Apple Inc.

Harish Rajagopalan

Rodney Andres Gomez Angulo

Mattia Pascolini

Jennifer M Edwards

Simone Paulotto

Bilgehan Avser

Hao Xu

David Garrido Lopez

Umar Azad

Siwen Yong

Matthew A Mow

Forhad Hasnat

Lu Zhang

Pietro Romano

Subramanian Ramalingam

Qingxiang Li

Jiangfeng Wu

Mikal Askarian Amiri

Panagiotis Theofanopoulos

Robert W Schlub

Matthew D Hill

Bhaskara R Rupakula

Robert Scritzky

Thomas W Yang

Jiechen Wu

Jiang Zhu

Yi Jiang

Daniel C Wagman

Carlo Di Nallo

Erdinc Irci

Miroslav Samardzija

Eric N Nyland

David A Hurrell

Georgios Atmatzakis

Lucas R Compton

Yakun Sun

Rohit U Nabar

John Raff

Enrique Ayala Vazquez

Hongfei Hu

Nanbo Jin

Ming-Ju Tsai

Prashant H Vashi

Jr-Yi Shen

Yijun Zhou

Ioannis Pefkianakis

Salih Yarga

Ke Wei Sun

Michael D Quinones

Mario Martinis

Huan-Chu Huang

Ming Chen

Mithat C Dogan

Han Wang

Ihtesham H Chowdhury

Qishan Yu

Berke Cetinoneri

Jingni Zhong

Guillaume Monghal

Zhenglian Cai

Gareth L Rose

Nikolaj P Kammersgaard

Simon G Begashaw

Soroush Akbarzadeh

Travis A Barbieri

Aobo Li

James T Handy

Rodney A Gomez Angulo

Hee-Joung Joun

Sze Yang Dennis Ng

An electronic device may be provided with an antenna module having a substrate. A phased antenna array of dielectric resonator antennas and a radio-frequency integrated circuit for the array may be mounted to one or more surfaces of the substrate. The dielectric resonator antennas may include dielectric columns excited by feed probes. The feed probes may be printed onto sidewalls of the dielectric columns or may be pressed against the sidewalls by biasing structures. A plastic substrate may be molded over each dielectric column and each of the feed probes in the array. The feed probes may cover multiple polarizations. The array may include elements for covering multiple frequency bands. The dielectric columns may be aligned a longitudinal axis and may be rotated at a non-zero and non-perpendicular angle with respect to the longitudinal axis.

Dielectric resonator antenna modules

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array that radiates at a frequency greater than 10 GHz. The array may include a first set of dielectric resonator antennas arranged in a first row and a second set of dielectric resonator antennas in a second row offset from the first row. Each dielectric resonator antenna may have dielectric resonating element with a base portion and a stepped portion. The stepped portions of the antennas in the first set may be arranged to be distant from the stepped portions of the antennas in the second set. The antennas in the first set may be arranged to be more distant from an electronic device sidewall than the antennas in the second set. Configured in this manner, the array may exhibit reduced inter-coupling between dielectric resonator antennas in the first set and dielectric resonator antennas in the second set.

Electronic devices with dielectric resonator antennas

An electronic device may be provided with a conductive sidewall. An aperture may be formed in the sidewall. The sidewall may have a cavity that extends from the aperture towards the interior of the device. The cavity may be filled with an injection-molded plastic substrate. A dielectric block having a dielectric constant greater than that of the injection-molded plastic substrate and the antenna layers may be embedded in the injection-molded plastic substrate. The dielectric block may at least partially overlap an antenna. The antenna may convey radio-frequency signals at a frequency greater than 10 GHz through the cavity, the dielectric block, the injection-molded plastic substrate, and the aperture. The dielectric block may increase the effective dielectric constant of the cavity, allowing the antenna to cover relatively low frequencies without increasing the size of the aperture.

