Patents by Inventor Andreas Menkhoff

Andreas Menkhoff 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: 20260079247
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a processor and wireless circuitry with transmit and receive antennas. Radar circuitry may use the transmit and receive antennas to perform spatial ranging on external objects farther than a threshold distance (e.g., 1-2 cm) from the transmit antenna. The wireless circuitry may include a voltage standing wave ration (VSWR) sensor coupled to the transmit antenna to detect the presence of objects within the threshold distance from the transmit antenna. This may serve to cover a blind spot for the radar circuitry near to the transmit antenna. The VSWR sensor may gather background VSWR measurements when other wireless performance metric data for the wireless circuitry is within a predetermined range of satisfactory values. The background VSWR measurements may be subtracted from real time VSWR measurements to perform accurate and robust ultra-short range object detection near to the transmit antenna.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2025
    Publication date: March 19, 2026
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Andreas Menkhoff, Bin Xiao, Lucas Calderin, Andre Hanke, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12568009
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry that conveys data with a base station according to a communication standard and that detects range to an external object using a first antenna that transmits a waveform compliant with the standard. The waveform may be a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) waveform, a transmit data waveform, or another waveform. A second antenna may receive a reflected signal that includes the transmitted waveform. The communications circuitry may perform element-wise division on symbols of a selected sub-carrier in the reflected signal using corresponding phases and magnitudes of a set of complex OFDM symbols used to generate the transmitted waveform. Peak detection may be performed to detect the range. Using standard-compliant transmit waveforms to also perform spatial ranging may allow the communications circuitry to avoid dedicated radar circuitry while also minimizing impact to the transfer of the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2026
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jochen Schrattenecker, Michael Hofstadler, Andreas Springer, Reinhard Feger, Andreas Stelzer, Harald Pretl, Bernhard Sogl, Andreas Menkhoff
  • Publication number: 20260050080
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensor disposed along a radio-frequency transmission line between a signal generator and an antenna. The VSWR sensor may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted by the signal generator over the transmission line. Control circuitry may identify a variation in the VSWR measurements over time and may compare the variation to a threshold value to determine whether an external object in the vicinity of the antenna is animate or inanimate. The control circuitry may reduce the maximum transmit power level of the antenna when the external object is animate and may maintain or increase the maximum transmit power level when the external object is inanimate. This may serve to maximize the wireless performance of the electronic device while also ensuring that the device complies with regulatory limits on radio-frequency energy exposure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2025
    Publication date: February 19, 2026
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12498473
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a processor and wireless circuitry with transmit and receive antennas. Radar circuitry may use the transmit and receive antennas to perform spatial ranging on external objects farther than a threshold distance (e.g., 1-2 cm) from the transmit antenna. The wireless circuitry may include a voltage standing wave ration (VSWR) sensor coupled to the transmit antenna to detect the presence of objects within the threshold distance from the transmit antenna. This may serve to cover a blind spot for the radar circuitry near to the transmit antenna. The VSWR sensor may gather background VSWR measurements when other wireless performance metric data for the wireless circuitry is within a predetermined range of satisfactory values. The background VSWR measurements may be subtracted from real time VSWR measurements to perform accurate and robust ultra-short range object detection near to the transmit antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2025
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Andreas Menkhoff, Bin Xiao, Lucas Calderin, Andre Hanke, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12455368
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensor disposed along a radio-frequency transmission line between a signal generator and an antenna. The VSWR sensor may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted by the signal generator over the transmission line. Control circuitry may identify a variation in the VSWR measurements over time and may compare the variation to a threshold value to determine whether an external object in the vicinity of the antenna is animate or inanimate. The control circuitry may reduce the maximum transmit power level of the antenna when the external object is animate and may maintain or increase the maximum transmit power level when the external object is inanimate. This may serve to maximize the wireless performance of the electronic device while also ensuring that the device complies with regulatory limits on radio-frequency energy exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12411223
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2023
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2025
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20250264598
