阅读说明：本技术 具有带寄生贴片的电介质谐振器天线的电子设备 (Electronic device having dielectric resonator antenna with parasitic patch ) 是由 B·阿维瑟 H·拉贾戈帕兰 J·M·爱德华兹 S·保罗托 于 2021-04-12 设计创作，主要内容包括：本公开涉及具有带寄生贴片的电介质谐振器天线的电子设备。电子设备可设置有相控天线阵列和显示器覆盖层。该相控天线阵列可包括辐射穿过覆盖层的探针馈电的电介质谐振器天线。该天线可包括由一个或两个馈电探针激励的电介质谐振元件。一个或多个浮动寄生元件和/或接地寄生元件可被图案化到该电介质谐振元件上。该寄生元件可在电介质谐振元件上创建边界条件,该边界条件用于将天线与交叉极化干扰隔离。(The present disclosure relates to electronic devices having dielectric resonator antennas with parasitic patches. An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array and a display cover layer. The phased antenna array may include a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna radiating through the cover layer. The antenna may comprise a dielectric resonant element excited by one or both feed probes. One or more floating parasitic elements and/or ground parasitic elements may be patterned onto the dielectric resonant element. The parasitic element may create a boundary condition on the dielectric resonant element that serves to isolate the antenna from cross-polarization interference.)

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a display having a display cover layer mounted to the housing; and

a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna located in the housing and configured to transmit radio frequency signals in a frequency band greater than 10GHz through the display overlay, wherein the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna comprises:

a parasitic element configured to isolate the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna from cross-polarization interference.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna further comprises:

a dielectric resonant element; and

a feed probe located on the dielectric resonant element, wherein the feed probe is configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in the frequency band.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the dielectric resonant element comprises a first sidewall to which the feed probe is coupled, a second sidewall, a third sidewall opposite the first sidewall, and a fourth sidewall opposite the second sidewall.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the parasitic element is coupled to the third sidewall and aligned with the feed probe.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, further comprising:

a substrate, wherein the dielectric resonant element is mounted to the substrate; and

a radio frequency transmission line on the substrate and coupled to the feed probe, wherein the dielectric resonant element has a first end at the display and an opposite second end at the substrate, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna further comprising:

an additional parasitic element coupled to the dielectric resonant element at the first end of the dielectric resonant element.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna further comprises:

an additional feed probe coupled to the second sidewall of the dielectric resonant element, wherein the additional feed probe is configured to excite the dielectric resonant element; and

an additional parasitic element configured to isolate the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna from cross-polarization interference, wherein the additional parasitic element is coupled to the fourth sidewall and aligned with the additional-fed probe.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the dielectric resonant element has a first end at the feed probe and has an opposite second end, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna further comprising:

a first floating conductive patch coupled to the first sidewall at the second end;

a second floating conductive patch coupled to the second sidewall at the second end;

a third floating conductive patch coupled to the third sidewall at the second end, wherein the third floating conductive patch is aligned with the first floating conductive patch; and

a fourth floating conductive patch coupled to the fourth sidewall at the second end, wherein the fourth floating conductive patch is aligned with the second floating conductive patch.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the parasitic element is coupled to the second sidewall.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna further comprises:

an additional parasitic element configured to isolate the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna from cross-polarization interference, wherein the additional parasitic element is coupled to the fourth sidewall.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the third sidewall is free of conductive material.

11. The electronic device of claim 9, further comprising:

a substrate, wherein the dielectric resonant element is mounted to a surface of the substrate;

a radio frequency transmission line on the substrate and coupled to the feed probe; and

a ground trace on the surface of the substrate, wherein the parasitic element and the additional parasitic element are coupled to the ground trace.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the housing comprises a peripheral conductive housing structure that extends around a periphery of the electronic device, the display cover layer being mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structure, and the electronic device further comprising:

a notch in the peripheral conductive housing structure, wherein the probe-fed dielectric resonating element is aligned with the notch and configured to transmit the radio frequency signal through the notch.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the housing comprises a peripheral conductive housing structure that extends around a periphery of the electronic device, the display cover layer is mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structure, the display comprises a display module that is configured to emit light through the display cover layer, the display module comprises a notch having an edge defined by the display module and the peripheral conductive housing structure, and the electronic device further comprises:

an audio speaker aligned with the notch; and

an image sensor aligned with the notch, wherein the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna is aligned with the notch and configured to transmit the radio frequency signal through the notch.

14. An antenna, comprising:

a dielectric resonant element having a bottom surface, a top surface, and first, second, third, and fourth sidewalls extending from the bottom surface to the top surface, wherein the first sidewall is opposite the third sidewall and the second sidewall is opposite the fourth sidewall;

a feed probe coupled to the first sidewall, wherein the feed probe is configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in a frequency band greater than 10 GHz; and

a floating parasitic patch coupled to the third sidewall and overlapping the feed probe.

