Patent Application
20150138020
The present disclosure relates generally to radio devices, and in particular to housings for portable two-way radio devices having local and/or short range radio transceivers in addition to the main two-way transceiver, and which are designed to be intrinsically safe for use in the presence of combustible air-dispersed substances.
The portable two-way radio device has been a very useful communication tool for several decades, and despite the development other types of communication devices such as cellular phones, portable two-way radio devices are still the primary communication tool in a wide variety of applications. The persistent popularity of these devices is due to their ability to allow a user to communicate almost instantly with a large number of others in an organization. A portable two-way radio device, and two-way radio devices in general, use a “push to talk” (PTT) operation where a user presses or “keys” a PTT button, and the device, in response, begins transmitting audio signals received at a microphone of the device. In more sophisticated systems, the device can first check a radio channel and give the user an indication that transmission has begun when the channel is clear. In addition, when audio signals are transmitted on a channel monitored by the two-way radio device, it will commence playing the audio as it is being received. Thus, the user does not have to take any action or operate the device in any way in order to hear the received audio signals.
Given the advantages of portable two-way radio devices, they are used in many situations by various organizations, including public safety, rescue, security, and industrial applications. In some situations, a person using a portable two-way radio device can be located in an area where there are volatile gasses, mists, vapors, or dust present. An electronic device that is battery powered, such as a portable two-way radio device, can be a source of ignition of such materials if the device is faulty, used improperly, or if it produces a static discharge sufficient to ignite volatile air-dispersed materials. In order to avoid a potential ignition of such air-dispersed material, manufacturers and agencies have developed design standards for product design in order to produce intrinsically safe devices, meaning that a product or device complying with those standards are designed to avoid ignition events even if the device experiences a fault condition, malfunctions, or is used improperly. An example of one such agency is the European Commission's standard for Equipment and Protective Systems for Potentially Explosive Atmosphere, known commonly by the acronym ATEX.
One aspect of device design under such safety standards is the prevention of static electric charge on the housing of a device. Given that polymeric materials is often used to form housing components, the housing can be a source of static charge. One method for avoiding static charge from accumulating on a device housing is to design the housing of the device to have an outer surface that is electrically conductive, or at least electrically conductive enough to prevent an unsafe level of static charge accumulation. However, covering the exterior of a device with electrically conductive material presents some problems. In particular, it is now common in portable two-way radio devices to include short range, high frequency transceivers, in addition to the main two-way communication transceiver. Examples of short range communications include wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers that operate under the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11, and personal area network (PAN) transceivers operating under IEEE standard 802.15 (including the commercially known BlueTooth standard), among others. While the two-way communication transceiver will typically use an external whip antenna, these local and short range transceivers, because of their high frequency, more typically use internal antennas for efficiency and device aesthetics. Covering a device with an electrically conductive material, however, would greatly reduce the efficacy of such internal antennas.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and housing that prevents static charge accumulation on the surface of the device and which allows antennas for local and short range transceivers to operate effectively alongside two-way transceiver in portable two-way radio devices.
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, together with the detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, and serve to further illustrate embodiments of concepts that include the claimed invention, and explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
Embodiments include a portable two-way radio device that has a housing having an outer surface that is covered with an anti-static material. The anti-static material is excluded from an antenna portion of the outer surface of the housing, exposing an area of a non-conductive interior layer of the housing. The portable two-way radio device further includes at least one antenna element formed on the antenna portion. The antenna element (or elements) has a feed point that is connected to an interior space of the portable two-way radio device through the housing. The antenna element is a planar element disposed on the surface of the antenna portion. A radio circuit is disposed in the interior space of the portable two-way radio device and is coupled to the antenna element. This allows for a concealable antenna element on a surface of the portable two-way radio device where the portable two-way radio device is substantially covered in an electrically conductive anti-static material to prevent the accumulation of static charge.
By using multiple antenna portions and/or multiple antenna elements, the device can support multiple different high frequency transceivers. For example, a device can include a WLAN transceiver and a PAN transceiver, in addition to a two-way transceiver. A WLAN transceiver can be used for data service, while a PAN transceiver can be used for wirelessly connecting to nearby devices and accessories. In some embodiments an antenna portion having an antenna element can be used for a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver.
In order to meet standards for intrinsically safe devices, the antenna portion can be limited in area to being not more than two thousand square millimeters in some embodiments. The antenna element can be limited to an effective area 208 of thirteen hundred square millimeters in some embodiments. In addition, the antenna element 206 can be arranged on the antenna portion 204 such that no portion of the antenna element is within three millimeters (as indicated by 212) of the anti-static material of the exterior layer 202. The effective area 208 of the antenna element 206 can be defined by the area inside a region around the outermost edges of the antenna element.
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The portable two-way radio device 700 can further include one or more additional transceivers, such as, for example, a WLAN transceiver 724 and a PAN transceiver 728. The WLAN transceiver 724 can operate according to IEEE standard 802.11 and is used for wireless data services networking (also referred to as “WiFi”). The PAN transceiver 728 can be used for wirelessly connecting the portable two-way radio device 700 to other devices, such as, for example, a vehicle system, wearable audio accessories (e.g. remote microphone, headphones) and can operate according to IEEE standard 802.15, including that known commercially as “BlueTooth.” The WLAN transceiver is coupled to a WLAN antenna element 726 that is disposed on a WLAN antenna portion 729 on exterior surface are 727 that is otherwise covered in anti-static material. The anti-static material is excluded from the antenna portion 729. Likewise, the PAN transceiver 728 is coupled to a PAN antenna element 730 that is disposed on a PAN antenna portion 734 on exterior surface are 732 that is otherwise covered in anti-static material. The anti-static material is excluded from the antenna portion 734. In some embodiments the WLAN antenna portion 729 and the PAN antenna portion can be separate portions, and in some embodiments they can be the same antenna portion with the WLAN antenna element 726 and the PAN antenna element 730 sharing the joint antenna portion. The antenna portions 729, 734 can be covered with a non-conducting material (e.g. a label) to conceal and protect them. The antenna portions 729, 734 have an area that is small enough to prevent accumulation of static charge that exceeds an amount allowed by, for example, intrinsically safe standards.
Embodiments provide the benefit of allowing a portable radio device with multiple transceivers to comply with intrinsically safe design standards without requiring additional, apparent antennas outside of a conductive exterior surface, thus maintaining desired ergonomics and aesthetic design compared to similar devices that are not designed to be used under intrinsically safe standards. Furthermore, by forming one or more antenna elements on the housing of the portable radio device, the housing with the antenna element(s) can be considered a single piece part for manufacturing, thereby eliminating, for example, the use a of separate printed circuit board to carry an antenna element. Also, in prior art implementations where the antenna element was included on the printed circuit board with other components, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a gain of area on printed circuit boards since the antenna element is no longer on the circuit board but rather placed on the housing.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one or more generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored program instructions (including both software and firmware) that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the method and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used.
Moreover, an embodiment for forming the housing using an automated mold tool can be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for programming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform a method as described and claimed herein. Examples of such computer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flash memory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
