Patent Application
20240388003
A phased array antenna is an array of antennas which projects a beam of radio waves that can be steered to point in different directions without moving the antennas. There are many different types of phased array antennas. An ultra-wideband (UWB) phased array antenna is a phased array of UWB antennas, where a UWB antenna is an antenna with a fractional bandwidth greater than 0.2 and a minimum bandwidth of 500 MHz. UWB antennas have many applications, including voice and data transmission using digital pulses, allowing a very low-powered and relatively low-cost signal to carry information at very high data rates within a restricted range.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Briefly stated, the disclosed technology is generally directed to an antenna array embedded in a thinned region of a display panel. In one example of the technology, an apparatus comprises a display panel and a first antenna. The display panel is composed of a dielectric material. The display panel includes a first portion. An outer surface of the first portion is planar. The first portion includes a first region and a thinned region. The first region has a thickness. The thinned region has a thickness that is less than half of the thickness of the first region. The first antenna is embedded in the thinned region.
Other aspects of and applications for the disclosed technology will be appreciated upon reading and understanding the attached figures and description.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive examples of the present disclosure are described with reference to the following drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified. These drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
For a better understanding of the present disclosure, reference will be made to the following Detailed Description, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Phased array antennas occupy a somewhat larger than usual space relative to typical antennas and are environment-sensitive structures. In some examples, antenna elements, such as a phased array antenna, are embedded in the display panel, such as a glass display panel, of a mobile device without hindering the performances of the antenna elements and wireless technology used by the mobile device. In some examples, the antenna elements are embedded in a thinned region of the display panel. Use of such a thinned region allows the antenna structure embedded in the display panel to have no impairment imposed by mechanical constraints in the mobile device, allowing the best antennas to be used in the mobile device without impairment.
In some examples, an epoxy or liquid adhesive is used to backfill the antenna structure, creating an overall more stable environment around the antenna elements. In these examples, such a backfill allows the manufacturability and placement of antenna elements to be easier and more controlled, which also allows for greater specialization in the manufacturing. In some examples, the mobile device also uses a selective epoxy keepout to force an air gap around the radiating elements of the antennas embedded in the display panel.
System 100 includes dielectric layer 140 and antenna layer 150. Antenna layer 150 is embedded in dielectric layer 140. Dielectric layer 140 is a substrate is composed of a dielectric such as glass, a suitable plastic, a suitable glass-reinforced epoxy laminate material such as a flame-retardant 4 (FR4) material, or other suitable low-loss dielectric material. Part or all of dielectric layer 140 has a planar outer surface. In some examples, dielectric layer 140 is a display panel, such as a glass display panel. In some examples, system 100 is part of a mobile device, and dielectric layer 140 is a touch screen for the mobile device. In some examples, dielectric layer 140 includes a thinned region 141 than is thinned relative to the rest of the dielectric layer. For instance, in some examples, thinned region 141 is less than half of the thickness of the rest of the dielectric layer, and thinned region 141 has a thickness that is less than 0.5 mm.
Antenna layer 150 includes one or more antennas or antenna elements. In some examples, antenna layer 150 includes a phased antenna array, such as a UWB phased antenna array. The antenna elements in antenna layer 150 have connections to other components. Antenna layer 150 is embedded in the thinned region 141 of dielectric layer 140. Antenna layer 150 is embedded in the thinned region 141 of dielectric layer 140 in different ways in different examples. For instance, in some examples, the antennas in antenna layer 150 are recessed into dielectric layer 140. In some examples, dielectric layer 140 is cut all the way through to embed antenna layer 150 and create a separable component that blends in with the rest of dielectric layer 140. Antenna layer 150 is embedded in dielectric layer 140 with the help of adhesive and epoxy. In some examples, display panel 140 includes at least one bevel or at least one radius cut.
