Patents by Inventor Björn Lenhart

Björn Lenhart has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240097657
    Abstract: In electronic devices used in radio-frequency communications, impedance matching may result in desirable operating conditions. However, impedance of the antenna may change over time (e.g., due to frequency of signals being transmitted or received, due to ambient conditions, due to age of antenna or related components). Accordingly, it may be desirable to employ antenna tracking circuitry that may operate as an impedance matching network to dynamically match the antenna impedance. To dynamically match the antenna impedance, the matching network may include tunable components. To provide fast, dynamic, and effective impedance matching, antenna tracking circuitry having an architecture with analytically determinable impedance (e.g., determinable via one or more equations) may be implemented. The antenna tracking circuitry may include a variable resistor and three variable impedances.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Josef W Koller, Bjoern Lenhart, Dominic Koehler, Rastislav Vazny, Joonhoi Hur, Harald Pretl
  • Publication number: 20240088921
    Abstract: A communication device includes a duplexer differentially coupled to a receiver and a transmitter. The duplexer may include phase shifters on the differential lines to provide differential received signals to the receiver and receive differential transmission signals from the transmitter for transmission. For example, the phase shifter are positioned such that single-ended received signals may be converted to differential received signals and convert the differential transmission signals to single-ended transmission signals for transmission. Moreover, the phase shifters may provide the single-ended transmission signals to antennas for transmission and to the differential lines of the receiver for cancellation/isolation. Furthermore, the phase shifters may provide the differential received signals to the receiver for reception and provide the single-ended received signals to the differential lines of the transmitter for cancellation/isolation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2022
    Publication date: March 14, 2024
    Inventors: Bjoern Lenhart, Christof Pfannenmüller, Dominic Koehler, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20240080008
    Abstract: Systems and methods combine a test signal with a wanted (downlink or uplink) signal at an input of a duplexer of a communication device, and receive the test signal at an output of the duplexer. The test signal may include a radio frequency signal having less power than the wanted signal to avoid interference, or a digital signal that is added to or extracted from the wanted signal when the wanted signal does not have a radio frequency. A processor of the communication device causes the duplexer to operate in a tuning state (e.g., to transmit signals having a transmission frequency and receive signals having a receive frequency). The measurement system determines a difference or ratio in power between the test signal at the duplexer output and the duplexer input, and adjusts the tuning state based on the difference or ratio (e.g., to decrease or minimize the difference or ratio).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2022
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: Christof Pfannenmüller, Dominic Koehler, Julian W Zuber, Oliver Georg Dorn, Bjoern Lenhart, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny, Christian F Tanzer
  • Publication number: 20240080063
    Abstract: Systems and methods combine a test signal with a wanted (downlink or uplink) signal at an input of a duplexer of a communication device, and receive the test signal at an output of the duplexer. The test signal may include a radio frequency signal having less power than the wanted signal to avoid interference, or a digital signal that is added to or extracted from the wanted signal when the wanted signal does not have a radio frequency. A processor of the communication device causes the duplexer to operate in a tuning state (e.g., to transmit signals having a transmission frequency and receive signals having a receive frequency). The measurement system determines a difference or ratio in power between the test signal at the duplexer output and the duplexer input, and adjusts the tuning state based on the difference or ratio (e.g., to decrease or minimize the difference or ratio).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2022
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: Christof Pfannenmüller, Dominic Koehler, Julian W Zuber, Oliver Georg Dorn, Bjoern Lenhart, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny, Christian F Tanzer
  • Patent number: 11652675
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20230012540
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2022
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20230006629
    Abstract: This disclosure provides techniques for impedance matching. A radio frequency (RF) device includes a power detector to determine a transmitter leakage and a post-processing unit to determine a receiver leakage, and determines if isolation is acceptable based on the leakages. The RF device may include a device for measuring antenna impedance. Otherwise, the RF device may select multiple tuner settings (e.g., capacitor values) for test signals to be transmitted and received at a target frequency, determine multiple sets of leakage values, determine multiple reflection coefficients based on the multiple sets of leakage values, and determine an estimated antenna impedance at the target frequency based on the reflection coefficients. The RF device then determines impedance tuner settings based on the measured or estimated antenna impedance. Alternatively, the RF device determines impedance tuner settings using an inverse machine-learning model based on a determined matching impedance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2021
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Inventors: Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 11522742
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 11368342
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20220078059
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20220078060
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2021
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny