding signal samples in the standard-compliant transmit signal waveform transmitted by TX path 30 (e.g., using a matched filter). The FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82 may then recover (reconstruct) the standard-compliant resource grid rg generated by the TX path 30 from the RX waveform received by the RX path 32 as a recovered (reconstructed) standard-compliant resource grid rg'. This may involve, for example, removing the cyclic prefix from the RX waveform, performing serial-to-parallel conversion, and performing FFT operations on the RX waveform.

The inset 76 of fig. 2 shows one exemplary recovered (reconstructed) resource grid rg' that may be generated based on the RX waveforms received by the RX path 32. As shown in the inset 76, the recovered resource grid rg' may comprise a set 78 of allocated resources (e.g. resource elements or blocks) in units of time (e.g. as divided into OFDM symbols) and frequency (e.g. as divided into subcarriers), which set corresponds to the allocated resources 70 in the standard-compliant resource grid rg and thus to the complex set of OFDM symbols sig provided by the complex OFDM symbol generator 54. The FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82 may transmit the recovered resource grid rg' to the subcarrier selector 84.

The subcarrier selector 84 may select a subcarrier (frequency) of interest from the recovered resource grid rg' and may provide a corresponding signal sub to an OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 via an output 88. The signal sub may include elements (e.g., resource grid elements) of the recovered resource grid rg' from the selected sub-carrier of interest. If desired, subcarrier selector 84 may provide signal sub, recovered resource grid rg' or the RX waveform itself to other circuitry in RX path 32 via output 86 for other processing (e.g., subcarrier selector 84 may be bypassed if desired when communication circuit 26 is not performing spatial ranging operations).

OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 may use the single OFDM symbol information sym received from complex OFDM symbol generator 54 in TX path 30 to perform element-level division for (for) each resource grid element of a selected subcarrier of interest in signal sub received from subcarrier selector 84 (e.g., remove codes from the encoded RX waveform, where the portion of the single OFDM symbol information sym corresponding to each resource element in signal sub specifies each code for that resource element). This may remove (e.g., subtract, filter, or remove) the corresponding amplitude and phase information from each OFDM symbol in the signal sub, thereby generating (e.g., recovering, generating, identifying, or leaving behind) a time-of-flight related signal tofph (e.g., a time-of-flight related phase signal). The inset 101 of fig. 2 shows one example of a time-of-flight related signal tofph that may be generated by the OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 (e.g., as an (I/Q) signal plot of amplitude versus subcarrier (frequency)). Because the amplitude and phase information from the original complex OFDM symbol of the transmitted waveform has been removed so far, the phase information in time-of-flight related signal tofph is completely indicative of the time-of-flight of UL signal 46 and reflected signal 48. Given the known speeds of UL signal 46 and reflected signal 48, range processing circuit 28 may therefore recover range R from time-of-flight related signal tofph.

The FFT 94 may perform an FFT operation on the time-of-flight related signal tofph to generate (e.g., account for, calculate, recover) a complex-valued range distribution that varies with range (e.g., power signal), as shown by curve 102 in inset 96 of fig. 2. The example of fig. 2 in which FFT 94 performs the FFT operation is merely illustrative, and in general, FFT 94 may perform any desired correlated receive equivalent matched filter operation (e.g., in one example, FFT 94 may be replaced with a correlated receive equivalent matched filter that performs any desired correlated receive equivalent matched filter operation, such as the FFT operation). As shown in curve 102, there will be a peak in the received signal that varies with range (after division to remove OFDM symbol amplitude and phase). The coarse peak searcher and range finder 104 may perform coarse peak detection on complex-valued range distributions to detect peaks such as peaks 98 and 100 of the illustration 96. Peak 98 may be generated at receive antenna 40RX by TX/RX leakage 66, for example, when transmission of UL signal 46 is performed by transmit antenna 40 TX. Peak 100 may be generated by reflected signal 48 when received by receive antenna 40 RX. The coarse peak searcher and range finder 104 can identify (e.g., calculate, estimate, measure, calculate, generate, determine, or detect) a range R based on a distance between the peaks 98 and 100 along the X-axis of the illustration 96 (e.g., the range R corresponds to the separation of the peaks 98 and 100 multiplied by a constant factor). If desired, the range processing circuit 28 may also include a fine peak searcher and range finder 106 that performs finer (more accurate) peak and range detection on the complex-valued range profile. The fine peak searcher and range finder 106 may be omitted if desired.

