Method and apparatus for determining acoustic communication rate in micro-devices
View Patent ↗The invention provides devices and methods for using acoustics to communicate between a macro-scale transceiver and a micro-device or between multiple micro-devices. The micro-devices may passively scatter sound from a transceiver or actively generate sound. Acoustic waves can also provide power to a micro-device.
1. A method for determining an acoustic communication rate with a micro-device comprising:
a) determining one or more constraints selected from the group consisting of noise, power and a combination thereof; and
b) calculating a channel capacity limited by the one or more constraints at one or more frequencies;
wherein at least one of said frequencies is above 1 MHz and said micro-device is between 10 nanometers and 200 micrometers in size in its smallest dimension.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein a data encoding scheme is utilized in determining the channel capacity.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said channel capacity is determined on-the-fly and the one or more frequencies are adjusted accordingly.
4. An apparatus for determining an acoustic communication rate with a micro-device comprising:
a) means for determining one or more constraints selected from the group including noise, power and a combination thereof; and
b) means for calculating a channel capacity limited by the one or more constraints at one or more frequencies;
wherein at least one of said frequencies is above 1 MHz and said micro-device is between 10 nanometers and 200 micrometers in size in its smallest dimension.
5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein a data encoding scheme is utilized in determining the channel capacity.
6. The apparatus of claim 4 including a means for determining the channel capacity on-the-fly and adjusting the one or more frequencies accordingly.