15. The antenna of claim 14, further comprising:

an additional feed probe coupled to the second sidewall, wherein the additional feed probe is configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in the frequency band; and

an additional floating parasitic patch coupled to the fourth sidewall and overlapping the additional feed probe.

16. The antenna defined in claim 15 wherein the dielectric resonant element has a first end at the bottom surface and a second end at the top surface, the feed probe, the additional feed probe, the floating parasitic patch, and the additional floating parasitic patch being located at the first end of the dielectric resonant element.

17. The antenna of claim 16, further comprising:

at least one floating parasitic patch coupled to the dielectric resonant element at the second end of the dielectric resonant element.

18. An antenna, comprising:

a dielectric resonant element having a bottom surface, a top surface, and first, second, third, and fourth sidewalls extending from the bottom surface to the top surface, wherein the first sidewall is opposite the third sidewall and the second sidewall is opposite the fourth sidewall;

a feed probe coupled to the first sidewall, wherein the feed probe is configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in a frequency band greater than 10 GHz; and

a ground parasitic patch coupled to the second sidewall.

19. The antenna of claim 18, further comprising:

an additional ground parasitic patch coupled to the fourth sidewall, wherein the additional ground parasitic patch overlaps the ground parasitic patch.

20. The antenna defined in claim 19 wherein the dielectric resonant element has a first end at the bottom surface and a second end at the top surface, the feed probe, the ground parasitic patch, and the additional ground parasitic patch being located at the first end of the dielectric resonant element.

Background

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly to electronic devices having wireless circuitry.

Electronic devices typically include wireless circuitry. For example, cellular telephones, computers, and other devices often contain antennas and wireless transceivers for supporting wireless communications.

Wireless communications in the millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave communications bands may need to be supported. Millimeter wave communication (sometimes referred to as Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communication) and centimeter wave communication involve communication at frequencies of about 10GHz-300 GHz. Operation at these frequencies can support high bandwidth, but can present significant challenges. For example, radio frequency communications in the millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave communications bands may be characterized by substantial attenuation and/or distortion during propagation of signals through various media. Furthermore, the presence of conductive electronics components can make it difficult to incorporate circuitry for handling millimeter wave and centimeter wave communications into an electronic device. Cross-polarization interference can also limit antenna performance in cases where the antenna covers multiple polarizations.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to provide improved wireless circuitry to electronic devices, such as wireless circuitry that supports millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave communications.

Disclosure of Invention

An electronic device may be provided with a housing, a display, and wireless circuitry. The housing may include a peripheral conductive housing structure extending around the periphery of the device. The display may include a display cover layer mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structure. The wireless circuitry may include a phased antenna array that transmits radio frequency signals over one or more frequency bands between 10ghz and 300 ghz. The phased antenna array may transmit radio frequency signals through a display cover or other dielectric cover in the device.

A phased antenna array may include a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna. Each probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna may comprise a dielectric resonant element formed from a column of relatively high dielectric constant material embedded within a surrounding dielectric substrate. The dielectric resonant element may be mounted to a flexible printed circuit. The dielectric resonant element may have a first sidewall, a second sidewall, a third sidewall, and a fourth sidewall extending from the flexible printed circuit to the display. The third sidewall may be opposite the first sidewall and the fourth sidewall is opposite the second sidewall.

The feed probe may be formed from a patch of conductive traces patterned on a first side wall of the dielectric resonant element. In a first example, the additional feed probe may be formed by an additional patch of conductive traces patterned on the second sidewall. The first floating parasitic patch may be coupled to the third sidewall and may overlap the first feed probe. The second floating parasitic patch may be coupled to the fourth sidewall and may overlap the second feed probe. Additional sets of floating parasitic patches may be formed at opposite ends of the dielectric resonant element, if desired. In another example, the first ground parasitic patch may be coupled to the second sidewall and the second ground parasitic patch may be coupled to the fourth sidewall. The second ground patch may overlap the first ground patch. The parasitic patch may create a boundary condition on the dielectric resonating element of the feed probe and may serve to isolate the antenna from cross-polarization interference.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary circuit in an electronic device according to some embodiments.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary wireless circuit, according to some embodiments.

Fig. 4 is an illustration of an exemplary phased antenna array that may be adjusted using control circuitry to steer a signal beam, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of an exemplary electronic device with phased antenna arrays for radiating through different sides of the electronic device, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional side view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna that may be mounted within an electronic device in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna for covering multiple polarizations in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional side view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna overlapping an opening in a ground trace in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 9 is a top down view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna overlapping an opening in a ground trace, according to some embodiments.