The range processing circuit 28 may output a control signal ctrl that uses the standard-compliant transmit waveform in the UL signal 46 to identify the range R detected between the UE device and the external object 50. One or more other applications may perform any desired operation using the range R identified by the control signal ctrl. For example, the control circuitry 14 may use the range R to detect the presence of a body part or person at or near one or more antennas 40 (e.g., body proximity sensing), and may use this information to switch active antennas and/or reduce transmit power levels to ensure that the UE device continues to meet specifications regarding radio frequency transmission and/or absorption. As another example, the control circuitry 14 may use the range R to detect one or more user input gestures or other control inputs to the UE device (e.g., by tracking how the range R changes over time and/or by identifying distances between the external object 50 and multiple antennas in the UE device). As another example, the control circuit 14 may use the range R to perform health monitoring (e.g., to monitor one or more vital statistics of the user of the UE device or another person, to detect if the user falls, is in an accident, is injured, etc.). As yet another example, the control circuit 14 may use the range R to perform a light independent camera autofocus operation. For example, the range R may be used to identify the focal length of the lens of one or more cameras on the UE device regardless of the ambient lighting conditions, and the control circuit 14 may adjust the lens to exhibit the identified focal length, and thus may capture a clear image of the external object 50. These examples are merely illustrative, and in general, the range R may be used for any desired purpose. If desired, the range processing circuit 28 may include one or more processing paths coupled to the output of the FFT 94 in parallel with the peak and range searchers 104 and 106 for performing other processing operations. As one example, the range processing circuit 28 may be a second processing path having a block 105 that collects data (e.g., signals tofph) from multiple antennas and having a block 107 that detects the angle of arrival of the reflected signal 48 based on the signals. Additionally or alternatively, the range processing circuit 28 may include a processing path having a block 109 that performs doppler estimation on the signal associated with the curve 102.

In general, TX path 30 may generate any desired standard-compliant transmit waveform for UL signals 46 that are used to detect range R. Fig. 3 includes a table 110 showing some of the standard-compliant transmit waveforms that may be used by the communication circuit 26 to detect the range R. As shown in table 110, the standard-compliant transmit waveform may be a standard-compliant reference signal waveform such as an SRS waveform (e.g., UL signal 46 for measurement range R may be an SRS signal). The standard-compliant transmit waveform may also be a standard-compliant transmit DATA waveform tx_data (e.g., UL signal 46 may be a UL DATA signal) for transmitting wireless communication DATA (e.g., DATA packets) to external communication equipment 42. As one example, the transmit DATA waveform tx_data may be transmitted over a PUSCH channel. The standard-compliant transmit waveforms may include other standard-compliant reference signal waveforms such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) waveform (e.g., PUSCH DMRS waveform), a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS) waveform (e.g., PUSCH PTRS waveform), and/or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) waveform. These examples are merely illustrative, and in general, the standard-compliant reference signal waveform may be any standard-compliant waveform (e.g., a 3gpp 5G NR-specified waveform, a 6G-specified waveform, a 4G LTE waveform, etc.) specified by the wireless communication protocol governing the communication between the UL signal 46 and the UE device 10 and the external communication equipment 42.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of exemplary operations involved in performing a spatial ranging operation using a standard-compliant transmit waveform using the communication circuit 26 of fig. 1 and 2. Operations 112 and 124 may be performed simultaneously (e.g., concurrently) when TX path 30 and RX path 32 in communication circuit 26 are active simultaneously. Operation 112 may include operations 114-122. Operation 124 may include operations 126-132.

At operation 112, TX path 30 may generate a standard-compliant transmit waveform and may transmit the standard-compliant transmit waveform in UL signal 46 using transmit antenna 40 TX. For example, at operation 114, the complex OFDM signal generator 54 may obtain a complex OFDM symbol set sig from a higher layer for transmission within a standard-compliant transmit waveform (e.g., an OFDM symbol set corresponding to one of the waveforms shown in table 110 of fig. 3). The complex OFDM signal generator 54 may transmit the complex OFDM symbol set sig to a standard compliant resource grid allocator 56.

