Electronic devices having multilayer millimeter wave antennas

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11894608-B2
Application number	US-202217751495-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2022
Priority date	Sep 22, 2020
Publication date	Feb 6, 2024
Grant date	Feb 6, 2024

Abstract

An electronic device may have a phased antenna array. An antenna in the array may include a rectangular patch element with diagonal axes. The antenna may have first and second antenna feeds coupled to the patch element along the diagonal axes. The antenna may be rotated at a forty-five degree angle relative to other antennas in the array. The antenna may have one or two layers of parasitic elements overlapping the patch element. For example, the antenna may have a layer of coplanar parasitic patches separated by a gap. The antenna may also have an additional parasitic patch that is located farther from the patch element than the layer of coplanar parasitic patches. The additional parasitic patch may overlap the patch element and the gap in the coplanar parasitic patches. The antenna may exhibit a relatively small footprint and minimal mutual coupling with other antennas in the array.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a dielectric substrate; and
an antenna array that includes an antenna, the antenna including:
a rectangular conductive patch on the dielectric substrate, the rectangular conductive patch having first and second opposing corners and a diagonal axis that passes through the first and second opposing corners of the rectangular conductive patch,
an antenna feed terminal coupled to the rectangular conductive patch along the diagonal axis, and
a parasitic conductor on the dielectric substrate and overlapping the rectangular conductive patch.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the rectangular conductive patch has a first edge, and the parasitic conductor has a first edge that is parallel to the first edge of the rectangular conductive patch.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 , wherein the rectangular conductive patch has a second edge, and the parasitic conductor has a second edge that is parallel to the second edge of the rectangular conductive patch.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the first and second edges of the rectangular conductive patch meet at the first corner of the rectangular conductive patch.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 , wherein the parasitic conductor is rectangular and is smaller than the rectangular conductive patch.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising:
an additional parasitic conductor on the dielectric substrate and overlapping the rectangular conductive patch.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 , wherein the parasitic conductor overlaps a center of the rectangular conductive patch, and the additional parasitic conductor overlaps an edge of the rectangular conductive patch.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 7 , wherein the parasitic conductor and the additional parasitic conductor are formed on a same layer of the dielectric substrate.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 7 , wherein the parasitic conductor and the additional parasitic conductor are formed on different layers of the dielectric substrate.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 , wherein the parasitic conductor is capacitively coupled to the additional parasitic conductor, and the additional parasitic conductor is capacitively coupled to the rectangular conductive patch.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the antenna array includes an additional antenna including:
an additional rectangular conductive patch having a diagonal axis that is colinear with the diagonal axis of the rectangular conductive patch.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 11 , wherein the additional rectangular conductive patch has first and second opposing corners and the diagonal axis of the additional rectangular conductive patch passes through the first and second opposing corners of the additional rectangular conductive patch.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the antenna feed terminal is a positive antenna feed terminal configured to be coupled to a signal conductor of a radio-frequency transmission line path.

14. An electronic device comprising:
a dielectric substrate having a first layer and a second layer stacked on the first layer;
a conductive patch for an antenna;
ground traces on the dielectric substrate forming an antenna ground for the antenna;
signal traces forming a signal conductor of a radio-frequency transmission line path;
a positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the conductive patch;
a conductive via that couples the signal traces to the positive antenna feed terminal;
a first parasitic conductor on the first layer and capacitively coupled to the conductive patch; and
a second parasitic conductor on the second layer and capacitively coupled to the first parasitic conductor.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 14 , wherein the second parasitic conductor overlaps a center of the conductive patch, and the first parasitic conductor overlaps an edge of the conductive patch.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 15 , wherein the second parasitic conductor is separated from the conductive patch by a first distance, and the first parasitic conductive is separated from the conductive patch by a second distance less than the first distance.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 14 , wherein the ground traces have an opening and the conductive via passes through the opening.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 14 , wherein the dielectric substrate has a third layer on which the first and second layers are stacked, the conductive patch being disposed on the third layer.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 14 , wherein the conductive patch has a diagonal axis, and the positive antenna feed terminal is coupled to the conductive patch along the diagonal axis.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 14 , wherein the first and second parasitic conductors are coplanar.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Wu Jiangfeng
• Zhang Lijun
• Pascolini Mattia
• Yong Siwen
• Jiang Yi

Classifications

• H01Q5/385

  Two or more parasitic elements · CPC title

• H01Q1/523 Primary

  between antennas of an array · CPC title

• H01Q3/34

  by electrical means (active lenses or reflecting arrays H01Q3/46) · CPC title

• H01Q9/0414 Primary

  in a stacked or folded configuration · CPC title

• H01Q19/005

  Patch antenna using one or more coplanar parasitic elements · CPC title