| 20110059694 | LOW POWER NEAR-FIELD COMMUNICATION DEVICES - Power consumption of near-field communication devices is regulated by waking the device for communications when a potential external near-field device is detected, and by adjusting the resonant antenna circuit to account for the detected change in antenna environment. Such near-field communication devices, which may be used to detect and read external RFID tags, include a resonant loop antenna circuit having an antenna and a variable component, the antenna circuit being tunable by adjusting the variable component. The antenna has a target range of operation for near-field communication, and an inductance that is susceptible to interference that can alter the target range. The resonant loop antenna circuit is connected to an integrated circuit that includes a controller for controlling near-field communications via the resonant loop antenna circuit, an inductance detection circuit to detect changes in the antenna inductance, a wake-on circuit responsive to a sufficient change in antenna inductance to transition the controller from a low power sleep mode to a communications mode, and an antenna tuning circuit to adjust the variable component of the resonant loop antenna circuit to compensate for changes in antenna inductance and to maintain the target range of operation. | 03-10-2011 |
