Millimeter Wave Patch Antennas
    102.
    发明申请

    公开(公告)号:US20200373672A1

    公开(公告)日:2020-11-26

    申请号:US16990821

    申请日:2020-08-11

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may include a millimeter wave antenna having a ground plane, resonating element, feed, and parasitic element. The resonating element may include first, second, and third layer of traces that are shorted together. The second traces may be interposed between the first and third traces and the third traces may be interposed between the second traces and the parasitic. The third traces may have a width that is less than the widths of the second and third traces. The third traces and the parasitic may define a constrained volume having an associated cavity resonance that lies outside of a frequency band of interest. If desired, the resonating element may include a single layer of conductive traces having a grid of openings that disrupt impedance in a transverse direction, thereby mitigating the trapping of energy within the frequency band of interest between the resonating element and the parasitic.

    Electronic devices having antennas that radiate through a display

    公开(公告)号:US10727570B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-07-28

    申请号:US15884245

    申请日:2018-01-30

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display and a phased array antenna that transmits radio-frequency signals at frequencies greater than 10 GHz. The display may include a conductive layer that is used to form pixel circuitry and/or touch sensor electrodes. A filter may be formed from conductive structures within the conductive layer. The conductive structures may include an array of conductive patches separated by slots or may include conductive paths that define an array of slots. The filter may include an additional array of conductive patches stacked under the array of conductive patches to allow the slots to be narrower than would be resolvable to the unaided human eye. The periodicity of the conductive structures and the slots in the filter may be selected to tune a cutoff frequency of the filter to be greater than frequencies handled by the phased antenna array.

    Millimeter wave antennas having dual patch resonating elements

    公开(公告)号:US10665959B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-05-26

    申请号:US15658141

    申请日:2017-07-24

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with millimeter wave transceiver circuitry and an antenna having a ground and a resonating element. The resonating element may include first and second patches symmetrically distributed about an axis. The antenna may be fed using an antenna feed having a first feed terminal coupled to both the first and second patches and a second feed terminal coupled to the ground. The first feed terminal may be coupled to the first patch at a side closest to the second patch and may be coupled to the second patch at a side closest to the first patch. The first and second patches may be shorted to the ground if desired. Antenna currents on the first patch may be 180 degrees out of phase with antenna currents on the second patch. The antenna may be arranged in an array of antennas with different polarizations.

    Antennas having symmetrical switching architecture

    公开(公告)号:US10511083B2

    公开(公告)日:2019-12-17

    申请号:US15429597

    申请日:2017-02-10

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from conductive housing structures running along the edges of the device. The antenna may have first and second antenna feeds and multiple adjustable components that bridge a slot between the antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. Control circuitry may control the adjustable components and selectively activate one of the first and second feeds at a given time to place the antenna in first, second, or third operating modes. The control circuitry may determine which operating mode to use based on information indicative of the operating environment of the device. By switching between the operating modes, the control circuitry may shift current hot spots across the length of the resonating element arm to ensure satisfactory performance of the antenna in a variety of operating conditions.

    Antennas having symmetrical switching architecture

    公开(公告)号:US10468756B2

    公开(公告)日:2019-11-05

    申请号:US15940772

    申请日:2018-03-29

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may include wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from conductive housing structures running along the edges of the device. The antenna may have first and second antenna feeds and multiple adjustable components that bridge a slot between the antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. Control circuitry may control the adjustable components and selectively activate one of the first and second feeds at a given time to place the antenna in first, second, or third operating modes. The control circuitry may determine which operating mode to use based on information indicative of the operating environment of the device. By switching between the operating modes, the control circuitry may shift current hot spots across the length of the resonating element arm to ensure satisfactory performance of the antenna in a variety of operating conditions.

    Electronic Devices Having Phased Antenna Arrays for Performing Proximity Detection Operations

    公开(公告)号:US20190267709A1

    公开(公告)日:2019-08-29

    申请号:US15907029

    申请日:2018-02-27

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry that includes a phased antenna array. The array may include multiple antennas each having multiple antenna feeds for covering different polarizations. Control circuitry may control the wireless circuitry to transmit signals at millimeter or centimeter wave frequencies using a first set of feeds in the array and at least one selected phase. The wireless circuitry may receive the signals transmitted by the first set of feeds using a second set of feeds in the array. The control circuitry may gather phase measurements for the received signals and may compare the phase measurements to the selected phase to generate phase difference values. The control circuitry may perform external object proximity detection operations based on the phase difference values. The control circuitry may control the wireless circuitry to cycle through different combinations of antenna feeds for the first and second sets.

    Electronic Devices Having Millimeter Wave Ranging Capabilities

    公开(公告)号:US20190257933A1

    公开(公告)日:2019-08-22

    申请号:US15901564

    申请日:2018-02-21

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may be provided with a phased antenna array for conveying first signals at a first frequency between 10 GHz and 300 GHz and a non-millimeter wave antenna for conveying second signals at a second frequency below 10 GHz. The device may include conductive housing sidewalls and a display. Conductive structures in the display and the conductive housing sidewalls may define a slot element in the non-millimeter wave antenna. The phased antenna array may be mounted within the slot element, aligned with a spatial filter in the display, or aligned with a dielectric window in the conductive housing sidewalls. Control circuitry may process signals transmitted by the phased antenna array and a reflected version of the transmitted signals that has been received by the phased antenna array to detect a range between the device and an external object.

    Electronic Devices With Millimeter Wave Antennas And Metal Housings

    公开(公告)号:US20190214708A1

    公开(公告)日:2019-07-11

    申请号:US16357165

    申请日:2019-03-18

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas. The antennas may include millimeter wave antenna arrays. Non-millimeter-wave antennas such as cellular telephone antennas may have conductive structures separated by a dielectric gap. In a device with a metal housing, a plastic-filled slot may form the dielectric gap. The conductive structures may be slot antenna structures, inverted-F antenna structures such as an inverted-F antenna resonating element and a ground, or other antenna structures. The plastic-filled slot may serve as a millimeter wave antenna window. A millimeter wave antenna array may be mounted in alignment with the millimeter wave antenna window to transmit and receive signals through the window. Millimeter wave antenna windows may also be formed from air-filled openings in a metal housing such as audio port openings.

    Electronic device antennas having multiple operating modes

    公开(公告)号:US10305453B2

    公开(公告)日:2019-05-28

    申请号:US15700580

    申请日:2017-09-11

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry and control circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include an antenna with an inverted-F antenna resonating element formed from portions of a peripheral conductive electronic device housing structure and may have an antenna ground that is separated from the antenna resonating element by a gap. The antenna may include a first adjustable component coupled between the antenna resonating element arm and the antenna ground on a first side of the antenna feed and a second adjustable component coupled between the antenna resonating element arm and the antenna ground on a second side of the antenna feed. Control circuitry in the electronic device may adjust the first and second adjustable components between a first tuning mode, a second tuning mode, and a third tuning mode.

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