Electronic Devices Having Enclosure-Coupled Multi-Band Antenna Structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021066799-A1
Application number	US-201916553045-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 27, 2019
Priority date	Aug 27, 2019
Publication date	Mar 4, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a housing and an antenna having a resonating element. The resonating element may have first and second arms extending from opposing sides of a feed. The first arm and a portion of the housing may radiate in a cellular ultra-high band. The first arm may have a fundamental mode that radiates in a first ultra-wideband (UWB) communications band at 6.5 GHz. The second arm may have a fundamental mode that radiates in a 5.0 GHz wireless local area network band. The first and second arms may have a harmonic mode that radiates in a second UWB communications band at 8.0 GHz. The antenna may convey radio-frequency signals in each of these communications bands without the need for adjusting components in the antenna to switch between the UWB communications bands.

First claim

1 . An electronic device comprising:
peripheral conductive housing structures; an antenna having an antenna feed with first and second antenna feed terminals, wherein the first antenna feed terminal is coupled to the antenna ground, the antenna having first and second resonating element arms extending from opposing sides of the second antenna feed terminal; a first radio-frequency transceiver coupled to the antenna feed and configured to convey, using the antenna, first non-ultra-wideband signals in a first communications band, wherein the first resonating element arm and a portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures are configured to radiate in the first communications band; a second radio-frequency transceiver coupled to the antenna feed and configured to convey, using the antenna, second non-ultra-wideband signals in a second communications band that is higher than the first communications band, wherein the second resonating element arm is configured to radiate in the second communications band; and a third radio-frequency transceiver coupled to the antenna feed and configured to convey, using the antenna, ultra-wideband signals in an ultra-wideband communications band that is higher than the second communications band, wherein the first resonating element arm has a fundamental mode configured to radiate in the ultra-wideband communications band.

2 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 , wherein the second resonating element arm has a fundamental mode configured to radiate in the second communications band.

3 . The electronic device defined in claim 2 , wherein the first communications band comprises a first frequency between 3400 MHz and 3700 MHz and the second communications band comprises a second frequency between 5180 MHz and 5850 MHZ.

4 . The electronic device defined in claim 3 , wherein the ultra-wideband communications band comprises a third frequency between 6250 MHz and 6750 MHz.

5 . The electronic device defined in claim 2 , wherein the third radio-frequency transceiver is configured to convey, using the antenna, additional ultra-wideband signals in an additional ultra-wideband communications band that is higher than the ultra-wideband communications band, the first and second resonating element arms being configured to radiate in the additional ultra-wideband communications band.

6 . The electronic device defined in claim 5 , wherein the first resonating element arm has a harmonic mode configured to radiate in the additional ultra-wideband communications band and the second resonating element arm has a harmonic mode configured to radiate in the additional ultra-wideband communications band.

7 . The electronic device defined in claim 6 , wherein the ultra-wideband communications band comprises a first frequency between 6250 MHz and 6750 MHz and the additional ultra-wideband communications band comprises a second frequency between 7750 MHz and 8250 MHz.

8 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
ground structures, wherein the ground structures are separated from the peripheral conductive housing structures by a slot, and the first and second resonating element arms of the antenna overlap the slot; and an additional antenna having a third resonating element arm that includes the portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures, an additional antenna feed coupled to the portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures, and a tuning component coupled between the portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures and the ground structures, wherein the first radio-frequency transceiver is coupled to the additional antenna feed and configured to convey, using the additional antenna, third non-ultra-wideband signals in a third communications band that is lower than the first communications band, the third resonating element arm being configured to radiate in the third communications band.

9 . The electronic device defined in claim 8 , further comprising:
a conductive clip that couples the tuning component to the portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures, wherein antenna currents in the first frequency band and flowing on the first resonating element arm are configured to induce, via near-field electromagnetic coupling, additional antenna currents in the first frequency band to flow on the conductive clip and the portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures.

10 . The electronic device defined in claim 9 , wherein the clip is screwed to the portion of the peripheral conductive housing structures using a conductive screw.

11 . The electronic device defined in claim 8 , wherein the tuning component is configured to tune a frequency response of the additional antenna in the third communications band and is configured to tune a frequency response of the antenna in the first frequency band.

12 . The electronic device defined in claim 8 , wherein the electronic device has a front face and a rear face, the electronic device further comprising:
a display at the front face and mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structures; a housing wall at the rear face and mounted to the peripheral housing structures; and first, second, and third ultra-wideband antennas aligned with respective first, second, and third openings in the ground structures, wherein the third radio-frequency transceiver is configured to transmit the ultra-wideband signals through the housing wall at the rear face using the first, second, and third ultra-wideband antennas, the antenna being configured to receive the ultra-wideband signals through the housing wall at the rear face and through a portion of the display at the front face.

13 . An antenna comprising:
peripheral conductive housing structures; an antenna ground separated from the peripheral conductive housing structures by a slot; an antenna resonating element; and an antenna feed coupled to the antenna ground and across the slot to the antenna resonating element, wherein the antenna resonating element comprises:
a first arm extending from a first side of the antenna feed, wherein the first arm is configured to radiate in a non-ultra-wideband communications band and in an ultra-wideband communications band, and
a second arm extending from a second side of the antenna feed, wherein the second arm is configured to radiate in the ultra-wideband communications band.

14 . The antenna defined in claim 13 , the first arm having a harmonic mode configured to radiate in the ultra-wideband communications band and the second arm having a harmonic mode configured to radiate in the ultra-wideband communications band.

15 . The antenna defined in claim 14 , wherein the first arm has a fundamental mode configured to radiate in an additional ultra-wideband communications band that is higher than the non-ultrawideband communications band and lower than the ultra-wideband communications band.

16 . The antenna defined in claim 15 , wherein the second arm has a fundamental mode configured to radiate in an additional non-ultra-wideband communications band that is higher than the non-ultra-wideband communications band and lower than the additional ultra-wideband communications band.

17 . The antenna defined in claim 16 , wherein the first arm comprises a first segment extending from the antenna feed and a second segment extending at a non-parallel angle from the first segment, the second arm comprises a third segment extending from the antenna feed, a fourth segment having a first end extending from the third segment, and a fifth segment extending from a second

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Avser Bilgehan
• Han Xu
• Yarga Salih
• Zhong Jingni
• Xu Hao
• Pascolini Mattia

Classifications

• H01Q9/42

  with folded element, the folded parts being spaced apart a small fraction of the operating wavelength · CPC title

• H01Q5/50

  Feeding or matching arrangements for broad-band or multi-band operation · CPC title

• H01Q5/40

  Imbricated or interleaved structures; Combined or electromagnetically coupled arrangements, e.g. comprising two or more non-connected fed radiating elements · CPC title

• H01Q21/065

  Patch antenna array · CPC title

• H01Q5/328

  between a radiating element and ground · CPC title