Apple Inc.

Boon Wai Shiu

Mattia Pascolini

Ruben Caballero

Robert W Schlub

Jerzy S Guterman

Jiang Zhu

Chun-Lung Chen

Matthew A Mow

Yi Jiang

Yuehui Ouyang

Ming-Ju Tsai

Basim H Noori

Jonathan M Haylock

Erdinc Irci

Joshua G Nickel

Peter I Bevelacqua

Khan M Salam

Kevin M Marks

Scott A Myers

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Matthew D Hill

Enrique Ayala Vazquez

Ashutosh Yugesh Shukla

Qingxiang Li

Jayesh Nath

Rodney Andres Gomez Angulo

Shayan Malek

Marwan Rammah

Carlo Di Nallo

Nicholas George Merz

Miroslav Samardzija

Benjamin Shane Bustle

Salih Yarga

Gregory N Stephens

Rasamy Phouthavong

Eric N Nyland

Erica J Tong

James B Smith

Gordon Michael Coutts

Tseng-Mau Yang

Jorge L Rivera Espinoza

Louie J Sanguinetti

Peter N Jeziorek

Michael DiVincent

Javier Gomez Tagle

Emily McMilin

Kiavash Baratzadeh

Hagan O'Connor

Francesco Merli

David Lin Lee

Jobin Jacob

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas and first and second radio-frequency modules. The device may include a conductive housing having dielectric antenna windows. The first module may generate first millimeter wave signals in a first communications band. The antenna may transmit the first signals to external equipment through the dielectric window at a transmit power level. The antenna may receive control signals in the second communications band from the external equipment through the dielectric window. The first and second communications bands may include frequencies greater than 10 GHz. The second module may pass the received control signals to the first module to adjust the transmit power level of the first signals transmitted by the antenna. A duplexer may be interposed between the modules and the antenna for isolating the first and second communications bands.

Electronic devices having millimeter wave wireless data transfer capabilities

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas and transceiver circuitry such as millimeter wave transceiver circuitry. The antennas may be formed from metal traces on a printed circuit. The printed circuit may be a stacked printed circuit including multiple stacked substrates. Metal traces may form an array of patch antennas, Yagi antennas, and other antennas. Antenna signals associated with the antennas may pass through an inactive area in a display and through a dielectric-filled slot in a metal housing for the electronic device. Waveguide structures may be used to guide antenna signals within interior portions of the electronic device.

Electronic device with millimeter wave antennas on stacked printed circuits

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include an antenna. The electronic device may have a housing in which control circuitry and radio-frequency transceiver circuitry is mounted. The transceiver circuitry may be used to transmit and receive radio-frequency signals with the antenna. The housing may have a housing wall with a locally thinned portion aligned with the antenna. The antenna may have a sheet metal layer attached to a plastic cavity with a layer of adhesive. Recesses in a printed circuit may receive prongs formed from a sheet metal layer. The plastic carrier may have cavities separated by ribs. The sheet metal layer may form a planar inverted-F antenna resonating element, a ground plane, a return path between the resonating element and ground plane, and a feed path that extends along one of the ribs and into an opening in the printed circuit.

Electronic device with antenna

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas. The antennas may include phased antenna arrays each of which includes multiple antenna elements. Phased antenna arrays may be formed from printed circuit board Yagi antennas or other antennas. A millimeter wave transceiver may use the antennas to transmit and receive wireless signals. The antennas may be mounted at the corners of an electronic device housing or elsewhere in an electronic device. An electronic device housing may be formed from metal and may have an opening filled with dielectric. The antennas may be aligned with portions of the dielectric. Printed circuit board antennas may have reflectors, radiators, and directors. The reflectors, radiators, and directors may be arranged to align radiation patterns for the antennas with the plastic-filled slots or other dielectric regions in the metal housing.

Electronic device with millimeter wave yagi antennas

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry that includes antennas. An antenna may be formed from metal traces on a dielectric antenna carrier. The antenna carrier may be formed by molding a layer of plastic onto the surface of a foam member. The foam member may have a low dielectric constant to enhance antenna performance and may be formed from a stiff closed cell plastic foam material. Heat and pressure may be used to attach the layer of plastic to the surface of the foam member without adhesive. A laser may be used to selectively expose portions of the plastic layer to laser light. The plastic layer may include additives that sensitize the plastic layer to light exposure. Electroplated metal traces for the antenna may be formed on the exposed portions of the plastic layer while leaving other portions of the plastic layer uncovered with metal.

Electronic device antennas with laser-activated plastic and foam carriers

Electronic devices may be provided with antenna structures. The antenna structures may be used in wirelessly transmitting and receiving radio-frequency signals. Antenna structures may be formed from molded dielectric substrates. Patterned conductive material may be formed on the dielectric substrates. The dielectric substrates may be formed from molded materials such as glass or ceramic. Sheets of dielectric or dielectric powder may be compressed to form a dielectric substrate of a desired shape. The patterned conductive material may be formed from metallic paint or other conductors. A hollow antenna chamber may be formed by joining molded dielectric structures. An antenna such as an indirectly-fed loop antenna or other antennas may be formed from the molded dielectric substrates and patterned conductors.

