Electronic device with isolated cavity antennas

• US 9,397,387 B1
• Filed: 06/08/2015
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Guterman, Jerzy, Sweet, Edward T., Huang, Huan-Chu, Boothe, Daniel K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Purvis, Sue A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Holecek, Patrick
• Application Number:
  US14/733,839
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: 343/700.MS, 343/702
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2266 disposed inside the computer
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/243 with built-in antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 13/18 the slot being backed by, or formed in boundary wall of, a resonant cavity longitudinally slotted cylinder H01Q13/12 ; Open cavity antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 5/10 Resonant antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 5/20 characterised by the operating wavebands
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 5/357 using a single feed point
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/42 with folded element, the folded parts being spaced apart a small fraction of the operating wavelength

Abstract

An electronic device may have a metal housing. The metal housing may have an upper housing in which a component such as a display is mounted and a lower housing in which a component such as a keyboard is mounted. Hinges may be used to mount the upper housing to the lower housing for rotation about a rotational axis. A slot-shaped opening may separate the upper and lower housing. A flexible printed circuit with ground traces may bisect the slot-shaped opening to form first and second slots. Cavity antennas may be aligned with the slots. Each cavity antenna may include a hollow carrier with a pair of speakers. The speakers may have ports that emit sound through aligned openings in the lower housing. Conductive gaskets surrounding the ports may acoustically seal the speaker ports while shorting the cavity antenna to the lower housing.

Claims

1. A portable computer, comprising:

a housing having an upper metal housing that contains a display and having a lower metal housing that contains a keyboard;

hinges that connect the upper metal housing to the lower metal housing, wherein the upper metal housing rotates relative to the lower metal housing about a rotational axis between a closed position and an open position; and

an antenna mounted entirely between opposing upper and lower portions of the lower metal housing and between the hinges, wherein the upper metal housing has a rear metal portion that is separated from the lower metal housing by a first slot when the upper metal housing is in the closed position and that is separated from the lower metal housing by second and third slots when the upper metal housing is in the open position and wherein the antenna transmits and receives antenna signals through the first, second, and third slots.

2. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein the first slot, the second slot, and the third slot run parallel to the rotational axis.

3. The portable computer defined in claim 2 wherein the antenna transmits and receives the antenna signals through the first slot when the upper metal housing is in the closed position.

4. The portable computer defined in claim 3 wherein the antenna transmits and receives the antenna signals through the second and third slots when the upper metal housing is in the open position.

5. The portable computer defined in claim 4 wherein the antenna comprises a cavity antenna.

6. The portable computer defined in claim 5 wherein the cavity antenna is one of a pair of first and second cavity antennas located between the hinges.

7. The portable computer defined in claim 6 further comprising a signal path that passes between the upper metal housing and the lower metal housing between the first and second cavity antennas.

8. The portable computer defined in claim 7 wherein the first and second cavity antennas comprise dual band antennas.

9. The portable computer defined in claim 8 wherein the first and second cavity antennas are configured to operate in a 2.4 GHz communications band and a 5 GHz communications band.

10. The portable computer defined in claim 4 wherein the antenna is one of a pair of first and second antennas located between the hinges and wherein the portable computer comprises a signal path that passes between the upper metal housing and the lower metal housing between the first and second cavity antennas.

11. A portable computer, comprising:

a display;

an upper metal housing in which the display is mounted;

a keyboard;

a lower metal housing in which the keyboard is mounted;

hinges that connect the upper metal housing to the lower metal housing, wherein the upper metal housing rotates relative to the lower metal housing about a rotational axis between a closed position and an open position; and

first and second antenna resonating elements mounted in the lower metal housing between the hinges and entirely between opposing upper and lower portions of the lower metal housing, wherein the upper metal housing has a rear metal portion that is separated from the lower metal housing by a slot when the upper metal housing is in the closed position.

12. The portable computer defined in claim 11 wherein the first antenna resonating element is a resonating element for a first cavity antenna and the second antenna resonating element is a resonating element for a second cavity antenna.

13. The portable computer defined in claim 12 wherein the slot that separates the rear metal portion from the lower metal housing when the upper metal housing is in the closed position is a first slot and the rear metal portion is separated from the lower metal housing by a second slot when the upper metal housing is in the open position.

14. The portable computer defined in claim 13 wherein the first and second cavity antennas transmit and receive antenna signals through the first slot when the upper metal housing is in the closed position.

15. The portable computer defined in claim 14 wherein the first and second cavity antennas transmit and receive antenna signals through the second slot when the upper metal housing is in the open position.

16. The portable computer defined in claim 15 further comprising a third slot that separates the rear metal portion from the lower metal housing when the upper housing is in the open position.

17. The portable computer defined in claim 16 wherein the first and second cavity antennas transmit and receive antenna signals through the second and third slots when the upper housing is in the open position.

18. The portable computer defined in claim 17 wherein the first and second cavity antennas transmit and receive the antenna signals in communications bands at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

19. A portable computer, comprising:

a display;

an upper metal housing in which the display is mounted;

a keyboard;

a lower metal housing in which the keyboard is mounted;

hinges that connect the upper metal housing to the lower metal housing, wherein the upper metal housing rotates relative to the lower metal housing about a rotational axis between a closed position and an open position; and

first and second cavity antennas mounted in the lower metal housing between the hinges and entirely between opposing upper and lower portions of the lower metal housing, wherein the upper metal housing has a rear metal portion that is separated from the lower metal housing by a gap that extends along the rotational axis between the hinges when the upper metal housing is in the closed position and wherein the first and second cavity antennas transmit and receive antenna signals through the gap when the upper metal housing is in the closed position.

20. The portable computer defined in claim 19 wherein the first and second antennas are configured to operate in communications bands at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.