At operation 116, the complex OFDM symbol generator 54 may transmit the single OFDM symbol information sym (e.g., the respective OFDM symbol phase and amplitude information for each complex OFDM symbol in the complex OFDM symbol set sig) to the OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 of the range processing circuit 28.

At operation 118, the standard-compliant resource grid allocator 56 may generate (allocate) the standard-compliant resource grid rg based on the complex OFDM symbol set sig.

At operation 120, the IFFT 62, up-converter 64, and other circuitry in the TX path 30 may generate an UL signal 46 comprising a standard compliant transmit waveform specified by a standard compliant resource grid rg. For example, IFFT 62 may perform IFFT operations and parallel-to-serial conversion on a standard compliant resource grid rg, and may add a cyclic prefix (e.g., as required by the wireless communication standard) to produce a standard compliant transmit waveform (e.g., an OFDM waveform) that is then passed to up-converter 64. Up-converter 64 may up-convert a standard-compliant transmit waveform to radio frequency as UL signal 46.

At operation 122, transmit antenna 40TX may transmit UL signal 46 (and thus a standard-compliant transmit waveform) for performing spatial ranging operations (e.g., as SRS signals, transmit data signals, DMRS signals, PTRS signals, CSI-RS signals, etc.).

Meanwhile, at operation 124, RX path 32 and receive antenna 40RX may remain active while TX path 30 and transmit antenna 40TX transmit UL signals 46 having a standard-compliant transmit waveform (e.g., UL signals as transmitted at process operation 112). The receive antennas 40RX and RX path 32 may receive signals when active. For example, at operation 126, receive antenna 40RX and RX path 32 may receive a signal including reflected signal 48 (e.g., UL signal 46 having a standard-compliant transmit waveform after reflection from external object 50) and TX/RX leakage 66.

At operation 128, the down converter 80 may down convert the received signal from radio frequency. FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82 may shift the RX waveform received from downconverter 80 to synchronize signal samples in the RX waveform with corresponding signal samples in the standard-compliant transmit signal waveform transmitted by TX path 30 (e.g., using a matched filter). The FFT and resource grid reconstructor 82 may then recover (reconstruct) the standard-compliant resource grid rg generated by the TX path 30 from the RX waveform received by the RX path 32 as a recovered (reconstructed) standard-compliant resource grid rg'. This may involve, for example, removing the cyclic prefix from the RX waveform, performing serial-to-parallel conversion, and performing FFT operations on the RX waveform.

At operation 130, the subcarrier selector 84 may select a subcarrier of interest from the recovered standard-compliant resource grid rg'.

At operation 132, the subcarrier selector 84 may provide a signal sub to the OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 via the output 88. The signal sub may include elements (e.g., resource grid elements) of the recovered resource grid rg' from the selected sub-carrier of interest. If desired, processing may loop from operation 132 back to operation 130 to scan through the different subcarriers of interest. Processing may proceed from operations 122 and 132 to operation 134.

At operation 134, the range processing circuit 28 may generate (e.g., detect, measure, identify, calculate, account, estimate, generate, etc.) a range R (e.g., control signal ctrl) based on the individual OFDM symbol information sym generated at operation 116 and based on the selected subcarriers of interest (e.g., signal sub generated at operation 132). The UE device 10 may then take any desired action based on the range R. For example, the control circuit 14 may perform body proximity sensing, gesture detection, health monitoring, light independent camera autofocus operations, and/or any other desired operations based on the range R.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of exemplary operations that may be performed by range processing circuit 28 to generate range R based on a single OFDM symbol information sym and signal sub. For example, the operations of FIG. 5 may be performed at processing operation 134 of FIG. 4.

At operation 136, the OFDM symbol amplitude and phase remover 90 may use the single OFDM symbol information sym to perform element-level division on each resource grid element of the selected sub-carrier of interest (e.g., signal sub). This may remove the corresponding amplitude and phase information from each OFDM symbol in the selected subcarrier of interest (signal sub), thereby producing a time-of-flight related signal tofph. Because the amplitude and phase information from the original complex OFDM symbol of the transmitted waveform has been removed so far, the phase information in time-of-flight related signal tofph is completely indicative of the time-of-flight of UL signal 46 and reflected signal 48.

