Electronic device having adjustable antenna settings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10693516-B2
Application number	US-201816017847-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2018
Priority date	Jun 25, 2018
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

An electronic device may include control circuitry, sensors, and wireless circuitry having antennas. The sensors may generate sensor data that is used by the control circuitry to identify an operating environment for the device. The sensor data may include a grip map generated by a touch-sensitive display, infrared facial recognition image signals or other image signals, an angle of arrival of sound received by a set of microphones, impedance data from an impedance sensor, and any other desired sensor data. The control circuitry may use the sensor data, radio-frequency spatial ranging data, information about whether audio is being played over an ear speaker, and/or information about communications protocols in use to identify the operating environment. The control circuitry may adjust antenna settings for the wireless circuitry based on the identified operating environment to ensure that the antennas operate with satisfactory antenna efficiency regardless of operating conditions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device having opposing first and second faces, comprising:
a housing;
a touch-sensitive display at the first face;
an image sensor at the first face;
a plurality of microphones in the housing that are configured to receive sound and to generate audio signals in response to the sound;
wireless communications circuitry configured to convey radio-frequency signals over a plurality of antennas using antenna settings; and
control circuitry configured to adjust the antenna settings based on sensor data, wherein the sensor data comprises data selected from the group consisting of:
a grip map generated by the touch-sensitive display, and
an angle of arrival of the sound received by the plurality of microphones.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
a light source at the first face and configured to emit infrared light, wherein the image sensor is configured to receive a reflected version of the infrared light emitted by the light source and the control circuitry is further configured to detect an object in image signals generated by the image sensor in response to the reflected version of the infrared light emitted by the light source and to adjust the antenna settings based on the detected object in the image signals.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to generate a depth map based on image signals generated by the image sensor and to adjust the antenna settings based on the depth map.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
an orientation sensor configured to generate orientation sensor data, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to adjust the antenna settings based on the orientation sensor data.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the grip map comprises a set of locations on the touch-sensitive display that are in contact with an external object.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 5 , wherein the touch-sensitive display is configured to gather force data indicative of a pressure applied to the touch-sensitive display and the grip map comprises force data associated with each of the locations in the set of locations.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the antenna settings comprise a selected pair of antennas in the plurality of antennas that are configured to concurrently transmit the radio-frequency signals at a given frequency under a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) scheme.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the antenna settings comprise a setting selected from the group consisting of: a set of active antennas in the plurality of antennas, a set of active antenna feeds for the plurality of antennas, operating frequencies for the plurality of antennas, maximum transmit power levels for the plurality of antennas, and tuning settings for the plurality of antennas.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the housing comprises peripheral conductive housing structures that run along a periphery of the electronic device, the electronic device has a length, a width that is less than the length, and a height that is less than the width, the peripheral conductive housing structures comprise first and second sidewalls that run along the length and third and fourth sidewalls that run along the width, the plurality of antennas comprises first, second, third, and fourth antennas, the first antenna includes a first resonating element formed from the first and second sidewalls, the second antenna includes a second resonating element formed from the second and third sidewalls, the third antenna includes a third resonating element formed from the third and fourth sidewalls, the fourth antenna includes a fourth resonating element formed from the fourth and first sidewalls, the first resonating element is separated from the second resonating element by a first gap in the second sidewall, and the third resonating element is separated from the fourth resonating element by a second gap in the fourth sidewall.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to place an antenna in the plurality of antennas in:
a free space operating mode in response to determining that the electronic device is being operated in the first environment,
a first non-free space operating mode in response to determining that the electronic device is being operated in the second environment,
a second non-free space operating mode in response to determining that the electronic device is being operated in the third environment, and
a third non-free space operating mode in response to determining that the electronic device is being operated in the fourth environment, wherein the antenna is configured to transmit the radio-frequency signals using a first maximum transmit power level in the free space operating mode and using respective second, third, and fourth maximum transmit power levels in the first, second, and third non-free space operating modes, the first maximum transmit power level being greater than each of the second, third, and fourth maximum transmit power levels.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
an impedance sensor coupled to the plurality of antennas and configured to generate radio-frequency phase and magnitude information associated with the plurality of antennas, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to generate radio-frequency spatial ranging data indicative of a distance between the electronic device and an object external to the electronic device based on a radio-frequency signal transmitted by a given antenna in the plurality of antennas and a reflected version of the transmitted radio-frequency signal received using the given antenna, and the control circuitry is further configured to adjust the antenna settings based on the radio-frequency spatial ranging data and the radio-frequency phase and magnitude information.

12. An electronic device having opposing first and second faces, comprising:
a housing, wherein the housing comprises peripheral conductive housing structures that run along a periphery of the electronic device, the electronic device has a length, a width that is less than the length, and a height that is less than the width, the peripheral conductive housing structures comprise first and second sidewalls that run along the length and third and fourth sidewalls that run along the width;
a touch-sensitive display at the first face;
a light source at the first face and configured to emit infrared light;
an image sensor at the first face and configured to receive a reflected version of the infrared light emitted by the light source;
a plurality of microphones in the housing that are configured to receive sound and to generate audio signals in response to the sound;
wireless communications circuitry configured to convey radio-frequency signals over a plurality of antennas using antenna settings, wherein the plurality of antennas comprises antennas formed from corresponding portions of the first, second, third, and fourth sidewalls; and
control circuitry configured to adjust the antenna settings based on sensor data, wherein the sensor data comprises data selected from the group consisting of:
a grip map generated by the touch-sensitive display,
an angle of arrival of the sound received by the plurality of microphones, and
image signals generated by the image sensor in response to the reflected version of the infrared light emitted by the light source.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 , wherein

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Han Liang
• Mow Matthew A
• Pascolini Mattia
• Caballero Ruben
• Biedka Thomas E
• Xu Yuancheng
• Ramachandran Iyappan

Classifications

• H04B1/40 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04B1/3838 Primary

  Arrangements for reducing RF exposure to the user, e.g. by changing the shape of the transceiver while in use · CPC title

• G06V40/161

  Detection; Localisation; Normalisation · CPC title

• G06F18/251

  of input or preprocessed data · CPC title

• G06V10/143

  Sensing or illuminating at different wavelengths · CPC title