Electronic Device with Reconfigurable Antenna Radiation Pattern

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025087877-A1
Application number	US-202418626267-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 3, 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 different radiation patterns. A controller may gather wireless performance metric data for each of the radiation patterns. The antenna may be switched to exhibit a radiation pattern that optimizes the wireless performance metric data. This may serve to minimize interference from external devices operating using the same ultra-low-latency audio communications protocol as the antenna.

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 exhibits a first radiation pattern and while the antenna exhibits a second radiation pattern that is different from the first radiation pattern.

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 antenna, the one or more processors being configured to switch the antenna between the first radiation pattern and the second radiation pattern 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 radiation pattern to the second radiation pattern when the wireless performance metric data is less than a threshold value.

4 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the antenna comprises:
an antenna resonating element; and switching circuitry configured to switch the antenna between the first radiation pattern and the second radiation pattern by adjusting a current distribution in the antenna resonating element.

5 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the antenna resonating element comprises a first conductor and a second conductor, the switching circuitry comprising a switch coupled between the first and second conductors.

6 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the antenna comprises an antenna ground, the switching circuitry comprising a switch coupled between the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground.

7 . The electronic device of claim 4 , further comprising:
a radio-frequency transmission line, wherein the switching circuitry comprises a switch that couples the radio-frequency transmission line to a first point on the antenna resonating element and a second point on the antenna resonating element that is different from the first point.

8 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the antenna resonating element comprises a directly fed conductor, a first indirectly fed conductor, and a second indirectly fed conductor, the switching circuitry comprising a switch coupled between the first and second indirectly fed conductors.

9 . 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.

10 . The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the antenna resonating element extends parallel to the three-dimensionally curved surface.

11 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the audio data using a non-Bluetooth audio communications protocol.

12 . A method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising:
transmitting, using an antenna, radio-frequency signals to an earbud while the antenna exhibits a radiation pattern; generating, using one or more processors, wireless performance metric data based on the radio-frequency signals; and adjusting, using switching circuitry, the radiation pattern of the antenna based on the wireless performance metric data.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
transmitting, using the antenna, additional radio-frequency signals while the antenna exhibits an additional radiation pattern different from the radiation pattern.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein transmitting the radio-frequency signals comprises transmitting the radio-frequency signals with phase and wherein transmitting the additional radio-frequency signals comprises transmitting the additional radio-frequency signals with the phase.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein adjusting the radiation pattern comprises shifting a current distribution in an antenna resonating element of the antenna.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein adjusting the radiation pattern comprises adjusting a length of the antenna resonating element.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein adjusting the radiation pattern comprises changing a feed location of the antenna resonating element.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein adjusting the radiation pattern comprises coupling the antenna resonating element to an antenna ground.

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 resonating element overlapping the second region of the cover layer; a transceiver coupled to the antenna resonating element and configured to use the antenna resonating element to transmit audio data to an earbud; and a switch coupled to the antenna resonating element, the switch being configured to mitigate interference between the antenna resonating element and an external device by adjusting a direction of a radiation pattern of the antenna resonating element.

20 . The head-mounted device of claim 19 , further comprising:
one or more processors configured to generate a cost function associated with the radiation pattern of the antenna resonating element, the one or more processors being configured to control the switch to configure the antenna resonating element to exhibit an updated radiation pattern that minimizes the cost function.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H01Q3/24 Primary

  varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching · CPC title

• H01Q1/273

  Adaptation for carrying or wearing by persons or animals · CPC title

• H01Q1/243

  with built-in antennas · CPC title

• H04B17/309 Primary

  Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters · CPC title