TW202423006A - Multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a multi-antenna system for collecting energy and transmitting information, including a plurality of antenna transmission units, energy storage units and load units. Each antenna transmission unit includes an antenna module, a separation module, an energy generation module and an information processing module. Each antenna module receives a wireless signal from a source end and transmits it to the separation module. The separation module separates the wireless signal into a first separation signal and a second separation signal. Separate signals, and transmit the first separated signal to the energy generation module for conversion into electrical energy, which is then transmitted to the energy storage unit for storage and provided to the information processing module for use. The energy storage unit then provides the electrical energy to the load unit for use, and one of the second separated signals is transmitted to the information processing module for conversion into a control signal, which is then transmitted to the load unit, so that the load unit operates according to the control signal.

Description

Multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission

The present invention relates to a multi-antenna system, and more particularly to a multi-antenna system that can use multiple antennas to simultaneously collect energy and transmit information.

Electrophoretic ink technology, also known as electronic ink, mainly includes microcapsule electrophoresis technology, microcup electrophoresis technology, quick-response liquid powder display (QR-LPD) technology, and in-plane electrophoretic display (IP-EPD) technology.

Regardless of the type of electrophoretic electronic ink technology, it relies on the movement of ions in a transparent or colored liquid. Charged particles move in an electric field with an electrode opposite to their own charge, and the pixels become brighter or darker through the flipping or flow of particles. It can be made on glass, metal or plastic substrates. Then, a thin film transistor (TFT) circuit is attached, and the pixel pattern is formed through the control of a driver IC to become an electronic paper display (EPD).

An electronic paper display is an electronic display device with a visual effect similar to that of paper. It has two characteristics: "reflective" and "bi-stable". The "reflective" characteristic means that the electronic paper display, like ordinary paper, requires an external light source to see the image through reflection, so it can be read outdoors and in the sun. The image does not flicker after imaging, just like paper, so the eyes are less tired after long-term reading. The "bi-stable" characteristic means that the electronic paper display only consumes power when it is driven, and the static image displayed after imaging does not use power until the next time the display image is changed. Therefore, electronic paper displays consume less power than other displays. Based on the above reasons, electronic paper displays are currently mainly used in products such as e-book readers (E-Book Readers), electronic billboards, credit cards, membership cards, clocks, electronic paper labels, digital photo frames or mobile phones.

As for electronic paper tags, in recent years, electronic paper tags with battery-free designs have been developed. For example, battery-free electronic paper tags use wireless charging methods to receive wireless signals and absorb energy in a short period of time, and store the energy in energy storage capacitors, and then update and store data in a low-power manner. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. JP2021033222A (Invention Name: Information Display Device, Control Method of Information Display Device, Display Control Device and Electronic Paper Display Device, hereinafter referred to as Patent Case 1) states in its abstract that "the information display device of the present invention is equipped with: a communication unit , which communicates with the information sending/receiving medium through non-contact communication; the communication control unit, which has a sending/receiving unit that receives display information from the information sending/receiving medium through the aforementioned communication unit, and a power conversion unit that converts the electromagnetic wave received by the aforementioned communication unit into electric power; the display control unit, which has a recording unit that records the aforementioned display information received by the aforementioned sending/receiving unit, a voltage monitoring unit that monitors the voltage of the electric power supplied from the aforementioned power conversion unit, and a display driving unit; and the display unit, which updates the display with the aforementioned display information recorded by the aforementioned recording unit through the aforementioned display driving unit. ".

However, the biggest difficulty of electronic paper tags is how to collect and store the energy of wireless signals in a short period of time. Whether it is a battery-free electronic paper tag or other similar battery-free design products, there is this problem. Therefore, many people have made improvements to this problem. The main method is to use multiple energy harvesting antennas to collect the energy of wireless signals at the same time. For example: Taiwan Invention Patent No. I759794 (Invention Name: Internet of Things Wireless Charging Sensor, hereinafter referred to as Patent Case No. 2), its abstract mentions an Internet of Things wireless charging sensor, which includes a sensor circuit, a set of directional backtracking search antennas, a set of energy harvesting antennas and a communication antenna. The sensor circuit includes an energy storage unit, power conversion, power management module and switching unit. The search antennas are connected to the switching unit; when the switching unit is in the on state, the search antennas sense the energy of the scanning signal of the external device and reflect the incident energy back to the direction of the external device. The energy capture antennas are connected to the power conversion unit, receive the energy of the incident signal, and charge the energy storage unit through the power management module.

However, the problem with the previous patent case 1 is that if multiple antennas are used to collect energy and receive information from wireless signals at the same time, the energy collected by each antenna is different and cannot be used directly. Using multiple antennas to receive information sent by the communication unit will cause signal interference. In addition, the problem with the previous patent case 2 is that the directional backtracking search antenna can only sense the energy of the scanning signal and cannot be used to collect the energy of the incident signal at the same time. The energy capture antenna can only receive the energy of the incident signal, but cannot receive the data of the incident signal. The communication antenna can only communicate with other IoT devices through the communication antenna when the communication module enters the communication mode. Therefore, how to enable battery-free electronic paper tags or other battery-free electronic products to use multiple sets of antennas to collect energy and transmit information at the same time is a problem that needs to be solved urgently.

In view of the problems of the prior art, the purpose of the present invention is to enable a battery-free product to simultaneously collect the energy of wireless signals and receive the control information carried by the wireless signals under a multi-antenna architecture, and to enable the load to utilize the energy to process the control information.

According to the purpose of the present invention, a multi-antenna system for collecting energy and transmitting information is provided, including a plurality of antenna transmission units, energy storage units and load units, wherein the energy storage units are arranged between the antenna transmission units and the load units. Each antenna transmission unit includes an antenna module, a separation module, an energy generation module and an information processing module, respectively, the antenna module is connected to the separation module, and the separation module is connected to the energy generation module and the information processing module. Each antenna module receives the wireless signal from the source end respectively, and then transmits it to the separation module. The separation module separates the wireless signal into a first separation signal and a second separation signal, and transmits the first separation signal to the energy generation module for conversion into electrical energy, and then transmits it to the energy storage unit for storage, while providing electrical energy to the information processing module for use, and the information processing module receives and converts the second separation signal into a control signal. The load unit is connected to one of the information processing modules, and obtains electrical energy from the energy storage unit, and receives the control signal, so that the load unit operates according to the control signal.

The energy generation module includes an energy conversion unit and an energy adjustment unit, wherein the energy conversion unit is connected to the energy adjustment unit, the energy conversion unit converts the first separation signal into basic electrical energy, and the energy adjustment unit converts the basic electrical energy into a plurality of selected electrical energies of different voltages.

The information processing module includes a main control unit, a data storage unit and a data transmission unit. The data storage unit is connected between the main control unit and the data transmission unit. The main control unit is connected to the separation module and receives the second separation signal, and processes the second separation signal into a control signal. The control signal is then transmitted to the load unit through the data transmission unit of the information processing module connected to the load unit, so that the load unit operates according to the control signal. The data storage unit is responsible for storing the data in the transmission and processing process of the main control unit and the data transmission unit.

The main control unit includes a clock generator, a demodulator, a tuner, and a command decoder. The clock generator generates the clock signal required for the operation of each component of the main control unit. The demodulator demodulates the second separation signal into a demodulated signal, which is then transmitted to the command decoder to parse out the control command, and then the control command is processed into a control signal and transmitted to the data transmission unit. The demodulator receives an output signal generated by the main control unit and transmits the output signal to the separation module. The separation module then transmits the output signal to the antenna module, and is transmitted to the source end.

The data transmission part is a serial peripheral interface (SPI) or an internal integrated circuit bus (I²C Bus) or a system management bus (SMBus).

The separation module may be a balun (also called a balun), and the antenna module may be a single-band antenna or a multi-band antenna.

The energy storage unit is an energy storage capacitor, and the load unit is a battery-free electronic paper tag.

As described above, the present invention can simultaneously receive wireless signals from multiple antennas, and convert the wireless signals into a first separated signal and a second separated signal by a separation module. The first separated signal generates electrical energy by the energy generation module, and the second separated signal is processed by the information processing module, thereby achieving the purpose of simultaneously collecting energy and processing information.

The embodiments of the present invention will be further explained below in conjunction with the relevant drawings. As much as possible, the same reference numerals in the drawings and the specification represent the same or similar components. In the drawings, the shapes and thicknesses may be exaggerated for the sake of simplicity and convenience. It is understood that the components not specifically shown in the drawings or described in the specification are of a form known to those skilled in the art. Those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications based on the content of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , the present invention is a multi-antenna system for energy collection and information transmission, including a plurality of antenna transmission units 1, energy storage units 2 and load units 3. The energy storage unit 2 is connected to all antenna transmission units 1, the load unit 3 is connected to one of the antenna transmission units 1, and the energy storage unit 2 can be an energy storage capacitor or an electronic component with the same function, such as an electrical double-layer capacitor, EDLC, and the load unit 3 is a battery-free electronic paper tag, or other low-power battery-free electronic products equivalent to the battery-free electronic paper tag, and the electric energy stored in the energy storage capacitor can be provided to the load unit 3 for use.

