Portable computer speaker grill structures

• US 8,374,378 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2012
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hopkinson, Ron, Raff, John, Andre, Bartley K., Ligtenberg, Chris, Goel, Ruchi
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, TU TU V
• Application Number:
  US13/458,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20120212903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 291 Days
• Field of Search: 381/391, 381/386, 381/395, 361/679.01
• US Class Current: 381/391
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/023 Screens for loudspeakers

Abstract

Portable computer structures are provided. The portable computer structures may include speaker grill structures. A speaker grill structure may be formed by creating an array of small holes (perforations) in a portable computer housing structure such as a planar housing wall. A speaker may be mounted adjacent to the array of holes. The planar housing wall may be formed in a block of milled aluminum and may have a thickness of less than 1 mm. The speaker holes may have with small diameters without overly attenuating sound from a speaker.

Claims

1. A portable computer, comprising:

a metal housing wall having a speaker grill region in which an array of speaker holes is formed, wherein the metal housing wall has a thickness, in the speaker grill region, of less than 1 mm and wherein each speaker hole has a diameter between approximately 0.25 mm and 0.5 mm; and

a speaker driver adjacent to the array of speaker holes.

2. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein the metal housing wall includes at least a given region that is adjacent to the speaker grill region and wherein the thickness of the metal housing wall in the given region is greater than the thickness of metal housing wall in the speaker grill region.

3. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein each of the speaker holes has an aspect ratio defined by the thickness of the metal housing wall in the speaker grill region divided by the diameter of that speaker hole and wherein the aspect ratio of each of the speaker holes is approximately three to one.

4. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein each of the speaker holes has an aspect ratio defined by the thickness of the metal housing wall in the speaker grill region divided by the diameter of that speaker hole and wherein the aspect ratio of each of the speaker holes is approximately two to one.

5. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein the thickness of the metal housing wall in the speaker grill region is less than or equal to 0.75 mm.

6. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein the speaker holes are spaced apart from each other with a pitch of about 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm.

7. The portable computer defined in claim 1 further comprising:

keys in the metal housing wall, wherein the keys form a keyboard for the portable computer and wherein some of the keys are adjacent to the array of speaker holes.

8. The portable computer defined in claim 1 wherein the speaker grill region comprises a first speaker grill region in which a first array of speaker holes is formed, wherein the metal housing wall comprises a second speaker grill region in which a second array of speaker holes is formed.

9. The portable computer defined in claim 8 wherein each speaker hole in the second array of speaker holes has a diameter between approximately 0.25 mm and 0.5 mm and wherein the second speaker grill region has a thickness of less than 1 mm.

10. The portable computer defined in claim 1 further comprising:

a speaker enclosure in which the speaker driver is mounted; and

a layer of mesh between the array of speaker holes and the speaker enclosure.

11. The portable computer defined in claim 1 further comprising:

at least one bass speaker, wherein the bass speaker is mounted within the portable computer so that the bass speaker is not under any speaker holes in the metal housing wall.

12. The portable computer defined in claim 1 further comprising:

a first speaker enclosure in which the speaker driver is mounted; and

a bass speaker mounted in a second speaker enclosure, wherein the bass speaker is mounted within the portable computer so that the bass speaker is not under any speaker holes in the metal housing wall and wherein the first and second speaker enclosures are connected so that sound passes from the second speaker enclosure to the first speaker enclosure.

13. A portable computer, comprising:

a metal housing wall having a speaker grill region in which an array of speaker holes is formed, wherein the speaker holes are spaced apart from each other with a pitch of approximately 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm; and

a speaker driver adjacent to the array of speaker holes.

14. The portable computer defined in claim 13 wherein the metal housing wall has a thickness, in the speaker grill region, of less than 1 mm.

15. The portable computer defined in claim 13 wherein the metal housing wall has a thickness, in the speaker grill region, of less than 1 mm such that the metal housing wall attenuates sound, within a range of 500 Hz to 10 kHz, from the speaker driver that passes through the metal housing wall by no more than approximately 3 dB.

16. The portable computer defined in claim 13 wherein the array of speaker holes comprises an array of at least 5000 speaker holes.

17. A portable computer, comprising:

a milled aluminum block including a planar metal housing wall with an array of speaker holes, each speaker hole having a diameter between approximately 0.25 mm and 0.5 mm; and

a speaker driver adjacent to the array of speaker holes.

18. The portable computer defined in claim 17, wherein the planar metal housing wall has a thickness of less than 1 mm.

19. The portable computer defined in claim 18 further comprising a layer of mesh adjacent to the array of speaker holes, wherein the speaker holes comprise laser-drilled holes in the milled aluminum block.

20. The portable computer defined in claim 19 wherein the speaker holes are spaced apart from each other with a pitch of about 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm.