Control method and wireless module applied to wireless device

This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/823,057, filed on Mar. 25, 2019, which is included herein by reference in its entirety.

The current wireless device generally comprises at least two wireless modules such as Wi-Fi module and Bluetooth (BT) module. To avoid signal collision, the wireless modules may select non-overlapping channels and use frequency division duplex (FDD) method to transmit/receive data. In the FDD coexistence of the wireless modules, a transmitting signal of one wireless module will degrade a receiving signal of another wireless module, even if the wireless modules work on non-overlapping channels. To mitigate the performance degradation of the receiver, a power of the transmitting signal and a gain of the receiver may be designed lower. However, lowering the power of the transmitting signal will decrease a transmitting range, and lowering the gain of the receiver will degrade the sensitivity and cause a near-far issue. In addition, the transmitter-receiver (TX-RX) isolation becomes smaller in the current wireless device, and the smaller TX-RX isolation introduces worse signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the limits of the power of the transmitting signal and the gain of the receiver are designed lower.

It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a control method and a circuit applied to the wireless device, which can align the timing of the transmitting signal of one wireless module to determine an upper limit of the gain of the receiver of another wireless module, or align the timing of the receiving signal of one wireless module to determine an upper limit of the gain of the transmitter of another wireless module, to solve the above-mentioned problems.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a control method of a wireless device is provided, wherein the wireless device comprises a first wireless module and a second wireless module, and the control method comprises the steps of: obtaining transmitter time information that a transmitter of the first wireless module transmits a transmitting signal; and referring to the transmitter time information to determine an upper limit of a gain of a receiver of the second wireless module.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a control method of a wireless device is provided, wherein the wireless device comprises a first wireless module and a second wireless module, and the control method comprises the steps of: obtaining receiver time information that a receiver of the first wireless module receives a receiving signal; and referring to the receiver time information to determine an upper limit of a power of a transmitting signal transmitted by a transmitter of the second wireless module.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a wireless module applied to a wireless device is provided, and the wireless module comprises a receiver, a transmitter and a control circuit. The receiver is configured to receive a receiving signal from an electronic device external to the wireless device, the transmitter is configured to transmit a transmitting signal, and the control circuit is configured to control a gain of the receiver and controlling a gain of the transmitter. In the operations of the wireless module, the controller refers to transmitter time information and a gain of a transmitter within another wireless module to determine an upper limit of the gain of the receiver, and/or the controller refers to receiver time information and a gain of a receiver within the another wireless module to determine an upper limit of the gain of the transmitter.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a RX gain control of the wireless module according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a TX power control of the wireless module according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claims to refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . ”. The terms “couple” and “couples” are intended to mean either an indirect or a direct electrical connection. Thus, if a first device couples to a second device, that connection may be through a direct electrical connection, or through an indirect electrical connection via other devices and connections.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless device 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the wireless device 100 comprises two wireless modules 110 and 120 and a processor 130 , where the wireless module 110 comprises a receiver 112 , a transmitter 114 and a control circuit 116 , and the wireless module 120 comprises a receiver 122 , a transmitter 124 and a control circuit 126 . In this embodiment, the wireless device 100 can be any electronic device capable of wirelessly communicating with one or more electronic devices such as the electronic device 102 , and the wireless modules 110 and 120 may be Wi-Fi module and BT module, respectively. In addition, the control circuits 116 and 126 can be implemented by hardware or software, that is the control circuits 116 and 126 may be implemented by using the processor to execute software code.