Although not shown in
Device 200 includes display panel 240, epoxy layer 210, selective epoxy keepout 220, air gap 230, antenna layer 250, PCB layer 260, FR4 layer 270, and chassis 280. Antenna layer 250 includes antenna elements, such as a UWB phased array antenna. Device 200 is a mobile device that provides a variety of functions including external communication. The external communication performed by device 200 may be performed in a variety of manners, some of which make use of antenna elements in antenna layer 250. PCB layer 260 is composed of PCB and acts as a carrier substrate for holding antenna layer 250. FR4 layer 270 is composed of an FR4 material. Chassis 280 is a metal chassis for device 200. Although not shown in
Antenna layer 250 is embedded in display panel 240. Display panel 240 is a display panel for device 200. Display panel 240 has a planar outer surface. In some examples, display panel 240 is a touch and display panel coverglass. As shown in
The thinned region of display panel 240 in which antenna layer 250 is embedded allows the antenna structure in antenna layer 250 embedded in the display panel to have no impairment imposed by mechanical constraints in device 200, allowing better antennas to be used in device 200 without such restraints. For instance, in some examples, antenna layer 250 includes a phased array antenna that provides a 3-D spatial radar and a time-of-light detector with high performance. Typically, a mobile device works around antenna pressures by reducing antenna size, sharing antennas among technologies, or skipping features such as mmWave and UWB entirely. However, by using a thinned region in display panel 240, device 200 allows a phased array antenna to be embedded within the glass structure of display panel 240 without compromising the performance of the antennas and wireless technologies used by device 200, including maintaining a stable phased array phase response, and while also maintaining the strength of display panel 240.
Although not shown in
Returning to
Epoxy keepout 220 is a selective keepout that enforces air gap 230 around the radiating parts of antenna layer 250 in order to ensure consistency for the antenna elements in antenna layer 250 in spite of manufacturing variations in the epoxy of epoxy layer 210. Epoxy does not have a particularly well-controlled dielectric property, and epoxy tends to be somewhat lossy. Additionally, it can be difficult to control the overall fill height when backfilling the epoxy of epoxy layer 210, to ensure consistency in the backfill including ensuring that there are no air bubbles in the epoxy. Further, display panel 240 may have its own varying dielectric properties that affect both the tuning of antennas in antenna layer 250 and the phase response.
In some examples the manufacturing variations are within acceptable margins for the particular antenna design, such as for certain frequencies or applications that are not as critical for the dielectric. Also, in some examples, some antenna geometries may be small or controlled enough to embed them without risk of air bubbles. Accordingly, in some examples, device 200 includes epoxy layer 210 but does not include epoxy keepout 220 or air gap 230, and instead epoxy layer 210 reaches to antenna layer 250.
However, in tighter controlled applications, an air gap may be very beneficial, and accordingly some examples of device 200 include epoxy keepout 220 and air gap 230. Some examples of device 200 includes a selective keepout such as epoxy keepout 220 and air gap 230 and use an example of display panel 240 that does not have a thinned region. Examples of device 200 that do not have a thinned region in display panel 240 include an air gap such as air gap 230 that is enforced by a selective keepout such as epoxy keepout 220. Air gap 230 prevents the epoxy in epoxy layer 210 from being the dominant dielectric that the radiant antenna elements in antenna layer 250 see. In some examples, air gap 230 is about 0.1 mm in thickness.
In various examples, epoxy keepout 220 may include a ring of foam or a spacer composed of a dielectric such as pressure-sensitive adhesive tape (PSA), foam, or the like. In some examples, the foam is a polyurethane foam or the like. Epoxy keepout 220 dams off the edges of patch antennas in antenna layer 250 so that, during manufacture, when epoxy is backfilled to form epoxy layer 210, epoxy keepout 220 sets the height for the antenna. In this way, the epoxy fills around the antenna element, but the epoxy does not fill the critical gap between patch of the patch antennas and display panel 240, and there is no epoxy over the top of the conductor elements on the patch of the patch antennas.
In some examples, as shown in
In some examples, rather than using epoxy keepout 220 and air gap 230, a contiguous layer of foam is used to separate critical areas of antenna layer 250 from epoxy layer 210 (or other dielectric filler), where the layer of foam prevents the epoxy from being able to flow to critical areas of antenna layer 250 during device manufacture. In other examples, rather than using epoxy keepout 220 and air gap 230, a piece of plastic is positioned over the top of antenna layer 250 so that when the epoxy (or other dielectric filler) is backfilled to form antenna layer 250, the critical gap space is taken up by the piece of plastic. For instance, in some examples, the piece of plastic is 0.1 mm thick. The piece of plastic is well-controlled (in terms of the dielectric constant of the plastic). In other examples, rather than using epoxy keepout 220, high pressure may be used to keep the dielectric filler from flowing into critical areas of antenna layer 250 during manufacture of device 200.
