Apple Inc.

Carlo Di Nallo

Mattia Pascolini

Jayesh Nath

Zheyu Wang

Mario Martinis

Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima

Andrea Ruaro

Amin Tayebi

Aaron J Cooper

Yi Jiang

Hongfei Hu

Siwen Yong

Erdinc Irci

Xu Han

Erik G De Jong

Enrique Ayala Vazquez

Simone Paulotto

Lijun Zhang

Ming Chen

Rex Tyler Ehman

Trevor J Ness

Jerzy S Guterman

Jason C Sauers

Salih Yarga

James G Horiuchi

Dimitrios Papantonis

Jiaxiao Niu

Ming-Ju Tsai

Sameer Pandya

Makiko K Brzezinski

Jiangfeng Wu

Haozhan Tian

Ana Papio Toda

Matthew A Mow

Christopher Matthew Werner

Hao Xu

Harish Rajagopalan

Rodney Andres Gomez Angulo

Arun Dhyaneshwar Chawan

Ryan C Perkins

Lee M Panecki

Yiren Wang

Huan-Chu Huang

Umar Azad

Han Wang

David Garrido Lopez

Joel D Barrera

Yuancheng Xu

Benjamin Adair Cousins

Jingni Zhong

Matthew N Ettus

Erin A McAuliffe

Tiejun Yu

Javier Gomez Tagle

Nikolaj P Kammersgaard

Adam H Bily

Michael D Trela

Mohsen Salehi

Johan Avendal

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Tang Yew Tan

Ruben Caballero

Colin M Ely

Tyler S Bushnell

Ethan Larry Huwe

Henry Hung Yang

Joachim S Hammerschmidt

Steven P Cardinali

Liang Han

Benjamin A Cousins

Lu Zhang

Michael D Quinones

Victor C Lee

Boon Wai Shiu

Mushtaq A Sarwar

Samuel G Parker

Samuel B Schaevitz

Hoishun Li

Scott D Morrison

Brian M Gable

Sherry Tang

Siddharth Nangia

Yuan Tao

Qian Zhang

Pietro Romano

Mikal Askarian Amiri

Bhaskara R Rupakula

Henry B Wettersten

Laura M Burke

Michael J Williams

Baris Ozgen

Soroush Akbarzadeh

Tyler R Roschuk

Ali Pourghorban Saghati

Michael P Coleman

Craig A Horton

Aobo Li

Seyed Mohammad Amjadi

Vinh T Le

Francesco Merli

An electronic device may be provided with sidewalls and a conductive plate. A segment of the sidewalls may form a radiating arm of an antenna. A display may be mounted to the sidewalls. The display may include a conductive frame and a flexible printed circuit. The flexible circuit may have a bend. Conductive foam may short a conductive trace on the flexible circuit to the conductive frame near the bend. Low injection pressure overmolding (LIPO) may be molded over the flexible circuit, the foam, and the frame. A conductive spring may short the frame to the conductive plate. The spring may include a wider and/or thinner portion that optionally includes one or more notches for reducing its inductance. The conductive plate, the spring, the frame, the foam, and the conductive trace may form part of the antenna ground for the antenna.

Electronic device antennas with narrow border display

An electronic device may include first and second antennas formed from respective first and second segments of a housing. The first antenna may have a first feed coupled to the first segment by a first switch and coupled to the first segment by a first conductive trace. The second antenna may have a second feed coupled to the second segment by a second switch and coupled to the second segment by a second conductive trace. The first segment may be separated from the second segment by a single gap, a data connector may pass through the second segment, and the antennas may selectively cover a low band. Alternatively, the first segment may be separated from the second segment by a third segment and two gaps, the data connector may pass through the third segment, and the first and second antennas may concurrently cover the low band.

Electronic devices with multiple low band antennas

A wirelessly locatable tag may include a first housing member defining a first exterior surface of the tag, a second housing member removably coupled to the first housing member and defining a second exterior surface of the tag, and an antenna assembly. The antenna assembly may include an antenna frame defining a top surface and a peripheral side surface, a first antenna on the antenna frame along the peripheral side surface and configured to communicate with the electronic device using a first wireless protocol, a second antenna on the antenna frame along the peripheral side surface and configured to send a localization signal to the electronic device using a second wireless protocol different than the first protocol, and a third antenna on the antenna frame along the top surface and configured to communicate with the electronic device via a third wireless protocol different than the first and second protocols.

Antenna assembly for a wirelessly locatable tag

An electronic device may have an antenna module with a triplet of antennas on a substrate. The triplet may include a first antenna with a radiating element formed from a patch on the substrate and second and third antennas having radiating elements formed from patches on that extend across a smaller lateral area than the patch in the first antenna. The patches in the second and third antennas may have extended electrical lengths formed from parasitic patches embedded within the substrate that are coupled to opposing edges of the patches by fences of conductive vias. The antenna module may include phased antenna arrays for conveying centimeter/millimeter wave signals. Signal conductors for the antennas may be distributed across multiple metallization layers of the substrate.

Electronic devices having compact ultra-wideband antenna modules

An electronic device may have peripheral conductive housing structures, a display frame, a support plate, a logic board, and an antenna. The antenna may have a resonating element that includes a first slot between the logic board and a segment of the peripheral conductive housing structures, a second slot between the display frame and the segment, and optionally a third slot between the support plate and the segment. The slots may be at least partially overlapping, may have respective lengths, may be located at respective distances from a cover layer for the display, and may collectively receive radio-frequency signals in a frequency band such as the L5 GPS band. Switching circuitry and filter circuitry may be coupled to the antenna feed and/or to the antenna feed (s) of one or more adjacent antennas in the electronic device to help to isolate the antennas from each other.

