Patent Application
20140347242
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of Korean patent application filed on May 27, 2013 in the Korean Intellecutal Property Office and assigned Serial No. 10-2013-0059565, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates to an antenna apparatus and an electronic device having the same. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an antenna apparatus and an electronic device having the same, which can improve isolation between antennas arranged adjacent to each other.
Based on significant advances in information, communication, and semiconductor technologies, the use of portable terminals has rapidly increased such that portable terminals have become necessities to modern people. That is, a portable device now provides advanced and diverse functions that are required by a user. For instance, the portable terminal provides various functions such as a mobile communication function, a near distance wireless communication function, a broadcast reception function, an interne access function, and the like. To this end, the portable terminal may be provided with a plurality of antennas. For instance, the portable terminal may include a mobile communication antenna, a near distance wireless communication antenna, a broadcast reception antenna, and the like.
Antennas are devices for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. As such, when the antennas are located adjacent to each other, a mutual coupling phenomenon may occur, which causes a decrease in the radiation capacity of the portable terminal Furthermore, there may be an increase in the radiation capacity reduction when adjacently located antennas have similar operation frequency bands. In order to reduce the decrease in the radiation capacity, a portable terminal of the related art has antennas spaced more than a predetermined distance apart from each other. For instance, a portable terminal of the related has a first antenna disposed at an upper end and a second antenna disposed at a lower end. However, the need to adequately space the antennas conflicts with the desire for a portable terminal to become compact and slim. Also, recent portable terminals are provided with many electronic parts in order to provide various functions. Accordingly, there arises a problem for a portable terminal in that it is difficult to arrange antennas while establishing a sufficient space between them. Hence, there exists a need to secure isolation between adjacent antennas.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.
Aspects of the present disclosure are to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the present disclosure is to provide an antenna apparatus that is able to secure isolation between adjacent antennas to thereby improve radiation capacity and an electronic device having the same.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, an antenna apparatus is provided. The antenna apparatus includes a plurality of antennas, and a printed circuit board connected to the plurality of antennas, wherein the printed circuit board comprises a plurality of feeding units respectively connected to the plurality of antennas and a plurality of ground units respectively connected to the plurality of antennas, and wherein each of the ground units is separated from the other ground units by means of at least one slot.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a plurality of antennas, a plurality of feeding units formed on a printed circuit board and respectively connected to the plurality of antennas, and a plurality of ground units formed on the printed circuit board and respectively connected to the plurality of antennas, wherein each of the ground units is separated from the other ground units by means of at least one slot.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a plurality of antennas located adjacent to each other, a plurality of feeding units, each of which is connected to the plurality of antennas and is formed on a printed circuit board, a plurality of ground units, each of which is connected to the plurality of antennas, and at least one capacitor which electrically connects the plurality of ground units, wherein the plurality of ground units are formed by separating a ground unit of the printed circuit board by means of at least one slot.
As described above, the antenna apparatus and the electronic device having the same according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can improve isolation between antennas located adjacently to each other. Hence, an electronic device according to the present disclosure can enhance radiation capacity.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure.
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions about well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.
The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
Particular embodiments of the present disclosure disclosed in the specification and drawings are intended to explain technical contents of the present disclosure and to assist in an understanding of the present disclosure. They are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Also, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that other modified examples in addition to those embodiments disclosed herein can be made based on the technical idea of the present disclosure without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
Prior to a detailed description, it should be noted of that an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below as a terminal with a plurality of antennas. It should be understood that the terminal may be a mobile communication terminal, a smart phone, a tablet Personnel Computer (PC), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the like.
Various embodiments of the present disclosure explained herein below can improve isolation between a plurality of antennas arranged adjacent to each other in an electronic device, by forming a slot so that each antenna is provided with separate ground units of an island type, and by connecting the separate ground units with a lump element. Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present disclosure will be explained by way of examples of having two antennas to make explanations easy. However, it is to be understood that the present disclosure is not so limited but is equally applicable to an electronic device having three or more antennas.
Referring to
The first antenna 10 and the second antenna 20 may be a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna. Also, the first antenna 10 may be an antenna which operates at a frequency band for mobile communication using a second generation, third generation, or fourth generation (2G/3G/4G) cellular technology, and the second antenna 20 may be an antenna which operates at a connectivity frequency band for Bluetooth communication, Global Positioning System (GPS) communication, or Wi-Fi communication. The first antenna 10 and the second antenna 20 may operate at similar frequency bands.
The first antenna 10 and the second antenna 20 may be connected to a printed circuit board (not shown). The printed circuit board can include a first feeding unit (not shown) for supplying a power signal to the first antenna 10, a second feeding unit (not shown) for supplying a power signal to the second antenna 20, a first ground unit (not shown) connected to the first antenna 10 and a second ground unit (not shown) connected to the second antenna 20. The first ground unit and the second ground unit can be electrically separated from each other by means of a slot. Also, the first ground unit and the second ground unit can be connected to each other by a lump element. The lump element can be at least one of a capacitor, an inductor, and a resistor.
The ground units of the first antenna 10 and the second antenna 20 are electrically separated. Hence, the electronic device 100 can improve an isolation property between the first antenna 10 and the second antenna 20. Also, embodiments of the present disclosure can adjust isolation between the first antenna 10 and the second antenna 20 by changing a slot interval between the first ground unit and the second ground unit or a value of the lump element interconnecting the first ground unit and the second ground unit. Thus, the electronic device 100 is able to improve a radiation property in comparison with an electronic device of the related art in which a plurality of adjacent antennas use a common ground unit.
