Patent Application
20130222195
This invention relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to antennas for electronic devices such as portable electronic devices.
Handheld electronic devices and other portable electronic devices are becoming increasingly popular. Examples of handheld devices include handheld computers, cellular telephones, media players, and hybrid devices that include the functionality of multiple devices of this type. Popular portable electronic devices that are somewhat larger than traditional handheld electronic devices include laptop computers and tablet computers.
Due in part to their mobile nature, portable electronic devices are often provided with wireless communications capabilities. For example, handheld electronic devices may use long-range wireless communications to communicate with wireless base stations. Cellular telephones and other devices with cellular capabilities may communicate using cellular telephone bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz. Portable electronic devices may also use short-range wireless communications links. For example, portable electronic devices may communicate using the Wi-Fi® (IEEE 802.11) bands at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz and the Bluetooth® band at 2.4 GHz. Data communications are also possible at 2100 MHz.
To satisfy consumer demand for small form factor wireless devices, manufacturers are continually striving to reduce the size of components that are used in these devices while providing enhanced functionality. Significant enhancements may be difficult to implement, however, particularly in devices in which size and weight are taken into consideration. For example, it can be particularly challenging to form antennas that operate in desired communications bands while fitting the antennas within the case of a compact portable electronic device.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide portable electronic devices with improved wireless communications capabilities.
A portable electronic device such as a handheld electronic device is provided. The handheld electronic device may include a hybrid antenna. The hybrid antenna may include a slot antenna structure and an inverted-F antenna structure. The slot antenna portion of the hybrid antenna may be used to provide antenna coverage in a first communications band and the inverted-F antenna portion of the hybrid antenna may be used to provide antenna coverage in a second communications band. The second communications band need not be harmonically related to the first communications band. With one suitable arrangement, the first communications band handles 1575 MHz signals (e.g., for global positioning system operations) and the second communications band handles 2.4 GHz signals (e.g., for local area network or Bluetooth® operations).
The handheld electronic device may be formed from two portions. A first portion may include components such as a display and a touch sensor. A second portion may include components such as a camera, printed circuit boards, a battery, flex circuits, a Subscriber Identity Module card structure, an audio jack, and a conductive bezel. The components in the second portion may define an antenna slot for the slot antenna structure in the hybrid antenna. Dielectric-filled gaps may be located between some of the components in the antenna slot formed in the second portion of the device. These gaps in the antenna slot may be bridged using conductive structures associated with the first portion of the device. With one suitable arrangement, springs or other connecting structures may be attached to the second portion of the device on either side of each gap. A matching conductive bracket may be mounted on the first portion of the device. When the first and second portions are assembled, the springs form a conductive path that allows radio-frequency signals to pass through the bracket. In this way, the bracket can bridge the gaps to complete the antenna slot (e.g., to form a substantially rectangular antenna slot).
If desired, a conductive trim member may be inserted into an antenna slot to adjust the resonant frequency of the slot antenna portion of the hybrid antenna.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
The present invention relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to portable electronic devices such as handheld electronic devices.
The electronic devices may be portable electronic devices such as laptop computers or small portable computers of the type that are sometimes referred to as ultraportables. Portable electronic devices may also be somewhat smaller devices. Examples of smaller portable electronic devices include wrist-watch devices, pendant devices, headphone and earpiece devices, and other wearable and miniature devices. With one suitable arrangement, the portable electronic devices may be wireless electronic devices.
The wireless electronic devices may be, for example, handheld wireless devices such as cellular telephones, media players with wireless communications capabilities, handheld computers (also sometimes called personal digital assistants), remote controllers, global positioning system (GPS) devices, and handheld gaming devices. The wireless electronic devices may also be hybrid devices that combine the functionality of multiple conventional devices. Examples of hybrid portable electronic devices include a cellular telephone that includes media player functionality, a gaming device that includes a wireless communications capability, a cellular telephone that includes game and email functions, and a portable device that receives email, supports mobile telephone calls, has music player functionality and supports web browsing. These are merely illustrative examples.
