Angle of arrival (AoA) antenna assembly for passive entry passive start (PEPS) base station

• Main Authors: Ahmed, Osman, Ghabra, Riad
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.08.2020
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

A base station of a vehicle includes an angle of arrival (AoA) antenna assembly and a controller. The AoA antenna assembly is positioned at a known location of the vehicle. The AoA antenna assembly includes a pair of antennas on a printed circuit board to detect an angle of arrival of a wireless signal as received by the AoA antenna assembly from a portable remote control. The wireless signal may be a Bluetooth™, a Bluetooth™ low energy (BLE), a Wi-Fi™, or an ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless signal. The remote control may be in the form of a phone or a key fob. The controller uses the detected angle and the known location of the AoA antenna assembly to locate the portable remote control relative to the vehicle. The controller may perform a passive entry passive start (PEPS) operation of the vehicle as a function of the location of the remote control.