TWI811470B - Method and device for measuring reflection coefficient of antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

A device for measuring a reflection coefficient of an antenna includes processing circuitry configured to extract a first feedback signal and a second feedback signal from a third feedback signal based on first symbol information of a first symbol included in a radio frequency (RF) transmit signal transferred to the antenna, the first feedback signal corresponding to at least a portion of a cyclic prefix portion of the first symbol, the second feedback signal corresponding to at least a portion of a back-end portion of the first symbol, the third feedback signal being generated from a portion of the RF transmit signal provided by a coupler, and compute the reflection coefficient based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal.

Description

Method and device for measuring reflection coefficient of antenna [Cross-reference to related applications]

This application claims the rights and interests of Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2018-0148763 and 10-2019-0039744, which were filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office on November 27, 2018 and April 4, 2019 respectively. The entire disclosure of the Korean patent application is hereby incorporated by reference.

The inventive concept relates to wireless communications, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna used for wireless communications.

When the antenna used for wireless communication does not have the designed or expected impedance, the quality of the wireless communication may be degraded. The wireless communication device may include an antenna tuner, and the antenna tuner may be controlled to modify the impedance of the antenna based on a measured reflection coefficient (eg, measured impedance) of the antenna. Therefore, it would be desirable to accurately measure the reflection coefficient of an antenna while reducing the overhead of measuring the antenna reflection coefficient (eg, due to miniaturization, low power, etc. of wireless communication devices).

The inventive concept provides a method for accurately measuring while reducing overhead Method and apparatus for reflection coefficient of antenna.

According to an aspect of the inventive concept, there is provided an apparatus for measuring a reflection coefficient of an antenna, the apparatus comprising a processing circuit system configured to: based on a radio frequency (RF) transmitted to the antenna ) transmits the first symbol information of the first symbol contained in the signal, extracts the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal from the third feedback signal, the first feedback signal corresponds to the cycle of the first symbol At least a portion of the prefix portion, the second feedback signal corresponds to at least a portion of the trailing portion of the first symbol, and the third feedback signal is generated from a portion of the RF transmission signal provided by the coupler; and calculating the reflection coefficient based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal.

According to another aspect of the inventive concept, a method of measuring a reflection coefficient of an antenna is provided, the method comprising: obtaining a first symbol included in a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal provided to the antenna via a coupler first code information; obtaining a first feedback signal based on the first code information, the first feedback signal being a cyclic prefix portion of the first code transmitted from the coupler ) is generated by an RF feedback signal provided in at least a portion of the first interval; obtaining a second feedback signal based on the first symbol information, the second feedback signal being generated from the coupler in which the first generating the RF feedback signal provided in a second interval of at least a portion of a back-end portion of a symbol; and calculating the reflection based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal coefficient.

According to another aspect of the inventive concept, a method for measuring the reflection of an antenna is provided A method for coefficients, the method includes: obtaining first code information of a first code contained in a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal provided to the antenna via a coupler; based on the first code information, The coupler is set to the first coupling direction before an interval, and the coupler transmits at least a portion of the cyclic prefix portion of the first symbol during the first interval; based on the first symbol information, setting the coupler to a second coupling direction before the second interval, the coupler transmitting at least a portion of the rear end portion of the first symbol during the second interval; and The reflection coefficient is calculated using the RF feedback signal provided during the first interval and the second interval.

5. 5': Wireless communication device

10, 10', 60, 80, 100: controller

11, 11', 61, 81, 110: Transmission (TX) controller

13, 13', 63, 83, 130: buffer

14, 14', 64, 84, 140: Antenna controller

20, 20': transceiver

21, 21':Teleporter

22, 22': receiver

23, 23': switch

30, 30': Front-end circuit

31, 31': coupler

32, 32': Antenna tuner

40, 40': Antenna

50, 50': feedback circuit

65, 121: Timing analyzer

120:Receive (RX) controller

200:Communication device

210: Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)

230: Application Specific Instruction Set Processor (ASIP)

250:Memory

270: Main processor

290: Main memory

BE: backend part

C_ANT: Antenna tuning signal

C_FB: feedback control signal

C_FE: Front-end signal

CP: cyclic prefix part

D_FB: Feedback information

F: forward coupling

F_FB: Positive feedback signal

I_SYM: Symbol information

I_TIM: Timing information

R: reverse coupling

R_FB: Reverse feedback signal

RF_FB: Radio frequency (RF) feedback signal

RX_BB: Baseband receiving signal

RX_RF: RF receiving signal

S110, S110', S110a, S110b, S110c, S111, S112, S113, S114, S115, S116, S117, S117', S117_1, S117_2, S117_3, S120, S130, S140, S150, S160, S170, S 180, S180' , S181, S190, S191, S192, S210, S220, S230, S240, S250, S260, S270, S280: Operation

S_FB: feedback signal

SYM1: first code

SYM2: Second code

SYM3: The third code

SYMx, SYMy, SYMz: symbols

T _CP : The length of the cyclic prefix part

T_SYM: timing signal

T _SYM : length of code

T _THR : threshold value

T _U : length of data code

T _WIN : The length of the windowing interval

T _WIN1 : first windowing interval

T _WIN2 : Second windowing interval

TX_BB: baseband transmission signal

TX_RF: RF transmission signal

Γ, Γ _x , Γ _y , Γ _z : reflection coefficient

Embodiments of the inventive concept will be more clearly understood by reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device including a coupler configured to output a forward feedback signal or a reverse feedback signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a timing diagram of an example of an operation of measuring a reflection coefficient of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna using the wireless communication device shown in FIG. 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device including a coupler configured to output a forward feedback signal and a reverse feedback signal in parallel, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna using the wireless communication device shown in FIG. 4 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a block diagram of an example of a controller including a timing analyzer according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an example of operation S110 in FIG. 3 performed using the timing analyzer shown in FIG. 6 according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

8 is a block diagram of an example of a controller including an antenna controller configured to generate timing information I_TIM according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an example of operation S110 in FIG. 3 performed using the antenna controller shown in FIG. 8 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept.

10 is a block diagram of an example of a controller including a receiving controller according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an example of operation S110 in FIG. 3 performed using the reception controller shown in FIG. 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

FIG. 12 is a timing diagram of transmitting symbols included in a signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a method of measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in which the windowing interval is excluded from the feedback signal.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an example of operation S117 in FIG. 13 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 15 is a diagram of measuring sky on multiple symbols according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. Plot of an example of manipulation of line reflection coefficients.

Figure 16 is a graph of measured reflection coefficients of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a method using reflection coefficient of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

18 is a block diagram of an example of a communication device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device 5 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the wireless communication device 5 may include a controller 10 , a transceiver 20 , a front-end circuit 30 , an antenna 40 and/or a feedback circuit 50 .

The wireless communication device 5 may be connected to the wireless communication system by sending and receiving (eg, transmitting and/or receiving) signals via the antenna 40 . The wireless communication system to which the wireless communication device 5 can be connected may be referred to as a system using radio access technology (RAT), and may include, as a non-limiting example, a wireless communication system using a wireless communication network. The wireless communication network may be a cellular network, such as fifth generation (such as 5G) wireless system, long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE-Advanced system, code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) system And/or global system for mobile communications (GSM) system and/or wireless local area network (WLAN) system and/or other wireless communication systems. In the following, it may be assumed that the wireless communication system to which the wireless communication device 5 is connected may be a wireless communication system using cellular A network-based wireless communication system, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to this.

