Local oscillator frequency-based proximity sensor
AssigneeWiliot, Ltd.
InventorsAlon Yehezkely, Nir Shapira
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A battery-less Internet of things (IoT) tag integrated with a proximity sensor is disclosed. The battery-less IoT tag includes: a transmit antenna designed to have an inductive element; an integrated circuit having a capacitive element; and an energy harvester coupled to a capacitor, wherein the capacitor is an on-die capacitor and the energy harvester is configured to harvest energy from ambient signals, wherein the inductive element and the capacitive element form the proximity sensor oscillating at a local oscillator (LO) frequency, and wherein a frequency offset from the LO frequency is indicative of a detection of a nearby object.
Claims22
A battery-less Internet of things (IoT) tag integrated with a proximity sensor, comprising:
- a transmit antenna designed to have an inductive element;
- an integrated circuit having a capacitive element;
- and
- an energy harvester coupled to a capacitor, wherein the capacitor is an on-die capacitor and the energy harvester is configured to harvest energy from ambient signals,
- wherein the inductive element and the capacitive element form the proximity sensor oscillating at a local oscillator (LO) frequency, and wherein a frequency offset from the LO frequency is indicative of a detection of a nearby object.
A method for detecting a proximity of a nearby object, comprising:
- determining a local oscillator (LO) frequency of a proximity sensor;
- measuring a current oscillating frequency of the proximity sensor;
- determining a frequency offset between the LO frequency and the current oscillating frequency during a measurement window;
- and
- determining if the frequency offset exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein the frequency offset exceeding the predetermined threshold is indicative of at least a detection of a nearby object, wherein the threshold is predetermined based on surrounding.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.