    Abstract: An electronic device may include radio-frequency sensing circuitry that transmits sensing signals and that receives reflected signals using one or more antennas. The sensing circuitry may generate digital sensor data based on the reflected signals. The sensor data may be indicative of moving objects moving through positions that occlude lines of sight between the electronic device and stationary objects behind the moving objects. The sensor circuitry may detect the locations on the stationary objects based on changes to the sensor data associated with motion of the moving objects through the positions. The sensor circuitry may accumulate an environment map of the detected locations as the moving objects move about the environment over time. This may allow the sensor circuitry to generate the environment map with high spatial resolution using as few antennas as possible. The sensor circuitry may detect boundaries of the environment based on the environment map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2024
    Publication date: August 21, 2025
    Inventors: Jiaming Cui, Jonathan Ah Sue, Nayef A Alsindi, Andreas Menkhoff, Matthew A Mow, Tideya Kella, Joseph Hakim
  • Patent number: 12388481
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry with a transmit antenna that transmits signals and a receive antenna that receives reflected signals. The wireless circuitry may detect a range between the device and an external object based on the transmitted signals and the reflected signals. When the range exceeds a first threshold, the wireless circuitry may use the transmitted signals and received signals to record background noise. When the range is less than a second threshold value, the wireless circuitry may detect the range based on the reflected signals and the recorded background noise. This may allow the range to be accurately measured within an ultra-short range domain even when the device is placed in different device cases, placed on different surfaces, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2024
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2025
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Jochen Schrattenecker, Bin Xiao, Andre Hanke, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny, Bernhard Sogl, Andreas Menkhoff
  • Publication number: 20250155565
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2025
    Publication date: May 15, 2025
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12181559
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12176934
    Abstract: A predistortion circuit for a wireless transmitter includes a signal input configured to receive a baseband signal. Further, the predistortion circuit includes a predistorter configured to generate a predistorted baseband signal using the baseband signal and a select of one of a first predistorter configuration and a second predistorter configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andreas Menkhoff, Gunther Kraut, Andreas Langer
  • Publication number: 20240411006
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2024
    Publication date: December 12, 2024
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20240364318
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry that conveys wireless signals and that is clocked using clocking circuitry. The clocking circuitry may include a signal source that generates a clock signal and a loop path coupled between the input and the output of the signal source. A digital frequency discriminator (DFD) may be disposed on the loop path. The DFD may include a digital delay and digital phase shifter coupled between an input converter and a digital mixer. The DFD may receive the clock signal and may generate a control signal indicative of phase noise of the clock signal. The DFD may feed the control signal back into the input of the signal source to mitigate the phase noise. The DFD may minimize phase noise of the signal source while minimizing space and power consumption on the device relative to analog frequency discriminators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2023
    Publication date: October 31, 2024
    Inventors: Zdravko Boos, Andreas Menkhoff, Bertram R Gunzelmann, Nedim Muharemovic
  • Publication number: 20240333325
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry with a transmit antenna that transmits signals and a receive antenna that receives reflected signals. The wireless circuitry may detect a range between the device and an external object based on the transmitted signals and the reflected signals. When the range exceeds a first threshold, the wireless circuitry may use the transmitted signals and received signals to record background noise. When the range is less than a second threshold value, the wireless circuitry may detect the range based on the reflected signals and the recorded background noise. This may allow the range to be accurately measured within an ultra-short range domain even when the device is placed in different device cases, placed on different surfaces, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2024
    Publication date: October 3, 2024
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Jochen Schrattenecker, Bin Xiao, Andre Hanke, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny, Bernhard Sogl, Andreas Menkhoff
  • Patent number: 12052047
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include a quadratic phase generator for outputting a perfectly interpolated constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence for a transmit path. The quadratic phase generator may include a numerically controlled oscillator, a switch controlled based on a value output from the numerically controlled oscillator, a first integrator stage, and a second integrator stage connected in series with the first integrator stage. The numerically controlled oscillator may receive as inputs a chirp count and a word length. The switch may be configured to switchably feed one of two input values that are a function of the chirp count and the word length to the first integrator stage. The quadratic phase generator may output full-bandwidth chirps or reduced-bandwidth chirps. Bandwidth reduction can be achieved by scaling the two input values of the switches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andreas Menkhoff, Andreas Boehme, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Joonhoi Hur
