Antennas for wireless earbuds

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9866945-B2
Application number	US-201614993548-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Jan 12, 2016
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

An accessory such as a wireless earbud may have an antenna for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. A housing for the earbud may have a main body portion and an extended portion that forms a stalk protruding from the main body portion. The earbud may have a speaker aligned with a speaker port in the main body portion. The antenna may have an elongated shape and may extend along the stalk. The stalk may have a plastic housing wall portion. The antenna may be formed from first and second metal traces on opposing sides of a printed circuit substrate. The first metal trace may form an antenna resonating element arm and may lie between the substrate and the plastic housing wall portion. The second metal trace may be a ground trace. A feed for the antenna may be located at a juncture between the main body portion and the stalk.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An earbud, comprising:
a housing having a main body portion with a speaker port and having a stalk that extends from the main body portion;
a speaker mounted in the main body portion in alignment with the speaker port;
a printed circuit substrate; and
an antenna in the stalk, wherein the antenna comprises a metal trace on the printed circuit substrate, a transmission line is coupled to the metal trace through a via in the printed circuit substrate, the via is configured to pass antenna signals from a positive signal path of the transmission line to the metal trace, the positive signal path comprises a conductive line extending into the printed circuit substrate, the conductive line and the metal trace are formed in parallel planes, and the via is interposed between the conductive line and the metal trace.

2. The earbud defined in claim 1 wherein the antenna has an elongated shape and extends along the stalk.

3. The earbud defined in claim 2 wherein the antenna comprises an inverted-F antenna.

4. The earbud defined in claim 3 wherein the stalk has a plastic housing wall portion, wherein the earbud further comprises a conductive component in the stalk, and wherein the antenna is interposed between the conductive component and the plastic housing wall portion.

5. The earbud defined in claim 4 wherein the printed circuit substrate is adjacent to the plastic housing wall portion, and the antenna includes an additional metal trace on the printed circuit substrate that is adjacent to the conductive component.

6. The earbud defined in claim 5 wherein the metal trace comprises a resonating element arm and wherein the additional metal trace comprises an antenna ground.

7. The earbud defined in claim 6 wherein the antenna further comprises a return path via that passes through the printed circuit substrate between the resonating element arm and the antenna ground.

8. An electronic device, comprising:
a dielectric housing having a main body portion with a port and having an elongated protruding portion that extends from the main body portion along a longitudinal axis; and
an electrical component aligned with the port; and
an antenna in the dielectric housing that extends along the longitudinal axis within the elongated protruding portion, wherein the antenna comprises an antenna ground and first and second ground feed terminals that are coupled to the antenna ground at respective first and second locations, wherein the elongated antenna comprises a substrate having first and second opposing surfaces, a first metal trace on the first surface, and a second metal trace on the second surface.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the elongated protruding portion is characterized by a length, a width, and a length to width ratio of at least three.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the electrical component comprises a speaker and wherein the main body portion is configured to be received within an ear of a user.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 10 wherein the antenna comprises an inverted-F antenna having a resonating element arm that extends along the elongated protruding portion.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 8 further comprising a return path via that extends through the substrate from the first metal trace to the second metal trace.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the electrical component comprises a speaker and wherein the main body portion is configured to be received within an ear of a user.

14. A wireless earbud, comprising:
a speaker;
an inverted-F antenna; and
a housing having a main body portion in which the speaker is mounted and having a stalk that protrudes from the main body portion in which the inverted-F antenna is mounted, wherein the inverted-F antenna includes a resonating element arm within the stalk and an antenna ground that includes a first portion within the stalk and a second portion within the main body portion of the housing.

15. The wireless earbud defined in claim 14 wherein the inverted-F antenna comprises a dielectric substrate having first and second surfaces, a first metal trace on the first surface, and a second metal trace on the second surface.

16. The wireless earbud defined in claim 15 further comprising a return path via that passes through the dielectric substrate from the first metal trace to the second metal trace.

17. The wireless earbud defined in claim 16 further comprising a battery in the housing, wherein the stalk comprises a plastic wall that lies adjacent to the first metal trace.

18. The wireless earbud defined in claim 14 wherein the main body portion is coupled to the stalk at a juncture in the housing and wherein the inverted-F antenna has a feed at the juncture.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Mcauliffe Erin A
• Di Nallo Carlo
• Huang Huan-Chu
• Barrera Joel D
• Pascolini Mattia
• Guterman Jerzy S
• Chawan Arun
• Cousins Benjamin
• Panecki Lee M

Classifications

• H01Q1/273

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

• H04R1/1066 Primary

  Constructional aspects of the interconnection between earpiece and earpiece support (earpiece support for monophonic headphones H04R1/105; earpiece support for stereophonic headphones H04R5/0335) · CPC title

• H01Q1/22

  by structural association with other equipment or articles · CPC title

• H04R1/1016

  Earpieces of the intra-aural type · CPC title

• H01Q9/42 Primary

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