Fig. 10 is a top down view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna with multiple feed probes and floating parasitic patches for mitigating cross-polarization interference, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 11 is a cross-sectional side view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna with multiple feed probes and floating parasitic patches for mitigating cross-polarization interference, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 12 is a perspective view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna having a floating parasitic patch at an end of the antenna opposite a feed probe of the antenna, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 13 is a top down view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna with a single feed probe and a grounded parasitic patch for mitigating cross-polarization interference, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 14 is a side view of an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna with a single feed probe and a grounded parasitic patch for mitigating cross-polarization interference, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 15 is a graph of antenna performance (return loss) versus frequency for an exemplary probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna with different numbers of grounded parasitic patches, according to some embodiments.

Fig. 16 is a top down view of an exemplary electronic device with a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna aligned with a notch in a peripheral conductive housing structure, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 17 is a top down view of an exemplary electronic device with a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna aligned with a notch in a display module, in accordance with some embodiments.

Detailed Description

Electronic devices such as electronic device 10 of fig. 1 may include wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas. The antenna may include a phased antenna array for performing wireless communications using millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave signals. Millimeter wave signals, sometimes referred to as Extremely High Frequency (EHF) signals, propagate at frequencies above about 30GHz (e.g., at 60GHz or other frequencies between about 30GHz and 300 GHz). Centimeter-wave signals propagate at frequencies between about 10GHz and 30 GHz. If desired, device 10 may also include an antenna for processing satellite navigation system signals, cellular telephone signals, wireless local area network signals, near field communications, light-based wireless communications, or other wireless communications.

The electronic device 10 may be a portable electronic device or other suitable electronic device. For example, the electronic device 10 may be a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a smaller device (such as a wrist-watch device, a hanging device, a headset device, an earpiece device, or other wearable or miniature device), a handheld device (such as a cellular telephone), a media player, or other small portable device. Device 10 may also be a set-top box, a desktop computer, a display with an integrated computer or other processing circuitry, a display without an integrated computer, a wireless access point, a wireless base station, an electronic device incorporated into a kiosk, building, or vehicle, or other suitable electronic equipment.

Device 10 may include a housing such as housing 12. The housing 12 (which may sometimes be referred to as a shell) may be formed from plastic, glass, ceramic, fiber composite, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. In some cases, the components of housing 12 may be formed from a dielectric or other low conductivity material (e.g., glass, ceramic, plastic, sapphire, etc.). In other cases, at least some of the housing 12 or the structures making up the housing 12 may be formed from metal elements.

If desired, device 10 may have a display such as display 14. The display 14 may be mounted on the front face of the device 10. The display 14 may be a touch screen that incorporates capacitive touch electrodes or may be insensitive to touch. The back side of the housing 12 (i.e., the side of the device 10 opposite the front side of the device 10) may have a substantially flat housing wall, such as a rear housing wall 12R (e.g., a planar housing wall). The rear housing wall 12R may have a slot that passes completely through the rear housing wall and thus separates portions of the housing 12 from one another. The rear housing wall 12R may include conductive and/or dielectric portions. If desired, the rear housing wall 12R may include a planar metal layer covered by a thin layer or dielectric coating, such as glass, plastic, sapphire, or ceramic. The housing 12 may also have shallow grooves that do not extend completely through the housing 12. The slots or grooves may be filled with plastic or other dielectric. If desired, portions of the housing 12 that are separated from one another (e.g., by through slots) may be joined by internal conductive structures (e.g., a metal sheet or other metal member that bridges the slots).

The housing 12 may include a peripheral housing structure such as peripheral structure 12W. The conductive portions of the peripheral structure 12W and the conductive portions of the rear housing wall 12R may sometimes be collectively referred to herein as the conductive structure of the housing 12. Peripheral structure 12W may extend around the periphery of device 10 and display 14. In configurations where the device 10 and display 14 have a rectangular shape with four edges, the peripheral structure 12W may be implemented using a peripheral housing structure having a rectangular ring shape with four corresponding edges and extending from the rear housing wall 12R to the front face of the device 10 (as an example). If desired, the peripheral structure 12W or a portion of the peripheral structure 12W may serve as a bezel for the display 14 (e.g., a decorative trim piece that surrounds all four sides of the display 14 and/or helps retain the display 14 to the device 10). If desired, the peripheral structure 12W may form a sidewall structure of the device 10 (e.g., by forming a metal strip having vertical sidewalls, curved sidewalls, etc.).

The peripheral structure 12W may be formed of a conductive material, such as a metal, and thus may sometimes be referred to as a peripheral conductive housing structure, a peripheral metal structure, a peripheral conductive sidewall structure, a conductive housing sidewall, a peripheral conductive housing sidewall, a sidewall structure, or a peripheral conductive housing member (as examples). The peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may be formed of a metal such as stainless steel, aluminum, or other suitable material. One, two, or more than two separate structures may be used to form the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W.

