Electronic devices with hybrid antennas

• US 9,728,858 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hu, Hongfei, Schlub, Robert W., Zhu, Jiang, Gomez Angulo, Rodney A., Li, Qingxiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hoang
• Assistant Examiner(s): SALIH, AWAT M
• Application Number:
  US14/260,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20150311594A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 343702, 343725, 343893
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2266 disposed inside the computer
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/243 with built-in antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 13/10 Resonant slot antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/28 Combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems multiple beam H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/0421 with a shorting wall or a shorting pin at one end of the element H01Q9/0414 takes precedence

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with hybrid planar inverted-F slot antennas and indirectly fed slot antennas. A hybrid antenna may be used to form a dual band wireless local area network antenna. An indirectly fed slot antenna may be use to form a cellular telephone antenna. Antenna slots may be formed in a metal electronic device housing wall. The housing wall may have a planar rear portion and sidewall portions that extend upwards from the planar rear portion. The slots may have one or more bends. A hybrid antenna may have a slot antenna portion and a planar inverted-F antenna portion. The planar inverted-F antenna portion may have a metal resonating element patch that is supported by a support structure. The support structure may be a plastic speaker box containing a speaker driver that is not overlapped by the metal resonating element patch.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing having a metal wall;

a hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna, wherein the hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna has slot antenna structures formed from a slot in the metal wall and has planar inverted-F antenna structures, the planar inverted-F antenna structures include a ground feed terminal, a positive feed terminal, and a return path leg, the return path leg and the ground feed terminal are coupled to the metal wall on first and second opposing sides of the slot respectively, the positive feed terminal is coupled to the planar inverted-F antenna structures at the second side of the slot, and the positive feed terminal is separated from the metal wall of the housing by a gap;

an indirectly fed slot antenna; and

transceiver circuitry coupled to both the hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna and the indirectly fed slot antenna.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the planar inverted-F antenna structures include a resonating element formed from a metal patch.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 further comprising a plastic structure that supports the metal patch.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the plastic structure forms plastic walls for a speaker box.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the slot has at least one bend.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the metal wall has a planar rear wall portion and sidewall portions and the slot is an open slot formed at least partly in the planar rear wall portion and at least partly in the sidewall portions.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 further comprising plastic that fills the slot.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the planar inverted-F antenna structures include a planar resonating element formed above the slot antenna structures.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 5, wherein the at least one bend separates the slot into first and second substantially perpendicular portions.

8. A hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna, comprising:

slot antenna structures formed from a slot in a metal electronic device housing wall;

planar inverted-F antenna structures formed from a metal resonating element, the metal resonating element comprising a feed leg and a return path leg; and

a speaker box that supports the metal resonating element, the return path leg and the feed leg being formed on different sides of the speaker box.

9. The hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna defined in claim 8 wherein the metal electronic device housing wall includes a planar wall portion and wherein the metal resonating element lies in a plane that is parallel to the planar wall portion.

10. The hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna defined in claim 9 wherein the slot has at least one bend and has a portion that extends along at least one sidewall portion of the metal electronic device housing wall.

11. The hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna defined in claim 8 wherein the slot antenna structures are configured to exhibit an antenna resonance at 2.4 GHz and the planar inverted-F antenna structures are configured to exhibit an antenna resonance at 5 GHz.

19. The hybrid inverted-F slot antenna defined in claim 8, wherein the return path leg is coupled to the metal electronic device housing wall on a first side of the slot and the feed leg is provided directly over a second side of the slot separated from the first side of the slot by the slot.

12. An electronic device, comprising:

a hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna having slot antenna structures formed from a slot in a metal electronic device housing wall and having planar inverted-F antenna structures formed from a metal resonating element and a feed leg that is coupled to the metal resonating element and separated from the metal electronic device housing wall by a gap; and

an indirectly fed slot antenna that is indirectly fed using a metal patch structure that is separate from the metal resonating element.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the hybrid planar inverted-F slot antenna comprises a dual band wireless local area network antenna.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 13 wherein the indirectly fed slot antenna comprises a cellular telephone antenna having a slot formed in the metal electronic device housing wall.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 12, further comprising:

a display cover layer, wherein the metal electronic device housing wall comprises a rear housing wall that opposes the display cover layer, the slot comprises a first portion formed in the rear housing wall and a second portion formed in a metal electronic device housing side wall, the second portion extends from the first portion to an edge of the metal electronic device housing side wall, the indirectly fed slot antenna comprises an additional slot having a third portion that is formed in the rear housing wall and a fourth portion that is formed in the metal electronic device housing side wall, and the fourth portion extends from the third portion of the additional slot to the edge of the metal electronic device housing side wall.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 16, wherein the first portion of the slot comprises a perpendicular bend and a closed end that is surrounded on three sides by the rear housing wall, the third portion of the additional slot comprises a perpendicular bend and a closed end that is surrounded on three sides by the rear housing wall, and the closed end of the first portion of the slot is interposed between the perpendicular bend of the first portion of the slot and the closed end of the third portion of the additional slot.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 12, wherein the planar inverted-F antenna structures are further formed from a return path leg coupled to the metal resonating element and the metal electronic device housing wall, the slot comprises a portion that extends to an edge of the metal electronic device housing wall, and the feed leg and the return path are disposed over opposing sides of the portion of the slot.