Patent attributes
An antenna assembly that generally combines RF communication circuitry and proximity sensing circuitry. The antenna assembly utilizes a pair of conductive elements (e.g., loop antenna structures) that are parasitically (e.g., capacitively) driven by a directly fed RF feed antenna. The pair of conductive elements are selectively tunable to communicate in a frequency band of RF communication signals by a pair of RF tuning switches. The pair of conductive elements are also utilized as electrodes for proximity sensing by a capacitive proximity sensor module. The proximity sensing module outputs a low frequency signal (as opposed to the high frequency RF signal) to the pair of conductive elements for proximity sensing. The RF tuning switches are isolated from the low frequency signal by a pair of capacitors. The capacitive proximity sensing circuitry is isolated from the RF communication signals by a pair of inductors.