This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 111102049, filed on Jan. 18, 2022. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The disclosure relates to an earphone module, and more particularly, to an earphone module integrating touch and antenna functions.
Generally, in wireless earphones with touch function, some elastic elements are adopted to connect between an antenna and a circuit board, and other elastic elements are also adopted to connect between a touch panel and the circuit board. Due to the large volume of the elastic elements and the requirement of a certain quantity, the elastic elements take up a large space inside the earphone, which is unfavorable for space utilization and improvement of earphone performance.
The disclosure provides an earphone module, which integrates touch and antenna structures by elements in a stacked multi-layer manner without adopting elastic elements to connect between an antenna and a circuit board or between a touch panel and the circuit board, which not only saves the internal space of the earphone but also brings good antenna performance.
An earphone module of the disclosure includes a first circuit board. The first circuit board includes a touch panel layer, a grounding layer, an antenna layer, and a touch circuit layer assembly. The grounding layer is disposed apart from and below the touch panel layer. The antenna layer includes an antenna flat portion, an antenna feed wire, and an antenna short-circuit wire. The antenna flat portion is disposed apart from and below the grounding layer, and the antenna feed wire and the antenna short-circuit wire are connected to the antenna flat portion. The touch circuit layer assembly is disposed apart from and below the antenna flat portion and includes a touch chip. The touch panel layer is electrically connected to the touch chip.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the touch circuit layer assembly further includes a touch wire assembly disposed apart from and below the antenna short-circuit wire, and a width of the antenna short-circuit wire is greater than or equal to a width of the touch wire assembly.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the touch circuit layer assembly further includes a ground wire located beside the touch wire assembly, and the ground wire is located between the touch wire assembly and a projection of the antenna feed wire on a surface where the touch wire assembly is located.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the touch circuit layer assembly further includes a first touch circuit layer, a second touch circuit layer, and a third touch circuit layer. The first touch circuit layer is disposed apart from and below the antenna flat portion; the second touch circuit layer is disposed apart from and below the first touch circuit layer; the third touch circuit layer is disposed apart from and below the second touch circuit layer; and the touch chip is located on the third touch circuit layer.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the antenna flat portion, the first touch circuit layer, the second touch circuit layer, and the third touch circuit layer are connected to the grounding layer through multiple ground through holes.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the touch panel layer is connected to the touch circuit layer assembly through the grounding layer and multiple touch through holes on the antenna flat portion and electrically connected to the touch chip.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the touch panel layer includes multiple blocks electrically separated from each other, and the blocks are connected to the touch circuit layer assembly through the touch through holes, respectively.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the earphone module further includes a microphone. The first circuit board includes a notch corresponding to the microphone, and a projection of the microphone on the first circuit board is located within the notch.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the earphone module further includes a second circuit board disposed below the first circuit board. A resonance path is the antenna feed wire from the second circuit board along an edge of the first circuit board to a portion beside the notch, the resonance path is coupled out a frequency band, and the length of the resonance path is 0.25 times a wavelength of the frequency band.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, when the earphone module is placed in a human ear, the antenna feed wire is close to an inferior crus of the antihelix of the human ear and away from an earlobe, and the resonance path extends along a direction of a tragus and an antitragus from the inferior crus of the antihelix.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the earphone module further includes a second circuit board disposed below the first circuit board. The antenna feed wire and the antenna short-circuit wire are connected to the second circuit board, and a shortest distance between the first circuit board and the second circuit board is greater than or equal to 2.5 mm.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the earphone module further includes a second circuit board disposed below the first circuit board. The first circuit board includes a first side and a second side opposite to each other, the second circuit board includes a third side and a fourth side opposite to each other, the antenna feed wire is disposed on the first side of the first circuit board and the third side of the second circuit board, and a distance between the second side and the fourth side is greater than or equal to a distance between the first side and the third side.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, when the earphone module is placed in a human ear, the second circuit board is located between the first circuit board and an external auditory canal of the human ear, so that the antenna layer generates an antenna polarization direction that enters the external auditory canal.
In summary, the first circuit board of the earphone module of the disclosure includes a touch panel layer, a grounding layer, an antenna layer, and a touch circuit layer assembly. The grounding layer is disposed apart from and below the touch panel layer. The antenna layer includes an antenna flat portion, an antenna feed wire, and an antenna short-circuit wire. The antenna flat portion is disposed apart from and below the grounding layer, and the antenna feed wire and the antenna short-circuit wire are connected to the antenna flat portion. The touch circuit layer assembly is disposed apart from and below the antenna flat portion and includes a touch chip. The touch panel layer is electrically connected to the touch chip. With the multi-layer integration design, the earphone module of the disclosure integrates the touch and antenna structure on the first circuit board, which not only saves the internal space of the earphone but also brings good antenna performance.