An illustrative portable electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Device 10 may have housing 12. Antennas for handling wireless communications may be housed within housing 12 (as an example).
Housing 12, which is sometimes referred to as a case, may be formed of any suitable materials including, plastic, glass, ceramics, metal, or other suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. In some situations, housing 12 or portions of housing 12 may be formed from a dielectric or other low-conductivity material, so that the operation of conductive antenna elements that are located in proximity to housing 12 is not disrupted. Housing 12 or portions of housing 12 may also be formed from conductive materials such as metal. An advantage of forming housing 12 from a dielectric material such as plastic is that this may help to reduce the overall weight of device 10 and may avoid potential interference with wireless operations.
In scenarios in which housing 12 is formed from metal elements, one or more of the metal elements may be used as part of the antennas in device 10. For example, metal portions of housing 12 may be shorted to an internal ground plane in device 10 to create a larger ground plane element for that device 10.
Housing 12 may have a bezel 14. The bezel 14 may be formed from a conductive material or other suitable material or other suitable material. Bezel 14 may serve to hold a display or other device with a planar surface in place on device 10. Bezel 14 may also form an esthetically pleasing trim around the edge of device 10. As shown in
Display 16 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, or any other suitable display. The outermost surface of display 16 may be formed from one or more plastic or glass layers. If desired, touch screen functionality may be integrated into display 16 or may be provided using a separate touch pad device. An advantage of integrating a touch screen into display 16 to make display 16 touch sensitive is that this type of arrangement can save space and reduce visual clutter.
Display screen 16 (e.g., a touch screen) is merely one example of an input-output device that may be used with electronic device 10. If desired, electronic device 10 may have other input-output devices. For example, electronic device 10 may have user input control devices such as button 19, and input-output components such as port 20 and one or more input-output jacks (e.g., for audio and/or video). Button 19 may be, for example, a menu button. Port 20 may contain a 30-pin data connector (as an example). Openings 22 and 24 may, if desired, form speaker and microphone ports. Speaker port 22 may be used when operating device 10 in speakerphone mode. Opening 23 may also form a speaker port. For example, speaker port 23 may serve as a telephone receiver that is placed adjacent to a user's ear during operation. In the example of
A user of electronic device 10 may supply input commands using user input interface devices such as button 19 and touch screen 16. Suitable user input interface devices for electronic device 10 include buttons (e.g., alphanumeric keys, power on-off, power-on, power-off, and other specialized buttons, etc.), a touch pad, pointing stick, or other cursor control device, a microphone for supplying voice commands, or any other suitable interface for controlling device 10. Although shown schematically as being formed on the top face of electronic device 10 in the example of
Electronic device 10 may have ports such as port 20. Port 20, which may sometimes be referred to as a dock connector, 30-pin data port connector, input-output port, or bus connector, may be used as an input-output port (e.g., when connecting device 10 to a mating dock connected to a computer or other electronic device). Port 20 may contain pins for receiving data and power signals. Device 10 may also have audio and video jacks that allow device 10 to interface with external components. Typical ports include power pins to recharge a battery within device 10 or to operate device 10 from a direct current (DC) power supply, data pins to exchange data with external components such as a personal computer or peripheral, audio-visual jacks to drive headphones, a monitor, or other external audio-video equipment, a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card port to authorize cellular telephone service, a memory card slot, etc. The functions of some or all of these devices and the internal circuitry of electronic device 10 can be controlled using input interface devices such as touch screen display 16.
Components such as display 16 and other user input interface devices may cover most of the available surface area on the front face of device 10 (as shown in the example of
Examples of locations in which antenna structures may be located in device 10 include region 18 and region 21. These are merely illustrative examples. Any suitable portion of device 10 may be used to house antenna structures for device 10 if desired.
Any suitable antenna structures may be used in device 10. For example, device 10 may have one antenna or may have multiple antennas. The antennas in device 10 may each be used to cover a single communications band or each antenna may cover multiple communications bands. If desired, one or more antennas may cover a single band while one or more additional antennas are each used to cover multiple bands. As an example, a pentaband cellular telephone antenna may be provided at one end of device 10 (e.g., in region 18) and a dual band GPS/Bluetooth®/IEEE-802.11 antenna may be provided at another end of device 10 (e.g., in region 21). These are merely illustrative arrangements. Any suitable antenna structures may be used in device 10 if desired.
