Wireless connectors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9692476-B2
Application number	US-201314387418-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 4, 2013
Priority date	Apr 25, 2012
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

A wireless connector includes a plurality of printed circuit boards (PCBs) ( 901, 902 ) disposed within a housing of the electronic system. Each PCB comprises a plurality of transceivers ( 910 a , 910 b , 920 a , 920 b ) configured to wirelessly transmit and receive modulated carrier signals ( 910, 920 ). Each transceiver in the system is configured to receive signals transmitted by every other transceiver in the system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless transceiver system, comprising:
a plurality of printed circuit boards (PCBs) disposed within a housing of an electronic system, the plurality of PCBs comprising:
a first PCB comprising a plurality of first transceivers disposed thereon, each first transceiver being adapted to modulate a first carrier signal with a first digital signal to generate a first modulated carrier signal and wirelessly transmit the first modulated carrier signal, through space within the housing; and
a second PCB comprising a plurality of second transceivers disposed thereon, each second transceiver being adapted to modulate a second carrier signal with a second digital signal to generate a second modulated carrier signal and wirelessly transmit the second modulated carrier signal, through the space within the housing;

each first transceiver corresponding to a different second transceiver, each first transceiver being adapted to wirelessly receive the second modulated signal wirelessly transmitted by the second transceiver corresponding to the first transceiver and demodulate the received second modulated carrier signal to extract the second digital signal, each second transceiver being adapted to wirelessly receive the first modulated signal wirelessly transmitted by the first transceiver corresponding to the second transceiver and demodulate the received first modulated carrier signal to extract the first digital signal; and
a signal shield structure disposed between the first PCB and the second PCB, the signal shield structure configured to shield signals between each first transceiver disposed on the first PCB and its corresponding second transceiver disposed on the second PCB from signals between other first and second transceivers within the housing.

2. The wireless transceiver system of claim 1 , wherein each first transceiver and its corresponding second transceiver are shielded from the rest of first and second transceivers by an isolating structure comprising a lower loss or higher permittivity material disposed in between each first transceiver and its corresponding second transceiver and a higher loss or lower permittivity material disposed between the lower loss or higher permittivity material.

3. A wireless transceiver system, comprising:
a first printed circuit board (PCB) comprising a plurality of first transceivers disposed thereon, each first transceiver being adapted to modulate a first carrier signal with a first digital signal to generate a first modulated carrier signal and wirelessly transmit the first modulated carrier signal; and
a second PCB comprising a plurality of second transceivers disposed thereon, each second transceiver being adapted to modulate a second carrier signal with a second digital signal to generate a second modulated carrier signal and wirelessly transmit the second modulated carrier signal;
each first transceiver corresponding to a different second transceiver, each first transceiver being adapted to wirelessly receive the second modulated signal wirelessly transmitted by the second transceiver disposed on the second PCB corresponding to the first transceiver disposed on the first PCB and demodulate the received second modulated carrier signal to extract the second digital signal, each second transceiver being adapted to wirelessly receive the first modulated signal wirelessly transmitted by the first transceiver disposed on the first PCB corresponding to the second transceiver disposed on the second PCB and demodulate the received first modulated carrier signal to extract the first digital signal; and
a structure between the first PCB and the second PCB, the structure comprising a first material and a second material, arranged in a manner that a region between the first and second PCBs is divided into sections by the first material and the second material is disposed between the first material and within the sections, wherein the first material is at least one of a higher loss material, a lower permittivity material, and air and the second material is at least one of a lower loss material and a higher permittivity material.

4. The wireless transceiver system of claim 3 , wherein the second material is the lower loss material and the first material is the higher loss material.

5. The wireless transceiver system of claim 3 , wherein the second material is the higher permittivity material and the first material is the lower permittivity material.

6. The wireless transceiver system of claim 3 , wherein the second material is a higher permittivity low loss material and the first material is the air.

7. The wireless transceiver system of claim 3 , wherein one of the transceivers acts as a master device configured to control transmission of the modulated carrier signals by another transceiver.

8. The wireless transceiver system of claim 3 , wherein each transceiver transmits independently of every other transceiver.

9. The system of claim 3 , wherein the second material is air and the first material is a conductive material.

10. An electronic system comprising:
a housing with multiple sections within the housing;
a plurality of transceivers arranged within each of the multiple sections, the plurality of transceivers disposed on one or more printed circuit boards (PCBs), each of the transceivers of the plurality of transceivers configured to transmit and receive modulated carrier signals modulated by digital data through space within the housing, wherein each of the plurality of transceivers arranged within each section is configured to receive modulated carrier signals transmitted by each of the other transceivers of the plurality of transceivers; and
at least one structure disposed within the housing configured to isolate signals transmitted by the plurality of transceivers in one of the multiple sections from signals transmitted by the plurality of transceivers in another one of the multiple sections,
wherein the structure includes a first material and a second material, different from the first material, the first and second materials arranged in a manner that a region between two adjacent PCBs is divided into sections by the first material and the second material is disposed between the first material and within the sections.

11. The electronic system of claim 10 , wherein one plurality of transceivers in one section uses a different carrier frequency from another plurality of transceivers in another section.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the structure includes a surface disposed at an angle to the first and second transceivers.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the surface is configured to reflect signals between the first and second transceivers and to attenuate signals from the other first and second transceivers.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the structure is a hollow structure.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the structure is a solid structure.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second material is a lower loss material and the first material is a higher loss material.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second material is a higher permittivity material and the first material is a lower permittivity material.

18. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second material is a higher permittivity, low loss material and the first material is air.

19. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second material is air and the first material is a conductive material.

Assignees

• 3M Innovative Properties Co

Inventors

• Gundel Douglas B
• Khan Zulfiqar A
• Barr Alexander W
• Neu Steven A

Classifications

• H04B7/0413

  MIMO systems · CPC title

• H04B5/0075

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B5/0037

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B10/803

  Free space interconnects, e.g. between circuit boards or chips · CPC title

• H05K2201/047

  Box-like arrangements of PCBs · CPC title