Patents by Inventor Ronald A. Oliver

Ronald A. Oliver 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).

  • Patent number: 12321798
    Abstract: An RFID IC may operate at a relatively low clock frequency while impedance matching to an antenna is being tuned to increase the amount of power that the IC can extract from an incident RF wave. A tuning circuit tunes the impedance matching by adjusting a variable impedance coupling the IC and the antenna. The IC may power-up with a low clock frequency or reduce its current clock frequency to a lower clock frequency prior to tuning or during the tuning process, and may increase its clock frequency upon completion of tuning or during the tuning process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2025
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Hyde, Shailendra Srinivas, Jay Kuhn, Ronald A Oliver, Harley Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 11853826
    Abstract: An RFID IC may operate at a relatively low clock frequency while impedance matching to an antenna is being tuned to increase the amount of power that the IC can extract from an incident RF wave. A tuning circuit tunes the impedance matching by adjusting a variable impedance coupling the IC and the antenna. The IC may power-up with a low clock frequency or reduce its current clock frequency to a lower clock frequency prior to tuning or during the tuning process, and may increase its clock frequency upon completion of tuning or during the tuning process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Hyde, Shailendra Srinivas, Jay Kuhn, Ronald A. Oliver, Harley Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 11403505
    Abstract: An RFID integrated circuit, in addition to having conductive pads to electrically couple to an antenna, may also include a conductive bridge configured to electrically connect different portions of the antenna together. In some embodiments, the conductive bridge may be used to form a multi-turn antenna segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Diorio, Todd E. Humes, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: 11024936
    Abstract: Methods of RFID tag assembly include affixing an antenna to an integrated circuit (IC) by forming one or more capacitors coupling the antenna and the IC with the dielectric material of the capacitor(s) including a non-conductive covering layer of the IC, a non-conductive covering layer of the antenna such as an oxide layer, and/or an additionally formed dielectric layer. Top and bottom plates of the capacitor(s) are formed by the antenna traces and one or more patches on a top surface of the IC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald L. Koepp, Ronald A. Oliver, William T. Colleran, Yanjun Ma, Jay M. Fassett, Vincent C. Moretti
  • Patent number: 10936929
    Abstract: An RFID integrated circuit, in addition to having conductive pads to electrically couple to an antenna, may also include a conductive bridge configured to electrically connect different portions of the antenna together. In some embodiments, the conductive bridge may be used to form a multi-turn antenna segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Diorio, Todd E. Humes, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: 10929734
    Abstract: An RFID IC may operate at a relatively low clock frequency while impedance matching to an antenna is being tuned to increase the amount of power that the IC can extract from an incident RF wave. A tuning circuit tunes the impedance matching by adjusting a variable impedance coupling the IC and the antenna. The IC may power-up with a low clock frequency or reduce its current clock frequency to a lower clock frequency prior to tuning or during the tuning process, and may increase its clock frequency upon completion of tuning or during the tuning process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Hyde, Shailendra Srinivas, Jay Kuhn, Ronald A. Oliver, Harley Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 10885421
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC) having a first circuit block electrically coupled to first and second antenna contacts. The first antenna contact is disposed on a first surface of the IC and the second antenna contact is disposed on a second surface of the IC different from the first surface. A substrate of the RFID IC, or a portion of the IC substrate, electrically couples the first circuit block to at least one of the first and second antenna contacts. The IC includes one or more interfaces or barrier regions that at least partially electrically isolate the first circuit block from the rest of the IC substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Diorio, Ronald L. Koepp, Harley K. Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: 10720700
    Abstract: A synthesized-beam transceiver system steers a beam of a two-dimensional antenna array by activating a first subset of antenna elements to orient the beam in a first direction and subsequently activating a second subset of the antenna elements to orient the beam in a different direction. The system also electrically connects antenna elements that are inactive, not in the first subset, or not in the second subset to a reference potential of the array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Vincent Moretti, Omer Onen, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: 10650201
    Abstract: An Integrated Circuit (IC) for an RFID tag includes at least two antenna ports for coupling to at least two antennas. The IC may be configured to determine the port from which it receives an input signal, and provide a first functionality if it receives the input from a first port and a second functionality if it receives the input from a second port. The IC may be configured to determine and/or offer a functionality based on the receiving port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Yael Maguire, Ronald A. Oliver, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 10445535