In arrangements in which antennas are needed to support communications at more than one band, the antennas may have shapes that support multi-band operations. For example, an antenna may have a resonating element with arms of various different lengths. Each arm may support a resonance at a different radio-frequency band (or bands). The antennas may be based on slot antenna structures in which an opening is formed in a ground plane. The ground plane may be formed, for example, by conductive components such as a display, printed circuit board conductors, flex circuits that contain conductive traces (e.g., to connect a camera or other device to integrated circuits and other circuitry in device 10), a conductive bezel, etc. A slot antenna opening may be formed by arranging ground plane components such as these so as to form a dielectric-filled (e.g., an air-filled) space. A conductive trace (e.g., a conductive trace with one or more bends) or a single-arm or multiarm planar inverted-F antenna may be used in combination with an antenna slot to provide a hybrid antenna with enhanced frequency coverage. Inverted-F antenna elements or other antenna structures may also be used in the presence of an antenna slot to form a hybrid slot/non-slot antenna.
When a hybrid antenna structure is formed that has an antenna slot and a non-slot antenna resonating element, the slot may, if desired, contribute a frequency response for the antenna in a one frequency range, whereas the non-slot structure may contribute to a frequency response for the antenna in another frequency range. Structures such as these may be fed using direct coupling (i.e., when antenna feed terminals are connected to conductive portions of the antenna) or using indirect coupling (i.e., where the antenna is excited through near-field coupling interactions).
Hybrid slot antennas may be used at one end or both ends of device 10. For example, one hybrid antenna may be used as a dual band antenna (e.g., in region 21) and one hybrid antenna may be used as a pentaband antenna (e.g., in region 18). The pentaband antenna may be used to cover wireless communications bands such as the wireless bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz (as an example). The dual band antenna may be used to handle 1575 MHz signals for GPS operations and 2.4 GHz signals for Bluetooth® and IEEE 802.11 operations (as an example).
A schematic diagram of an embodiment of an illustrative portable electronic device such as a handheld electronic device is shown in
As shown in
Processing circuitry 36 may be used to control the operation of device 10. Processing circuitry 36 may be based on a processor such as a microprocessor and other suitable integrated circuits. With one suitable arrangement, processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 are used to run software on device 10, such as internet browsing applications, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, email applications, media playback applications, operating system functions, etc. Processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 may be used in implementing suitable communications protocols. Communications protocols that may be implemented using processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 include internet protocols, wireless local area network protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocols—sometimes referred to as Wi-Fi®), protocols for other short-range wireless communications links such as the Bluetooth® protocol, protocols for handling 3 G communications services (e.g., using wide band code division multiple access techniques), 2G cellular telephone communications protocols, etc.
Input-output devices 38 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to external devices. Display screen 16, button 19, microphone port 24, speaker port 22, and dock connector port 20 are examples of input-output devices 38.
Input-output devices 38 can include user input-output devices 40 such as buttons, touch screens, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touch pads, key pads, keyboards, microphones, cameras, etc. A user can control the operation of device 10 by supplying commands through user input devices 40. Display and audio devices 42 may include liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens or other screens, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and other components that present visual information and status data. Display and audio devices 42 may also include audio equipment such as speakers and other devices for creating sound. Display and audio devices 42 may contain audio-video interface equipment such as jacks and other connectors for external headphones and monitors.
Wireless communications devices 44 may include communications circuitry such as radio-frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry formed from one or more integrated circuits, power amplifier circuitry, passive RF components, antennas, and other circuitry for handling RF wireless signals. Wireless signals can also be sent using light (e.g., using infrared communications).