The wireless communication network of the wireless communication system can support communications of multiple wireless communication devices including the wireless communication device 5 by sharing available network resources. For example, in wireless communication networks, different connection methods (such as CDMA, frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), OFDM-FDMA, OFDM-TDMA and/or OFDM-CDMA) transmission information.

According to some exemplary embodiments, the wireless communication device 5 may be a base station (BS) connected to a wireless communication system. A base station (BS) may generally be referred to as a fixed station that communicates (e.g., via a wireless communication network) with user equipment and/or another BS, and may communicate with the user equipment and/or another BS Communicate to exchange data and/or control information. For example, the BS may be called a Node B, an evolved-Node B (eNB), a next-generation Node B (generation Node B, gNB), a sector, or a site. , base transceiver system (BTS), access point (AP), relay node, remote radio head (RRH), radio unit (radio unit, RU), small cell etc. In this specification, BS can be interpreted in a comprehensive sense to mean that it is covered by the BS controller (BSC) in CDMA, the Node B in WCDMA, the eNB or sector (site) in LTE, etc. A certain function and can include various coverage areas (e.g., cells), such as megacells, macrocells, microcells, picocells, femtocells, relay nodes, RRHs, RUs, and/or small cells Communication range.

According to some exemplary embodiments, the wireless communication device 5 may be user equipment (UE). The UE may be stationary or mobile and may be capable of sending and receiving (eg, transmitting and/or receiving) data and/or control information by communicating with the BS. For example, a UE may be called a terminal device, a mobile station (MS), a user terminal (UT), a subscriber station (SS), a wireless device, a handheld device, a mobile device, Smart phones, cellular phones, etc. In this specification, it can be assumed that the wireless communication device 5 is a UE, but the embodiment is not limited thereto.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the antenna 40 may be connected to the front-end circuit 30 and may transmit signals provided by the front-end circuit 30 to other wireless communication devices, and/or may provide signals received from other wireless communication devices to the front-end circuit 30 . In some embodiments, the wireless communication device 5 may include multiple antennas 40 for phased array, multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), etc. Antenna 40 may have an impedance, and the impedance of antenna 40 may change for a variety of reasons. To compensate for changes in the impedance of antenna 40, antenna 40 may be connected to an antenna tuner 32 included in front-end circuit 30, as described below.

The front-end circuit 30 may include a coupler 31 and/or an antenna tuner 32 . Coupler 31 may be connected to transceiver 20 and antenna tuner 32. The coupler 31 can receive the radio frequency (RF) transmission signal TX_RF, and can provide the feedback circuit 50 with a switchable coupling The signal coupled with the RF transmission signal TX_RF in the combined direction (also called forward coupling signal) and/or the signal reflected from the antenna 40 and the antenna tuner 32 (also called reverse coupling signal) is used as the RF feedback signal RF_FB. For example, as shown in FIG. 1 , the coupler 31 may be called a bidirectional coupler, and when the forward coupling F is set, a signal coupled with the RF transmission signal TX_RF may be provided to the feedback circuit 50 as the RF feedback signal RF_FB, and When the reverse coupling R is set, the reflected signal can be provided to the feedback circuit 50 as the RF feedback signal RF_FB. The coupling direction of the coupler 31 may be set based on the front-end control signal C_FE provided by the antenna controller 14 . In some embodiments, as described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 , the coupler 31 may provide the feedback circuit 50 with the signal coupled with the RF transmission signal TX_RF and the reflected signal simultaneously or in parallel. The antenna tuner 32 may have variable impedance according to the front-end signal C_FE, and therefore, the impedance of the antenna 40 and/or the antenna tuner 32 may be controlled. According to some example embodiments, the impedance of antenna 40 and antenna tuner 32 (eg, the combined impedance of antenna 40 and antenna tuner 32) may be simply referred to as the impedance or reflection coefficient of antenna 40.

The transceiver 20 may include a transmitter 21 , a receiver 22 and/or a switch 23 . The transmitter 21 may generate the RF transmission signal TX_RF by processing the baseband transmission signal TX_BB received from the controller 10 . For example, transmitter 21 may include filters, mixers, power amplifiers, etc. In this specification, the RF transmission signal TX_RF provided to the coupler 31 in the transmission mode may be simply referred to as a transmission signal. The receiver 22 may generate the baseband reception signal RX_BB by processing the RF reception signal RX_RF received from the switch 23 . For example, receiver 22 may include filters, mixers, low-noise amplifiers, wait. In this specification, the RF reception signal RX_RF and the baseband reception signal RX_BB provided by the coupler 31 to the receiver 22 in the reception mode may be simply referred to as reception signals. The switch 23 may provide the signal received via the coupler 31 as the RF receive signal RX_RF to the receiver 22 in the receive mode, and provide the RF transmit signal TX_RF to the front-end circuit 30 in the transmit mode. In some embodiments, switch 23 may be replaced by a duplexer and/or a switchplexer, or in some embodiments, switch 23 may include a duplexer and/or a switchplexer.

The feedback circuit 50 can receive the RF feedback signal RF_FB from the coupler 31 and can generate the feedback signal S_FB (or fundamental frequency feedback signal) by processing the RF feedback signal RF_FB. For example, the feedback circuit 50 may include a filter, a mixer, etc. As shown in FIG. 1 , the feedback circuit 50 can provide the feedback signal S_FB to the controller 10 .

The controller 10 may include a transmit (TX) controller 11 , a buffer 13 and/or an antenna controller 14 , and as described below, the buffer 13 and the antenna controller 14 may be used to measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 . According to some exemplary embodiments, it is described herein that the wireless communication device 5, the controller 10, the transceiver 20, the front-end circuit 30, the feedback circuit 50, the antenna tuner 32, the transmitter 21, the receiver 22, and the TX controller 11 and/or operations performed by antenna controller 14 may be performed by processing circuitry. The term "processing circuitry" as used in the present invention may, for example, refer to hardware including logic circuits; a hardware/software combination such as a processor that executes software; or a combination thereof. For example, more specifically, the processing circuit system may include, but is not limited to, a central processing unit (CPU), an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, Field programmable gate array (FPGA), system-on-chip (SoC), programmable logic unit, microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) )wait. For example, the components included in the controller 10 may be implemented in dedicated hardware blocks designed by logic synthesis or the like, may be implemented in a processing unit including at least one processor and software blocks processed by the at least one processor. and can be implemented in a combination of dedicated hardware blocks and processing units. In this specification, the controller 10 may be referred to as a device for measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 .

TX controller 11 may control transmission via transmitter 21 . For example, the TX controller 11 can set various transmission parameters and control the transmitter 21 included in the transceiver 20 according to the wireless communication system and/or the corresponding wireless communication device to which the wireless communication device 5 is connected, so as to generate a baseband transmission signal. TX_BB and RF transmit signal TX_RF. As shown in FIG. 1 , the TX controller 11 can provide the antenna controller 14 with the symbol information I_SYM included in the RF transmission signal TX_RF in the transmission parameters. For example, the symbol information I_SYM may include the length of the symbol and/or the length of the cyclic prefix part, and/or may include information about the windowing interval as described below with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 , and may be used for The reflection coefficient of antenna 40 is measured.

The buffer 13 can retrieve (eg, store) the feedback signal S_FB provided by the feedback circuit 50 and provide the feedback data D_FB to the antenna controller 14 . For example, the buffer 13 may include a memory, a cache, etc., and may store the feedback data D_FB generated by retrieving the feedback signal S_FB in the memory. In some embodiments, the buffer 13 may operate in a certain manner according to the control (eg, control signal) of the antenna controller 14 The feedback signal S_FB is captured at intervals (for example, periodically according to the certain interval).

The antenna controller 14 can receive the symbol information I_SYM from the TX controller 11 and the feedback data D_FB from the buffer 13 . Additionally, the antenna controller 14 may obtain timing information indicating code constraints in various ways. The antenna controller 14 may generate a front-end signal C_FE, and the front-end signal C_FE may include a coupler control signal for setting the coupling direction of the coupler 31 and/or an antenna tuning signal for adjusting the impedance of the antenna tuner 32 .

The antenna controller 14 may measure the reflection coefficient (or impedance) of the antenna 40 by using the characteristics of the symbols included in the RF transmission signal TX_RF including the cyclic prefix part and the back-end part matching the cyclic prefix part. For example, as described below with reference to FIG. 2 , the antenna controller 14 may self-operate based on the symbol information I_SYM provided by the TX controller 11 and the timing information of one symbol in a state in which the coupler 31 is set to the first coupling direction. The code obtains the cyclic prefix part, and the back-end part of the code may be obtained in a state in which the coupler 31 is set to the second coupling direction. The antenna controller 14 may calculate the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 based on the cyclic prefix part and the back-end part of the symbol corresponding to different coupling directions of the coupler 31 . Therefore, in order to measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 , additional components for feeding back the transmission signal (eg, the RF transmission signal TX_RF) provided to the antenna 40 can be omitted. In addition, since the timing of the reflected signal can be determined without considering the delay generated in the feedback path including the coupler 31 and the feedback circuit 50 , the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 can be accurately measured.

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of an example of an operation of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. In the following, FIG. 2 is explained with reference to FIG. 1 .

The RF transmission signal TX_RF provided to the antenna 40 in FIG. 1 may include a series of symbols. For example, as shown in FIG. 2 , the RF transmission signal TX_RF may include a first symbol SYM1, a second symbol SYM2 before the first symbol SYM1, and a third symbol SYM3 after the first symbol SYM1. The first symbol SYM1 may include a cyclic prefix part CP and a data symbol, and the length T _SYM of the first symbol SYM1 may be the same as or similar to the sum of the length T CP of the cyclic prefix part _CP and the length _TU of the data symbol. The length T _CP of the cyclic prefix part CP may be called a guard interval, and the data symbol may be called the effective part of the first symbol SYM1. The cyclic prefix part CP can be a copy of the back-end part BE of the data symbol and can be inserted into the front-end of the data symbol, and due to the cyclic prefix part CP, inter-symbol interference (ISI) can be prevented or reduced , and can remove or reduce inter-carrier interference (ICI). In this specification, the backend part BE corresponding to the cyclic prefix part CP of the data symbol may be referred to as the backend part BE for short.

As described above with reference to FIG. 1 , the antenna controller 14 may control the coupler 31 such that the coupler 31 has an interval in which the cyclic prefix part CP passes (eg, a first interval) and an interval in which the backend part BE passes (eg, a second interval). ) have different coupling directions. For example, in "Case A" in Figure 2, the coupler 31 may be set to forward coupling F in the interval including the cyclic prefix part CP, and to reverse coupling in the interval including the backend part BE. R. In addition, in "Case B" in FIG. 2 , the coupler 31 may be set to reverse coupling R in the interval including the cyclic prefix part CP, and be set to forward coupling in the interval including the backend part BE. F. Since the cyclic prefix part CP is a copy of the back-end part BE, the signal related to the forward coupling F and the signal related to the reverse coupling R can be obtained with respect to the same signal or a similar signal, and therefore the antenna 40 can be calculated Reflection coefficient. For example, when the signal r _fwd indicates a signal obtained by forward coupling F and the signal r _rev indicates a signal obtained by reverse coupling R, the reflection coefficient Γ of the antenna 40 can be calculated as the following equation 1.

3 is a flowchart of a method of measuring the reflection coefficient Γ of the antenna 40 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept. In some embodiments, the method in FIG. 3 may be performed by the antenna controller 14 in FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 3 , the method of measuring the reflection coefficient Γ of the antenna 40 may include a plurality of operations S110 to S180. Hereinafter, FIG. 3 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

The operation of obtaining the symbol information I_SYM and timing information can be performed (S110). As described above with reference to FIG. 1 , the antenna controller 14 may receive the symbol information I_SYM from the TX controller 11 , and the symbol information I_SYM may include the length T _CP of the cyclic prefix part CP and the length T _SYM of the symbol. The timing information about the symbols may be used as information for detecting the interval of the first symbol SYM1 to indicate the interval of the symbols, and may be obtained in various ways. Examples of methods for obtaining timing information of symbols are described below with reference to FIGS. 6 to 10 . Therefore, the antenna controller 14 can determine not only the timing of changing the coupling direction of the coupler 31 but also the interval in which the cyclic prefix part CP and the back-end part BE can be retrieved based on the symbol information I_SYM and the timing information.

The operation of setting the coupler 31 to the first coupling direction can be performed (S120). For example, the coupler 31 can be set to forward coupling F, and therefore can provide the feedback circuit 50 with a signal coupled with the RF transmission signal TX_RF as the RF feedback signal RF_FB. On the other hand, the coupler 31 can be set to reversely couple R, and therefore can provide the feedback circuit 50 with the signal reflected from the antenna 40 as the RF feedback signal RF_FB.

The operation of obtaining the first feedback signal may be performed (S130). For example, the feedback circuit 50 may receive the RF feedback signal RF_FB from the coupler 31 that is set to the first coupling direction (eg, in operation S120 ), and provide feedback to the buffer 13 of the controller 10 by processing the RF feedback signal RF_FB. Signal S_FB. The buffer 13 can capture the feedback signal S_FB received from the feedback circuit 50 as the first feedback signal. Therefore, when the coupler 31 is set to forward coupling F in operation S120, the first feedback signal can correspond to the RF transmission signal TX_RF, and when the coupler 31 is set to reverse coupling R, the first feedback signal can correspond to on the signal reflected from the antenna 40. In some embodiments, the antenna controller 14 can control the buffer 13 to capture the first feedback signal.

An operation of determining whether the cyclic prefix part CP has ended may be performed (S140). For example, the antenna controller 14 may estimate the end of the cyclic prefix part CP based on the symbol information I_SYM and the timing information obtained in operation S110, and based on the estimated end of the cyclic prefix part CP, may determine the RF provided to the coupler 31 Whether the cyclic prefix part CP of the first symbol SYM1 contained in the transmission signal TX_RF has ended. As shown in Figure 3, when the cyclic prefix part CP is not terminated, the operation of obtaining the first feedback signal can be continued in operation S130, and when the cyclic prefix part When the CP has ended, operations S150 can be performed one after another. Therefore, the feedback circuit 50 can obtain the first feedback signal including at least a part of the cyclic prefix part CP from the coupler 31 set to the first coupling direction. In some embodiments, when the cyclic prefix part CP has ended, the antenna controller 14 may control the buffer 13 to terminate capturing the first feedback signal.