Referring to
In the embodiment, the second circuit board 210 is disposed below the first circuit board 100, and the plastic part 230 (shown in
In the embodiment, the earphone module 10 integrates the touch function and the antenna structure on the first circuit board 100 by means of multi-layer integration, and the first circuit board 100 is electrically connected to the second circuit board 210 (a motherboard) through flexible printed circuit. The first circuit board 100 is to be illustrated in the subsequent paragraphs.
Referring to
The touch panel layer 110 includes multiple blocks 111 that are electrically separated from each other, thereby sensing different touch gestures of the user and further implementing the multi-touch function. The number of the blocks 111 in the embodiment is four, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. The number of the blocks 111 may be adjusted according to design requirements.
The grounding layer 120 is disposed apart from and below the touch panel layer 110 and electrically isolates the touch panel layer 110 from the antenna layer 130, so that the first circuit board 100 can be compatible with touch and antenna signals.
The antenna layer 130 is disposed apart from and below the grounding layer 120 and includes an antenna flat portion 131, an antenna feed wire 132, and an antenna short-circuit wire 133. The antenna layer 130 is a planar inverted-F antenna structure (PIFA). The outline and the shape of the antenna flat portion 131 substantially correspond to the outline and the shape of the touch panel layer 110 and the grounding layer 120. The antenna feed wire 132 and the antenna short-circuit wire 133 are separated from each other and connected to the antenna flat portion 131.
In the embodiment, the antenna flat portion 131 is connected to an antenna feed point 240 of the second circuit board 210 through the antenna feed wire 132, so that the radio frequency signal of the second circuit board 210 can be transmitted to the antenna flat portion 131. The earphone module 10 of the embodiment requires no use of elastic elements to connect between the antenna and the circuit board as in the conventional structure. Instead, the antenna layer is connected to the second circuit board 210 through the antenna feed wire 132, and therefore the volume can be effectively reduced and a more stable antenna signal can be provided.
In addition, the antenna short-circuit wire 133 is connected to the second circuit board 210 to serve as the reference ground of the touch circuit layer assembly 140 to prevent high frequency interference that may be generated by the touch circuit layer assembly 140.
The touch circuit layer assembly 140 is disposed apart from and below the antenna flat portion 131. The touch circuit layer assembly 140 includes a first touch circuit layer 141, a second touch circuit layer 142, and a third touch circuit layer 143. As shown in
The first touch circuit layer 141, the second touch circuit layer 142, and the third touch circuit layer 143 are all part of the touch circuit layout. Specifically, the first touch circuit layer 141 may have touch power wires (not shown) and control signal wires (not shown) on the plane.
In addition, the first touch circuit layer 141 further includes a touch wire assembly 144 extending downward. The touch wire assembly 144 is disposed apart from and below the antenna short-circuit wire 133. In the embodiment, the width of the antenna short-circuit wire 133 is greater than or equal to the width of the touch wire assembly 144, so that the antenna short-circuit wire 133 can provide a favorable anti-interference effect. The width of the antenna short-circuit wire 133 and the width of the touch wire assembly 144 can be adjusted according to requirements, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.
In addition, the second touch circuit layer 142 includes a touch power wire (not shown), a control signal wire (not shown), a touch circuit reference ground wire (not shown) and a voltage regulator circuit reference ground wire (not shown). Furthermore, the third touch circuit layer 143 includes a touch chip 150 (shown in
In addition, in the embodiment, the touch chip 150 can bridge the power wires (not shown) and control signal wires (not shown) of the Bluetooth microcontroller unit (not shown) of the second circuit board 210 through the touch wire assembly 144 of the first touch circuit layer 141.
Referring to
In addition, the blocks 111 of the touch panel layer 110 are connected to the third touch circuit layer 143 through multiple touch through holes H2 (shown in
Therefore, the touch panel layer 110 can be electrically connected to the touch chip 150 of the third touch circuit layer 143. In other words, the capacitance change signal of the touch panel layer 110 caused by the finger touch of the user can be transmitted to the touch chip 150 through the touch through holes H2, and the touch chip 150 can process the received touch signals to determine the gesture change of the user, thereby implementing the multi-touch function.