Device 10 can communicate with external devices such as accessories 46, computing equipment 48, and wireless network 49 as shown by paths 50 and 51. Paths 50 may include wired and wireless paths. Path 51 may be a wireless path. Accessories 46 may include headphones (e.g., a wireless cellular headset or audio headphones) and audio-video equipment (e.g., wireless speakers, a game controller, or other equipment that receives and plays audio and video content), a peripheral such as a wireless printer or camera, etc.
Computing equipment 48 may be any suitable computer. With one suitable arrangement, computing equipment 48 is a computer that has an associated wireless access point (router) or an internal or external wireless card that establishes a wireless connection with device 10.
The computer may be a server (e.g., an internet server), a local area network computer with or without internet access, a user's own personal computer, a peer device (e.g., another portable electronic device 10), or any other suitable computing equipment.
Wireless network 49 may include any suitable network equipment, such as cellular telephone base stations, cellular towers, wireless data networks, computers associated with wireless networks, etc. For example, wireless network 49 may include network management equipment that monitors the wireless signal strength of the wireless handsets (cellular telephones, handheld computing devices, etc.) that are in communication with network 49.
The antenna structures and wireless communications devices of device 10 may support communications over any suitable wireless communications bands. For example, wireless communications devices 44 may be used to cover communications frequency bands such as cellular telephone voice and data bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz (as examples). Devices 44 may also be used to handle the Wi-Fi® (IEEE 802.11) bands at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz (also sometimes referred to as wireless local area network or WLAN bands), the Bluetooth® band at 2.4 GHz, and the global positioning system (GPS) band at 1575 MHz.
Device 10 can cover these communications bands and/or other suitable communications bands using the antenna structures in wireless communications circuitry 44. As an example, a pentaband cellular telephone antenna may be provided at one end of device 10 (e.g., in region 18) to handle 2G and 3G voice and data signals and a dual band antenna may be provided at another end of device 10 (e.g., in region 21) to handle GPS and 2.4 GHz signals. The pentaband antenna may be used to cover wireless bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz (as an example). The dual band antenna 63 may be used to handle 1575 MHz signals for GPS operations and 2.4 GHz signals (for Bluetooth® and IEEE 802.11 operations). These are merely illustrative arrangements. Any suitable antenna structures may be used in device 10 if desired.
To facilitate manufacturing operations, device 10 may be formed from two intermediate assemblies, representing upper and lower portions of device 10. The upper or top portion of device 10 is sometimes referred to as a tilt assembly. The lower or bottom portion of device 10 is sometimes referred to as a housing assembly.
The tilt and housing assemblies are each formed from a number of smaller components. For example, the tilt assembly may be formed from components such as display 16 and an associated touch sensor. The housing assembly may include a plastic housing portion 12, bezel 14, and printed circuit boards. Integrated circuits and other components may be mounted on the printed circuit boards.
During initial manufacturing operations, the tilt assembly may be formed from its constituent parts and the housing assembly may be formed from its constituent parts. Because essentially all components in device 10 make up part of these two assemblies with this type of arrangement, the finished assemblies represent a nearly complete version of device 10. The finished assemblies may, if desired, be tested. If testing reveals a defect, repairs may be made or defective assemblies may be discarded. During a final set of manufacturing operations, the tilt assembly is inserted into the housing assembly. With one suitable arrangement, one end of the tilt assembly is inserted into the housing assembly. The tilt assembly is then rotated (“tilted”) into place so that the upper surface of the tilt assembly lies flush with the upper edges of the housing assembly.
As the tilt assembly is rotated into place within the housing assembly, clips on the tilt assembly engage springs on the housing assembly. The clips and springs form a detent that helps to align the tilt assembly properly with the housing assembly. Should rework or repair be necessary, the insertion process can be reversed by rotating the tilt assembly up and away from the housing assembly. During rotation of the tilt assembly relative to the housing assembly, the springs flex to accommodate movement. When the tilt assembly is located within the housing assembly, the springs press into holes in the clips to prevent relative movement between the tilt and housing assemblies. Rework and repair operations need not be destructive to the springs, clips, and other components in the device. This helps to prevent waste and complications that might otherwise interfere with the manufacturing of device 10.