When the cyclic prefix part CP has ended, an operation of setting the coupler 31 to the second coupling direction may be performed (S150). The second coupling direction of operation S150 may be different from the first coupling direction of operation S120. For example, when the coupler 31 is set to forward coupling F in operation S120, the coupler 31 may be set to reverse coupling R in operation S150, and when the coupler 31 is set to reverse coupling R in operation S120 , the coupler 31 may be set to forward coupling F in operation S150.

The operation of obtaining the second feedback signal may be performed (S160). For example, the feedback circuit 50 may receive the RF feedback signal RF_FB from the coupler 31 set to the second coupling direction in operation S150, and may provide the feedback signal S_FB to the buffer 13 by processing the RF feedback signal RF_FB. The buffer 13 can capture the feedback signal S_FB received from the feedback circuit 50 as the second feedback signal. Therefore, when the coupler 31 is set to forward coupling F in operation S150, the second feedback signal may correspond to the RF transmission signal TX_RF, and when the coupler 31 is set to reverse coupling R in operation S150, the second feedback signal may correspond to the RF transmission signal TX_RF. The feedback signal can correspond to the signal reflected from the antenna 40 . In some embodiments, the antenna controller 14 can control the buffer 13 to capture the second feedback signal.

The operation of determining whether the first symbol SYM1 has ended may be performed (S170). For example, the antenna controller 14 may Information I_SYM and timing information are used to estimate the end of the first symbol SYM1, and based on the estimated end of the first symbol SYM1, it can be determined whether the first symbol SYM1 included in the RF transmission signal TX_RF provided to the coupler 31 has been end. As shown in FIG. 3 , when the first symbol SYM1 has not ended, the operation of obtaining the second feedback signal can be continued in operation S160 , and when the first symbol SYM1 has ended, operations S180 can be performed successively. Therefore, the feedback circuit 50 can obtain the second feedback signal including at least a part of the back-end part BE of the first symbol SYM1 from the coupler 31 set to the second coupling direction. In some embodiments, when the first symbol SYM1 has ended, the antenna controller 14 may control the buffer 13 to terminate capturing the second feedback signal.

When the first symbol SYM1 has ended, the operation of calculating the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal may be performed (S180). For example, the antenna controller 14 can obtain the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal based on the feedback data D_FB provided from the buffer 13, and based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal, can calculate the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40, for example, As in Equation 1 (e.g., using Equation 1). As described below with reference to FIG. 17 , the antenna controller 14 may perform operations of controlling the antenna tuner 32 and/or detecting external objects of the wireless communication device 5 based on the calculated reflection coefficient.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device 5' according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. As shown in Figure 4, the wireless communication device 5' shown in Figure 4 may include a controller 10', a transceiver 20', a front-end circuit 30', an antenna 40' and/or a feedback circuit 50'. Compared with the wireless communication device 5 shown in Figure 1, the coupler 31' in the wireless communication device 5' shown in Figure 4 can generate signals coupled to the RF transmission signal TX_RF simultaneously or in parallel. Signal reflected from antenna 40'. In the following, the same or similar description to that given with reference to FIG. 1 will not be given for FIG. 4 .

The front-end circuit 30' may include a coupler 31' and/or an antenna tuner 32'. The coupler 31' can provide the feedback circuit 50' with the signal coupled with the RF transmission signal TX_RF and the signal reflected from the antenna 40' simultaneously or in parallel. For example, the coupler 31' may receive the RF transmission signal TX_RF from the transceiver 20' in the transmission mode, transmit the forward feedback signal F_FB as a signal coupled with the RF transmission signal TX_RF to the feedback circuit 50', and transmit the forward feedback signal F_FB as a signal from the antenna. The reverse feedback signal R_FB of the signal reflected by 40' is provided to the feedback circuit 50'. Therefore, unlike the coupler 31 in FIG. 1 , the signal provided from the antenna controller 14 ′ of the controller 10 ′ for controlling the coupling direction of the coupler 31 ′ in FIG. 4 may be omitted.

The transceiver 20' may include a transmitter 21', a receiver 22' and/or a switch 23'. The transmitter 21' can generate the RF transmission signal TX_RF by processing the baseband transmission signal TX_BB, and the receiver 22' can generate the baseband reception signal RX_BB by processing the RF reception signal RX_RF. The controller 10' may include a transmission controller 11', a buffer 13' and/or an antenna controller 14'. The transmission controller 11' can control transmission operations, and can provide symbol information I_SYM to the antenna controller 14'. The buffer 13' can capture the feedback signal S_FB received from the feedback circuit 50' and provide the feedback data D_FB to the antenna controller 14'.

The antenna controller 14' may measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40' based on the symbol information I_SYM, timing information and/or feedback data D_FB. As shown in FIG. 4 , antenna controller 14 ′ may provide antenna tuner 32 ′ based on the measured reflection coefficient of antenna 40 ′. The antenna tuning signal C_ANT is used to adjust the impedance of the antenna tuner 32'. In addition, the antenna controller 14' may provide the feedback control signal C_FB to the feedback circuit 50', and the feedback circuit 50' may process one of the forward feedback signal F_FB and/or the reverse feedback signal R_FB according to the feedback control signal C_FB. To generate the feedback signal S_FB. In other words, the antenna controller 14 in FIG. 1 can control the coupling direction of the coupler 31 by using the coupler control signal included in the front-end control signal C_FE, and the antenna controller 14' in FIG. 4 can control the coupling direction by using the feedback signal. The control signal C_FB controls the buffer 13' to capture the feedback signal S_FB corresponding to one of the forward feedback signal F_FB and/or the reverse feedback signal R_FB. According to some exemplary embodiments, it is described herein that the wireless communication device 5', the controller 10', the transceiver 20', the front-end circuit 30', the feedback circuit 50', the antenna tuner 32', the transmitter 21', the receiver The operations performed by controller 22', TX controller 11', and/or antenna controller 14' may be performed by processing circuitry.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40' according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. In some embodiments, the operations in FIG. 5 may be performed by antenna controller 14' in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 5 , the method of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 ′ may include a plurality of operations S210 to S280. Hereinafter, FIG. 5 is explained with reference to FIG. 4 , and the description previously given with reference to FIG. 3 is omitted.

The operation of obtaining the symbol information I_SYM and timing information can be performed (S210). Next, the feedback circuit 50' may be configured to process the signal corresponding to the first coupling direction (S220). For example, the antenna controller 14' may generate the feedback signal S_FB by processing the forward feedback signal F_FB or the reverse feedback signal R_FB using the feedback control signal C_FB.

The operation of obtaining the first feedback signal may be performed (S230). The buffer 13' can capture the feedback signal S_FB received from the feedback circuit 50' as the first feedback signal. Therefore, when the feedback circuit 50' is set to process the forward feedback signal F_FB in operation S220, the first feedback signal may correspond to the RF transmission signal TX_RF, but when the feedback circuit 50' is set to process the reverse direction in operation S220 When the feedback signal R_FB is fed back, the first feedback signal may correspond to the signal reflected from the antenna 40'. Next, an operation of determining whether the cyclic prefix part CP has ended may be performed (S240). When the cyclic prefix part CP has not ended, operation S230 may be subsequently performed, but when the cyclic prefix part CP has ended, operation S250 may be subsequently performed, and therefore, the first feedback signal may include at least a part of the cyclic prefix part CP.

