US Patent 8351874 System and method for adaptive antenna impedance matching

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for automatically adjusting antenna impedance match in a wireless transceiver employing phase-amplitude modulation. According to some embodiments of the invention, a wireless transceiver comprises a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit connected to the antenna by a transmit/receive duplexer. An electronically adjustable matching network is located between the transmitter output and the antenna. To control the adjustable matching network, a directional coupler is located between the transmitter output and the matching network to separate transmit signals reflected from the antenna system, including the antenna, the matching network and the T/R duplexer. The reflected transmit signals are routed to the receiver circuit, which digitizes the reflected signal and determines an antenna reflection coefficient based on the digitized reflected signal and the modulation signal used to create the transmit signal. The complex antenna reflection coefficient is used to determine any adjustment needed to the antenna matching network.