At operation 138, FFT 94 may perform an FFT operation on time-of-flight related signal tofph to generate a complex-valued range profile (e.g., the signal shown by curve 102 of fig. 2, which plots the signal in a power-versus-range manner). For example, complex-valued range distributions may also cover angle-of-arrival and Doppler-related sensing.

At operation 140, the coarse peak searcher and range finder 104 may perform a coarse peak search on a complex-valued range distribution (e.g., a power signal) to detect peaks such as peaks 98 and 100 of the inset 96 in fig. 2. The coarse peak searcher and range finder 104 may identify a range R based on the distance between two of the detected peaks.

At optional operation 142, the fine peak searcher and range finder 106 may perform a fine (accurate) search of the complex-valued range profile (e.g., power signal) to detect peaks and thus detect the range R. For example, the fine peak searcher and range finder 106 may perform a chirp-z transform over a frequency range as specified by the coarse peak searcher and range finder 104. Operation 142 may be omitted if desired.

At optional operation 144, the range processing circuitry 28 may perform additional range optimization operations on the generated range R to further refine, optimize, and/or process the range R to generate additional information about the external object 50 and/or the received reflected signal. For example, the range processing circuitry 28 may perform an optimization window (sometimes referred to herein as window optimization) on the received signal (operation 146), may generate a moving target indicator to filter or remove non-moving targets from the signal (operation 152), may perform spectral cleaning on the signal (operation 148), may perform range/doppler processing on the signal using block 109 of fig. 2 (operation 150), may perform a super resolution algorithm to more accurately resolve the location of the external object (operation 156), may perform Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) detection on the signal (operation 154), and/or may perform angle of arrival (AoA) detection using the signal to detect an angle at which the reflected signal 48 is received at the UE device at operation 158 (e.g., using at least two ranges R as detected using at least two respective antennas on the UE device and as processed by blocks 105 and 107 of fig. 2). Operation 144 may be omitted if desired.

At operation 160, the range processing circuit 28 may transmit a control signal ctrl identifying the range R at the output 108 to one or more applications running on the control circuit 16 for further processing. In this manner, communication circuitry 26 may also perform spatial ranging operations using standard-compliant waveforms without requiring separate spatial ranging hardware on UE device 10 and with minimal impact on wireless data communications.

The UE device 10 may collect and/or use personally identifiable information. It is well known that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of inadvertent or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be specified to the user.

The methods and operations described above in connection with fig. 1-5 (e.g., the operations of fig. 4 and 5) may be performed by components of the UE device 10 using software, firmware, and/or hardware (e.g., dedicated circuitry or hardware). The software code for performing these operations may be stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium (e.g., a tangible computer readable storage medium) stored on one or more of the components of the UE device 10 (e.g., the storage circuitry 16 of fig. 1). The software code may sometimes be referred to as software, data, instructions, program instructions, or code. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium may include a drive, non-volatile memory such as non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), a removable flash drive or other removable medium, other types of random access memory, and the like. Software stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be executed by processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 18 of fig. 1, etc.) on one or more of the components of UE device 10. The processing circuitry may include a microprocessor, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an application-specific integrated circuit with processing circuitry, or other processing circuitry.

According to one embodiment, an electronic device is provided that includes a first antenna, a second antenna, and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the first antenna and the second antenna and configured to: transmitting wireless communication data with a wireless base station according to a wireless communication standard using one of the first antenna and the second antenna; transmitting a waveform conforming to the wireless communication standard using the first antenna; receiving, using the second antenna, a reflected version of the waveform transmitted by the first antenna; and detecting a range of an external object based at least on the reflected version of the waveform received by the second antenna.

According to another embodiment, the one or more processors are further configured to: generating a set of complex Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols associated with the waveform transmitted by the first antenna; allocating a resource grid conforming to the wireless communication standard based on the complex set of OFDM symbols; and converting the allocated resource grid into the waveform transmitted by the first antenna.

According to another embodiment, the one or more processors are further configured to generate a reconstructed resource grid compliant with the wireless communication standard based on the reflected version of the waveform received by the second antenna.

According to another embodiment, the one or more processors are further configured to: selecting subcarriers from the reconstructed resource grid; and generating a time-of-flight related signal by performing element level removal of OFDM symbol amplitude and phase information from selected subcarriers of the reconstructed resource grid based on single OFDM symbol information associated with the complex set of OFDM symbols.