The feedback circuit may be configured to process the signal corresponding to the second coupling direction (S250). For example, when the feedback circuit 50' is set to process the forward feedback signal F_FB in operation S220, the antenna controller 14' can be set to process the reverse feedback signal R_FB by using the feedback control signal C_FB. However, when the feedback circuit 50 'When being set to process the reverse feedback signal R_FB in operation S220, the antenna controller 14' may be set to process the forward feedback signal F_FB.

The operation of obtaining the second feedback signal may be performed (S260). For example, the buffer 13' may capture the feedback signal S_FB received from the feedback circuit 50' as the second feedback signal. Therefore, when the feedback circuit 50' is set to process the forward feedback signal F_FB in operation S250, the second feedback signal may correspond to the RF transmission signal TX_RF, but when the feedback circuit 50' is set to process the reverse direction in operation S250 When the feedback signal R_FB is fed back, the second feedback signal may correspond to the signal reflected from the antenna 40'. Next, the judgment can be executed The operation of determining whether the first symbol SYM1 has ended (S270). When the first symbol SYM1 has not ended, operation S260 may be subsequently performed, and therefore, the second feedback signal may include at least some of the back-end part BE. When the first symbol SYM1 has ended, the operation of calculating the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40' based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal may be performed (S280).

In the following, an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept is explained with reference to a wireless communication device 5 comprising a coupler 31 in which the coupling direction is switched by an antenna controller 14 as shown in FIG. 1 . However, the concept of the present invention is not limited thereto, and it should be understood that the embodiments described below are also applicable to the wireless communication device 5' including the coupler 31', as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example of a controller 60 according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. Similar to the controller 10 in FIG. 1 , the controller 60 shown in FIG. 6 may include a TX controller 61 , a buffer 63 and/or an antenna controller 64 , and may further include a timing analyzer 65 . In the following, the same or similar description to that given with reference to FIG. 1 will not be given for FIG. 6 . According to some example embodiments, the operations described herein as being performed by controller 60, TX controller 61, antenna controller 64, and/or timing analyzer 65 may be performed by processing circuitry.

The timing analyzer 65 can generate timing information I_TIM and provide the timing information I_TIM to the antenna controller 64 . As shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6 , the timing analyzer 65 may receive the feedback signal SFB in some embodiments, and may receive the feedback signal S_FB provided by the buffer 63 to the antenna controller 64 by capturing the feedback signal S_FB in some embodiments. The feedback information D_FB. The timing analyzer 65 may self-contain the cyclic prefix part CP and The feedback signal S_FB of the end part BE detects the boundary of the first symbol SYM1. In some embodiments, the antenna controller 64 may detect the boundary of at least one symbol before the first symbol SYM1, for example, the boundary of the second symbol SYM2 shown in FIG. 2, and may detect the boundary of the second symbol SYM2 based on The detected boundary and symbol information I_SYM are used to control the coupling direction of the coupler 31 in the first symbol SYM1. An example of the operation of the timing analyzer 65 is explained below with reference to FIG. 7 . Therefore, the antenna controller 64 can measure the antenna based on the symbol information I_SYM received from the transmission controller 61, the feedback data D_FB received from the buffer 63, and/or the timing information I_TIM received from the timing analyzer 65 (eg, FIG. 1 The reflection coefficient of the antenna 40) in .

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining an example of operation S110 in FIG. 3 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. The operation of generating the timing information I_TIM of the symbol may be performed (S110a shown in FIG. 7). In some embodiments, operation S110a shown in FIG. 7 may be an example of operation S210 shown in FIG. 5 . In addition, in some embodiments, operation S110a shown in FIG. 7 may be performed by the timing analyzer 65 in FIG. 6, and below, FIG. 7 is explained with reference to FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 7 , an operation of performing (for example, determining) a correlation between two parts of a symbol may be performed ( S111 ). According to some exemplary embodiments, multiple correlations between the two portions of the code may be performed. Next, an operation of generating the timing information I_TIM of the symbol based on the maximum (eg, highest or high) correlation may be performed (S112). According to some exemplary embodiments, a maximum correlation may be determined among the plurality of correlations performed in operation S111. The timing analyzer 65 can execute a part of the code including the cyclic prefix part CP and a part of the code including the backend part BE. Correlation operation, and therefore, the boundaries of the symbols can be detected based on the point where the highest correlation or high correlation is found. Therefore, the timing analyzer 65 may provide the timing information I_TIM including the detected boundaries of the symbols to the antenna controller 64 .

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example of a controller 80 according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. Similar to the controller 10 in FIG. 1 , the controller 80 shown in FIG. 8 may include a transmit controller 81 , a buffer 83 and/or an antenna controller 84 , and the transmit (TX) controller 81 may provide the antenna controller 84 with The timing signal T_SYM of the symbol. In the following, FIG. 8 will be explained with reference to FIG. 1 . According to some example embodiments, the operations described herein as being performed by controller 80, TX controller 81, and/or antenna controller 84 may be performed by processing circuitry.

The antenna controller 84 can receive the symbol information I_SYM and the symbol timing signal T_SYM from the transmission controller 81 , and receive the feedback data D_FB from the buffer 83 . As mentioned above, the symbol information I_SYM may include the length T _CP of the cyclic prefix part CP and the length _TU of the data symbol, and the timing signal T_SYM of the symbol may represent the boundary of the symbols included in the baseband transmission signal TX_BB. The antenna controller 84 can know the path delay in advance (for example, the transmission path delay of the wireless communication device 5, the transmission path delay of the wireless communication device 5', etc.), identify the symbol boundary based on the timing signal T_SYM and the path delay, and Generate timing information I_TIM indicating the boundary of the code. An example of an operation in which the antenna controller 84 generates timing information I_TIM based on the timing signal T_SYM is described below with reference to FIG. 9 .

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining an example of operation S110 in FIG. 3 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Timing information I_TIM that can be executed to generate symbols Operation (S110b shown in Figure 9). In some embodiments, operation S110b shown in FIG. 9 may be an example of operation S210 shown in FIG. 5 . In addition, in some embodiments, operation S110b shown in FIG. 9 may be performed by the antenna controller 84 in FIG. 8, and below, FIG. 9 is explained with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 8.

Referring to FIG. 9 , an operation of receiving a timing signal T_SYM of a symbol may be performed (S113), and then an operation of generating timing information I_TIM based on a path delay may be performed (S114). For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 8 , the timing signal T_SYM may be a signal synchronized with the boundary of the first symbol SYM1 , and therefore, timing information indicating the boundary of the symbol may be generated based on the timing signal T_SYM and the delay of the path.

In some embodiments, the antenna controller 84 may estimate the boundaries of the symbols arriving at the coupler 31 based on the timing signal T_SYM of the symbols. For example, the antenna controller 84 may know in advance the path in which the first symbol SYM1 contained in the baseband transmission signal TX_BB passes through the transmitter 21 and the switch 23 and reaches the coupler 31 , that is, the delay of the transmission path, and therefore can be based on The timing signal T_SYM of the symbol and the delay of the transmission path are used to estimate the time point when the boundary of the first symbol SYM1 reaches the coupler 31 .

In some embodiments, the antenna controller 84 may estimate the boundary of the symbol included in the feedback signal S_FB based on the symbol timing signal T_SYM. For example, the antenna controller 84 may know in advance the delay of a path in which the RF feedback signal RF_FB provided by the coupler 31 is processed by the feedback circuit 50 to generate the feedback signal S_FB, that is, the delay of the feedback path, and therefore may be based on the timing of the symbols. The signal T_SYM, the delay of the transmission path and the delay of the feedback path are used to estimate the time point when the boundary of the first symbol SYM1 reaches the buffer 13 .

