Apple Inc.

Simon G Begashaw

Yi Jiang

Siwen Yong

Jiangfeng Wu

Lijun Zhang

Mattia Pascolini

Madhusudan Chaudhary

Harish Rajagopalan

Hao Xu

Kexin Ma

Thomas W Yang

Hee-Joung Joun

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.

Radio-frequency modules having high-permittivity antenna layers

An electronic device may have an antenna embedded in a substrate. The substrate may have first layers, second layers on the first layers, and third layers on the second layers. The antenna may include a first patch on the first layers that radiates in a first band, a second patch on the second antenna layers that radiates in a second band, and a parasitic patch on the third layers. A short path may couple ground to a location on the first patch that allows the first patch to form a ground extension in the second band for the second patch without affecting performance of the first patch in the first band. The first layers may have a higher dielectric permittivity than the second and third layers to minimize the thickness of the substrate without requiring a separate dielectric loading layer over the substrate.

Electronic devices having antennas with hybrid substrates

An electronic device may have an antenna that conveys radio-frequency signals at frequencies greater than 10 GHz. The antenna may be embedded in a substrate. The substrate may have routing layers, first antenna layers on the routing layers, second antenna layers on the first antenna layers, and a third antenna layers on the second antenna layers. The antenna may include first traces on the first antenna layers, second traces on the second antenna layers, and third traces on the third antenna layers. The first antenna layers may have a first bulk dielectric permittivity. The second layers may have a second bulk dielectric permittivity. The third layers may have a third bulk dielectric permittivity. At least one of the first, second, and third bulk dielectric permittivities may be different from the others. This may differentially load the antenna across the antenna layers, thereby broadening the bandwidth of the antenna.

Electronic devices having differentially-loaded millimeter wave antennas

An electronic device may include first and second phased antenna arrays that convey radio-frequency signals at frequencies greater than 10 GHz. The second array may have fewer antennas than the first array. Control circuitry may control the first and second arrays in a diversity mode and in a simultaneous array mode. In the diversity mode, the first array may form a first signal beam while the second array is inactive. When the first array is blocked by an object or otherwise exhibits unsatisfactory performance, the second array may form a second signal beam while the first array is inactive. In the simultaneous mode, the first and second arrays may form a combined array that produces a third signal beam. The combined array may maximize gain. Hierarchical beam searching operations may be performed. The arrays may be distributed across one or more modules.

Electronic devices having multiple phased antenna arrays

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Simon G Begashaw