  • Patent number: 12047101
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry with a transmit antenna that transmits signals and a receive antenna that receives reflected signals. The wireless circuitry may detect a range between the device and an external object based on the transmitted signals and the reflected signals. When the range exceeds a first threshold, the wireless circuitry may use the transmitted signals and received signals to record background noise. When the range is less than a second threshold value, the wireless circuitry may detect the range based on the reflected signals and the recorded background noise. This may allow the range to be accurately measured within an ultra-short range domain even when the device is placed in different device cases, placed on different surfaces, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Jochen Schrattenecker, Bin Xiao, Andre Hanke, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny, Bernhard Sogl, Andreas Menkhoff
  • Patent number: 12013455
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a processor and wireless circuitry with transmit and receive antennas. Radar circuitry may use the transmit and receive antennas to perform spatial ranging on external objects farther than a threshold distance (e.g., 1-2 cm) from the transmit antenna. The wireless circuitry may include a voltage standing wave ration (VSWR) sensor coupled to the transmit antenna to detect the presence of objects within the threshold distance from the transmit antenna. This may serve to cover a blind spot for the radar circuitry near to the transmit antenna. The VSWR sensor may gather background VSWR measurements when other wireless performance metric data for the wireless circuitry is within a predetermined range of satisfactory values. The background VSWR measurements may be subtracted from real time VSWR measurements to perform accurate and robust ultra-short range object detection near to the transmit antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Andreas Menkhoff, Bin Xiao, Lucas Calderin, Andre Hanke, Harald Pretl, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20240036165
    Abstract: An electronic device may include radar circuitry. Control circuitry may calibrate the radar circuitry using a multi-tone calibration signal. A first mixer may upconvert the calibration signal for transmission by a transmit antenna. A de-chirp mixer may mix the calibration signal output by the first mixer with the calibration signal as received by a receive antenna or loopback path to produce a baseband multi-tone calibration signal. The baseband signal will be offset from DC by the frequency gap. This may prevent DC noise or other system effects from interfering with the calibration signal. The control circuitry may sweep the first mixer over the radio frequencies of operation of the radar circuitry to estimate the power droop and phase shift of the radar circuitry based on baseband calibration signal. Distortion circuitry may distort transmit signals used in spatial ranging operations to invert the estimated power droop and phase shift.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2023
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Inventors: Jochen Schrattenecker, Bernhard Sogl, Andreas Menkhoff, Joonhoi Hur, Harald Pretl, Christian Mayer, Andreas Langer, Rastislav Vazny
  • Publication number: 20240012125
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry having a set of two or more antennas coupled to voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) sensors. The VSWR sensors may gather VSWR measurements from radio-frequency signals transmitted using the set of antennas. The antennas may be disposed on one or more substrates and/or may be formed from conductive portions of a housing. Control circuitry may process the VSWR measurements to identify the ranges between each of the antennas in the set of antennas and an external object. The control circuitry may process the ranges to identify an angular location of the external object with respect to the device. The control circuitry may adjust subsequent communications based, adjust the direction of a signal beam produced by a phased antenna array, identify a user input, or perform any other desired operations based on the angular location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2023
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Inventors: Joonhoi Hur, Andreas Menkhoff, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 11863225
    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include a quadratic phase generator for outputting a perfectly interpolated constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence for a transmit path. The quadratic phase generator may include a numerically controlled oscillator, a switch controlled based on a value output from the numerically controlled oscillator, a first integrator stage, and a second integrator stage connected in series with the first integrator stage. The numerically controlled oscillator may receive as inputs a chirp count and a word length. The switch may be configured to switchably feed one of two input values that are a function of the chirp count and the word length to the first integrator stage. The quadratic phase generator may output full-bandwidth chirps or reduced-bandwidth chirps. Bandwidth reduction can be achieved by scaling the two input values of the switches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andreas Menkhoff, Andreas Boehme, Bernhard Sogl, Jochen Schrattenecker, Joonhoi Hur