The peripheral conductive shell structure 12W does not necessarily have a uniform cross-section. For example, if desired, the top of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may have an inwardly projecting flange that helps hold the display 14 in place. The bottom of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may also have an enlarged lip (e.g., in the plane of the back of the device 10). The peripheral conductive shell structure 12W may have substantially straight vertical sidewalls, may have curved sidewalls, or may have other suitable shapes. In some configurations (e.g., when peripheral conductive housing structure 12W is used as a bezel for display 14), peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may extend around a lip of housing 12 (i.e., peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may only cover the edge of housing 12 around display 14 and not the remaining sidewalls of housing 12).

The rear housing wall 12R may lie in a plane parallel to the display 14. In configurations of the device 10 in which some or all of the rear housing wall 12R is formed of metal, it may be desirable to form a portion of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W as an integral part of the housing structure forming the rear housing wall 12R. For example, the rear housing wall 12R of the device 10 may comprise a planar metal structure, and a portion of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W on the side of the housing 12 may be formed as a flat or curved vertically extending integral metal portion of the planar metal structure (e.g., the housing structures 12R and 12W may be formed from a continuous sheet of metal in a single configuration). Housing structures such as these may be machined from a metal block if desired and/or may comprise a plurality of metal pieces that are assembled together to form the housing 12. The rear housing wall 12R may have one or more, two or more, or three or more portions. The conductive portions of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W and/or the rear housing wall 12R may form one or more external surfaces of the device 10 (e.g., a surface visible to a user of the device 10), and/or may be implemented using internal structures that do not form external surfaces of the device 10 (e.g., a conductive housing structure that is not visible to a user of the device 10, such as a conductive structure covered with a layer (such as a thin decorative layer, protective coating, and/or other coating that may include a dielectric material such as glass, ceramic, plastic), or other structures that form external surfaces of the device 10 and/or that serve to hide conductive portions of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W and/or the rear housing wall 12R from a user's perspective).

Display 14 may have an array of pixels forming an active area AA that displays an image of a user of device 10. For example, the active area AA may include an array of display pixels. The pixel array may be formed from a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) component, an electrophoretic pixel array, a plasma display pixel array, an organic light emitting diode display pixel or other light emitting diode pixel array, an electrowetting display pixel array, or display pixels based on other display technologies. If desired, the active area AA may include touch sensors, such as touch sensor capacitive electrodes, force sensors, or other sensors for collecting user input.

The display 14 may have an inactive border area extending along one or more edges of the active area AA. Inactive area IA of display 14 may have no pixels for displaying images and may overlap with circuitry and other internal device structures in housing 12. To prevent these structures from being viewed by a user of device 10, the underside of the display overlay or other layers in display 14 that overlap inactive area IA may be coated with an opaque masking layer in inactive area IA. The opaque masking layer may have any suitable color. Inactive area IA may include a recessed area, such as a notch 8 extending into active area AA. The active area AA may be defined, for example, by a lateral area of a display module (e.g., a display module including pixel circuitry, touch sensor circuitry, etc.) of the display 14. The display module may have a recess or notch in the upper region 20 of the device 10 that is free of active display circuitry (i.e., the notch 8 forming inactive area IA). The recess 8 may be a substantially rectangular area surrounded (defined) on three sides by the active area AA and on the fourth side by the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W.

Display 14 may be protected using a display cover layer, such as a transparent glass, a light-transmissive plastic, a transparent ceramic, sapphire or other transparent crystalline material layer, or one or more other transparent layers. The display cover layer may have a planar shape, a convex curved profile, a shape with a plane and a curved portion, a layout including a planar main area surrounding on one or more edges, where a portion of the one or more edges is bent out of the plane of the planar main area, or other suitable shape. The display cover layer may cover the entire front face of the device 10. In another suitable arrangement, the display overlay may cover substantially all of the front face of the device 10 or only a portion of the front face of the device 10. An opening may be formed in the display cover layer. For example, openings may be formed in the display cover layer to accommodate the buttons. Openings may also be formed in the display cover layer to accommodate ports such as speaker port 16 or microphone port in recess 8. If desired, openings may be formed in the housing 12 to form communication ports (e.g., audio jack ports, digital data ports, etc.) and/or audio ports for audio components, such as speakers and/or microphones.