If desired, screws or other fasteners may be used to help secure the tilt assembly to the housing assembly. The screws may be inserted into the lower end of device 10. With one suitable arrangement, the screws are inserted in an unobtrusive portion of the end of device 10 so that they are not noticeable following final assembly operations. Prior to rework or repair operations, the screws can be removed from device 10.
An exploded perspective view showing illustrative components of device 10 is shown in
Tilt assembly 60 (shown in its unassembled state in
Housing assembly 70 (shown in its unassembled state in
As shown in
Bezel 14 may be mounted to housing 12. Following final assembly, bezel 14 may surround the display of device 10 and may, if desired, help secure the display onto device 10. Bezel 14 may also serve as a cosmetic trim member that provides an attractive finished appearance to device 10.
Housing assembly 70 may include battery 74. Battery 74 may be, for example, a lithium polymer battery having a capacity of about 1300 mA-hours. Battery 74 may have spring contacts that allow battery 74 to be serviced.
Housing assembly 70 may also include one or more printed circuit boards such as printed circuit board 72. Components may be mounted to printed circuit boards such as microphone 76 for microphone port 24, speaker 78 for speaker port 22, and dock connector 20, integrated circuits, a camera, ear speaker, audio jack, buttons, SIM card slot, etc.
A top view of an illustrative device 10 is shown in
An interior bottom view of device 10 is shown in
Vibrator 92 may be used to vibrate device 10. Device 10 may be vibrated at any suitable time. For example, device 10 may be vibrated to alert a user to the presence of an incoming telephone call, an incoming email message, a calendar reminder, a clock alarm, etc.
Battery 74 may be a removable battery that is installed in the interior of device 10 adjacent to dock connector 20, microphone 76, and speaker 78.
A cross-sectional side view of device 10 is shown in
Device 10 may be assembled from tilt assembly 60 and housing assembly 70. As shown in
Tilt assembly 60 may have clips such as clips 112 and housing assembly 70 may have matching springs 114. When tilt assembly 60 is rotated into place within housing assembly 70, the springs and clips mate with each other to hold tilt assembly 60 in place within housing assembly 70.
Tilt assembly 60 may have one or more retention clips such as retention clips 116. Retention clips 116 may have threaded holes that mate with screws 108. After tilt assembly has been inserted into housing assembly, screws 108 may be screwed into retention clips 116 through holes 110 in housing assembly 70. This helps to firmly secure tilt assembly 60 to housing assembly 70. Should rework or repair be desired, screws 108 may be removed from retention clips 116 and tilt assembly 60 may be released from housing assembly 70. During the removal of tilt assembly 60 from housing assembly 70, springs 114 may flex relative to clips 112 without permanently deforming. Because no damage is done to tilt assembly 60 or housing assembly 70 in this type of scenario, nondestructive rework and repair operations are possible.
Device 10 may have a hybrid antenna that has the attributes of both a slot antenna and a non-slot antenna such as an inverted-F antenna. A top view of a slot antenna structure 150 is shown in
The performance of a slot antenna structure such as antenna structure 150 of
In forming a hybrid antenna for device 10, a slot antenna structure such as slot antenna structure 150 of
A perspective view of an illustrative inverted-F antenna structure is shown in
The performance of an antenna structure such as inverted-F antenna structure 164 of
A hybrid antenna may be formed by combining a slot antenna structure of the type shown in
Radio-frequency signals may be transmitted and received using transmitters and receivers. For example, global positioning system (GPS) signals may be received using a GPS receiver. Local wireless signals for communicating with accessories and local area networks may be transmitted and received using transceiver circuitry. Circuitry 198 of
Transceiver circuitry 198 may be coupled to antenna 182 using one or more transmission line structures. For example, a transmission line such as coaxial cable 194 may be used to feed antenna 182 at signal terminal 186 and at ground terminal 184. Conductive portion 196 of inverted-F antenna structure 164 serves to bridge slot 152, so that the positive and ground antenna feed terminals feed the slot portion of antenna 182 at suitable locations.