Electronic devices having antennas with loaded dielectric apertures

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array having a dielectric resonator antenna. The antenna may include a first dielectric block on a printed circuit, a second dielectric block on the first dielectric block, and a third dielectric block on the second dielectric block. At least the second and third dielectric blocks may have different dielectric constants. A parasitic element may be disposed between the second and third dielectric resonating elements and/or a parasitic element may be disposed on a radiative face of the third dielectric resonating element. The parasitic elements may act as electromagnetic mirrors that form images of electric fields in the dielectric resonating elements. The images may make the dielectric resonating elements exhibit a greater electromagnetic height than physical height. This may allow for a reduction in the overall physical height of the dielectric resonator antenna without sacrificing wireless performance.

Multi-layer dielectric resonator antennas with parasitic elements

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array and a display cover layer. The phased antenna array may include a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna that radiates through the cover layer. The antenna may include a dielectric resonating element that is excited by one or two feed probes. One or more floating parasitic elements and/or grounded parasitic elements may be patterned onto the dielectric resonating element. The parasitic elements may create boundary conditions on the dielectric resonating element that serve to isolate the antenna from cross polarization interference.

Electronic devices having dielectric resonator antennas with parasitic patches

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array having a dielectric resonator antenna. The antenna may include a first dielectric block on a printed circuit, a second dielectric block on the first dielectric block, and a third dielectric block on the second dielectric block. At least the second and third dielectric blocks may have different dielectric constants. The antenna may be fed by one or more feed probes. Each feed probe may include respective conductive via and a conductive patch coupled to the conductive via. The conductive via may extend through the first dielectric block. The conductive patch may be sandwiched between the first and second dielectric blocks. The conductive patch may have a width that configures the conductive patch to form a smooth impedance transition between the conductive via and each of the dielectric blocks despite the different materials used to form the antenna.

Feed patches for multi-layer dielectric resonator antennas

An electronic device may be provided with first and second sidewalls, a rear wall, and a display. Multiple antenna panels may be used to convey radio-frequency signals at frequencies greater than 10 GHz. A first antenna panel may radiate through the display while second and third panels radiate through the first and second sidewalls. The second and third panels may be tilted at non-zero angles with respect to the sidewalls. The non-zero angles may be of opposite sign. The non-zero angles may have the same magnitude. The magnitude may be equal to 15 degrees, as one example. Tilting the panels in this way may allow the panels to collectively cover as much of a sphere around the device as possible, including out of coverage areas behind the rear wall caused by conductive material in the rear wall, without requiring additional panels to be disposed within the device.

Electronic devices having tilted antenna arrays

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array that radiates at a frequency greater than 10 GHz through a display. The array may include a dielectric resonator antenna having a dielectric column. The dielectric column may have a first surface mounted to a circuit board and a second surface that faces the display. A conductive cap may be formed on the second surface. The conductive cap may allow the dimensions of dielectric column to be reduced while still allowing the dielectric resonator antenna to cover a frequency band of interest. If desired, the phased antenna array may include multiple sets of dielectric resonator antennas for covering different frequency bands. The sets may have different dielectric column heights and/or different conductive cap sizes.

Electronic devices having compact dielectric resonator antennas

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array that radiates at a frequency greater than 10 GHz. The array may include a dielectric resonator antenna having a dielectric column with non-planar sidewalls that include planar portions and corrugated portions with grooves and ridges, that include sidewall steps, and/or that include angled sidewall portions. The dielectric resonator antenna may include a first dielectric column and a second dielectric column stacked on the first dielectric column. The second column may be narrower and may have a higher dielectric constant than the first column or may have the same width but a lower dielectric constant than the first column. This may serve to broaden the bandwidth of the dielectric resonator antenna relative to scenarios where the dielectric resonator antenna includes only a single dielectric resonating element having only planar sidewalls.