In other examples, rather than using epoxy layer 210 or epoxy keepout 220, a different height is molded into the bottom of display panel 240 over the antenna elements so that air gap 230 is preserved by the geometry of display panel 240 and prevents glass from display panel 240 from entering the critical area around the antennas of antenna layer 250. In various examples, the critical area is separated from the glass by behind held mechanically or by being manufactured into the glass of display panel 240. Also, in some examples, rather than separating the critical gap space with an air gap, the air gap is replaced with any suitable low-loss dielectric RF-transparent material, such as vacuum, a well-controlled low-loss ceramic, a suitable plastic, a suitable foam, or the like, that is disposed between display panel 240 and antenna layer 250. In some examples, the material used instead of air has a loss tangent less than about 0.004 and a dielectric constant less than about three.
For instance,
Returning to
In some examples, display panel 240 includes one or more cosmetic features to visually obscure antenna layer 250 and to create a uniform appearance of the glass color, surface, and texture of display panel 240, including the portions of display panel 240 above antenna layer 250 and the portion of display panel 240 not above antenna 240. In some examples, the cosmetic features include a black mask cosmetic finish applied over the display panel 240, including the thinned portion of display panel 240. In examples of device 200 that use a separable portion as discussed above, the cosmetic finish may be re-applied after placing the separable portion of display panel 240 into the rest of display panel 240.
Device 200 further includes various other components that enable device 200 to operate as a mobile device, such as components discussed in further detail in
Step 591 occurs first. At step 591, power is provided to a first antenna element that is embedded in a thinned region of a plurality of regions of a display panel. The display panel is composed of a dielectric material. An outer surface of the display panel is planar. The thinned region is thinned relative to the other regions of the plurality of regions of the display panel. As shown, step 592 occurs next. At step 592, a signal is communicated via at least the first antenna element. The process then advances to a return block, where other processing is resumed.
Computing device 600 includes at least one processing circuit 610 configured to execute instructions, such as instructions for implementing the herein-described workloads, processes, and/or technology. Processing circuit 610 may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a graphics processor, a coprocessor, a field-programmable gate array, a programmable logic device, a signal processor, and/or any other circuit suitable for processing data. The aforementioned instructions, along with other data (e.g., datasets, metadata, operating system instructions, etc.), may be stored in operating memory 620 during run-time of computing device 600. Operating memory 620 may also include any of a variety of data storage devices/components, such as volatile memories, semi-volatile memories, random access memories, static memories, caches, buffers, and/or other media used to store run-time information. In one example, operating memory 620 does not retain information when computing device 600 is powered off. Rather, computing device 600 may be configured to transfer instructions from a non-volatile data storage component (e.g., data storage component 650) to operating memory 620 as part of a booting or other loading process. In some examples, other forms of execution may be employed, such as execution directly from data storage component 650, e.g., execute In Place (XIP).
Operating memory 620 may include 4th generation double data rate (DDR4) memory, 3rd generation double data rate (DDR3) memory, other dynamic random access memory (DRAM), High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), Hybrid Memory Cube memory, 3D-stacked memory, static random access memory (SRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), pseudorandom random access memory (PSRAM), and/or other memory, and such memory may comprise one or more memory circuits integrated onto a DIMM, SIMM, SODIMM, Known Good Die (KGD), or other packaging. Such operating memory modules or devices may be organized according to channels, ranks, and banks. For example, operating memory devices may be coupled to processing circuit 610 via memory controller 630 in channels. One example of computing device 600 may include one or two DIMMs per channel, with one or two ranks per channel. Operating memory within a rank may operate with a shared clock, and shared address and command bus. Also, an operating memory device may be organized into several banks where a bank can be thought of as an array addressed by row and column. Based on such an organization of operating memory, physical addresses within the operating memory may be referred to by a tuple of channel, rank, bank, row, and column.
Despite the above discussion, operating memory 620 specifically does not include or encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se.
Memory controller 630 is configured to interface processing circuit 610 to operating memory 620. For example, memory controller 630 may be configured to interface commands, addresses, and data between operating memory 620 and processing circuit 610. Memory controller 630 may also be configured to abstract or otherwise manage certain aspects of memory management from or for processing circuit 610. Although memory controller 630 is illustrated as single memory controller separate from processing circuit 610, in other examples, multiple memory controllers may be employed, memory controller(s) may be integrated with operating memory 620, and/or the like. Further, memory controller(s) may be integrated into processing circuit 610. These and other variations are possible.
In computing device 600, data storage memory 650, input interface 660, output interface 670, and network adapter 680 are interfaced to processing circuit 610 by bus 640. Although
In computing device 600, data storage memory 650 is employed for long-term non-volatile data storage. Data storage memory 650 may include any of a variety of non-volatile data storage devices/components, such as non-volatile memories, disks, disk drives, hard drives, solid-state drives, and/or any other media that can be used for the non-volatile storage of information. However, data storage memory 650 specifically does not include or encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se. In contrast to operating memory 620, data storage memory 650 is employed by computing device 600 for non-volatile long-term data storage, instead of for run-time data storage.
