Electronic device and method using UWB signal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12019139-B2
Application number	US-202217857525-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 5, 2022
Priority date	Jul 2, 2021
Publication date	Jun 25, 2024
Grant date	Jun 25, 2024

Abstract

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes an antenna module, a communication module configured to control the antenna module, and at least one processor operatively connected to the communication module, wherein the at least one processor transmits a ultra-wide band (UWB) signal including a first data frame, receives, based on the transmitted first data frame, a reflected first data frame, obtains a first channel impulse response by using the reflected first data frame, acquires information by using the channel impulse response, and receives a UWB signal including a second data frame from an external electronic device in response to the transmitted first data frame.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
an antenna array;
a communication circuit configured to control the antenna array; and
at least one processor operatively connected to the communication circuit,
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
transmit an ultra-wide band (UWB) signal including a first data frame to an external electronic device,
receive, based on the transmitted first data frame, a reflected first data frame,
obtain a first channel impulse response based on the reflected first data frame,
acquire information based on the first channel impulse response, and
receive an UWB signal including a second data frame from the external electronic device in response to the transmitted first data frame.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to configure a reception antenna of the antenna array to be turned on, before transmitting the UWB signal including the first data frame.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to configure the reception antenna to be turned off when a maximum allowable time to receive the reflected first data frame has passed.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine to enable an UWB ranging mode and a radar mode at the same time based on a state of the electronic device before transmitting the UWB signal including the first data frame.

5. The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to select a data frame element from among a plurality of data frame elements of the first data frame for radar mode operation.

6. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the selected data frame element corresponds to a synchronizer (SYNC) and a scrambled timestamp secure (STS).

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
transmit an UWB signal including a third data frame to the external electronic device in response to the second data frame,
receive, based on the transmitted third data frame, a reflected third data frame,
obtain a second channel impulse response based on the reflected third data frame, and
acquire information, based on the first channel impulse response and the second channel impulse response.

8. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the information acquirable based on the first channel impulse response corresponds to one of existence or absence of a living thing, a heart rate, and a movement of an object.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the second data frame comprises information about a time at which the external electronic device has received the first data frame and a time at which the external electronic device transmits the second data frame,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to calculate a distance between the electronic device and the external electronic device based on a transmission time of the first data frame, and
wherein the transmission time of the first data frame is based on a difference between the time at which the electronic device transmits the first data frame and the time at which the external electronic device has received the first data frame included in the second data frame.

10. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the antenna array comprises multiple antennas, and
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
receive the UWB signal including the second data frame by the multiple antennas, and
identify direction information of the external electronic device based on a time at which the UWB signal including the second data frame is received by the multiple antennas.

11. A method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising:
transmitting an ultra-wide band (UWB) signal including a first data frame to an external electronic device;
receiving, based on the transmitted first data frame, a reflected first data frame;
obtaining a first channel impulse response based on the reflected first data frame;
acquiring information based on the first channel impulse response; and
receiving an UWB signal including a second data frame from the external electronic device in response to the transmitted first data frame.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
configuring a reception antenna to be turned on, before transmitting the UWB signal including the first data frame.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
configuring the reception antenna to be turned off when a maximum allowable time to receive the reflected first data frame has passed.

14. The method of claim 13 ,
wherein the configuring the reception antenna to be turned off is performed before the receiving of the UWB signal including the second data frame from the external electronic device.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
determining to enable an UWB ranging mode and a radar mode at the same time based on a state of the electronic device before transmitting the UWB signal including the first data frame.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
selecting a data frame element from among a plurality of data frame elements of the first data frame for radar mode operation.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the selected data frame element corresponds to a synchronizer (SYNC) and a scrambled timestamp secure (STS).

18. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
transmitting an UWB signal including a third data frame to the external electronic device in response to the second data frame;
receiving, based on the transmitted third data frame, a reflected third data frame;
obtaining a second channel impulse response based on the reflected third data frame; and
acquiring information, based on the first channel impulse response and the second channel impulse response.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the information acquirable based on the first channel impulse response corresponds to one of existence or absence of a living thing, a heart rate, and a movement of an object.

20. The method of claim 11 ,
wherein the second data frame comprises information about a time at which the external electronic device has received the first data frame and a time at which the external electronic device transmits the second data frame,
wherein the method further comprises calculating a distance between the electronic device and the external electronic device based on a transmission time of the first data frame, and
wherein the transmission time of the first data frame is based on a difference between the time at which the electronic device transmits the first data frame and the time at which the external electronic device has received the first data frame included in the second data frame.

21. The method of claim 11 ,
wherein the receiving of the UWB signal including the second data frame from the external electronic device comprises receiving the UWB signal including the second data frame by multiple antennas, and
wherein the method further comprises identifying direction information of the external electronic device based on a time at which the UWB signal including the second data frame is received by the multiple antennas.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kang Moonseok
• Yang Yi
• Kim Hyunchul
• Shin Jiho
• Hong Sukgi

Classifications

• H04B1/7163

  using impulse radio · CPC title

• H01Q5/25

  Ultra-wideband [UWB] systems, e.g. multiple resonance systems; Pulse systems · CPC title

• G01S7/415

  Identification of targets based on measurements of movement associated with the target · CPC title

• G01S13/10

  using transmission of interrupted, pulse modulated waves (determination of distance by phase measurement G01S13/32) · CPC title

• G01S13/0209

  Systems with very large relative bandwidth, i.e. larger than 10 %, e.g. baseband, pulse, carrier-free, ultrawideband · CPC title