Communication system

• US 7,925,235 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2007
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Washiro, Takanori, Konya, Satoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Yun; Eugene
• Application Number:
  US11/873,579
• Publication Number:
  US 20080125036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 455/562.1, 455/575.7, 455/97, 455/274, 455/279.1, 455/14, 455/523, 455/270, 455/282, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 333/240, 333/150
• US Class Current: 455/282
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils

Abstract

A communication system includes: a transmitter including a transmission circuit unit generating an RF signal for transmitting data and an electrical-field coupling antenna transmitting the RF signal as an electrostatic field or an induction field; a receiver including an electrical-field coupling antenna and a reception circuit unit subjecting an RF signal received by the electrical-field coupling antenna to reception processing; and a surface-wave propagation device including a plurality of linear surface-wave transmission lines for propagating a surface wave radiated from the electrical-field coupling antenna of the transmitter.

Claims

1. A surface-wave propagation device comprising a plurality of linear surface-wave transmission lines propagating a surface wave that is a longitudinal wave component of an electromagnetic wave radiated by electrostatic coupling from an electrical-field coupling electrode disposed in a communication apparatus, wherein a bundle end of the linear surface-wave transmission lines closed to an electrical-field coupling electrode is formed by bundling a plurality of wire rods at one end, and the bundle of the wire rods are undone at the other end of the linear surface-wave transmission lines closed to an electrical-field coupling electrode.

2. The surface-wave propagation device according to claim 1, wherein each of the surface-wave transmission lines includes a metal whose surface is insulated.

3. The surface-wave propagation device according to claim 2, wherein a specific relationship or rule is established between an arrangement of end faces of individual wire rods at the bundle end formed by bundling a plurality of the wire rods made of a metal whose surface is insulated and an arrangement of end faces of individual wire rods distributed on the flat coupling face.

4. The surface-wave propagation device according to claim 3, wherein on an end face of the bundle end bundling wire rods, a first wire-rod group is formed to be disposed substantially in the center, and a second wire-rod group is formed to surround the first wire-rod group in the periphery, and on the flat coupling face, the first wire-rod group and the second wire-rod group are disposed to have substantially uniform densities at each part.

5. The surface-wave propagation device according to claim 1, wherein an end face of each of the wire rods is distributedly disposed on a flat coupling face at the other end.