Method and apparatus to mitigate interference between hardware circuitry and wireless circuitry in a wireless communication device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9819424-B2
Application number	US-201414481769-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2014
Priority date	Sep 9, 2013
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to mitigate radio frequency interference generated by hardware circuitry and received by wireless circuitry of a wireless communication device are described. A processor obtains a set of wireless performance metrics for signals received by the wireless circuitry. The processor determines a preferred operating mode for the hardware circuitry based on the set of wireless performance metrics and provides an indication of the preferred operating mode to the hardware circuitry. The hardware circuitry is configured for operation in accordance with the preferred operating mode. The processor and/or a second processor provide an indication to the wireless circuitry when the hardware circuitry initiates and terminates an operation that can cause radio frequency interference into the wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry is configured during a time period that the hardware circuitry is operational to mitigate effects of radio frequency interference generated by the hardware circuitry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless communication device comprising:
wireless circuitry including a wireless controller; and
biometric sensor hardware circuitry including a hardware controller communicatively coupled to the wireless controller,
wherein the wireless controller is configured to:
determine a preferred operating mode from multiple operating modes for the biometric sensor hardware circuitry based at least in part on (i) a set of applications running concurrently or scheduled to run concurrently with operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry on the wireless communication device and (ii) a set of wireless performance metrics that include at least one wireless performance metric for at least one application in the set of applications, and
provide an indication of the preferred operating mode for the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to the hardware controller, and
adapt operation of the wireless circuitry based on a sequence of indications corresponding to a sequence of consecutive alternating “on” and “off” operating states of the preferred operating mode of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to mitigate effects of radio frequency interference received by the wireless circuitry caused by operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry; and

wherein the hardware controller is configured to:
determine operation for the biometric sensor hardware circuitry based on the indication of the preferred operating mode to mitigate an amount of interference generated by the biometric sensor hardware circuitry while operational, the preferred operating mode comprising the sequence of consecutive alternating “on” and “off” operating states of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to perform a scanning function; and
provide the sequence of indications corresponding to the preferred operating mode to the wireless controller;
wherein the multiple operating modes comprise:
a first operating mode in which operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry is in the “on” operating state continuously for a first time period, and
a second operating mode having a sequence of consecutive alternating “on” and “off” operating states of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry in which operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry is in the “on” operating state for a plurality of “on” time periods, each “on” time period shorter than the first time period.

2. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless circuitry further comprises a plurality of antennas, and the wireless controller is further configured to:
enable receive diversity for the plurality of antennas in response to an indication that the biometric sensor hardware circuitry operates in an “on” operating state; and
disable receive diversity for the plurality of antennas in response to an indication that the biometric sensor hardware circuitry operates in an “off” operating state.

3. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless circuitry further comprises a plurality of antennas, and wherein the wireless controller is configured to enable or disable receive diversity for the plurality of antennas based on both the indications of the “on” and “off” operating states of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry and on a powering mode of the wireless communication device.

4. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless circuitry further comprises a plurality of antennas, and wherein the wireless controller enables receive diversity for the plurality of antennas when the wireless communication device is powered through an external power source.

5. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the biometric sensor hardware circuitry is configurable to operate in the first operating mode in which operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry is in the “on” operating state continuously for the first time period to perform the scanning function and the second operating mode in which operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry alternates between the “on” operating state and the “off” operating state for a second time period longer than the first time period to perform a scanning sub-function repeatedly during the “on” operating states for up to a set number of times to complete performance of the scanning function over the second time period.

6. The wireless communication device of claim 5 , wherein the wireless circuitry indicates the preferred operating mode is, from the multiple operating modes, the first operating mode when the set of wireless performance metrics for the set of applications satisfy corresponding performance thresholds and the second operating mode when a wireless performance metric for an application of the set of applications does not satisfy a corresponding performance threshold.

7. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless controller is further configured to monitor wireless receive performance comprising one or more of a receive signal quality, a receive signal strength, a bit error rate, and a packet error rate and determine the preferred operating mode of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry based on the monitored wireless receive performance.

8. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless controller determines the preferred operating mode of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry based on an estimate of radio frequency interference from the biometric sensor hardware circuitry for one or more frequency bands used by the wireless circuitry concurrently with operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein a length of time for any of the “on” operating states is based on requirements for operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to perform the scanning function and a length of time for any of the “off” operating states is based on requirements for operation of the wireless circuitry to satisfy the at least one wireless performance metric for the at least one application.

10. A method of interference mitigation to facilitate coexistence of biometric sensor hardware circuitry and wireless circuitry in a wireless communication device, the method comprising:
by the wireless communication device:
determining a preferred operating mode from multiple operating modes for the biometric sensor hardware circuitry based at least in part on (i) a set of applications running concurrently or scheduled to run concurrently with operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry on the wireless communication device and (ii) a set of wireless performance metrics that include at least one wireless performance metric for at least one application in the set of applications;
providing an indication of the preferred operating mode to the biometric sensor hardware circuitry;
configuring operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to operate in accordance with the preferred operating mode, the preferred operating mode comprising a corresponding sequence of consecutive alternating “on” and “off” operating states of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to perform a scanning function;
providing indications of the corresponding sequence of the preferred operating mode of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to the wireless circuitry; and
adapting operation of the wireless circuitry based on the indications of the sequence of consecutive alternating “on” and “off” operating states of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry to mitigate effects of radio frequency interference received by the wireless circuitry caused by operation of the biometric sensor hardware circuitry;
wherein the multiple operating modes comprise:
a

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Balasubramanian Sanjeevi

Classifications

• H04B15/02 Primary

  Reducing interference from electric apparatus by means located at or near the interfering apparatus · CPC title