Antenna structures with molded and coated substrates

A wireless electronic device may be provided with antenna structures. The antenna structures may be formed from an antenna ground and an array of antenna resonating elements. The antenna resonating elements may be electrically connected to the antenna ground using solder. The antenna resonating elements may be formed from metal traces on a dielectric support structure that surrounds the antenna ground. The antenna ground may be formed form stamped sheet metal and may have slanted steps adjacent to the antenna resonating elements. To form a solder joint between the metal antenna resonating element traces and the sheet metal of the antenna ground, laser light may be applied to the sheet metal of the antenna ground in the vicinity of the solder paste. Separate metal members may also be provided in the vicinity of the solder paste and may be heated using the laser to join metal traces on plastic carriers.

Electronic device with diverse antenna array having soldered connections

Electronic devices may be provided with light sensors. Light sensors may be proximity sensors or ambient light sensors. Proximity sensors may include a light-emitting component and a light-sensitive component. The electronic device may include an enclosure formed from housing structures and some or all of a display for the device. The enclosure may include openings such as openings formed from clusters of smaller openings. Each light sensor may receive light through one of the clusters of openings. The light sensor may receive the light directly through the openings or may receive light that passes through the openings and is guided to the light sensor by light guiding structures. The light guiding structures may include fiber optic structures or light-reflecting structures. Fiber optic structures may fill or partially fill the openings. Light reflecting structures may be machined cavities in an internal support structure.

Electronic devices with light sensors

Electronic devices may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. The antenna structures may include a dielectric carrier such as a foam carrier. The foam carrier may be formed from a material that can withstand elevated temperatures. Metal traces for antennas can be formed on the foam carrier by selectively activating areas on a powder coating with a laser and plating the laser-activated areas. Metal for the antennas may also be formed by attaching layers such as flexible printed circuit layers and metal foil layers to the foam carrier. Solder may be used to attach a coaxial cable or other transmission line, electrical components, and other electrical structures to the metal antenna structures on the foam carrier. The foam carrier may be formed from open cell or closed cell foam. The surface of the foam may be smoothed to facilitate formation of metal antenna structures.

Electronic device with foam antenna carrier

Cavity antennas may be provided for electronic devices. A cavity antenna may have a conductive antenna cavity with an opening. An antenna resonating element may be soldered within the cavity opening. An electronic device may have a display that is covered by a display cover layer. A cavity antenna may be mounted so that the cavity opening is located under a portion of the display cover layer outside of the active display region. An antenna cavity for a cavity antenna may have one or more bends. A curved antenna cavity or a cavity antenna with one or more angled branches may have a portion that extends between a conductive housing wall and internal device components such as a display. A speaker may be formed using the interior volume within a cavity antenna.

Cavity antennas

Damage to conductive material that serves as bridging connections between conductive structures within an electronic device may result in deficiencies in radio-frequency (RF) and other wireless communications. A test system for testing device structures under test is provided. Device structures under test may include substrates and a conductive material between the substrates. The test system may include a test fixture for increasing tensile or compressive stress on the device structures under test to evaluate the resilience of the conductive material. The test system may also include a test unit for transmitting RF test signals and receiving test data from the device structures under test. The received test data may include scattered parameter measurements from the device structures under test that may be used to determine if the device structures under test meet desired RF performance criteria.

Methodology and apparatus for testing conductive adhesive within antenna assembly

A display cover layer may be mounted in an electronic device housing using housing structures such as corner brackets. A slot antenna may be formed from a corner bracket opening, metal traces on a hollow plastic support structure, or other conductive structures. The slot antenna may have a main portion with opposing ends. An antenna feed may be located at one of the ends. The slot antenna may have a slot with one or more bends. The bends may provide the slot antenna with a C-shaped outline. A side branch slot may extend from the main portion of the slot at a location between the two bends. The presence of the side branch slot may enhance antenna bandwidth. A hollow enclosure may serve as an antenna support structure and as a speaker box enclosing a speaker driver. The antenna feed may be positioned so as to overlap the speaker driver.

Corner bracket slot antennas

The subject matter of the disclosure relates to connectors for antenna feed assemblies and display coupling components of a mobile device. The flexible connectors can be configured with a flexible spring connector component that couples a mobile device antenna to a main logic board of the mobile device within a housing of the mobile device such that the flexible connector can withstand a drop event, while at the same providing for an in-line inductance as part of an antenna-defined design requirement. The display of the mobile device can be coupled to a housing of the mobile device using a pin-screw arrangement that allows the display to controllably shift in the X-direction and the Y-direction, while only being purposefully constrained in the Z-direction (with reference to a 3-dimensional graph having X, Y, and Z axes). This configuration can prevent the display from being pulled out of alignment during a drop event.

Flexible shock absorbing connections within a mobile computing device

Electronic devices may be provided with antenna structures. The antenna structures may include an antenna support structure covered with patterned antenna traces. An antenna support structure may be mounted in an electronic device so that a surface of the antenna support structure that is covered with patterned antenna traces lies flush with a planar surface of the electronic device housing. A display cover layer or other planar structure may be attached to the surface of the antenna support structure and the planar surface of the housing adhesive. Injection molding and extrusion techniques may be used in forming a support structure with elongated parallel cavities. An injection molding tool may have a mold core supported by a support structure at one end, supporting engagement features at the ends of mating mold core structures, or support pins. Molded interconnect devices may be soldered to laser direct structuring components to form antennas.

Methods for forming elongated antennas with plastic support structures for electronic devices

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Boon Wai Shiu