Referring to
The first feeding unit 11 and the second feeding unit 21 can be connected to a first communication module 110 and a second communication module 210, respectively. Here, the first communication module 110 may be a mobile communication module for performing a mobile communication service, and the second communication module 210 may be at least one of a Bluetooth communication module, a wireless LAN communication module, a GPS module, and the like. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto.
The printed circuit board 30 is formed with a plurality of slots 51, 52, and 53. The plurality of slots 51, 52, 53 can separate the ground unit of the printed circuit board 30 into several sub-ground units 31, 32, and 34 and a main ground unit 33. In this regard, the first sub-ground unit 31 can be connected to the first antenna 10, and the second sub-ground unit 32 can be connected to the second antenna 20. The first sub-ground unit 31 and the second sub-ground unit 32 may be electrically separated. Thus, the first embodiment of the present disclosure can improve isolation between a first antenna and a second antenna by electrically separating the first sub-ground unit 31 and the second sub-ground unit 32.
The ground units 31, 32, 33, and 34 separated by the plurality of slots 51, 52, and 53 can be electrically connected by means of the plurality of lump elements 40 (i.e., lump elements 41, 42, 43, and 44). For instance, the first sub-ground unit 31 can be connected to the third sub-ground unit 34 through the first lump element 41, and to the main ground unit 33 through the second lump element 42. Also, the second sub-ground unit 32 can be connected to the main ground unit 33 through the third lump element 43 and connected to the third ground unit 34 through the fourth lump element 44. In this instance, the lump elements 41, 42, 43, and 44 can be capacitors. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the lump elements can be inductors, resistors, and the like.
As described above, the first embodiment of the present disclosure can prevent a decrease in the radiation capacity produced from the reduction of the ground area of a first antenna and a second antenna due to the electrical connection between the ground units 31, 32, 33, and 34 through the lump elements. Meanwhile, the first embodiment of the present disclosure can adjust values of the lump elements 41, 42, 43, and 44 to thereby optimize the radiation capacity and isolation between the first antenna and the second antenna.
While the printed circuit board 30 shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Accordingly, in the third embodiment of the present disclosure, the second slot 52b can be additionally formed to electrically separate the first ground unit 31b from the other ground unit of the electronic device 100, and the third slot 53b can be further formed to electrically separate the second ground unit 32b from the other ground unit of the electronic device 100. Hence, the first ground unit 31b and the second ground unit 32b can be completely separated from each other electrically. In other words, the ground unit of the second substrate 30b can be separated into four ground units 31b, 32b, 34a, and 34b. In this instance, the first ground unit 31b and the second ground unit 32b can be connected by means of a first lump element 41b, the first ground unit 31b and the third ground unit 34a can be connected by means of a second lump element 42b, and the second ground unit 32b and the fourth ground unit 34b can be connected by means of a third lump element 43b. In other words, the second substrate 30b can include three lump elements 41b, 42b, and 43b. Here, the first to third lump elements 41b, 42b, and 43b may be formed by capacitors and may have values optimized through experiments. For instance, the first to the third capacitors 41b to 43b can have capacitances of 1.2 pF, 6.0 pF, and 7.0 pF, respectively. However, these values are merely an example and do not limit the present disclosure.
Table 1 is a comparison of isolations between an antenna apparatus of the related art and an antenna apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure with reference to
Referring to Table 1, when isolations of the antenna apparatus of the present disclosure are compared with those of the antenna apparatuses of the related art, it is noted that the isolation of the antenna apparatus of the present disclosure is reduced by about 0.7 dB (=−14.8−(−14.08)) at a frequency of 880 Mhz, is increased by about 2.2 dB (=−11.35−(−13.53)) at a frequency of 960 MHz, is reduced by about 8.4 dB (=−14.14−(−5.735)) at a frequency of 1850 MHz, is reduced by about 11.1 dB (=−17.44−(−5.632)) at a frequency of 1710 MHz, and is reduced by about 7.2 dB (=−15.50−(−8.209)) at a frequency of 1990 MHz. In brief, it is noted that, in comparison with those of the antenna apparatus of the related art, the isolation values of the antenna apparatus according to the present disclosure are reduced by about 7 to 11 dB at the frequency band of about 1.7 GHz to 2 GHz, which implies that isolation between a first antenna and a second antenna has been improved at the frequency band of about 1.7 GHz to about 2 GHz. Meanwhile, the difference between isolation values (S21) is not large between frequency bands 880 MHz to 960 MHz. This is because the antenna apparatus of the related art has a sufficient isolation value of about −14 dB at the frequency of 880 MHz and 960 MHz.
Moreover, when isolation values of S11 and S22 shown in
Thus, according to an antenna apparatus of an embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible to improve isolation between two antennas to thereby improve the radiation capacity.
Here, embodiments of an antenna apparatus and an electronic device having the same according to the present disclosure have been described in conjunction with the appended drawings. In this regard, while some specific terms have been used, they are used in a general meaning to easily explain and to assist in an understanding of the technical contents of the present disclosure, and they are not intended to limit the present disclosure to the disclosed embodiments. In other words, it can be easily understood by those skilled in the art that various embodiments can be made based on the technical idea of the present disclosure without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
While the present disclosure has been shown and described with reference to various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2013-0059565 | May 2013 | KR | national |
