Apple patent is for antenna system

Posted by Dennis Sellers Jan 17, 2008 at 11:17am

An Apple patent (20080012774) for an antenna system has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The invention relates to antenna systems and, in particular, to antenna systems for wireless communication devices.

Following is Apple’s background and summary of the invention: “Advances in semiconductor technology have allowed wireless communication devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDA’s) and pagers, to become smaller and smaller. However, the antenna systems for these devices have not evolved at the same pace because antenna efficiency generally decreases with reductions in antenna size. To maintain reasonable gain and non-directional receive/transmit patterns, most conventional antenna designs have relied on external monopole antennas, either fixed or telescoping. Other designs have realized internal antennas of different varieties (e.g., monopole, dipole, helical and patch antennas). However, these antennas are susceptible to performance degradation due to the proximity of other components. For example, coupling to the electric fields of internal components (e.g. oscillators, amplifiers, mixers) can degrade the signal-to-noise ratio of the receiving section of the wireless device, and internal ground planes and metallic enclosures can distort antennas patterns or completely block transmission and reception in some directions. Therefore, in order to obtain reasonable antenna performance, these internal antennas are normally kept away from other components in the wireless device by placing them in separate areas, adding size and volume to the wireless devices.

“Various embodiments of an antenna system are described. In one exemplary embodiment, an antenna system includes a dielectrically-loaded loop element and a substantially planar element. The substantially planar element is disposed substantially parallel to a major axis of the dielectrically-loaded loop element, substantially perpendicular to a minor axis of the dielectrically-loaded loop element and within an induction field region of the dielectrically-loaded loop element. Features and benefits of the various embodiments of the invention will be apparent from the description.

“At least certain embodiments of the present invention include a portable device having an antenna structure therein, the antenna structure including a generally U-shaped loop element coupled with a support element having a substantially planar portion, wherein the substantially planar portion has an electrical length along a first dimension proximate to one wavelength of a frequency of interest, and an electrical length along a second dimension proximate to one-half wavelength of the frequency of interest, where the support element is located within an induction field of the loop element.

“At least certain embodiments of the present invention include an embodiment of the antenna system as part of a digital media player, such as a portable music and/or video media player, which includes a media processing system to present the media, a storage device to store the media and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to couple the antenna system to the media processing system. The RF transceiver uses the antenna system to transmit or receive the media, which may be one or more of music, still pictures or motion pictures, for example. The portable media player may include a media selection device, such as a click wheel device, a touchpad, pushbuttons or other similar selection devices as are known in the art. The media selection device may be used to select the media stored on the storage device. The portable media player may, at least in certain embodiments, include a display device, such as an LCD display, coupled to the media processing system to display titles or other indicators of media selected with the input device and presented, through a speaker and/or earphones or on the display device or on both the display and a speaker and/or earphones. In certain embodiments, the display device may also be the media selection device such as, for example, an LCD touch screen device.

“At least certain embodiments of the present inventions include an embodiment of the antenna system as part of a wireless device such as a cellular telephone, smart phone or personal digital assistant, for example, which includes a digital radio frequency (RF) transceiver. The digital RF transceiver uses the antenna system to send and receive digital voice and/or data signals. The wireless device may include a digital processing system coupled to the transceiver to control the transceiver and manage the digital signals. The digital processing system may be coupled to a storage device to store data, to a display device such as an LCD display to display data and/or receive user input (e.g., via touch screen sensors), to an input device such as a keypad, and to audio transducers (e.g., microphone and/or speaker) with associated analog/digital converters and device drivers.”

It includes a dielectrically-loaded loop element electromagnetically coupled to a planar element. The antenna system exhibits uniform, broadband radiation and reception patterns, according to Apple.

The inventor is Shu-Li Wang. The graphic below shows a loop element of an antenna assembly in one embodiment.

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