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example of a controller 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. Similar to the controller 10 in FIG. 1 , the controller 100 shown in FIG. 10 may include a TX controller 110 , a buffer 130 and/or an antenna controller 140 , and may further include a receive (receive, RX) controller 120 (eg, , receive (reception, RX) controller). In the following, the same or similar explanation to that given with respect to FIG. 1 will not be given for FIG. 10 .

RX controller 120 may control reception by receiver 22. For example, the RX controller 120 can set various receiving parameters and control the receiver 22 included in the transceiver 20 according to the wireless communication system and/or the corresponding wireless communication device to which the wireless communication device 5 is connected, so as to process the RF reception signal RX_RF And the base frequency receiving signal RX_BB. As shown in FIG. 10 , the RX controller 120 may include a timing analyzer 121 for processing the baseband reception signal RX_BB. Similar to the above description with reference to FIG. 6 , the timing analyzer 121 included in the RX controller 120 may be used to detect the symbol boundaries in the baseband received signal RX_BB. According to some example embodiments, the operations described herein as performed by controller 100, TX controller 110, antenna controller 140, RX controller 120, and/or timing analyzer 121 may be performed by processing circuitry.

In some embodiments, as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 10 , the reception (RX) controller 120 may receive the feedback signal S_FB or the feedback data D_FB. When measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40, the transceiver 20 may operate in transmit mode, and therefore, the timing analyzer 121 of the RX controller 120 may be in an idle state without processing the baseband receive signal RX_BB. Therefore, the RX controller 120 may be shared (eg, used) A timing analyzer 121 is included to measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 . An example of an operation in which the timing information I_TIM is generated in the controller 100 shown in FIG. 10 is explained below with reference to FIG. 12 .

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining an example of operation S110 in FIG. 3 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. The operation of generating the timing information I_TIM of the symbol may be performed (S110c shown in Figure 11). In some embodiments, operation S110c shown in FIG. 11 may be an example of operation S210 shown in FIG. 5 . In addition, in some embodiments, operation S110c shown in FIG. 11 may be performed by the antenna controller 140 in FIG. 10, and below, FIG. 11 is explained with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 10.

Referring to FIG. 11 , an operation of providing the feedback signal S_FB to the RX controller 120 may be performed ( S115 ), and then, an operation of receiving the timing information I_TIM from the RX controller 120 may be performed ( S116 ). For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 10 , the timing analyzer 121 of the RX controller 120 may be used to measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 , and accordingly, the antenna controller 140 may respond by providing the feedback signal S_FB (or feedback data) to the RX controller 120 D_FB) and obtains timing information I_TIM indicating the boundary of the symbols included in the feedback signal S_FB from the timing analyzer 121. According to some exemplary embodiments, the antenna controller 140 may control the RX controller 120 to generate (eg, determine) the timing information I_TIM (eg, by providing the feedback signal S_FB to the RX controller 120).

FIG. 12 is a timing diagram of the first to third symbols SYM1 to SYM3 included in the transmission signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Figure 12 shows the second symbol SYM2, the first symbol SYM1 and the third symbol SYM3 successively and individually. In the following, FIG. 12 is explained with reference to FIG. 1 .

Windowing can be used to prevent or reduce spectral leakage due to phase discontinuities between consecutive symbols. For example, as shown in FIG. 12 , a first windowing interval T _WIN1 may occur. In the first windowing interval T _WIN1 , a part of the first symbol SYM1 and a part of the second symbol SYM2 are in the first symbol SYM1 Distortion occurs near the boundary with the second symbol SYM2. In addition, a second windowing interval T _WIN2 may appear. In the second windowing interval T _WIN2 , a part of the first symbol SYM1 and a part of the third symbol SYM3 are between the first symbol SYM1 and the third symbol SYM3. Distortion near the boundary. Windowing may be applied when generating the baseband transmission signal TX_BB, and therefore, a series of symbols contained in the baseband transmission signal TX_BB may be distorted near the boundaries between symbols. Since mutually matched signals are used to measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40, as will be described below with reference to FIG. 13, the windowing interval of the feedback signal S_FB can be eliminated (eg, removed or reduced), for example, with the first windowing interval. A part corresponding to T _WIN1 and a part corresponding to the second windowing interval T _WIN2 .

13 is a flowchart of a method of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept. FIG. 13 shows an example of operations S110 and S180 in FIG. 3 . As described above with reference to FIG. 3 , the operation of obtaining the symbol information I_SYM and the timing information I_TIM can be performed (S110' shown in FIG. 13), and the operation of calculating the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 can be performed (S180' shown in FIG. 13). In the following, FIG. 13 is explained with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 12 .

Referring to FIG. 13, operation S110' may include operation S117. An operation of obtaining information about the windowing interval may be performed (S117). As described above with reference to FIG. 12 , windowing may be applied when generating the baseband transmission signal TX_BB, and the TX controller 11 may control the windowing. Therefore, the antenna controller 14 can obtain information about the windowing interval from the TX controller 11 . For example, the symbol information I_SYM in FIG. 1 may not only include the length T _CP of the cyclic prefix part CP and the length T _SYM of the symbol, but also include information about the windowing interval, such as the length and/or position of the windowing interval.

Operation S180' may include operation S181. An operation of extracting feedback signals corresponding to intervals excluding windowed intervals may be performed (S181). As described above with reference to FIG. 3 , before operation S180 ′, a first feedback signal including at least a part of the cyclic prefix part CP and a second feedback signal including at least a part of the backend part BE may be obtained. As described above with reference to FIG. 12 , since mutually matched signals are used to measure the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 , the reflection coefficient corresponding to the interval from which the windowed interval (eg, T _WIN1 in FIG. 12 ) has been excluded can be extracted from the first feedback signal. A portion corresponding to the interval from which the windowed interval (eg, T _WIN2 in FIG. 12 ) has been excluded can be extracted from the second feedback signal. Antenna controller 14 may calculate the reflection coefficient of antenna 40 based on the extracted portion.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for explaining an example of operation S117 in FIG. 13 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. As described above with reference to FIG. 13 , the operation of obtaining information about the windowing interval may be performed in operation S117 ′ shown in FIG. 14 . As shown in FIG. 14 , operation S117' may include operations S117_1, S117_2, and S117_3, and below, FIG. 14 is explained with reference to FIG. 1 .

An operation of obtaining information about the windowing interval may be performed (S117_1). For example, the antenna controller 14 may receive information about the windowing interval from the TX controller 11 The code information I_SYM of the information, and/or obtain the information about the windowing interval from the code information I_SYM.

An operation of comparing the windowing interval length T _WIN with the threshold value T _THR may be performed (S117_2). For example, the antenna controller 14 may obtain the length of the windowing interval T _WIN as the information about the windowing interval obtained in operation S117_1, and may compare the length of the windowing interval T _WIN with the threshold value T _THR . The threshold value _TTHR may be predetermined based on the length of the smallest (eg, lowest or low) cyclic prefix portion CP (or backend portion BE) from which the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 can be calculated. In other words, to calculate the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40, the length of the windowing interval _TWIN may be less than the threshold value _TTHR . Therefore, as shown in Figure 14, when the length T _WIN of the windowing interval is less than the threshold value T _THR , the operation S117' of obtaining the information about the windowing interval may be ended, but when the length T _WIN of the windowing interval is not less than When the threshold value _TTHR is reached, operation S117_3 may be performed subsequently.

