Mobile wireless communications device with human interface diversity antenna and related methods

• US 7,187,332 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Issued: 03/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Qi, Yihong, Kezys, Vytas
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Hoang V.
• Application Number:
  US11/067,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20060192724A1
• Time in Patent Office: 736 Days
• Field of Search: 343/702, 343/700.MS, 343/876, 455/90, 455/575
• US Class Current: 343/702
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/245 with means for shaping the antenna pattern, e.g. in order to protect user against rf exposure
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0608 Antenna selection according to transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0615 of weighted versions of same signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0814 based on current reception conditions, e.g. switching to different antenna when signal level is below threshold
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0848 Joint weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering

Abstract

A mobile wireless communications device may include a portable handheld housing, and a wireless transceiver carried by the housing. A pair of an antennas are positioned in side-by-side relation preferably in the upper portion of the portable handheld housing. A human interface diversity controller is connected to the wireless transceiver to preferentially operate with the plurality of antennas based upon a relative position of the portable handheld housing with respect to a hand of a human user. The device can select or weight the antennas based upon the position of the device when being held by a user.

Claims

1. A mobile wireless communication device comprising:

a portable handheld housing having opposing parallel front and back surfaces;

a wireless transceiver carried by said portable handheld housing;

a plurality of antennas positioned in side-by-side relation in said portable handheld housing, each of the antennas comprising a planar conductive element printed on a circuit board, and said plurality of antennas being arranged in side-by-side relation in an upper portion of the portable handheld housing and extending in a plane parallel to the front and back surfaces; and

a human interface diversity controller connected to said wireless transceiver to preferentially operate with the plurality of antennas based upon a relative position of said portable handheld housing with respect to a hand of a human user, said human interface diversity controller preferentially weights transmit signals based upon received signal strength.

2. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas are operable on a same frequency.

3. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas have different polarizations.

4. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas have different conductive patterns.

5. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas have different frequencies for transmit and receive.

6. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas comprises a pair of first and second antennas.

7. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 further comprising a display carried by said portable handheld housing and connected to said transceiver.

8. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 further comprising at least one user input device carried by said portable handheld housing and connected to said transceiver.

9. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 further comprising at least one input/output transducer carried by said portable handheld housing and connected to said transceiver.

10. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 wherein said transceiver and said plurality of antennas are operable in at least one of a LAN wireless network and a cellular wireless network.

11. A method of operating a mobile wireless communications device to account for different human interface, the mobile wireless communications device having a portable handheld housing and a wireless transceiver therein, and a pair of antennas side-by-side in an upper portion of the portable handheld housing and connected to the wireless transceiver, each of the antennas comprising a planar conductive element printed on a circuit board, and the portable handheld housing having opposing parallel front and back surfaces and the pair of antennas are arranged in side-by-side relation extending in a plane parallel to the front and back surfaces, the method comprising controlling the wireless transceiver to preferentially operate the pair of antennas based upon a relative position of the portable handheld housing with respect to a hand of a human user, including preferentially weighting transmit signals based upon received signal strength.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the pair of antennas are operated cn a same frequency.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein each antenna of the pair of antennas has a different conductive pattern.