According to another embodiment, the one or more processors are further configured to: generating a complex-valued range profile by performing a correlation receive equivalent matched filter operation on the time-of-flight correlation signal; performing peak detection on the complex-valued range distribution; and detecting the range based on the peak detection.

According to another embodiment, the peak detection operation comprises coarse peak detection followed by fine peak detection.

According to a further embodiment, the waveform comprises a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform or a transmit data waveform defined by the communication standard.

According to another embodiment, the communication standard comprises the 3gpp 5g communication standard.

According to a further embodiment, the waveform comprises a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform defined by the communication standard or a transmit data waveform defined by the communication standard.

According to one embodiment, there is provided a method of operating a user equipment device, the method comprising: transmitting wireless communication data to a wireless base station using a wireless communication standard using a first antenna; transmitting, using the first antenna, a standard-compliant waveform based on a set of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol having a respective phase and magnitude, the standard-compliant waveform defined by the wireless communication standard; receiving at a second antenna a reflected signal comprising the standard-compliant waveform transmitted by the first antenna; generating, at one or more processors, a time-of-flight related signal based on phase and magnitude information of the reflected signal and corresponding phases and magnitudes of the set of OFDM symbols; and detecting, at the one or more processors, a range between the user equipment device and an external object based on the time-of-flight related signal.

According to a further embodiment, detecting the range between the user equipment device and the external object comprises performing a correlation receive equivalent matched filter operation on the time-of-flight correlation signal to generate a complex-valued range distribution.

According to another embodiment, detecting the range between the user equipment device and the external object comprises: detecting a first peak in the complex-valued range distribution; detecting a second peak in the complex-valued range distribution; and detecting the range based on a spacing between the first peak and the second peak.

According to another embodiment, generating the standard-compliant waveform comprises: allocating a resource grid based on the set of OFDM symbols; performing parallel-to-serial conversion and inverse fast fourier transform on the allocated resource grid to generate a signal; adding a cyclic prefix to the signal; and up-converting the signal to radio frequency.

According to another embodiment, the method comprises: recovering the resource grid based on the reflected signal received with the second antenna; selecting a subcarrier from the recovered resource grid; and generating the time-of-flight related signal by performing element-level division on OFDM symbols in the selected subcarriers based on the respective phases and magnitudes of the set of OFDM symbols; recovering the resource grid includes: synchronizing the reflected signal time to the standard-compliant waveform transmitted by the first antenna; down-converting the reflected signal from the radio frequency; removing the cyclic prefix from the reflected signal; and performing serial-to-parallel conversion and fast fourier transformation on the reflected signal.

According to a further embodiment, the standard-compliant waveform comprises a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform.

According to another embodiment, the second antenna is integrated into a phased antenna array, and the method comprises: an angle of arrival of the reflected signal is detected, with the one or more processors, based on the reflected signal as received by the second antenna and as received by a third antenna in the phased antenna array.

According to another embodiment, the method includes generating, with the one or more processors, a moving target indicator based on the time-of-flight related signal.

According to another embodiment, the method includes performing, with the one or more processors, constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) detection, doppler processing, super resolution algorithms, spectral cleaning, or window optimization based on the time-of-flight related signals.

According to one embodiment, there is provided a method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising: transmitting wireless communication data with the wireless base station according to a wireless communication protocol using at least one antenna; transmitting a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) as defined by the wireless communication protocol using a transmit antenna; receiving a signal including the SRS signal reflected from an external object using a receiving antenna; and detecting, at one or more processors, a range between the electronic device and the external object based on the SRS transmitted by the transmit antenna and the signal received by the receive antenna.

According to another embodiment, the receive antenna is coupled to a receiver chain, and the receive antenna and the receiver chain are active simultaneously with the transmission of the SRS by the first antenna.

The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications may be made to the embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented independently or in any combination.