In the wireless module 110 , the receiver 112 comprises at least one amplifier for amplifying a receiving signal V 1 to generate an amplified receiving signal V 1 ′, and the amplified receiving signal V 1 ′ is transmitted to the processor 130 after being processed by other elements, wherein the gain of the receiver 112 (i.e. the gain of at least one amplifier within the receiver 112 ) is controlled by the control circuit 116 . In addition, the transmitter 114 comprises at least one amplifier for amplifying a transmitting signal V 2 from the processor 130 to generate an amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′, and the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′ is broadcasted via an antenna of the wireless device 100 , wherein the gain of the transmitter 114 (i.e. the gain of at least one amplifier within the transmitter 114 ) is controlled by the control circuit 116 . Similarly, in the wireless module 120 , the receiver 122 comprises at least one amplifier for amplifying a receiving signal V 3 to generate an amplified receiving signal V 3 ′, and the amplified receiving signal V 3 ′ is transmitted to the processor 130 after being processed by other elements, wherein the gain of the receiver 122 (i.e. the gain of at least one amplifier within the receiver 122 ) is controlled by the control circuit 126 . In addition, the transmitter 124 comprises at least one amplifier for amplifying a transmitting signal V 4 from the processor 130 to generate an amplified transmitting signal V 4 ′, and the amplified transmitting signal V 4 ′ is broadcasted via an antenna of the wireless device 100 , wherein the gain of the transmitter 124 (i.e. the gain of at least one amplifier within the transmitter 124 ) is controlled by the control circuit 126 . Hereinafter, “TX power” of the wireless module 110 / 120 is used to indicate the power of the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′/V 4 ′, or the gain of the transmitter 114 / 124 , or the gain of one or more amplifiers within the transmitter 114 / 124 , or any other value capable of representing the strength/power/amplitude of the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′/V 4 ′; and “RX gain” of the wireless module 110 / 120 is used to indicate the gain of the receiver 112 / 122 , or the gain of one or more amplifiers within the receiver 112 / 122 , or any other amplifying factor contributed by the receiver 112 / 122 .

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , the wireless module 110 obtains the transmitter time information provided by the wireless module 120 in a real-time manner, wherein the transmitter time information of the wireless module 120 indicates that when the transmitter 124 of the wireless module 120 transmits the amplified transmitting signal V 4 ′. After receiving the transmitter time information of the wireless module 120 , the control circuit 116 refers to the transmitter time information of the wireless module 120 to determine an upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless module 110 , so that the control circuit 116 generates the control signal Vc 1 to control the RX gain of the wireless module 110 (i.e. the RX gain can be any suitable value lower than the upper limit). Specifically, the control circuit 116 can align the timing of the amplified transmitting signal V 4 ′ to determine the upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless module 110 , that is the control circuit 116 can lower the upper limit of the RX gain when the transmitter 124 transmits the amplified transmitting signal V 4 ′ to mitigate the performance degradation, and the control circuit 116 does not limit the RX gain of the wireless module 110 or uses a predetermined upper limit of the RX gain when the transmitter 124 does not transmit the amplified transmitting signal V 4 ′ to maintain the sensitivity. In one embodiment, the upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless device 110 is determined lower if the wireless device 120 has higher TX power. Taking FIG. 2 as an example, if the wireless module 120 does not transmit any signal, the upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless module 110 is set to be a predetermined upper limit G 0 or the control circuit 116 does not set the upper limit (e.g. the upper limit is released when it is detected that the wireless module 120 stops transmitting the transmitting signal); if the TX power of the wireless module 120 is small, the control circuit 116 determines the upper limit G 1 of the RX gain of the wireless module 110 ; and if the TX power of the wireless module 120 is large, the control circuit 116 determines the lower upper limit G 2 of the RX gain of the wireless module 110 .