Display 14 may include conductive structures such as an array of capacitive electrodes of a touch sensor, conductive lines for addressing pixels, driver circuitry, and the like. The housing 12 may include internal conductive structures such as metal frame members and planar conductive housing members (sometimes referred to as backplates) that span the walls of the housing 12 (i.e., substantially rectangular sheets formed from one or more metal portions welded or otherwise connected between opposite sides of the peripheral conductive structure 12W). The backplate may form an exterior rear surface of the device 10, or may be covered by a layer such as a thin cosmetic layer, protective coating, and/or other coating that may contain a dielectric material such as glass, ceramic, plastic, or other structure that may form an exterior surface of the device 10 and/or serve to hide the backplate from view by a user. Device 10 may also include conductive structures such as printed circuit boards, components mounted on printed circuit boards, and other internal conductive structures. For example, these conductive structures that may be used to form a ground plane in device 10 may extend under active area AA of display 14.

In regions 22 and 20, openings may be formed within conductive structures of device 10 (e.g., between peripheral conductive housing structure 12W and opposing conductive ground structures such as conductive portions of rear housing wall 12R, conductive traces on a printed circuit board, conductive electronic components in display 14, etc.). These openings, which may sometimes be referred to as gaps, may be filled with air, plastic, and/or other dielectrics and may be used to form slot antenna resonating elements for one or more antennas in device 10, if desired.

Conductive housing structures and other conductive structures in device 10 may serve as a ground plane for an antenna in device 10. The openings in region 22 and region 20 may serve as slots in an open slot antenna or a closed slot antenna, may serve as a central dielectric region surrounded by a conductive path of material in a loop antenna, may serve as a space separating an antenna resonating element (such as a strip antenna resonating element or an inverted-F antenna resonating element) from a ground plane, may contribute to the performance of a parasitic antenna resonating element, or may otherwise serve as part of the antenna structure formed in region 22 and region 20. If desired, the ground layer under the active area AA of display 14 and/or other metal structures in device 10 may have a portion that extends into a portion of the end of device 10 (e.g., the ground portion may extend toward the dielectric-filled openings in areas 22 and 20), thereby narrowing the slots in areas 22 and 20.

In general, device 10 may include any suitable number of antennas (e.g., one or more, two or more, three or more, four or more, etc.). The antennas in device 10 may be located at opposing first and second ends of an elongated device housing (e.g., ends at regions 22 and 20 of device 10 of fig. 1), along one or more edges of the device housing, in the center of the device housing, in other suitable locations, or in one or more of these locations. The arrangement of fig. 1 is merely exemplary.

Portions of the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may be provided with a peripheral gap structure. For example, the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may be provided with one or more gaps, such as the gap 18 shown in fig. 1. The gaps in the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may be filled with a dielectric such as a polymer, ceramic, glass, air, other dielectric material, or a combination of these materials. The gap 18 may divide the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W into one or more peripheral conductive segments. The conductive segments formed in this manner may form part of an antenna in the device 10, if desired. Other dielectric openings may be formed in the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W (e.g., dielectric openings other than the gap 18) and may serve as dielectric antenna windows for antennas mounted within the interior of the device 10. An antenna within the device 10 may be aligned with the dielectric antenna window for transmitting radio frequency signals through the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W. The antenna within device 10 may also be aligned with inactive area IA of display 14 for transmitting radio frequency signals through display 14.

In order to provide the end user of the device 10 with as large a display as possible (e.g., to maximize the area of the device used to display media, run applications, etc.), it may be desirable to increase the amount of area covered by the active area AA of the display 14 at the front of the device 10. Increasing the size of active area AA may decrease the size of inactive area IA within device 10. This may reduce the area behind display 14 available for antennas within device 10. For example, the active area AA of display 14 may include conductive structures for preventing radio frequency signals processed by antennas mounted behind the active area AA from radiating through the front face of device 10. It is therefore desirable to be able to provide an antenna that occupies a small amount of space within the device 10 (e.g., allows as large an active area AA of the display as possible), while still allowing the antenna to communicate with wireless equipment external to the device 10, with a satisfactory efficiency bandwidth.