Claims (20)

1. An electronic device, the electronic device comprising:

A first antenna;

a second antenna; and

One or more of the processors of the present invention, the one or more processors are communicatively coupled to the first antenna and the second antenna and configured to

Transmitting wireless communication data with a wireless base station according to a wireless communication standard using one of the first antenna and the second antenna,

A waveform conforming to the wireless communication standard is transmitted using the first antenna,

Receiving a reflected version of the waveform transmitted by the first antenna using the second antenna, and

A range of an external object is detected based at least on the reflected version of the waveform received by the second antenna.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

Generating a set of complex Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols associated with the waveform transmitted by the first antenna;

Allocating a resource grid conforming to the wireless communication standard based on the complex set of OFDM symbols; and

The allocated resource grid is converted into the waveform transmitted by the first antenna.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

a reconstructed resource grid is generated that conforms to the wireless communication standard based on the reflected version of the waveform received by the second antenna.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

selecting subcarriers from the reconstructed resource grid; and

A time-of-flight related signal is generated by performing element level removal of OFDM symbol amplitude and phase information from selected subcarriers of the reconstructed resource grid based on single OFDM symbol information associated with the complex set of OFDM symbols.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

Generating a complex-valued range profile by performing a correlation receive equivalent matched filter operation on the time-of-flight correlation signal;

performing peak detection on the complex-valued range distribution; and

The range is detected based on the peak detection.

6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the peak detection operation comprises coarse peak detection followed by fine peak detection.

7. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the waveform comprises a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform or a transmit data waveform defined by the communication standard.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the communication standard comprises a 3gpp 5g communication standard.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the waveform comprises a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform defined by the communication standard or a transmit data waveform defined by the communication standard.

10. A method of operating a user equipment device, the method comprising:

transmitting wireless communication data to a wireless base station using a wireless communication standard using a first antenna;

Transmitting, using the first antenna, a standard-compliant waveform based on a set of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol having a respective phase and magnitude, the standard-compliant waveform being defined by the wireless communication standard;

receiving at a second antenna a reflected signal comprising the standard-compliant waveform transmitted by the first antenna;

Generating, at one or more processors, a time-of-flight related signal based on phase and magnitude information of the reflected signal and corresponding phases and magnitudes of the set of OFDM symbols; and

A range between the user equipment device and an external object is detected based on the time-of-flight related signal at the one or more processors.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein detecting the range between the user equipment device and the external object comprises:

a correlation receive equivalent matched filter operation is performed on the time-of-flight correlated signal to generate a complex-valued range distribution.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the range between the user equipment device and the external object further comprises:

Detecting a first peak in the complex-valued range distribution;

detecting a second peak in the complex-valued range distribution; and

The range is detected based on a spacing between the first peak and the second peak.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the standard-compliant waveform comprises:

Allocating a resource grid based on the set of OFDM symbols;

Performing parallel-to-serial conversion and inverse fast fourier transform on the allocated resource grid to generate a signal;

Adding a cyclic prefix to the signal; and

The signal is up-converted to radio frequency.

14. The method of claim 13, the method further comprising:

recovering the resource grid based on the reflected signal received with the second antenna;

Selecting a subcarrier from the recovered resource grid; and

Generating the time-of-flight related signal by performing element-level division on OFDM symbols in the selected subcarriers based on the respective phases and magnitudes of the set of OFDM symbols, wherein recovering the resource grid comprises:

synchronizing the reflected signal time to the standard-compliant waveform transmitted by the first antenna;

down-converting the reflected signal from the radio frequency;

removing the cyclic prefix from the reflected signal; and

Serial-to-parallel conversion and fast fourier transformation are performed on the reflected signal.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the standard-compliant waveform comprises a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the second antenna is integrated into a phased antenna array, and the method further comprises:

an angle of arrival of the reflected signal is detected, with the one or more processors, based on the reflected signal as received by the second antenna and as received by a third antenna in the phased antenna array.

17. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising:

a moving target indicator is generated based on the time-of-flight related signal using the one or more processors.

18. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising:

Performing, with the one or more processors, constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) detection, doppler processing, super resolution algorithms, spectrum cleaning, or window optimization based on the time-of-flight related signals.

19. A method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising:

transmitting wireless communication data with the wireless base station according to a wireless communication protocol using at least one antenna;

Transmitting a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) as defined by the wireless communication protocol using a transmit antenna;

receiving a signal including the SRS signal reflected from an external object using a receiving antenna; and

At one or more processors, a range between the electronic device and the external object is detected based on the SRS transmitted by the transmit antenna and the signal received by the receive antenna.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the receive antenna is coupled to a receiver chain, and the receive antenna and the receiver chain are active simultaneously with transmission of the SRS by the first antenna.