In the conventional earphone module, elastic elements are adopted to connect between the touch panel and the circuit board, and other elastic elements are also adopted to connect between the antenna and the circuit board. Due to the large volume of the elastic elements, not only a lot of space inside the earphone are taken up, but also the function of multi-touch is difficult to implement since it is difficult to increase the quantity of the elastic elements due to the limited space.
Compared with the conventional earphone module, the earphone module 10 of the embodiment requires no use of the elastic elements to connect between the antenna and the circuit board or between the touch panel and the circuit board. Instead, the multilayer integrated first circuit board 100 is adopted, and the touch panel layer 110 is directly connected to the third touch circuit layer 143 where the touch chip 150 is located through the touch through holes H2, which greatly shortens the distance therebetween and saves the internal space taken up by the elastic elements.
In addition, in the embodiment, with the design of the earphone module 10 without disposing multiple elastic elements but adopting multiple touch through holes H2 corresponding to the blocks 111, the function of multi-touch can be implemented under a limited volume. Besides, since the distance between the touch panel layer 110 and the touch chip 150 is shortened, the error of the touch signal is effectively reduced. In the embodiment, the quantity of the ground through holes H1 and the quantity of the touch through holes H2 can be increased or decreased according to design requirements.
Note that as shown in
When in use, the earphone module 10 may form a Bluetooth connection with an electronic device (not shown), such as a mobile phone or a tablet computer, so taking a mobile phone as an example, the mobile phone may be placed in a pocket or held by the user, and meanwhile the Bluetooth connection between the earphone module 10 and the electronic device may be blocked by the human body. As shown in
The antenna resonance path (the thick black arrow line in the center of the earphone module 10 in
Referring to
In addition, in the embodiment, the number of the at least one microphone 220 is two and disposed on the second circuit board 210 (as shown in
In addition, to allow the connection between the two microphones 220 to generally face the mouth of the user, the first circuit board 100 includes the notch 105 corresponding to the microphone 220, so that the projection of the microphone 220 on the first circuit board 100 is located within the notch 105. Such a design allows the first circuit board 100 to avoid the microphone 220, so that the spatial arrangement of the microphone 220 is more flexible.
In the embodiment, the second circuit board 210 (as shown in
In the embodiment, the first circuit board 100 includes a first side E1 and a second side E2 opposite to each other, the second circuit board 210 includes a third side E3 and a fourth side E4 opposite to each other, and the antenna feed wire 132 (as shown in
In the embodiment, the first circuit board 100 and the second circuit board 210 are parallel to each other, that is, a distance D1 between the first side E1 and the third side E3 is equal to a distance D2 between the second side E2 and the fourth side E4. When the shortest distance between the first circuit board 100 and the second circuit board 210 is greater than or equal to 2.5 mm, good antenna radiation efficiency and operating bandwidth can be maintained.
The first circuit board 100 and the second circuit board 210 are not limited thereto.
Referring to both
In addition, through actual measurements, when the earphone module 10 is turned on, playing music, or playing music along with the turned on touch function, the difference between the antenna receiving ends is less than 1 dB, indicating that the design of the earphone module 10 can maintain a stable signal, resulting in good antenna efficiency.
In summary, the first circuit board of the earphone module of the disclosure includes a touch panel layer, a grounding layer, an antenna layer, and a touch circuit layer assembly. The grounding layer is disposed apart from and below the touch panel layer. The antenna layer includes an antenna flat portion, an antenna feed wire, and an antenna short-circuit wire. The antenna flat portion is disposed apart from and below the grounding layer, and the antenna feed wire and the antenna short-circuit wire are connected to the antenna flat portion. The touch circuit layer assembly is disposed apart from and below the antenna flat portion and includes a touch chip. The touch panel layer is electrically connected to the touch chip. With the multi-layer integration design, the earphone module of the disclosure integrates the touch and antenna structure on the first circuit board without adopting elastic elements to connect between an antenna and a circuit board or between a touch panel and the circuit board, which not only saves the internal space of the earphone but also brings good antenna performance.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111102049 | Jan 2022 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20150270619 | Zhu | Sep 2015 | A1 |
20180069588 | Jiang | Mar 2018 | A1 |
20220276682 | Yu | Sep 2022 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20230232142 A1 | Jul 2023 | US |