In a typical scenario, device 10 may have one or more upper antennas and one or more lower antennas (as an example). For example, an upper antenna may be formed in the region 20 at the upper end of the device 10. For example, a lower antenna may be formed in region 22 at the lower end of device 10. Additional antennas may be formed along the edges of housing 12 extending between region 22 and region 20, if desired. The antennas may be used individually to cover the same communication band, overlapping communication bands, or individual communication bands. The antenna may be used to implement an antenna diversity scheme or a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna scheme. Other antennas for covering any other desired frequencies may also be mounted at any desired location within the interior of the device 10. The example of fig. 1 is merely illustrative. The housing 12 can have other shapes (e.g., square shape, cylindrical shape, spherical shape, combinations of these shapes, and/or different shapes, etc.) if desired.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of illustrative components that may be used in the apparatus 10. As shown in fig. 2, device 10 may include control circuitry 28. The control circuitry 28 may include a memory bank such as memory circuitry 30. The storage circuitry 30 may include hard disk drive storage, non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory or other electrically programmable read-only memory configured to form a solid state drive), volatile memory (e.g., static random access memory or dynamic random access memory), and so forth. Control circuitry 28 may include processing circuitry such as processing circuitry 32. Processing circuitry 32 may be used to control the operation of device 10. The processing circuit 32 may include one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, host processors, baseband processor integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits, Central Processing Units (CPUs), and the like. The control circuitry 28 may be configured to perform operations in the device 10 using hardware (e.g., dedicated hardware or circuitry), firmware, and/or software. Software code for performing operations in the device 10 may be stored on the storage circuitry 30 (e.g., the storage circuitry 30 may include a non-transitory (tangible) computer readable storage medium storing the software code). The software code may sometimes be referred to as program instructions, software, data, instructions, or code. The software codes stored on the storage circuit 30 may be executed by the processing circuit 32.

Control circuitry 28 may be used to run software on device 10 such as an internet browsing application, a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone call application, an email application, a media playback application, operating system functions, and the like. To support interaction with external equipment, control circuitry 28 may be used to implement a communication protocol. Communication protocols that may be implemented using control circuitry 28 include internet protocols, wireless local area network protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocols-sometimes referred to as IEEE 802.11 protocols)) Protocols for other short-range wireless communication links such asProtocols or other WPAN protocols, IEEE 802.11ad protocols, cellular telephone protocols, MIMO protocols, antenna diversity protocols, satellite navigation system protocols, antenna-based spatial ranging protocols (e.g., radio detection and ranging (RADAR) protocols or other desired range detection protocols for signals transmitted at millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave frequencies), and the like. Each communication protocol may be associated with a corresponding Radio Access Technology (RAT) that specifies the physical connection method used to implement the protocol.

The device 10 may include input-output circuitry 24. The input-output circuitry 24 may include an input-output device 26. Input-output devices 26 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to external devices. The input-output devices 26 may include user interface devices, data port devices, sensors, and other input-output components. For example, input-output devices may include touch screens, displays without touch sensor capability, buttons, joysticks, scroll wheels, touch pads, keypads, keyboards, microphones, cameras, speakers, status indicators, light sources, audio jacks, and other audio port components, digital data port devices, light sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, or other components that can detect motion and device orientation relative to the earth, capacitive sensors, proximity sensors (e.g., capacitive proximity sensors and/or infrared proximity sensors), magnetic sensors, and other sensors and input-output components.

The input-output circuitry 24 may include wireless circuitry, such as wireless circuitry 34 for wirelessly transmitting radio frequency signals. Although the control circuit 28 is shown separately from the wireless circuit 34 in the example of fig. 2 for clarity, the wireless circuit 34 may include processing circuitry that forms part of the processing circuit 32 and/or memory circuitry that forms part of the memory circuit 30 of the control circuit 28 (e.g., part of the control circuit 28 that may be implemented on the wireless circuit 34). For example, the control circuitry 28 may include baseband processor circuitry or other control components that form part of the wireless circuitry 34.

The wireless circuitry 34 may include millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave transceiver circuitry such as millimeter-wave/centimeter-wave transceiver circuitry 38. The millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may support communication at frequencies between approximately 10GHz and 300 GHz. For example, the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may support communication in an Extremely High Frequency (EHF) or millimeter wave communication band between about 30GHz and 300GHz and/or in a centimeter wave communication band between about 10GHz and 30GHz, sometimes referred to as the ultra high frequency (SHF) band. For example, millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may support communication in the following communication bands: IEEE K communication band between about 18GHz and 27GHz, K-_aCommunication band, K between about 12GHz and 18GHz_uA communication band, a V communication band between about 40GHz and 75GHz, a W communication band between about 75GHz and 110GHz, or any other desired band between about 10GHz and 300 GHz. If desired, millimeter/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may support IEEE 802.11ad communication at 60GHz and/or a 5 th generation mobile network or 5 th generation wireless system (5G) communication band between 27GHz and 90 GHz. The millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may be formed from one or more integrated circuits (e.g., multiple integrated circuits mounted on a common printed circuit in a system-in-package device, one or more integrated circuits mounted on a different substrate, etc.).

If desired, the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 (sometimes referred to herein simply as transceiver circuitry 38 or millimeter wave/centimeter wave circuitry 38) may perform spatial ranging operations using radio frequency signals at millimeter wave and/or centimeter wave signals transmitted and received by the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38. The received signal may be a version of the transmitted signal that has been reflected from an external object and returned to the device 10. Control circuitry 28 may process the transmitted and received signals to detect or estimate a distance between device 10 and one or more external objects surrounding device 10 (e.g., objects external to device 10, such as a body of a user or other person, other devices, animals, furniture, walls, or other objects or obstacles near device 10). Control circuitry 28 may also process the transmitted signals and the received signals to identify the two-or three-dimensional spatial location of the external object relative to apparatus 10, if desired.