In the present invention, please refer to FIG. 2 , each antenna transmission unit 1 includes an antenna module 10, a separation module 12, an energy generation module 14, and an information processing module 16. Each antenna module 10 receives a wireless signal from a source end, and the antenna module 10 is connected to the separation module 12. The separation module 12 receives the wireless signal and separates the wireless signal into a first separation signal and a second separation signal. The energy generation module 14 is connected to the separation module 12, receives a first separation signal, and converts the first separation signal into electrical energy. The information processing module 16 is connected to the separation module 12, receives a second separation signal, and converts it into a control signal. The load unit 3 is connected to one of the information processing modules 16, and receives a control signal, so that the load unit 3 operates according to the control signal.

In the present invention, the separation module 12 can be a balun (also called a balun, a balanced-unbalanced converter, English: Balun). The balun converts single-ended transmission into differential transmission. Therefore, the balun can convert the wireless signal into a signal with equal transmission amplitude and 180 degrees phase difference, and can be converted into a first separation signal and a second separation signal. The antenna module 10 is a single-frequency antenna or a multi-frequency antenna, and its receiving and transmitting frequency bands are low frequency (Low Frequency, abbreviated as: LF), high frequency (High Frequency, abbreviated as: HF) or ultra high frequency (UHF), or WiFi 2.4G or 5G bands, etc. For example, the antenna module 10 is a single-frequency antenna, and its transmission frequency band is 860 MHz~960 MHz (800~960MHz) in ultra high frequency (UHF), and its transmission distance is 2 meters to 10 meters.

In the present invention, please refer to FIG. 3 , the information processing module 16 includes a main control unit 160, a data storage unit 162 and a data transmission unit 164. The main control unit 160 is connected to the separation module 12 and the data storage unit 162, receives the second separation signal, and processes the second separation signal into a control signal. The data transmission unit 164 is connected to the main control unit 160, and the data transmission unit 164 receives the control signal. The load unit 3 is connected to one of the data transmission units 164, receives the control signal, and then operates according to the control signal. The data storage unit 162 is responsible for storing the data of the main control unit 160 and the data transmission unit 164 during the transmission and processing process.

The data transmission unit 164 is a serial peripheral interface (SPI) or an inter-integrated circuit bus (I²C Bus) or a system management bus (SMBus). When the data transmission unit 164 is a serial peripheral interface, the serial peripheral interface converts the control signal into its protocol and transmits it to the load unit 3.

In the present invention, please refer to FIG. 4 , the main control unit 160 includes a clock generator 1600, a demodulator 1602, a tuner 1604, and a command decoder 1606, wherein the clock generator 1600 generates the clock signal required for the operation of each component of the main control unit 160, the demodulator 1602 demodulates the second separated signal into a demodulated signal, and the demodulator 1602 transmits the demodulated signal to the command decoder 1606, the command decoder 1606 parses the control command from the demodulated signal, processes the control command into a control signal, and then transmits the control signal to the data transmission unit 164. In addition, the demodulator 1602 receives an output signal generated by the main control unit 160 and transmits the output signal to the separation module 12. The separation module 12 then transmits the output signal to the antenna module 10, which is then transmitted to the source end.

In the present invention, please refer to FIG. 5 , the energy generation module 14 includes an energy conversion unit 140 and an energy adjustment unit 142, wherein the energy conversion unit 140 is connected to the energy adjustment unit 142, the energy conversion unit 140 converts the first separation signal into basic electric energy, and the energy adjustment unit 142 converts the basic electric energy into a plurality of selected electric energies of different voltages. In further detail, the energy conversion unit 140 is a radio frequency signal conversion direct current circuit, and the energy adjustment unit 142 is a direct current transformer circuit, for example, converting into 3.3 volts, 1.8 volts or 1.2 volts of direct current, which are respectively transmitted to different components of the present invention for use.

