Methods for maintaining line-of-sight communications

    公开(公告)号:US10165426B1

    公开(公告)日:2018-12-25

    申请号:US15630841

    申请日:2017-06-22

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless communications circuitry and control circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include millimeter wave transceiver circuitry and a phased antenna array. The phased antenna array may transmit and receive millimeter wave signals. Beam steering circuitry may be coupled to the phased antenna array and may be adjusted to steer the millimeter wave signals in a particular direction. The control circuitry may track the location of an external device using sensor data. The control circuitry may control a mechanical positioner to mechanically adjust an orientation of the phased antenna array and/or may control the beam steering circuitry to steer the millimeter wave signals towards the location of the external device. In this way, a line of sight millimeter wave communications link may be maintained between the phased antenna array and the external device even if the external device moves over time.

    Electronic Device with Antennas
    43.
    发明申请

    公开(公告)号:US20240405430A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-12-05

    申请号:US18423041

    申请日:2024-01-25

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may have first and second rear-facing displays, a front-facing display, a cover layer at a front side with a central region overlapping the front-facing display and a peripheral region, and wireless circuitry with a transceiver and antennas. The transceiver may convey audio data with left and right earbuds using a non-Bluetooth low-latency-audio communications protocol. The antenna(s) may be mounted at a bottom side of the device overlapping the peripheral region, at a rear side of the device, or may be mounted to a head strap. The antenna(s) may be tilted to optimize field(s) of view, to match polarization of the earbuds, and/or to allow multiple antennas to exhibit orthogonal polarizations. The antennas may include a single antenna that concurrently conveys packets of audio data to both earbuds or may include first and second antennas that concurrently convey audio data to the left and right earbuds.

    Electronic Device with Sheet Metal Antenna

    公开(公告)号:US20240405407A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-12-05

    申请号:US18425299

    申请日:2024-01-29

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may have first and second rear-facing displays, a front-facing display, a cover at a front side overlapping the front-facing display, and an antenna that radiates through the cover. The antenna may be formed from sheet metal. The antenna may have a resonating element formed from a first portion of the sheet metal and an antenna ground that includes a second portion of the sheet metal separated from the first portion by a cavity. A third portion of the sheet metal may couple the first portion to the second portion and may be folded around the cavity to produce a spring force that presses the first portion against the cover. The first portion and the cover may have the same compound curvature. The second portion may form a conductive cavity for the antenna.

    Radio-frequency modules having high-permittivity antenna layers

    公开(公告)号:US11923621B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-03-05

    申请号:US17338463

    申请日:2021-06-03

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: H01Q5/35 H01Q3/34

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array on an antenna module. The array may include low band antennas and high band antennas that radiate at frequencies greater than 10 GHz. The module may include antenna layers, transmission line layers, and ground traces that separate the antenna layers from the transmission line layers. The low band antennas and the high band antennas may have radiators patterned onto the antenna layers. The radiators may be fed by transmission lines on the transmission line layers. The antenna layers may have a dielectric permittivity that is greater than the dielectric permittivity of the transmission line layers. This may serve to reduce the lateral footprint of the low band and high band antennas, which allows the antennas to be interleaved along a common linear axis in the phased antenna array, thereby minimizing the lateral footprint of the antenna module.

    Electronic Devices With Frame Antennas
    46.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20230305302A1

    公开(公告)日:2023-09-28

    申请号:US18171067

    申请日:2023-02-17

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: A head-mounted device such as a pair of glasses may have display systems. The display systems may present images to eye boxes for viewing by a user. The glasses may have clear lenses through which real-world objects may be viewed from the eye boxes. The glasses may have a metal frame that surrounds the lenses and may have temples that are coupled to the frame using hinges. Radio-frequency transceiver circuitry such as cellular telephone transceiver circuitry may be coupled to one or more antennas in the head-mounted device. The antennas may have antenna resonating elements formed by placing dielectric-filled gaps in the metal frame to divide the frame into segments. Antenna resonating elements formed from segments of the metal frame may be coupled to the radio-frequency transceiver circuitry using transmission lines.

    Electronic Devices Having Antennas that Radiate Through Three-Dimensionally Curved Cover Layers

    公开(公告)号:US20220384941A1

    公开(公告)日:2022-12-01

    申请号:US17865241

    申请日:2022-07-14

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may have a cover layer and an antenna. A dielectric adapter may have a first surface coupled to the antenna and a second surface pressed against the cover layer. The cover layer may have a three-dimensional curvature. The second surface may have a curvature that matches the curvature of the cover layer. Biasing structures may exert a biasing force that presses the antenna against the dielectric adapter and that presses the dielectric adapter against the cover layer. The biasing force may be oriented in a direction normal to the cover layer at each point across dielectric adapter. This may serve to ensure that a uniform and reliable impedance transition is provided between the antenna and free space through the cover layer over time, thereby maximizing the efficiency of the antenna.

    Electronic devices having antennas that radiate through three-dimensionally curved cover layers

    公开(公告)号:US11417951B2

    公开(公告)日:2022-08-16

    申请号:US17008862

    申请日:2020-09-01

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may have a cover layer and an antenna. A dielectric adapter may have a first surface coupled to the antenna and a second surface pressed against the cover layer. The cover layer may have a three-dimensional curvature. The second surface may have a curvature that matches the curvature of the cover layer. Biasing structures may exert a biasing force that presses the antenna against the dielectric adapter and that presses the dielectric adapter against the cover layer. The biasing force may be oriented in a direction normal to the cover layer at each point across dielectric adapter. This may serve to ensure that a uniform and reliable impedance transition is provided between the antenna and free space through the cover layer over time, thereby maximizing the efficiency of the antenna.

    Electronic devices having multilayer millimeter wave antennas

    公开(公告)号:US11349204B2

    公开(公告)日:2022-05-31

    申请号:US17028864

    申请日:2020-09-22

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may have a phased antenna array. An antenna in the array may include a rectangular patch element with diagonal axes. The antenna may have first and second antenna feeds coupled to the patch element along the diagonal axes. The antenna may be rotated at a forty-five degree angle relative to other antennas in the array. The antenna may have one or two layers of parasitic elements overlapping the patch element. For example, the antenna may have a layer of coplanar parasitic patches separated by a gap. The antenna may also have an additional parasitic patch that is located farther from the patch element than the layer of coplanar parasitic patches. The additional parasitic patch may overlap the patch element and the gap in the coplanar parasitic patches. The antenna may exhibit a relatively small footprint and minimal mutual coupling with other antennas in the array.

    Integrated millimeter wave antenna modules

    公开(公告)号:US11335992B2

    公开(公告)日:2022-05-17

    申请号:US16990879

    申请日:2020-08-11

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with an antenna module and a phased antenna array on the module. The module may include a logic board, an antenna board surface-mounted to the logic board, and a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) mounted surface-mounted to the logic board. The phased antenna array may include antennas embedded in the antenna board. The antennas may radiate at centimeter and/or millimeter wave frequencies. The logic board may form a radio-frequency interface between the RFIC and the antennas. Transmission lines in the logic board and the antenna board may include impedance matching segments that help to match the impedance of the RFIC to the impedance of the antennas. The module may efficiently utilize space within the device without sacrificing radio-frequency performance.

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