In one embodiment, the wireless module 110 obtains receiver time information provided by the wireless module 120 in a real-time manner, wherein the receiver time information of the wireless module 120 indicates that when the receiver 122 of the wireless module 120 receives and processes the receiving signal V 3 . After receiving the receiver time information of the wireless module 120 , the control circuit 116 refers to the receiver time information of the wireless module 120 to determine an upper limit of the TX power of the wireless module 110 , so that the control circuit 116 generates the control signal Vc 2 to control the TX power of the wireless module 110 (i.e. the TX power can be any suitable value lower than the upper limit). Specifically, the control circuit 116 can align the timing of the receiving signal V 3 to determine the upper limit of the TX power of the wireless module 110 , that is the control circuit 116 can lower the upper limit of the TX power when the receiver 122 receives and processes the receiving signal V 3 to mitigate the performance degradation of the wireless module 120 , and the control circuit 116 does not limit the TX power of the wireless module 120 or uses a predetermined upper limit of the TX power when the receiver 122 does not receive and process the receiving signal V 3 to maintain the sensitivity of the wireless module 120 . In one embodiment, the upper limit of the TX power of the wireless device 110 is determined lower if the wireless device 120 has higher RX gain. Taking FIG. 3 as an example, if the wireless module 120 does not receive and process any signal, the upper limit of the TX power of the wireless module 110 is set to be a predetermined upper limit G 3 or the control circuit 126 does not set the upper limit; if the RX gain of the wireless module 120 is small, the control circuit 126 determines the upper limit G 4 of the TX power of the wireless module 110 ; and if the RX gain of the wireless module 120 is large, the control circuit 126 determines the lower upper limit G 5 of the TX power of the wireless module 110 .

Regarding the wireless module 120 , in one embodiment, the wireless module 120 obtains the transmitter time information provided by the wireless module 110 in a real-time manner, wherein the transmitter time information of the wireless module 110 indicates that when the transmitter 114 of the wireless module 110 transmits the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′. After receiving the transmitter time information of the wireless module 110 , the control circuit 126 refers to the transmitter time information of the wireless module 110 to determine an upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless module 120 , so that the control circuit 126 generates the control signal Vc 3 to control the RX gain of the wireless module 120 (i.e. the RX gain can be any suitable value lower than the upper limit). Specifically, the control circuit 126 can align the timing of the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′ to determine the upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless module 120 , that is the control circuit 126 can lower the upper limit of the RX gain when the transmitter 114 transmits the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′ to mitigate the performance degradation, and the control circuit 126 does not limit the RX gain of the wireless module 120 or uses a predetermined upper limit of the RX gain when the transmitter 114 does not transmit the amplified transmitting signal V 2 ′ to maintain the sensitivity. In one embodiment, the upper limit of the RX gain of the wireless device 120 is determined lower if the wireless device 110 has higher TX power, which is similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 .

In one embodiment, the wireless module 120 obtains receiver time information provided by the wireless module 110 in a real-time manner, wherein the receiver time information of the wireless module 110 indicates that when the receiver 112 of the wireless module 110 receives and processes the receiving signal V 1 . After receiving the receiver time information of the wireless module 110 , the control circuit 126 refers to the receiver time information of the wireless module 110 to determine an upper limit of the TX power of the wireless module 120 , so that the control circuit 126 generates the control signal Vc 4 to control the TX power of the wireless module 120 (i.e. the TX power can be any suitable value lower than the upper limit). Specifically, the control circuit 126 can align the timing of the receiving signal V 2 to determine the upper limit of the TX power of the wireless module 120 , that is the control circuit 126 can lower the upper limit of the TX power when the receiver 112 receives and processes the receiving signal V 2 to mitigate the performance degradation of the wireless module 120 , and the control circuit 126 does not limit the TX power of the wireless module 120 or uses a predetermined upper limit of the TX power when the receiver 112 does not receive and process the receiving signal V 2 to maintain the sensitivity of the wireless module 110 . In one embodiment, the upper limit of the TX power of the wireless device 120 is determined lower if the wireless device 110 has higher RX gain, which is similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

In the embodiments mentioned above, by synchronizing the transmitter time information and the receiver time information to each other in a real time manner (i.e. per-packet control), the wireless module 110 and/or the wireless module 120 can determine the appropriate upper limit of the RX gain and/or the upper limit TX power at the appropriate time, to balance the efficiency of the receiver 112 / 122 and the transmitter 114 / 124 .

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.