As described above, the present invention can collect electrical energy and perform data processing at the same time, so that the load unit can quickly have enough power to process data, solving the problem of slow charging of a single antenna in the traditional method, and also solving the problem of multiple antennas performing data processing and energy collection separately in the traditional method. In addition, the load unit 3 of the present invention is only connected to one of the antenna transmission units 1, but the present invention is not limited to this when it is actually implemented. The load unit 3 can also be connected to multiple antenna transmission units 1 at the same time. In other words, whether the load unit 3 is only connected to one or more antenna transmission units 1, it is within the scope of protection claimed by the present invention.

The above is only an example to illustrate the best implementation method of this creation, and is not intended to limit the scope of implementation. All simple substitutions and equivalent changes made based on the scope of patent application of this creation and the content of the patent specification are within the scope of patent application of this creation.

1: Antenna transmission unit 10: Antenna module 12: Separation module 14: Energy generation module 140: Energy conversion unit 142: Energy adjustment unit 16: Information processing module 160: Main control unit 1600: Clock generator 1602: Demodulator 1604: Tuner 1606: Command decoder 162: Data storage unit 164: Data transmission unit 2: Energy storage unit 3: Load unit

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the present invention; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the circuit block of the antenna transmission unit; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the circuit block of the information processing module; Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the circuit block of the main control unit; Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the circuit block of the energy generation module.

1: Antenna transmission unit

2: Energy storage unit

3: Load unit

Claims (10)

A multi-antenna system for collecting energy and transmitting information, comprising: an energy storage unit; a plurality of antenna transmission units connected to the energy storage unit, each of which comprises: an antenna module, the antenna module receiving a wireless signal from a source end; a separation module connected to the antenna module, receiving the wireless signal, and separating the wireless signal into a first separation signal and a second separation signal; and an energy generation module connected to the separation module, receiving the first separation signal, converting the first separation signal into electrical energy, and then transmitting it to the energy storage unit for storage; An information processing module is connected to the separation module and the energy generation module, the information processing module receives the electric energy from the energy generation module, the information processing module receives the second separation signal from the separation module, and the information processing module converts the second separation signal into a control signal; A load unit is connected to the energy storage unit and one of the information processing modules, the load unit obtains electric energy from the energy storage unit, and receives the control signal from the information processing module connected to the load unit, and the load unit operates according to the control signal. The multi-antenna system for energy collection and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein each of the energy generation modules comprises: an energy conversion unit, which converts the first separation signal into a basic electrical energy; and an energy adjustment unit, which is connected to the energy conversion unit and converts the basic electrical energy into a plurality of selected electrical energies of different voltages. A multi-antenna system for energy collection and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein each of the information processing modules comprises: a main control unit connected to the separation module, receiving the second separation signal, and processing the second separation signal into the control signal; a data transmission unit connected to the main control unit, the data transmission unit receiving the control signal; and a data storage unit connected to the main control unit and the data transmission unit, the data storage unit storing the data of the main control unit and the data transmission unit during the transmission and processing process; wherein the load unit is connected to the data transmission unit of one of the information processing modules, and receives the control signal. The multi-antenna system for energy collection and information transmission as described in claim 3, wherein the main control unit includes: A demodulator, the demodulator is connected to the separation module and receives the second separation signal, and the demodulator demodulates the second separation signal into a demodulated signal; A tuner, the tuner is connected to the data transmission unit, the demodulator receives an output data output by the data transmission unit, and tunes the output data into an output signal, and transmits the output signal to the separation module, and the separation module transmits the output signal to the antenna module, thereby being transmitted to the source end; A command decoder, connected to the demodulator, receives the demodulated signal, parses a control command from the demodulated signal, and then processes the control command into the control signal and transmits it to the data transmission unit; A clock generator, which is connected to the demodulator, the tuner and the command decoder, and generates a clock signal required for the demodulator, the tuner and the command decoder to work. A multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission as described in claim 3, wherein the data transmission unit is a serial peripheral interface, an internal integrated circuit bus or a system management bus. A multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein the separation module can be a balun. A multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein the antenna module is a single-frequency antenna or a multi-frequency antenna. A multi-antenna system for energy collection and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein the antenna module receiving and transmitting frequency band is 3 megahertz (3MHz) ~ 7.15 gigahertz (GHz). A multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein the energy storage unit is an energy storage capacitor. A multi-antenna system for energy harvesting and information transmission as described in claim 1, wherein the load unit is a battery-free electronic paper tag.