Electronic devices with distributed slot antenna structures

An electronic device may be provided with peripheral conductive housing structures having first and second segments. The device may include an antenna having a resonating arm formed from the first segment, an antenna ground, and a tuning element. The tuning element may have first, second, and third terminals. The first terminal may be coupled to the second segment. The antenna may have a switchable loop path that includes a first path from the second terminal to the first segment, a second path from first segment to a first point on the antenna ground, a portion of the antenna ground from the first point to a second point, and a third path from the second point to the third terminal. The tuning element may selectively activate the switchable loop path to boost performance of the antenna in a frequency band between 3300 MHz and 5000 MHz when needed.

Electronic device with switchable antenna loop path

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry that includes first, second, and third antennas used to determine the position and orientation of the electronic device relative to external equipment. The antennas may include patch elements on respective substrates mounted to a flexible printed circuit. Each substrate may include fences of conductive vias that are coupled to ground and that laterally surround the corresponding patch element. Control circuitry may identify phase differences between the first and second antennas and between the second and third antennas and may identify an angle of arrival of received ultra-wideband signals using the phase differences. The control circuitry may compare the phase differences to a set of predetermined surfaces of phase differences to identify environmental loading conditions for the antenna. The control circuitry may correct the angle of arrival using offsets identified based on the environmental loading conditions.

Electronic device having angle of arrival detection capabilities

An electronic device may include an antenna disposed on a substrate. The antenna may include a ring of conductive traces, a fed arm, and an unfed arm. The fed arm and the unfed arm may extend from opposing segments of the ring. The ring may be coupled to ground by fences of conductive vias extending through the substrate. The first arm may have a first radiating edge. The second arm may have a second radiating edge. The first radiating edge may be separated from the second radiating edge by a gap. The first arm may indirectly feed the second arm via near-field electromagnetic coupling across the gap. The first and second arms may collectively radiate in an ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency band.

Ultra-wideband antenna having fed and unfed arms

An electronic device may include first and second phased antenna arrays and a triplet of first, second, and third ultra-wideband antennas. An antenna module in the device may include a dielectric substrate. The first and second arrays and the triplet may be formed on the dielectric substrate. The third and second ultra-wideband antennas may be separated by a gap. The first array may be laterally interposed between the third and second ultra-wideband antennas within the gap. The third ultra-wideband antenna may be laterally interposed between the first phased antenna array and at least some of the second array. An integrated circuit may be mounted to the dielectric substrate using an interposer. The antenna module may occupy a minimal amount of space within the device and may be less expensive to manufacture relative to scenarios where the arrays and the ultra-wideband antennas are formed on separate substrates.

Electronic devices having millimeter wave and ultra-wideband antenna modules

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 having millimeter wave ranging capabilities

A communication terminal may include an array of antenna modules. Each module may include an array of radiators on a substrate and a radio-frequency lens overlapping the array. The lens may include a tapered base on the substrate and a curved portion on the tapered base. The tapered base and curved portions may be rotationally symmetric about a central axis of the lens. The curved portion may be hemispherical. The tapered base portion may be conical and may have a first radius at the hemispherical portion and a second radius that is less than the first radius at the substrate. At least one radiator in the array may be located beyond the first radius and within the second radius from the central axis. The lens may be formed from lattice having interleaved layers of dielectric segments separated by gaps to reduce the overall weight of the module.

Lens structure

A communication terminal may include control circuitry and an array of antenna modules. Each module may include radiators on a substrate, a lens overlapping the radiators, a transceiver chain, and switching circuitry. The control circuitry may control the switching circuitry to activate a set of one or more radiators in a given module. The control circuitry may control the transceiver chain in that module to convey signals at a selected phase using each of the active radiators. Each of the active radiators may convey the signals over signal beams oriented in different directions by the lens. The control circuitry may adjust the active radiators in each module and may adjust the selected phase for each of the modules to generate a combined signal beam in a desired direction. The combined signal beam may be generated using signals from the active radiators in two or more modules across the array.

Communication terminal

An electronic device may be provided with antennas for receiving signals in first and second ultra-wideband communications bands. The antennas may include a resonating element formed from conductive traces on a dielectric substrate. The substrate may be mounted to an underlying flexible printed circuit. A fence of conductive vias may extend from the resonating element, through the substrate and the flexible printed circuit, to a ground plane on the flexible printed circuit. The fence may form a return path for the antenna. A shielding ring may be formed on the substrate. Additional fences of vias may couple the shielding ring to the ground plane. If desired, the resonating element may include a patch that is not shorted to the ground plane. The fences of vias, the conductive traces, and the ground plane may form a continuous antenna cavity for the resonating element.

Electronic device having dual-frequency ultra-wideband antennas

An electronic device may be provided with control circuitry and wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include a phased antenna array and a radio-frequency integrated circuit having transmit and receive ports. The array may include a first set of stacked patch antennas coupled to the transmit ports and a second set of stacked patch antennas coupled to the receive ports. The integrated circuit may transmit ranging signals at millimeter wave frequencies using the transmit ports and the first set of antennas. The integrated circuit may receive a reflected version of the transmitted ranging signals that has been reflected off of an external object using the receive ports and the second set of antennas. The control circuitry may identify a distance between the electronic device and the external object based on the transmitted and received signals.

Electronic devices with broadband ranging capabilities

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Belmont, CA, United States of America

Carlo Di Nallo