Also, computing device 600 may include or be coupled to any type of processor-readable media such as processor-readable storage media (e.g., operating memory 620 and data storage memory 650) and communication media (e.g., communication signals and radio waves). While the term processor-readable storage media includes operating memory 620 and data storage memory 650, the term “processor-readable storage media,” throughout the specification and the claims, whether used in the singular or the plural, is defined herein so that the term “processor-readable storage media” specifically excludes and does not encompass communications media, any communications medium, or any signals per se. However, the term “processor-readable storage media” does encompass processor cache, Random Access Memory (RAM), register memory, and/or the like.
Computing device 600 also includes input interface 660, which may be configured to enable computing device 600 to receive input from users or from other devices. In addition, computing device 600 includes output interface 670, which may be configured to provide output from computing device 600. In one example, output interface 670 includes a frame buffer, graphics processor, graphics processor or accelerator, and is configured to render displays for presentation on a separate visual display device (such as a monitor, projector, virtual computing client computer, etc.). In another example, output interface 670 includes a visual display device and is configured to render and present displays for viewing. In yet another example, input interface 660 and/or output interface 670 may include a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART), a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C), a General-purpose input/output (GPIO), and/or the like. Moreover, input interface 660 and/or output interface 670 may include or be interfaced to any number or type of peripherals.
In the illustrated example, computing device 600 is configured to communicate with other computing devices or entities via network adapter 680. Network adapter 680 may include a wired network adapter, e.g., an Ethernet adapter, a Token Ring adapter, or a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) adapter. Network adapter 680 may also include a wireless network adapter, for example, a Wi-Fi adapter, a Bluetooth adapter, a ZigBee adapter, a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) adapter, SigFox, LoRa, Powerline, or a 6G adapter.
Although computing device 600 is illustrated with certain components configured in a particular arrangement, these components and arrangements are merely one example of a computing device in which the technology may be employed. In other examples, data storage memory 650, input interface 660, output interface 670, or network adapter 680 may be directly coupled to processing circuit 610 or be coupled to processing circuit 610 via an input/output controller, a bridge, or other interface circuitry. Other variations of the technology are possible.
Some examples of computing device 600 include at least one memory (e.g., operating memory 620) having processor-executable code stored therein, and at least one processor (e.g., processing unit 610) that is adapted to execute the processor-executable code, wherein the processor-executable code includes processor-executable instructions that, in response to execution, enables computing device 600 to perform actions, where the actions may include, in some examples, actions for one or more processes described herein, such as the process shown in
The above description provides specific details for a thorough understanding of, and enabling description for, various examples of the technology. One skilled in the art will understand that the technology may be practiced without many of these details. In some instances, well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of examples of the technology. It is intended that the terminology used in this disclosure be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain examples of the technology. Although certain terms may be emphasized below, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description section. Throughout the specification and claims, the following terms take at least the meanings explicitly associated herein, unless the context dictates otherwise. The meanings identified below do not necessarily limit the terms, but merely provide illustrative examples for the terms. For example, each of the terms “based on” and “based upon” is not exclusive, and is equivalent to the term “based, at least in part, on,” and includes the option of being based on additional factors, some of which may not be described herein. As another example, the term “via” is not exclusive, and is equivalent to the term “via, at least in part,” and includes the option of being via additional factors, some of which may not be described herein. The meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on.” The phrase “in one embodiment,” or “in one example,” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example, although it may. Use of particular textual numeric designators does not imply the existence of lesser-valued numerical designators. For example, reciting “a widget selected from the group consisting of a third foo and a fourth bar” would not itself imply that there are at least three foo, nor that there are at least four bar, elements. References in the singular are made merely for clarity of reading and include plural references unless plural references are specifically excluded. The term “or” is an inclusive “or” operator unless specifically indicated otherwise. For example, the phrases “A or B” means “A, B, or A and B.” As used herein, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to encompass hardware, software, or various combinations of hardware and software. Thus, for example, a system or component may be a process, a process executing on a computing device, the computing device, or a portion thereof.
While the above Detailed Description describes certain examples of the technology, and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the technology can be practiced in many ways. Details may vary in implementation, while still being encompassed by the technology described herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the technology should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the technology to the specific examples disclosed herein, unless the Detailed Description explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the technology encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the technology.
