Apple Inc.

Georgios Atmatzakis

Mattia Pascolini

Enrique Ayala Vazquez

Hongfei Hu

Erdinc Irci

Xu Gao

Hao Xu

Nanbo Jin

Bilgehan Avser

Erica J Tong

Han Wang

Matthew A Mow

Harish Rajagopalan

Rodney Andres Gomez Angulo

Yijun Zhou

Salih Yarga

Xu Han

Ming-Ju Tsai

Liang Han

Jennifer M Edwards

Simone Paulotto

Umar Azad

David Garrido Lopez

Travis A Barbieri

An electronic device may include ground structures and peripheral conductive housing structures defining opposing edges of a slot element. A monopole element may overlap the slot element. The monopole element may be directly fed radio-frequency signals by an antenna feed coupled to the monopole element. The monopole element may radiate the radio-frequency signals in a first frequency band while indirectly feeding the radio-frequency signals to the slot element via near-field electromagnetic coupling. The slot element may radiate the radio-frequency signals in a second frequency band that is lower than the first frequency band. The monopole element and the slot element may collectively form a multi-band antenna that exhibits a relatively wide bandwidth.

Electronic devices having indirectly-fed slot antenna elements

An electronic device may be provided with antenna structures that convey radio-frequency signals greater than 10 GHz. The antenna structures may include overlapping first and second patches. The first patch may include a hole. A transmission line for the second patch may include a conductive via extending through the hole. The via may be coupled to a first end of a trace. A second end of the trace may be coupled to a feed terminal on the second patch over an additional via. The hole may be located within a central region of the first patch to allow the via to pass through the hole without electromagnetically coupling to the first patch. If desired, adjustable impedance matching circuits may be used to couple selected impedances to the antenna feeds that help ensure that the first and second patch antennas are sufficiently isolated from each other.

Millimeter wave antennas having isolated feeds

An electronic device may include a peripheral conductive wall. A gap in the wall may divide the wall into first and second segments. The device may include a first antenna having a first resonating element arm formed from the first segment and a second antenna having a second resonating element arm formed from the second segment. A non-near-field communications transceiver may perform multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) operations using the first and second antennas. The gap may provide satisfactory isolation between the first and second antennas while the first and second antennas perform MIMO operations. Near-field communications circuitry may convey near-field communications signals over a conductive loop path that includes portions of the first and second segments and the antenna ground. The volume of the conductive loop path may extend across substantially all of a width of the electronic device.

Electronic device having multiple antennas with shared structures for near-field communications and non-near-field communications

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include multiple antennas and transceiver circuitry. The antennas may include antenna structures at opposing first and second ends of the electronic device. The antenna structures at a given end of the device may include antenna structures that are shared between multiple antennas. The electronic device may include a first antenna with an inverted-F antenna resonating element formed from portions of a peripheral conductive housing structure and may have an antenna ground that is separated from the antenna resonating element by a gap. A return path may bridge the gap. The electronic device may also include a second antenna that includes the antenna ground and an additional antenna resonating element. The antenna resonating element of the second antenna may be parasitically coupled to the return path of the inverted-F antenna at given frequencies.

Electronic device having shared antenna structures

An electronic device may include antennas, a ground, and a housing. First and second gaps in the housing may define a segment that forms a resonating element for a first antenna. First, second, third, and fourth antenna feeds may be coupled between the segment and ground. Control circuitry may control adjustable components to place the device in first, second, third, or fourth modes. In the first and second modes, the first and fourth feeds convey signals at the same frequency using a multiple-input and multiple-output scheme while the second and third feeds are inactive. In the third mode, the second feed is active and the first, third, and fourth feeds are inactive. In the fourth mode, the third feed is active and the first, second, and fourth antenna feeds are inactive. Isolating return paths may be coupled between the segment and ground in the first and second modes.

Adjustable multiple-input and multiple-output antenna structures

An electronic device may be provided with a conductive wall. A gap in the wall may divide the wall into first and second segments. A ground may be separated from the wall by first, second, and third slots that form radiating elements for first, second, and third non-near-field communications antennas. First and second conductive structures may be coupled between the wall and the ground. A near-field communications antenna may include a first feed terminal coupled to the first segment and a second feed terminal coupled to the second segment. The antenna may convey signals over a conductive loop path that includes portions of the first and second segments, the antenna ground, and the first and second conductive structures. A differential or single-ended signal transmission line may be coupled to the terminals. Phase shifters may configure the signals to be out of phase at the feed terminals.

Electronic device having slots for handling near-field communications and non-near-field communications

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry and control circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include multiple antennas and transceiver circuitry. An antenna in the electronic device may have 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 also include an indirectly-fed antenna resonating element that is indirectly fed by a harmonic mode of the inverted-F antenna resonating element via near field electromagnetic coupling. The indirectly-fed antenna resonating element may be a slot. The antenna ground may define at least three edges of the slot and the slot may be aligned with a dielectric-filled gap in the peripheral conductive housing structures. An adjustable circuit may be coupled across the slot to tune the indirectly-fed antenna resonating element.

Electronic devices with indirectly-fed adjustable slot elements

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Georgios Atmatzakis