The spatial ranging operation performed by the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 is unidirectional. The millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may perform bi-directional communication with external wireless equipment. Two-way communication involves the transmission of wireless data by the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 and the reception of the transmitted wireless data by external wireless equipment. The wireless data may include, for example, data that has been encoded into corresponding data packets, such as wireless data associated with a telephone call, streaming media content, internet browsing, wireless data associated with a software application running on device 10, an email message, and so forth.

If desired, the radio circuitry 34 may include transceiver circuitry for handling communications at frequencies below 10GHz, such as non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 36. The non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 36 may include processing forWireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceiver circuitry for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands of (IEEE 802.11) communications, handling 2.4GhzWireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) transceiver circuitry for communication bands, cellular telephone transceiver circuitry for handling cellular telephone communication bands from 700MHz to 960MHz, 1710MHz to 2170MHz, 2300MHz to 2700MHz, and/or any other desired cellular telephone communication band between 600MHz and 4000MHz, GPS receiver circuitry for receiving GPS signals at 1575MHz or signals for handling other satellite positioning data (e.g., GLONASS signals at 1609 MHz), television receiver circuitry, AM/FM radio receiver circuitry, paging system transceiver circuitry, ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver circuitry, Near Field Communication (NFC) circuitry, and the like. Non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 36 and millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may each include one or more integrated circuits, power amplifier circuitry, low noise input amplifiers, passive radio frequency components, switching circuitry, transmission line structures, and other circuitry for processing radio frequency signals. The non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 36 may be omitted, if desired.

The radio circuit 34 may include an antenna 40. Non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 36 may use one or more antennas 40 to transmit radio frequency signals below 10 GHz. The millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may use the antenna 40 to transmit radio frequency signals above 10GHz (e.g., at millimeter wave and/or centimeter wave frequencies). In general, the transceiver circuits 36 and 38 may be configured to cover (process) any suitable communications (frequency) band of interest. The transceiver circuitry may use antenna 40 to transmit radio frequency signals (e.g., antenna 40 may transmit radio frequency signals for the transceiver circuitry). As used herein, the term "communicating radio frequency signals" means transmission and/or reception of radio frequency signals (e.g., for performing one-way and/or two-way wireless communication with external wireless communication equipment). The antenna 40 may transmit radio frequency signals by radiating them (or through intervening device structures such as dielectric overlays) into free space. Additionally or alternatively, antenna 40 may receive radio frequency signals from free space (e.g., through intervening device structures such as a dielectric cover layer). Transmission and reception of radio frequency signals by antenna 40 each involves excitation or resonance of an antenna current on an antenna resonating element in the antenna by radio frequency signals within an operating frequency band of the antenna.

In satellite navigation system links, cellular telephone links, and other long-range links, radio frequency signals are typically used to transmit data over thousands of feet or miles. At 2.4GHz and 5GHzLink andin links, as well as other short-range wireless links, radio frequency signals are typically used to transmit data over tens or hundreds of feet. The millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 may transmit radio frequency signals over short distances traveling on the line-of-sight path. To enhance signal reception for millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave communications, phased antenna arrays and beam steering techniques (e.g., schemes in which the antenna signal phase and/or amplitude of each antenna in the array is adjusted to perform beam steering) may be used. Antenna diversity schemes may also be used to ensure that antennas have begun to be blocked or otherwise degraded since the operating environment of device 10 can be switched to non-use and to use higher performance antennas in their place.

The antenna 40 in the radio circuit 34 may be formed using any suitable antenna type. For example, antenna 40 may include an antenna having a resonating element formed from a stacked patch antenna structure, a loop antenna structure, a patch antenna structure, an inverted-F antenna structure, a slot antenna structure, a planar inverted-F antenna structure, a monopole antenna structure, a dipole antenna structure, a helical antenna structure, a Yagi-Uda antenna structure, a hybrid of these designs, and/or the like. In another suitable arrangement, antenna 40 may comprise an antenna having a dielectric resonating element, such as a dielectric resonating antenna. One or more of antennas 40 may be cavity-backed antennas, if desired. Different types of antennas may be used for different frequency bands and combinations of frequency bands. For example, one type of antenna may be used to form a non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave wireless link for the non-millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 36, while another type of antenna may be used to communicate radio frequency signals at millimeter wave and/or centimeter wave frequencies for the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38. Antennas 40 for transmitting radio frequency signals at millimeter-wave and/or centimeter-wave frequencies may be arranged in one or more phased antenna arrays.

