Abstract:
A housing for an electronic device is disclosed. The housing includes a first conductive component defining a first interface surface, a second conductive component defining a second interface surface facing the first interface surface, and a joint structure between the first and second interface surfaces. The joint structure includes a molded element forming a portion of an exterior surface of the housing, and a sealing member forming a watertight seal between the first and second conductive components. Methods of forming the electronic device housing are also disclosed.
Abstract:
An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal portions such as metal sidewalls. The housing may form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element for the antenna may be formed from a stack of capacitively coupled component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer at a front face of the device. An additional antenna may be formed from a peripheral resonating element that runs along a peripheral edge of the device and the antenna ground. A rear face antenna may be formed using a wireless power receiving coil as a radio-frequency antenna resonating element or may be formed from metal antenna traces on a plastic support for light-based components.
Abstract:
An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal portions such as metal sidewalls. The housing may form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element for the antenna may be formed from a stack of capacitively coupled component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer at a front face of the device. An additional antenna may be formed from a peripheral resonating element that runs along a peripheral edge of the device and the antenna ground. A rear face antenna may be formed using a wireless power receiving coil as a radio-frequency antenna resonating element or may be formed from metal antenna traces on a plastic support for light-based components.
Abstract:
An electronic device may have a display in a housing with a metal wall. An antenna may have an antenna ground formed from the wall and an antenna resonating element. Transceiver circuitry may be coupled to an antenna feed that extends between the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground. A return path may extend between the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground in parallel with the feed. The antenna resonating element may have segments that are coupled by a frequency dependent filter. At a first frequency, the filter may have a low impedance so that the antenna resonating element has a first effectively length. At a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency, the filter may have a high impedance so that the antenna resonating element has a second effective length that is shorter than the first effective length.
Abstract:
An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna may have an inverted-F antenna resonating element, an antenna ground, and other resonating element structures. A tip of the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground may be separated by a peripheral housing gap filled with plastic. The antenna may be sensitive to capacitance changes induced by the presence of a user's hand overlapping the gap or other portions of the antenna. A hand capacitance sensing electrode may be mounted in the plastic of the gap or elsewhere in the vicinity of the antenna. A transmission line may couple the hand capacitance sensing electrode to the antenna to retune the antenna in the event that the user's hand overlaps the antenna.
Abstract:
An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. Control circuitry may be used to adjust the wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include antennas that are tuned, adjustable impedance matching circuitry, antenna port selection circuitry, and adjustable transceiver circuitry. Wireless circuit adjustments may be made by ascertaining a current usage scenario for the electronic device based on sensor data, information from cellular base station equipment or other external equipment, signal-to-noise ratio information or other signal information, antenna impedance measurements, and other information about the operation of the electronic device.
Abstract:
An electronic device may have components mounted in a housing. The device may include wireless transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. A display may be mounted in the housing. The display may have a cover layer having an inner surface with a recess. The recess may run along a peripheral edge of the cover layer. An antenna structure such as an inverted-F antenna resonating element may be formed from a metal trace on a dielectric antenna carrier. The resonating element may be mounted in the recess without adhesive. Conductive vias may pass through the dielectric carrier. Metal members with dimples may be soldered to a flexible printed circuit and may be used to ground metal traces on the carrier and the flexible printed circuit to the housing when the carrier is attached to the housing with fasteners.
Abstract:
Custom antenna structures may be used to improve antenna performance and to compensate for manufacturing variations in electronic device antennas. An electronic device antenna may include an antenna tuning element and conductive structures formed from portions of a peripheral conductive housing member and other conductive antenna structures. The antenna tuning element may be connected across a gap in the peripheral conductive housing member. The custom antenna structures may be used to couple the antenna tuning element to a fixed custom location on the peripheral conductive housing member to help satisfy design criteria and to compensate for manufacturing variations in the conductive antenna structures that could potentially lead to undesired variations in antenna performance. Custom antenna structures may include springs and custom paths on dielectric supports.
Abstract:
Electronic devices may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. The antenna structures may form a dual arm inverted-F antenna and an additional antenna such as a monopole antenna sharing a common antenna ground. The antenna structures may have three ports. A first antenna port may be coupled to an inverted-F antenna resonating element at a first location and a second antenna port may be coupled to the inverted-F antenna resonating element at a second location. A third antenna port may be coupled to the additional antenna. An adjustable component may be coupled to the first antenna port to tune the inverted-F antenna. The inverted-F antenna may be near-field coupled to the additional antenna so that the inverted-F antenna may serve as a tunable parasitic antenna resonating element that tunes the additional antenna.
Abstract:
A manufacturing system for assembling wireless electronic devices is provided. The manufacturing system may include test stations for testing the radio-frequency performance of components that are to be assembled within the electronic devices. A reference test station may be calibrated using calibration coupons having known radio-frequency characteristics. The calibration coupons may include transmission line structures. The reference test station may measure verification standards to establish baseline measurement data. The verification standards may include circuitry having electrical components with given impedance values. Many verification coupons may be measured to enable testing for a wide range of impedance values. Test stations in the manufacturing system may subsequently measure the verification standards to generate test measurement data. The test measurement data may be compared to the baseline measurement data to characterize the performance of the test stations to ensure consistent test measurements across the test stations.