This invention relates to radio frequency communications and, more particularly, to radio frequency receive and transmit operations in portable devices.
Portable devices exist that provide radio frequency (RF) receiver functionality and RF transmitter functionality. In addition, prior systems have used transmit antennas and receive antennas. For example, some portable devices have an FM transmitter and an FM receiver, as part of the same device. Many portable devices, however, have significant restrictions in the space available for antenna structures. These space constraints make it difficult to provide an antenna of appropriate size for transmission and reception of RF signals, particularly in the FM audio broadcast frequency spectrum (e.g., about 76 to 108 MHz).
Systems and methods are disclosed for folded antenna structures that allow for receive and/or transmit antennas to be used for portable or other devices. The folded antennas described herein can be configured, for example, to fit the design constraints and considerations for portable devices. In one embodiment, the folded antenna structures disclosed herein can be implemented using relatively flat flexible printed circuits (e.g., flex circuits) and can be placed in available spaces within the portable device, such as above or behind a battery, while still providing good performance characteristics. Still further, the folded antenna structures could be implemented on a printed circuit board and/or as part of plastic materials and pieces included as part of a portable device. Other features and variations could also be implemented, as desired, and related systems and methods can be utilized, as well.
It is noted that the appended drawings illustrate only example embodiments of the invention and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
Systems and methods are disclosed for folded antenna structures that allow for effective receive and transmit antennas to be placed in spaces within portable devices.
In telecommunications, frequency modulation (FM) conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency. As indicated above, the carrier wave frequencies for FM audio broadcasts are in the 100 MHz range and their corresponding wavelength is around three meters. Effective antennas for an RF frequency is traditionally a half wavelength dimension, which in the case of FM audio broadcasts amounts to a length of approximately 1.5 meters.
FM tuners are installed in many consumer electronic products to provide the capability to receive FM broadcast stations of a city or geographic region. These electronic products include cell phones, GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers, digital media players and other devices that are dimensionally small compared to FM half wavelength size. As such, these devices traditionally use external headphone wiring as the antenna to receive the FM energy in the FM audio broadcasts. As the consumer markets for these electronic devices are pushing towards even smaller dimensions and moving away from the use of external antenna connections, the industry is starting to see a trend towards embedded FM antennas, which are much smaller than the half wavelength size used in traditional solutions.
This folded antenna embodiments described herein provide new and advantageous embedded antennas that can be used to receive FM audio broadcasts and that can be built on the PCBs (printed circuit boards) of the consumer products discussed above and/or built on thinner flex circuits and then placed within these electronics products. These folded antennas can be configured to be a fraction of the FM wavelength while still providing superior FM reception. The folded antenna structures will now be described in more detail with respect to the drawings along with a discussion of how these folded antennas provide better performance than other embedded antennas having the same dimensions.
This antenna 300 is spiral shaped but a portion of the antenna folds so that it faces in a different direction. As such the antenna 300 forms a multidirectional spiral. For FM audio broadcast reception, the antenna dimensions, length of wire/trace and spacing can be configured to be within the same limits as the spiral shaped antenna described above. The amount of wire/trace facing in a different direction may vary from one third to one half the total length of wire/trace, as desired.
The spiral shaped antenna and the separate loop antenna as shown in
The folded antenna structures described herein advantageously form capacitive antenna structures that have reduced interference with the ground plane and with other circuitry within the portable device. As such, the folded antenna structures can be coupled at one end to antenna feed circuitry and can be left uncoupled at their other end. Because the folded antenna structures form highly capacitive antennas, these antennas can advantageously work on a battery cover because the high capacitance dominates the capacitance to ground. It is also noted that the additional loop antenna of
With respect to the size of the folded antenna structures herein, it is desirable for FM band (e.g., about 76 to 108 MHz) transmit and receive operations that the antenna conductors be between about 0.8 meters and 1.2 meters and, preferably, be about 1.1 meters. More generally, as indicated above, the antenna conductor lines can preferably be between 0.5 meters and 1.5 meters. In other words, the complete length of the antenna conductor as it winds within the antenna structure is about these total lengths. It is further noted that the size of the antenna structures can be configured, if desired, to fit with a 5.5 cm by 3.6 cm rectangular area or smaller (i.e., about 19.8 square centimeters or less). This size is roughly the size of many common batteries that are used, for example, in portable cellular phones today. However, other larger and/or smaller sizes could also be used, if desired. It has been noted, however, that as the spacing between the parallel windings are made closer and closer, the performance of the antenna drops. As such, there is a practical performance limit to the density of the windings depending upon the overall size of the antenna structure desired. It is further noted that the capacitance formed by an embodiment of
As indicated above, the folded antenna structures described herein can be implemented on printed circuit boards and/or as relatively flat flex circuits. The manufacture of flex circuits on relatively flat mediums is well known and any desired flex circuit technology that can form that the folded antenna structures described herein could be utilized, as desired.
In operation, a spiral shape antenna with one end point connected to the antenna input of an FM tuner looks capacitive in the FM audio broadcast band. The capacitance of this antenna increases as the total length of the spiral wire is increased. A higher capacitance provides a two fold improvement in the performance of this embedded antenna. First, the antenna can be modeled as a resistor in series with a capacitor. As the capacitance of the antenna increases, its total source impedance in the FM band decreases, thereby providing a higher voltage to a fixed load to which it is connected. This follows from a simple impedance divider network. The series capacitance of the spiral antennas described above will typically vary from about 2 pF to 15 pF depending on the dimensions chosen, the total length of the wire and the spacing between the folds. Second, the higher the capacitance of the antenna, the less impact it has from being placed close to a ground plane because the capacitive effect of the ground plane starts to be negligible. In addition to the capacitance, the spiral antenna folds also have sharp corners, which may form good radiators thereby improving the reception of these folded antenna structures. And the use of multidirectional folds, as described with respect to
Further modifications and alternative embodiments of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of this description. It will be recognized, therefore, that the present invention is not limited by these example arrangements. Accordingly, this description is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the manner of carrying out the invention. It is to be understood that the forms of the invention herein shown and described are to be taken as the presently preferred embodiments. Various changes may be made in the implementations and architectures. For example, equivalent elements may be substituted for those illustrated and described herein, and certain features of the invention may be utilized independently of the use of other features, all as would be apparent to one skilled in the art after having the benefit of this description of the invention.
This application claims priority to the following co-pending provisional application: Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/198,010, filed on Oct. 31, 2008, and entitled “FOLDED ANTENNA STRUCTURES FOR PORTABLE DEVICES,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20100109970 A1 | May 2010 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61198010 | Oct 2008 | US |