Hybrid antennas such as hybrid antenna 182 of
The shape of slot 152 may be determined by the shapes and locations of conductive structures in device 10 such as electrical components, flex circuit structures used for interconnecting electrical components (i.e., flexible printed circuit board structures based on polyimide substrates), printed circuit board conductors, metal housing structures, metal brackets, bezel 14, etc. This is illustrated in the top view of
A top view of a portion of device 10 in the vicinity of antenna 182 is shown in
Part of the left side of slot 152 may, for example, be determined by the position of the conductive components of camera 90. Camera 90 may have a stiffener 212 that helps to provide structural rigidity. Stiffener 212 may be connected to camera bracket 208 via screw 210. Camera bracket 208 may be welded to bezel 14. Flex circuit 214 may be used to electrically interconnect camera 90 and circuitry on printed circuit board 222 and may form part of the left side of slot 152. On one end, camera flex 214 may be connected to camera 90. On its other end, camera flex 214 may be connected to a board-to-board connector mounted to printed circuit board 222 such as board-to-board connector 216. Board-to-board connector 216 may be mounted to the underside of printed circuit board 222 under region 218. Printed circuit board 222 may form a main logic board in device 10. The top surface of printed circuit board 222 may form part of a DC ground for device 10.
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card cage 220 may be connected to printed circuit board 222 (e.g., using solder). With one suitable arrangement, SIM cage 220 is formed of a conductive material such as metal. Vias such as vias 224 may be formed along the edge of printed circuit board 222 to ensure that printed circuit board 222 forms a well defined ground conductor along the left edge of slot 152.
Audio jack 84 may have an associated audio flex circuit (e.g., flex circuit 230 and associated flex circuit portion 234). These structures may make the upper portion of audio jack 84 conductive. The right hand edge of flex circuit 230 may define part of the left edge of slot 152.
There may be discontinuities between the conductive structures that ring slot 152. For example, there may be a gap 226 between flex circuit 230 and printed circuit board 222 (and SIM cage 220). Gaps such as gap 226 may be bridged by conductive structures that are formed on other parts of device 10. For example, if SIM cage 220, printed circuit board 222, and audio flex circuit 230 are formed on part of housing assembly 70, conductive structures on tilt assembly 60 may be used to electrically bridge gap 226. These bridging structures may help form a completely closed slot shape for slot 152. The bridging structures may span gap 226 by electrically connecting conductive structures on one side of gap 226 such as points 228 on SIM cage 220 with conductive structures on the other side of gap 226 such as conductive pad 232 on flex circuit 230. If desired, gaps may be spanned using springs in the gaps or using solder. An advantage of spanning gaps such as gap 226 with electrically conductive bridging structures on tilt assembly 60 is that this type of arrangement avoids the need to place springs in small gaps (where space is at a premium) and, unlike solder joints in the gaps, can permit nondestructive removal of structures such as printed circuit boards (e.g., for rework or repair or for servicing a battery).
Inverted-F antenna structure 164 (
Ringer bracket 240 may be formed from a conductive material such as metal and may be connected to bezel 14 using screw 246. Because ringer bracket 240 is electrically connected to both the ground line in flex 238 and bezel 14, ringer bracket 240 serves to short the antenna ground line from flex circuit 238 to bezel 14. Printed circuit board 222 (e.g., DC ground) can be shorted to ringer bracket 240 (and therefore bezel 14) via screw 250. There may be an electrical gap 254 in slot 152 (similar to gap 226) between audio jack flex 230 and ringer bracket 240. Gap 254 may be bridged by conductive structures formed on tilt assembly 60. These conductive structures may form an electrical bridge between point 232 on flex 230 and ringer bracket 240, thereby completing the perimeter of slot 152.