Electronic devices with dielectric resonator antennas having non-planar sidewalls

A radio frequency system package may include waveguides and loading blocks. The loading blocks may include dielectric material having a high dielectric constant between 13 and 20. Additionally, the loading blocks may be made of mold, epoxy, or the like material, and the loading blocks may fit into a region cut out of the waveguides. Moreover, the loading blocks may lower the cut-off frequency for wireless communication otherwise provided by the waveguides without the loading blocks (e.g., 28 GHz). In particular, the loading blocks may facilitate communication in low mmWave frequencies, such as 24 GHz.

Loading blocks for antennas in system packaging

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array having a bent dielectric resonating element. The bent dielectric resonating element may have a first segment, a second segment nonparallel to the first segment, and an angled surface that couples the first segment to the second segment. One or more feed probes may be coupled to the first segment to excite the dielectric resonating element. A reflector may be provided on the angled surface to direct electromagnetic energy from the first segment to the second segment and vice versa. The bent dielectric resonating element may exhibit less overall height than dielectric resonators having straight columns of dielectric material, thereby allowing for a reduction in the thickness of the electronic device. The angled surface and the reflector may optimize the radio-frequency performance of the antenna despite the reduction in overall height.

Electronic devices with bent dielectric resonator antennas

An electronic device may include a transmission line path having a signal conductor embedded in a substrate. A contact pad may be patterned on a surface of the substrate. A radio-frequency component may be mounted to the contact pad using solder. Multi-layer impedance matching structures may couple the signal conductor to the contact pad. The matching structures may include a set of via pads and a set of conductive vias coupled in series between the signal conductor and the contact pad. The area of the via pads may vary across the set of via pads and/or the aspect ratio of the conductive vias may vary across the set of conductive vias. The matching structures may perform impedance matching between the signal conductor and the radio-frequency component at frequencies greater than 10 GHz while occupying a minimal amount of space in the device.

Multi-layer matching structures for high frequency signal transmission

An electronic device may include a conductive housing with a rear wall and a sidewall. A display may be mounted to the sidewall and may include a conductive display structure separated from the sidewall by a slot. An antenna arm may be interposed between the conductive display structure and the rear wall. A first inductor may couple the conductive display structure to the housing and may compensate for a distributed capacitance between the antenna arm and the conductive display structure. A second inductor may couple the antenna arm to the rear wall and may compensate for a distributed capacitance between the antenna arm and the rear wall. A speaker may be co-located with the antenna. A third inductor may couple the antenna arm to the rear wall to allow antenna currents to bypass the speaker.

Electronic devices with display-overlapping antennas

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array that includes a dielectric resonator antenna having a dielectric column mounted to a circuit board. The dielectric column may be embedded in a dielectric substrate such as a plastic overmold. Conductive walls may be disposed on the dielectric substrate and may laterally surround the dielectric substrate and one or more dielectric resonating elements in the phased antenna array. The conductive walls may be grounded. The conductive walls may have a tapered shape. The conductive walls may help to isolate the antenna from electromagnetic influences from nearby conductive components in the electronic device. The conductive walls may form a conductive horn that helps to maximize the gain of the antenna in conveying radio-frequency signals greater than 10 GHz through a display cover layer, housing window, camera sapphire, or rear housing wall.

Electronic devices with dielectric resonator antennas having conductive walls

An electronic device may be provided with a dielectric cover layer, a dielectric substrate, and a phased antenna array on the dielectric substrate for conveying millimeter wave signals through the dielectric cover layer. The array may include conductive traces mounted against the dielectric layer. The conductive traces may form patch elements or parasitic elements for the phased antenna array. The dielectric layer may have a dielectric constant and a thickness selected to form a quarter wave impedance transformer for the array at a wavelength of operation of the array. The substrate may include fences of conductive vias that laterally surround each of the antennas within the array. When configured in this way, signal attenuation, destructive interference, and surface wave generation associated with the presence of the dielectric layer over the phased antenna array may be minimized.

Electronic device antenna arrays mounted against a dielectric layer

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Harish Rajagopalan