An operation to request shortening of the windowing interval can be performed (S117_3). For example, antenna controller 14 may request TX controller 11 to shorten the windowing interval. In response to a request from the antenna controller 14, the TX controller 11 may apply a shortened windowing interval to the baseband transmission signal TX_BB. In some embodiments, antenna controller 14 may request shortening of the windowing interval from TX controller 11 and, concurrently or in parallel, may provide the length of the desired windowing interval to TX controller 11 . In some embodiments, the TX controller 11 may know the threshold _TTHR in advance, and in response to a request from the antenna controller 14 , may apply a windowing interval smaller than the threshold _TTHR to the baseband TX signal TX_BB.

FIG. 15 is a diagram of an example of an operation of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. In some embodiments, the operations in FIG. 15 may be performed by antenna controller 14 in FIG. 1 , and FIG. 15 is explained below with reference to FIG. 1 .

In some embodiments, a reflection coefficient may be calculated from each of the plurality of symbols, and based on the calculated reflection coefficient, the reflection coefficient of antenna 40 may be determined. For example, as shown in Figure 15, three reflection coefficients _Γx , _Γy , and _Γz can be calculated from each of the three symbols (SYMx, SYMy, and SYMz), and from the three reflection coefficients Γ _x , Γ _y and Γ _z or, for example, as the average of the three reflection coefficients Γ _x , Γ _y and Γ _z , the reflection coefficient Γ of the antenna 40 can be determined. The antenna controller 14 may control the coupling direction of the coupler 31 so that a plurality of reflection coefficients may be calculated from each of the plurality of symbols. For example, as shown in FIG. 15 , the antenna controller 14 can toggle the coupling direction of the coupler 31 with a period of the symbol length T _SYM . Although FIG. 15 shows an example in which the reflection coefficient Γ of the antenna 40 is determined based on three consecutive symbols (SYMx, SYMy, and SYMz), in some embodiments, the reflection coefficient Γ of the antenna 40 may be based on more than two It may be determined based on one or more symbols, and in some embodiments, it may be determined based on two or more discontinuous (eg, disordered) symbols.

Figure 16 is a graph of measured reflection coefficients of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. Figure 16 shows the simulation results obtained by using the above method of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna.

As indicated by the triangular markers in Figure 16, each antenna may have a reflection coefficient that is one of about 0.4, about 0.6, and about 0.8, and about 0°, about 45°, about 90°, about 135°, about 180 °, about 225°, about 270° and A phase of approximately one of 315°. As shown by the circular marks in FIG. 16 , according to a method of measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, by using new radio (NR) 6G sub-6G 100 MHz (MHz) transmission signal and the measured reflection coefficient can be consistent with the actual reflection coefficient.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a method using reflection coefficient of an antenna according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept. In some embodiments, after operation S180 in FIG. 3 and operation S280 in FIG. 5 in which the reflection coefficient of the antenna is calculated, operation S190 shown in FIG. 17 may be subsequently performed. In FIG. 17, operation S190 is shown as including operations S191 and S192, but in some embodiments, operation S190 may include only one of operations S191 and/or S192. Additionally, in some embodiments, operation S190 may be performed by the antenna controller 14 in FIG. 1 , and below, FIG. 17 is explained with reference to FIG. 1 .

An operation for controlling the antenna tuner 32 may be performed (S191). For example, the antenna controller 14 may control the antenna tuner 32 using the front-end control signal C_FE so that the calculated reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 is minimized or reduced. In other words, the antenna controller 14 may perform antenna impedance tuning (AIT) based on the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 measured by using the cyclic prefix portion CP of the symbol. According to some exemplary embodiments, wireless communications (eg, transmitting and/or or receive wireless communication signals). Because the measured reflection coefficient is accurate according to some example embodiments, the antenna 40 is properly tuned by the antenna controller 14 (eg, tuned to have a determined or designed impedance), and the wireless communication can be No signal degradation or Performed under conditions of low signal degradation.

An operation of detecting external objects may be performed (S192). When an external object (such as a user of the wireless communication device 5 ) is near the wireless communication device 5 , the reflection coefficient of the antenna 40 may change. In a wireless communication system using high-frequency signals such as millimeter waves, the wireless communication device 5 can output signals with high transmission power through the antenna 40 . Therefore, the user of the wireless communication device 5 can absorb high energy from the electromagnetic waves generated by the antenna 40, and can detect whether the user is allowed to approach the wireless communication device 5 to reduce the energy absorbed by the user, or detect whether the wireless communication device 5 part that has been approached by the user. To this end, antenna controller 14 may compare the measured reflection coefficient of antenna 40 to the designed (eg, determined) reflection coefficient of antenna 40 and, based on the error between the measured reflection coefficient and the designed reflection coefficient, may It is determined whether an external object such as a user has approached the wireless communication device 5 (or the antenna 40).

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an example of a communication device 200 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present concept. In some embodiments, communication device 200 may perform operations of at least some of the components included in controller 10 in FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 18 , the communication device 200 may include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 210 , an application specific instruction set processor (ASIP) 230 , a memory 250 , a main processor 270 and/or Main memory 290. Two or more of the ASIC 210, ASIP 230, and/or main processor 270 may communicate with each other. In addition, at least two or more of the ASIC 210, ASIP 230, memory 250, main processor 270 and/or main memory 290 may be embedded in one chip.

ASIP 230 may include integrated circuits customized for specific purposes, support application-specific instruction sets, and/or execute instructions included in the application-specific instruction sets. Memory 250 may communicate with ASIP 230 and/or may serve as non-volatile storage to store a plurality of instructions executed by ASIP 230. For example, as a non-limiting example, memory 250 may include memory types accessible by ASIP 230, such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), Tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks, volatile memory, non-volatile memory and/or combinations thereof.

The main processor 270 can control the communication device 200 by executing a plurality of instructions. For example, the main processor 270 can control the ASIC 210 and/or the ASIP 230 to process data received via the wireless communication network and/or process user input to the communication device 200 . The main memory 290 may communicate with the main processor 270 and/or may serve as non-volatile storage to store a plurality of instructions executed by the main processor 270 . For example, as a non-limiting example, main memory 290 may include memory accessible by main processor 270 such as RAM, ROM, tape, magnetic disk, optical disk, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and/or its combination.

The method of measuring the reflection coefficient of the antenna may be performed by at least one of the components included in the communication device 200 shown in FIG. 18 . In some embodiments, the operations of the antenna controller 14 in FIG. 1 may be implemented as a plurality of instructions stored in the memory 250, and the ASIP 230 may perform measurements by executing the plurality of instructions stored in the memory 250. At least one of the operations of the method of reflection coefficient of the antenna. In some embodiments, at least one of the operations of the method of measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna may be performed by Logic synthesis and other designed hardware blocks are executed, and such hardware blocks may be included in the ASIC 210. In some embodiments, at least one of the operations of the method of measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna may be implemented as a plurality of instructions stored in the main memory 290 , and the main processor 270 may execute the instructions stored in the main memory. The plurality of instructions in 290 to perform the at least one of the operations.

