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AppleGranted patentNetworks & wirelessInterest 6/10

Apple patents smart surface that helps phones find signal faster

Apple describes a system where a special surface attached to a phone helps manage wireless connections. This surface uses adjustable parts to either reflect signals from a tower or receive them, helping the phone find and track the best signal without using too much battery.

Why it mattersThis could make it easier for phones to stay connected in crowded areas or when moving quickly, reducing the workload on the phone's main processor.

In the filing’s own words

A communication system may include a wireless base station (BS), a user equipment (UE) device, and a hybrid reconfigurable intelligent surface (HRIS) co-located with the UE device. The HRIS may be used to offload beam management procedures to the BS. Adjustable devices on the HRIS may configure antenna elements of the HRIS to reflect incident signals from the BS and may configure antenna elements of the HRIS to receive the incident signals using a receiver according to a time domain multiplexing scheme, a spatial domain multiplexing scheme, and/or a power domain multiplexing scheme. The UE device may control the HRIS to switch between the schemes and to adjust a proportion of the incident signal that is reflected or received over time. The HRIS may be used in facilitating a beam acquisition and tracking procedure for the UE device and the BS, thereby minimizing resource consumption on the UE device.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) co-located with a user equipment (UE) device, the RIS comprising: an array of antenna elements configured to transmit signals for the UE device; adjustable devices coupled to the antenna elements; a receiver, wherein the adjustable devices configure a first set of antenna elements in the array to pass an incident signal to the receiver and configure a second set of antenna elements in the array to reflect the incident signal; and one or more processors configured to adjust impedances of the adjustable devices.

Facts

Company
Apple (Apple Inc.)
Official title
Wireless communication using hybrid reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
Patent number
US12732260B2
Application number
18164516
Filed
Feb 3, 2023
Granted
Sep 8, 2026
Inventors
3
Claims
17

Classified under

H04B 7/15507 Electricity & electronicsH04B 7/024 Electricity & electronicsH04B 7/15528 Electricity & electronicsH04B 7/15592 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.