Antenna arrays having conductive shielding buckets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10476170-B2
Application number	US-201815906979-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2018
Priority date	Feb 27, 2018
Publication date	Nov 12, 2019
Grant date	Nov 12, 2019

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a sidewall, a display module separated from the sidewall by a gap, a display cover, a conductive bucket mounted to the display cover within the gap, and a phased antenna array mounted to the bucket for conveying millimeter wave signals through the display cover. The sidewall may form part of an antenna for conveying non-millimeter wave signals. The array may include resonating elements on a substrate. The resonating elements may be fed using feed terminals coupled to alternating sides of the resonating elements. Dielectric layers having a dielectric constant lower than that of the display cover may be provided on a surface of the display cover within the bucket. The array may operate with satisfactory efficiency despite the small amount of available space within the device, electromagnetic interference from the sidewall and the display module, and dielectric loading by the display cover.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing having a peripheral conductive sidewall;
a display having a display cover layer mounted to the peripheral conductive sidewall and a display module configured to emit light through the display cover layer, wherein the display module is separated from the conductive sidewall by a gap;
a conductive bucket mounted within the gap between the display module and the peripheral conductive sidewall, the conductive bucket and the display cover layer defining a cavity;
transceiver circuitry configured to generate radio-frequency signals at a frequency between 10 GHz and 300 GHz; and
a phased antenna array mounted to the conductive bucket within the cavity, wherein the phased antenna array is configured to transmit the radio-frequency signals through the display cover layer.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
additional transceiver circuitry configured to generate additional radio-frequency signals at an additional frequency between 600 MHz and 10 GHz; and
an antenna that includes the peripheral conductive sidewall and that is configured to transmit the additional radio-frequency signals.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 , wherein the conductive bucket comprises a conductive rear wall and conductive sidewalls extending from the conductive rear wall to the display cover layer, the phased antenna array being mounted to the conductive rear wall.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the phased antenna array comprises a plurality of patch antenna resonating elements on a substrate, each of the patch antenna resonating elements in the plurality of patch antenna resonating elements being fed by first and second positive antenna feed terminals.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 , wherein the first and second positive antenna feed terminals are configured to convey the radio-frequency signals at respective first and second orthogonal polarizations.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 5 , wherein each of the patch antenna resonating elements in the plurality of patch antenna resonating elements has a first side facing the peripheral conductive sidewall and an opposing second side facing the display module, the first positive antenna feed terminal for each of the patch antenna resonating elements in the plurality of patch antenna resonating elements being located at the second side of the patch antenna resonating element in the plurality of patch antenna resonating elements.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 5 , further comprising:
a dielectric layer on an interior surface of the display cover layer and within the cavity, wherein the display cover layer has a first dielectric constant and the dielectric layer has a second dielectric constant that is less than the first dielectric constant.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 4 , wherein the first and second positive antenna feed terminals are both configured to convey the radio-frequency signals using parallel linear polarizations.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 , further comprising:
switching circuitry coupled to the first and second positive antenna feed terminals for each of the patch antenna resonating elements in the plurality of patch antenna resonating elements; and
control circuitry coupled to the switching circuitry and configured to control the switching circuitry to activate a selected one of the first and second positive antenna feed terminals for each of the patch antenna resonating elements in the plurality of patch antenna resonating elements at a given time.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the antenna comprises an antenna ground, the peripheral conductive sidewall forming a portion of the antenna ground.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the antenna comprises an antenna resonating element and an antenna ground, the peripheral conductive sidewall forming a portion of the antenna resonating element.

12. An electronic device comprising:
a housing having a dielectric wall;
a conductive cavity mounted in the housing,

wherein the conductive cavity has a conductive rear wall and conductive sidewalls extending from a periphery of the conductive rear wall to the dielectric wall;
a phased antenna array mounted to the conductive rear wall and configured to convey radio-frequency signals at a frequency greater than 10 GHz through the dielectric wall; and
a dielectric layer on an interior surface of the dielectric wall, wherein the dielectric wall has a first dielectric constant and the dielectric layer has a second dielectric constant that is less than the first dielectric constant.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 , further comprising:
an additional dielectric layer on the dielectric layer, wherein the dielectric layer is interposed between the interior surface of the dielectric wall and the additional dielectric layer, and the additional dielectric layer has a third dielectric constant that is less than the second dielectric constant.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 13 , wherein the conductive sidewalls laterally surround the dielectric layer and the additional dielectric layer.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 12 , further comprising:
a display having a display cover layer that forms a front face of the electronic device, wherein the dielectric wall forms a rear face of the electronic device.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 15 , wherein the dielectric wall comprises glass and the conductive sidewalls are in direct contact with the dielectric layer.

17. An electronic device comprising:
a dielectric cover layer;
a conductive bucket having a conductive rear wall and first and second conductive sidewalls extending from opposing sides of the conductive rear wall to the dielectric cover layer; and
a phased antenna array mounted to the conductive rear wall and configured to transmit radio-frequency signals at a frequency between 10 GHz and 300 GHz through the dielectric cover layer, the phased antenna array comprising:
a substrate mounted to the conductive rear wall,
a first antenna resonating element on the substrate, wherein the first antenna resonating element has a first side facing the first conductive sidewall and a second side facing the second conductive sidewall,
a second antenna resonating element on the substrate, wherein the second antenna resonating element has a first side facing the first conductive sidewall and a second side facing the second conductive sidewall,
a first positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the first side of the first antenna resonating element, and
a second positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the second side of the second antenna resonating element.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 17 , wherein the phased antenna array further comprises:
a third antenna resonating element on the substrate, wherein the third antenna resonating element has a first side facing the first conductive sidewall and a second side facing the second conductive sidewall;
a fourth antenna resonating element on the substrate, wherein the fourth antenna resonating element has a first side facing the first conductive sidewall and a second side facing the second conductive sidewall, the second antenna resonating element being interposed between the first and third antenna resonating elements, and the third antenna resonating element being interposed between the second and fourth antenna resonating elements;
a third

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Rajagopalan Harish
• Gomez Angulo Rodney A
• Paulotto Simone
• Mow Matthew A
• Avser Bilgehan
• Xu Hao
• Edwards Jennifer M
• Pascolini Mattia

Classifications

• H01Q3/38

  the phase-shifters being digital · CPC title

• H01Q13/06

  Waveguide mouths (horns H01Q13/02) · CPC title

• H01Q1/243 Primary

  with built-in antennas · CPC title

• H01Q21/22

  Antenna units of the array energised non-uniformly in amplitude or phase, e.g. tapered array or binomial array · CPC title

• H01Q21/065 Primary

  Patch antenna array · CPC title