Ringer A/B switch 82 may be mounted to device 10 using ringer bracket 240. A protruding plastic portion of audio jack 84 may be connected to bezel 14 using audio jack bracket 242 and screw 244. This mounting scheme preferably does not cause conductive elements in audio jack 84 to substantially intrude into the perimeter of slot 154. Moreover, conductive structures can be electrically isolated using appropriate isolation elements. Using this type of isolation scheme, the shape of slot 152 may be preserved, even when potentially intrusive conductive structures overlap somewhat with slot 152. As an example, a flex circuit (sometimes referred to as the audio button flex) may be used to interconnect button 88 with audio jack flex 230. This flex circuit may span slot 152 as shown by flex 252. Resistors, inductors, or other isolation elements may be located on flex circuit 252 to isolate flex circuit 252 from slot 252 at the radio frequencies at which antenna 182 operates. These isolation elements may, for example, be located adjacent to the left of slot 152 on flex circuit 252 and at other locations on the audio button flex and other such flex circuits. When the isolation elements are used, the size and shape of slot 152 is unaffected, even when spanned by conductive structures such as flex circuit strips.
A perspective view of camera 90 is shown in
A perspective view of inverted-F antenna structure 164 mounted in device 10 is shown in
The ground path in transmission line 238 is represented by dashed line 266. As shown in
The positive signal path in transmission line 238 is represented by dashed line 256. Positive signal path 256 may be electrically connected to inverted-F antenna conductor 196 at contact 258. Contact 258 may be, for example, a solder joint between path 256 and conductor 196. Portion 260 of inverted-F antenna structure 164 may be electrically connected to audio jack bracket 242 when screw 244 (
Inverted-F antenna structure 164 may be formed from any suitable conductive material such as metal (metal alloy). An illustrative shape that may be used for inverted-F antenna structure 164 is shown in the perspective view of
Many of the electrical components that surround slot 152 may be mounted on an assembly such as housing assembly 70 (
A perspective view of an interior end portion of device 10 (tilt assembly 60) is shown in
Conductive structures such as conductive bracket 274 may be mounted to tilt assembly 60. Bracket 274 may be formed of one or more pieces of metal (as an example) and may be used to bridge gaps 226 and 254 (
During assembly, tilt assembly 60 will be mounted on top of the housing assembly structures shown in
The use of separate portions of device 10 such as tilt assembly 60 and housing assembly 70 in forming antenna slot 152 is illustrated in the side view of
To bridge these gaps in the conductive structures of second portion 288 and to ensure that the perimeter of slot 152 is properly closed, conductive bridging structures such as bridging structure 290 may be provided. Bridging structure 290 may be, for example, a bracket that has been mounted to structures in first portion 286 (e.g., member 304). Conductive connection structures such as structures 298 and 300 may be provided on second portion 288 (or, if desired, on first portion 286 or both first and second portions 288 and 286). Conductive connection structures 298 and 300 may be formed from springs, spring-loaded pins, conductive foam, or any other suitable conductive structures. When assembled together in device 10, conductive connection structures 298 and 300 electrically connect conductive members 292 and 294 to bridging structure 290, so that conductive path 306 is formed. Path 306 bridges gap 296 by allowing radio-frequency signals to flow out of the primary plane of the slot in vertical (z) dimension 308. This completes the antenna slot perimeter, as discussed in connection with gaps 226 and 254 of
As shown in the top view of an end of device 10 in
During manufacturing operations, it may be desirable to tune the resonance of antenna slot 152 (e.g., to adjust resonant frequency f1 of
The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
This application is a division of patent application Ser. No. 13/343,420, filed Jan. 4, 2012, and entitled “HYBRID ANTENNAS FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES,” which is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/120,012, filed May 13, 2008, and entitled “HYBRID ANTENNAS FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES,” now U.S. Pat. No. 8,106,836, issued Jan. 31, 2012, which claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 61/044,448, filed Apr. 11, 2008, and entitled “HYBRID ANTENNAS FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES.” All of the foregoing patents and patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. This application claims the benefit of and claims priority to patent application Ser. No. 13/343,420, filed Jan. 4, 2012, patent application Ser. No. 12/120,012, filed May 13, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,106,836, and provisional patent application No. 61/044,448, filed Apr. 11, 2008.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61044448 | Apr 2008 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13343420 | Jan 2012 | US |
| Child | 13848454 | US | |
| Parent | 12120012 | May 2008 | US |
| Child | 13343420 | US |