    Abstract: An RFID IC may operate at a relatively low clock frequency while impedance matching to an antenna is being tuned to increase the amount of power that the IC can extract from an incident RF wave. A tuning circuit tunes the impedance matching by adjusting a variable impedance coupling the IC and the antenna. The IC may power-up with a low clock frequency or reduce its current clock frequency to a lower clock frequency prior to tuning or during the tuning process, and may increase its clock frequency upon completion of tuning or during the tuning process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Hyde, Shailendra Srinivas, Jay Kuhn, Ronald A. Oliver, Harley Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 10311353
    Abstract: An RFID integrated circuit, in addition to having conductive pads to electrically couple to an antenna, may also include a conductive bridge configured to electrically connect different portions of the antenna together. In some embodiments, the conductive bridge may be used to form a multi-turn antenna segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Diorio, Todd E. Humes, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: 10311351
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC) having a first circuit block electrically coupled to first and second antenna contacts. The first antenna contact is disposed on a first surface of the IC and the second antenna contact is disposed on a second surface of the IC different from the first surface. A substrate of the RFID IC, or a portion of the IC substrate, electrically couples the first circuit block to at least one of the first and second antenna contacts. The IC includes one or more interfaces or barrier regions that at least partially electrically isolate the first circuit block from the rest of the IC substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Diorio, Ronald L. Koepp, Harley K. Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: 10204246
    Abstract: An Integrated Circuit (IC) for an RFID tag includes at least two antenna ports for coupling to at least two antennas. The IC may be configured to determine the port from which it receives an input signal, and provide a first functionality if it receives the input from a first port and a second functionality if it receives the input from a second port. The IC may be configured to determine and/or offer a functionality based on the receiving port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Yael Maguire, Ronald A. Oliver, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 10116033
    Abstract: RFID tags are assembled through affixing an antenna to an integrated circuit (IC) by forming one or more capacitors coupling the antenna and the IC with the dielectric material of the capacitor(s) including a non-conductive covering layer of the IC, a non-conductive covering layer of the antenna such as an oxide layer, and/or an additionally formed dielectric layer. Top and bottom plates of the capacitor(s) are formed by the antenna traces and one or more patches on a top surface of the IC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald L. Koepp, Ronald A. Oliver, William T. Colleran, Yanjun Ma, Jay M. Fassett, Vincent C. Moretti
  • Patent number: 10002266
    Abstract: An RFID IC may operate at a relatively low clock frequency while impedance matching to an antenna is being tuned to increase the amount of power that the IC can extract from an incident RF wave. A tuning circuit tunes the impedance matching by adjusting a variable impedance coupling the IC and the antenna. The IC may power-up with a low clock frequency or reduce its current clock frequency to a lower clock frequency prior to tuning or during the tuning process, and may increase its clock frequency upon completion of tuning or during the tuning process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Hyde, Shailendra Srinivas, Jay Kuhn, Ronald A Oliver, Harley Heinrich, Theron Stanford, Christopher J. Diorio
  • Patent number: 9954278
    Abstract: A synthesized-beam transceiver system steers a beam of a two-dimensional antenna array by activating a first subset of antenna elements to orient the beam in a first direction and subsequently activating a second subset of the antenna elements to orient the beam in a different direction. The system also electrically connects antenna elements that are inactive, not in the first subset, or not in the second subset to a reference potential of the array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: IMPINJ, INC.
    Inventors: Vincent Moretti, Omer Onen, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: D865726
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventor: Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: RE47755
    Abstract: An RFID tag tuning circuit may be capable of adjusting the impedance matching between an RFID integrated circuit (IC) and an antenna on an RFID tag to increase the amount of power that the IC can extract from an incident RF wave. The tuning circuit switches a variable impedance coupling the antenna and the IC between several different impedance settings, where each impedance setting differs from an adjacent impedance setting by a respective impedance step size and at least one impedance step size has a different value than another impedance step size. The tuning circuit may switch the variable impedance by incrementing through a counter, decrementing through the counter, or performing some search algorithm. The tuning circuit may also initialize the variable impedance based on a default impedance setting or a random impedance setting derived from a random counter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventors: John Hyde, Jay Kuhn, Theron Stanford, Harley Heinrich, Christopher Diorio, Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: D879077
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventor: Ronald A. Oliver
  • Patent number: D887400
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2020
    Assignee: Impinj, Inc.
    Inventor: Ronald A. Oliver