Electronic Device with Antenna Polarization Diversity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025087871-A1
Application number	US-202418623219-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 1, 2024
Priority date	Sep 7, 2023
Publication date	Mar 13, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

A head-mounted device may have a housing with a cover having three-dimensional curvature. A front-facing display may be mounted to the cover and may display images through the cover. The cover may have a peripheral region laterally surrounding the front-facing display. An antenna may have an antenna resonating element layered onto the cover overlapping the peripheral region. The antenna may be switchable between a first polarization state and a second polarization state. In the first polarization state, the antenna conveys radio-frequency signals having a first polarization with an earbud. In the second polarization state, the antenna conveys radio-frequency signals having a second polarization with the earbud. One or more processors may gather wireless performance metric data from the radio-frequency signals and may adjust the antenna between the polarization states to optimize the wireless performance metric data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electronic device comprising:
a housing; first and second displays at a first side of the housing; a cover layer at a second side of the housing opposite the first side; a third display overlapping a central region of the cover layer and configured to display images through the central region of the cover layer, the cover layer having a peripheral region surrounding the central region; an antenna overlapping the peripheral region of the cover layer; and a transceiver configured to convey radio-frequency signals with an earbud over the antenna while the antenna is in a first polarization state and while the antenna is in a second polarization state different from the first polarization state.

2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more processors configured to generate wireless performance metric data based on the radio-frequency signals conveyed by the transceiver, the one or more processors being configured to adjust the antenna between the first polarization state and the second polarization state based on the wireless performance metric data.

3 . The electronic device of claim 2 , the one or more processors being further configured to switch the antenna from the first polarization state to the second polarization state when the wireless performance metric data is less than a threshold value.

4 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the second polarization state is orthogonal to the first polarization state.

5 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the antenna has an antenna resonating element, a first positive antenna feed terminal coupled to a first location on the antenna resonating element, and a second positive antenna feed terminal coupled to a second location on the antenna resonating element, the first positive antenna feed terminal being configured to convey the radio-frequency signals in the first polarization state, and the second positive antenna feed terminal being configured to convey the radio-frequency signals in the second polarization state.

6 . The electronic device of claim 5 , further comprising:
a radio-frequency transmission line coupled to the transceiver; and a switch that couples the radio-frequency transmission line to the first positive antenna feed terminal and the second positive antenna feed terminal, the switch being in a first state when the antenna is in the first polarization state and a second state when the antenna is in the second polarization state.

7 . The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the antenna resonating element comprises a conductive patch, the first and second positive antenna feed terminals being coupled to orthogonal edges of the conductive patch.

8 . The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the antenna resonating element comprises a slot, the first and second positive antenna feed terminals being coupled to orthogonal edges of the slot.

9 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the antenna has a first antenna resonating element, a first positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the first antenna resonating element, a second antenna resonating element, and a second positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the second antenna resonating element, the first positive antenna feed terminal being configured to convey the radio-frequency signals in the first polarization state, and the second positive antenna feed terminal being configured to convey the radio-frequency signals in the second polarization state.

10 . The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the first antenna resonating element comprises a first pair of dipole arms and the second antenna resonating element comprises a second pair of dipole arms orthogonal to the first pair of dipole arms.

11 . The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the first antenna resonating element comprises a monopole antenna resonating element and the second antenna resonating element comprises a second monopole antenna resonating element orthogonal to the first monopole antenna resonating element.

12 . The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the first antenna resonating element comprises a inverted-F antenna resonating element and the second antenna resonating element comprises a second inverted-F antenna resonating element orthogonal to the first inverted-F antenna resonating element.

13 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the antenna has an antenna resonating element layered onto the cover layer and the cover layer has a three-dimensionally curved surface.

14 . The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the antenna resonating element extends parallel to the three-dimensionally curved surface.

15 . A method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising:
transmitting, using a first antenna, first radio-frequency signals having a first polarization to a first earbud, the first radio-frequency signals comprising a first stream of audio data; generating, using one or more processors, wireless performance metric data based on the first radio-frequency signals; and adjusting, using a switch, the first polarization of the first radio-frequency signals based on the wireless performance metric data.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
transmitting, using a second antenna, second radio-frequency signals to a second earbud concurrent with transmission of the first radio-frequency signals by the first antenna, the second radio-frequency signals comprising a second stream of audio data.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the second radio-frequency signals have a second polarization different from the first polarization.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein adjusting the first polarization comprises switching the first polarization to a third polarization that is different from the first polarization and the second polarization.

19 . A head-mounted device comprising:
first and second displays configured to display respective left and right images at a rear side of the head-mounted device; a cover layer at a front side of the head-mounted device; a third display configured to display an image through the cover layer, the cover layer having a first region that overlaps the third display and a second region that extends around a periphery of the first region; an antenna overlapping the second region of the cover layer; a transceiver coupled to the antenna and configured to use the antenna to transmit audio data to an earbud; and a switch that couples the transceiver to the antenna, the switch being configured to adjust a polarization state of the antenna.

20 . The head-mounted device of claim 19 , wherein the switch has a first state in which the antenna conveys the audio data with a first polarization and has a second state in which the antenna conveys the audio data with a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Begashaw Simon G
• Wu Jiangfeng
• Chi Mei-Li
• Poore Killian J
• Yong Siwen
• Jiang Yi

Classifications

• H01Q21/26

  Turnstile or like antennas comprising arrangements of three or more elongated elements disposed radially and symmetrically in a horizontal plane about a common centre · CPC title

• H01Q9/30

  with feed to end of elongated active element, e.g. unipole (H01Q9/44 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q9/0407

  Substantially flat resonant element parallel to ground plane, e.g. patch antenna (dipole H01Q9/285; monopole H01Q9/40) · CPC title

• H01Q13/10

  Resonant slot antennas · CPC title

• H01Q21/245

  provided with means for varying the polarisation  (polarising devices H01Q15/24; tracking by comparing linear polarisation compounds G01S3/146; reducing depolarisation effects H04B7/00; polarisation diversity H04B7/10) · CPC title