Traditional devices calculate the reflection coefficient of the antenna based on the transmitted signal and delay until the signal corresponding to the transmitted signal reflected from the antenna is fed back. Traditional devices use add-on components to obtain the transmitted signal and rely on accurate determination of the delay of the reflected signal. As a result, legacy devices use excessive overhead (e.g., the cost of the additional components and/or physical space occupied) and consume excessive resources (e.g., processor and/or power resources) to determine the delay of the reflected signal. . However, according to some exemplary embodiments, an improved wireless communication device is provided that can accurately measure the reflection coefficient of an antenna without using additional components and without relying on the determination of the delay of the reflected signal. Therefore, the improved wireless communication device overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional device to reduce overhead and resource consumption.

While the inventive concepts have been specifically shown and described with reference to embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various changes may be made in form and details without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims below.

5: Wireless communication device

10:Controller

11:Transmission (TX) controller

13:Buffer

14:Antenna controller

20:Transceiver

21:Teleporter

22:Receiver

23: switch

30:Front-end circuit

31:Coupler

32:Antenna tuner

40:Antenna

50:Feedback circuit

C_FE: Front-end signal

D_FB: Feedback information

F: forward coupling

I_SYM: Symbol information

R: reverse coupling

RF_FB: Radio frequency (RF) feedback signal

RX_BB: Baseband receiving signal

RX_RF: RF receiving signal

S_FB: feedback signal

TX_BB: baseband transmission signal

TX_RF: RF transmission signal

Claims (25)

A device for measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna, the device includes: processing circuitry, configured to, Based on the first symbol information of the first symbol included in the radio frequency (RF) transmission signal transmitted to the antenna, a first feedback signal and a second feedback signal are extracted from the third feedback signal, the first feedback signal Corresponding to at least a portion of the cyclic prefix portion of the first symbol, the second feedback signal corresponds to at least a portion of the rear end portion of the first symbol, and the third feedback signal is provided by a free coupler generated as part of the radio frequency transmission signal, and The reflection coefficient is calculated based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit system is configured to: Before generating the first feedback signal based on the first code information, setting the coupler to a first coupling direction; and Before generating the second feedback signal based on the first symbol information, the coupler is set to a second coupling direction. The device described in claim 1 further includes: a transmission controller configured to control a transmitter configured to generate the radio frequency transmission signal, wherein the processing circuit system is configured to, receiving a windowed interval from the transmit controller, the windowed interval including a boundary of the first symbol, and The reflection coefficient is calculated based on first feedback information of the first feedback signal and second feedback information of the second feedback signal, the first feedback information including the first feedback signal but not the third feedback signal. A portion of a feedback signal corresponding to the windowed interval, and the second feedback information includes the second feedback signal but does not have a portion of the second feedback signal corresponding to the windowed interval. The device as claimed in claim 3, wherein The processing circuitry is configured to request the transfer controller to shorten the windowing interval. The device of claim 1, wherein the first code information includes: The length of the first symbol; the length of the cyclic prefix portion; and Timing information indicates the boundary of the first symbol. The device described in claim 5 further includes: A timing analyzer is configured to generate the timing information by determining a correlation between the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal. The device described in claim 5 further includes: a transmission controller configured to control a transmitter configured to generate the radio frequency transmission signal, wherein The processing circuitry is configured to, receiving a timing signal from the transmit controller indicating a symbol boundary, and The timing information is generated based on the path delay of the radio frequency transmission signal and the timing signal. The device described in claim 5 further includes: a receive controller configured to control a receiver configured to receive a receive signal via the antenna, wherein The processing circuitry is configured to, Control the receiving controller to generate the timing information based on the third feedback signal, and Receive the timing information from the receiving controller. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein The processing circuitry is configured to generate an antenna tuning signal based on the reflection coefficient. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein The processing circuitry is configured to detect external objects near the antenna based on the reflection coefficient of the antenna and the determined reflection coefficient. A method of measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna, the method comprising: obtaining first symbol information of a first symbol contained in a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal provided to the antenna via the coupler; A first feedback signal is obtained based on the first symbol information, the first feedback signal being a radio frequency provided during a first interval in which the coupler delivers at least a portion of a cyclic prefix portion of the first symbol. Produced by feedback signals; A second feedback signal is obtained based on the first symbol information, the second feedback signal being provided from a second interval in which the coupler delivers at least a portion of the backend portion of the first symbol. generated by the radio frequency feedback signal; and The reflection coefficient is calculated based on the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal. The method described in request item 11 further includes: setting the coupler to a first coupling direction before the first interval based on the first symbol information; and The coupler is set to a second coupling direction before the second interval based on the first code information. A method as described in request item 12, wherein The first coupling direction and the second coupling direction are different coupling directions of forward coupling of the coupler and reverse coupling of the coupler. A method as described in request item 11, wherein Obtaining the first symbol information includes obtaining a windowed interval from a transmission controller, the windowed interval including a boundary of the first symbol; and Calculating the reflection coefficient includes: Extracting the portion of the first interval excluding the windowed interval from the first feedback signal to generate first feedback information, Extracting the portion of the second interval excluding the windowed interval from the second feedback signal to generate second feedback information, and The reflection coefficient is calculated based on the first feedback information and the second feedback information. The method of claim 14, wherein obtaining the first code information further includes: Requests the transport controller to shorten the windowing interval. The method of claim 11, wherein the first code information includes: The length of the first symbol; the length of the cyclic prefix portion; and Timing information indicates the boundary of the first symbol. The method of claim 16, wherein obtaining the first code information includes: determining a plurality of correlations between the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal; and The timing information is generated based on the highest correlation among the plurality of correlations. The method of claim 16, wherein obtaining the first code information includes: receiving timing signals indicating code boundaries; and The timing information is generated based on the path delay of the radio frequency transmission signal and the timing signal. The method of claim 16, wherein obtaining the first code information includes: providing the first feedback signal and the second feedback signal to a receive controller configured to control a receiver configured to receive a receive signal via the antenna; and Receive the timing information from the receiving controller. The method described in request item 11 further includes: An antenna tuner connected to the antenna is controlled based on the reflection coefficient. The method described in request item 11 further includes: External objects near the antenna are detected based on the reflection coefficient of the antenna and the determined reflection coefficient. A method of measuring the reflection coefficient of an antenna, the method comprising: Obtaining first symbol information of a first symbol contained in a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal provided to the antenna via the coupler; setting the coupler to a first coupling direction prior to a first interval based on the first symbol information, the coupler transmitting at least a portion of a cyclic prefix portion of the first symbol during the first interval ; The coupler is set to a second coupling direction prior to a second interval based on the first symbol information, the coupler transmitting at least a portion of the backend portion of the first symbol during the second interval ;as well as The reflection coefficient is calculated based on a radio frequency feedback signal provided by the coupler during the first interval and the second interval. A method as described in request item 22, wherein The first coupling direction and the second coupling direction are different coupling directions of forward coupling and reverse coupling of the coupler. The method of claim 22, wherein the first code information includes: The length of the first symbol; the length of the cyclic prefix portion; and Timing information indicates the boundary of the first symbol. A method as described in request item 22, wherein Obtaining the first symbol information includes obtaining a windowed interval from a transmission controller, the windowed interval including a boundary of the first symbol; and Calculating the reflection coefficient includes: Extracting portions of the fundamental frequency feedback signal generated from the radio frequency feedback signal corresponding to the first interval and the second interval excluding the windowed interval to generate feedback information, and The reflection coefficient is calculated based on the feedback information.

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