Electronic device slot antennas

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10658749-B2
Application number	US-201715698481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2017
Priority date	Sep 7, 2017
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a display having conductive display structures. Printed circuits having corresponding ground traces may be coupled to the display for conveying data to and/or from the display. The conductive display structures may be separated from the metal sidewalls by a gap. A conductive interconnect may be coupled to the metal sidewalls and may extend across the gap to the conductive display structures. The conductive interconnect may be coupled to the ground traces on the printed circuits and/or may be shorted or capacitively coupled to the conductive display structures. When configured in this way, the metal sidewalls, the conductive display structures, and the conductive interconnect may define the edges of a slot antenna resonating element for a slot antenna.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing having metal housing walls;
a display cover layer;
a display module that is overlapped by the display cover layer and that includes conductive display structures;
an antenna feed for a slot antenna having a first feed terminal coupled to the conductive display structures and a second feed terminal coupled to the metal housing walls;
a conductive interconnect structure coupled to the metal housing walls, wherein the metal housing walls, the conductive display structures, and the conductive interconnect structure define a perimeter of a slot element for the slot antenna;
a first printed circuit coupled to the display module, wherein the first printed circuit comprises a first conductive trace; and
a second printed circuit coupled to the display module, wherein the second printed circuit comprises a second conductive trace, the conductive interconnect structure comprising a first branch coupled to the first conductive trace and a second branch coupled to the second conductive trace.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
a substrate having interface circuitry coupled to the first and second printed circuits.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 , wherein the display module comprises a touch sensor layer and a display layer that displays image data, the first printed circuit is configured to convey touch sensor data from the touch sensor layer to the interface circuitry, and the second printed circuit is configured to convey the image data from the interface circuitry to the display layer.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the conductive display structures comprise a conductive structure selected from the group consisting of: near field communications antenna traces, touch sensor electrodes, pixel circuitry, a conductive frame for the display module, a conductive back plate for the display module, and a conductive shielding structure.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the slot antenna is configured to transmit and receive wireless signals in a first frequency band that comprises frequencies between 1.5 GHz and 2.4 GHz and a second frequency band that comprises frequencies between 5.0 GHz and 6.0 GHz.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein a first side of the conductive display structures is separated from a given one of the metal housing walls by a gap, the first feed terminal is coupled to the conductive display structures at a second side of the conductive display structures that is different from the first side, and the conductive interconnect structure extends across the gap.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
a conductive fastener that shorts the conductive interconnect structure to a given one of the metal housing walls.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the conductive interconnect structure comprises conductive adhesive.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the conductive interconnect structure is capacitively coupled to the conductive display structures and is configured to convey antenna currents between the conductive display structures and the metal housing walls.

10. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing having metal housing walls;
a display cover layer;
a display module that is overlapped by the display cover layer and that includes conductive display structures;
an antenna feed for a slot antenna having a first feed terminal coupled to the conductive display structures and a second feed terminal coupled to the metal housing walls;
a conductive interconnect structure coupled to the metal housing walls, wherein the metal housing walls, the conductive display structures, and the conductive interconnect structure define a perimeter of a slot element for the slot antenna, the display module comprises a near field communications layer that includes conductive traces that form a near field communications antenna, and the printed circuit is configured to convey near field communications data between the near field communications layer and radio-frequency transceiver circuitry.

11. An electronic device, comprising:
a conductive housing;
a display mounted to the conductive housing;
a printed circuit configured to convey pixel data to the display;
a conductive structure that shorts a conductive trace on the printed circuit to the conductive housing, wherein the display, the conductive housing, and the conductive structure form edges of a slot element of a slot antenna, and the display comprises pixel circuitry that is configured to receive the pixel data from the printed circuit and to emit light corresponding to the pixel data;
an antenna feed having a first feed terminal coupled to the display and a second feed terminal coupled to the conductive housing;
a first additional printed circuit configured to convey near field communications data to a near field communications antenna in the display; and
a second additional printed circuit configured to convey touch sensor data gathered by touch sensor electrodes in the display, wherein the conductive structure shorts a first additional trace on the first additional printed circuit and a second additional trace on the second additional printed circuit to the conductive housing.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the conductive structure comprises a first branch coupled to the conductive trace on the printed circuit, a second branch coupled to the first additional conductive trace on the first additional printed circuit, and a third branch coupled to the second additional conductive trace on the second additional printed circuit.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the display comprises a display module having conductive display structures that define a set of edges of the slot element and a display cover layer that overlaps the display module, and the slot element extends between at least three sides of the display module and the conductive housing.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Ruaro Andrea
• Di Nallo Carlo
• Da Costa Bras Lima Eduardo Jorge
• Nath Jayesh
• Martinis Mario
• Pascolini Mattia
• Wang Zheyu
• Pandya Sameer

Classifications

• H01Q13/16

  Folded slot antennas · CPC title

• H01Q1/44

  using equipment having another main function to serve additionally as an antenna {, e.g. means for giving an antenna an aesthetic aspect}(H01Q1/27 - H01Q1/34 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q1/243 Primary

  with built-in antennas · CPC title

• H01Q1/528 Primary

  reducing the re-radiation of a support structure (in a parabolic reflector antenna H01Q19/023) · CPC title

• H01Q1/2266 Primary

  disposed inside the computer · CPC title