A schematic diagram of an antenna 40 that may be formed in a phased antenna array for transmitting radio frequency signals at millimeter wave and/or centimeter wave frequencies is shown in fig. 3. As shown in fig. 3, an antenna 40 may be coupled to millimeter/centimeter (MM/CM) wave transceiver circuitry 38. The millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave transceiver circuitry 38 may be coupled to an antenna feed 44 of the antenna 40 using a transmission line path that includes a radio frequency transmission line 42. The radio frequency transmission line 42 may include a positive signal conductor, such as signal conductor 46, and may include a ground conductor, such as ground conductor 48. Ground conductor 48 may be coupled to an antenna ground of antenna 40 (e.g., on a ground antenna feed terminal of antenna feed 44 located at the antenna ground). Signal conductor 46 may be coupled to an antenna resonating element of antenna 40. For example, the signal conductor 46 may be coupled to a positive antenna feed terminal of the antenna feed 44 located at the antenna resonating element.

In another suitable arrangement, the antenna 40 may be a probe-fed antenna that is fed using a feed probe. In this arrangement, the antenna feed 44 may be implemented as a feed probe. The signal conductor 46 may be coupled to a feed probe. The rf transmission line 42 may transmit rf signals to and from the feed probe. When a radio frequency signal is being transmitted over the feed probe and the antenna, the feed probe may excite a resonating element of the antenna (e.g., may excite an electromagnetic resonance mode of a dielectric antenna resonating element of antenna 40). The resonant element may radiate a radio frequency signal in response to being excited by the feed probe. Similarly, when the antenna receives a radio frequency signal (e.g., from free space), the radio frequency signal may excite a resonating element of the antenna (e.g., may excite an electromagnetic resonance mode of a dielectric antenna resonating element of antenna 40). This may generate an antenna current on the feed probe and a corresponding radio frequency signal may be passed to the transceiver circuitry through the radio frequency transmission line.

The radio frequency transmission line 42 may include a stripline transmission line (sometimes referred to herein simply as a stripline), a coaxial cable, a coaxial probe implemented with a metallized via, a microstrip transmission line, an edge-coupled stripline transmission line, a waveguide structure, combinations of these, and so forth. Various types of transmission lines may be used to form the transmission line path coupling the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 to the antenna feed 44. Filter circuits, switching circuits, impedance matching circuits, phase shifter circuits, amplifier circuits, and/or other circuits may be interposed on the radio frequency transmission line 42, if desired.

The radio frequency transmission line in the device 10 may be integrated into a ceramic substrate, a rigid printed circuit board, and/or a flexible printed circuit. In one suitable arrangement, the radio frequency transmission line in the device 10 may be integrated within a multi-layer laminate structure (e.g., a layer of conductive material (such as copper) and a layer of dielectric material (such as resin) laminated together without an intervening adhesive), which may be folded or bent in multiple dimensions (e.g., two or three dimensions), and retain the bent or folded shape after bending (e.g., the multi-layer laminate structure may be folded into a particular three-dimensional shape to route around other device components, and may be sufficiently rigid to retain its shape after folding without being held in place by stiffeners or other structures). All of the multiple layers of the laminate structure may be laminated together in batches without adhesive (e.g., in a single pressing process) (e.g., as opposed to performing multiple pressing processes to adhesively laminate the multiple layers together).

Fig. 4 shows how antennas 40 for processing radio frequency signals at millimeter and centimeter wave frequencies may be formed in a phased antenna array. As shown in fig. 4, a phased antenna array 54 (sometimes referred to herein as an array 54, an antenna array 54, or an array 54 of antennas 40) may be coupled to the radio frequency transmission line 42. For example, a first antenna 40-1 in the phased antenna array 54 may be coupled to a first radio frequency transmission line 42-1, a second antenna 40-2 in the phased antenna array 54 may be coupled to a second radio frequency transmission line 42-2, an nth antenna 40-N in the phased antenna array 54 may be coupled to an nth radio frequency transmission line 42-N, and so on. Although the antennas 40 are described herein as forming a phased antenna array, the antennas 40 in the phased antenna array 54 may sometimes also be referred to as collectively forming a single phased array antenna.

The antennas 40 in the phased antenna array 54 may be arranged in any desired number of rows and columns or in any other desired pattern (e.g., the antennas need not be arranged in a grid pattern having rows and columns). During signal transmission operations, the radio frequency transmission line 42 may be used to supply signals (e.g., radio frequency signals, such as millimeter wave and/or centimeter wave signals) from the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 (fig. 3) to the phased antenna array 54 for wireless transmission. During signal reception operations, the radio frequency transmission line 42 may be used to supply signals received at the phased antenna array 54 (e.g., transmit signals received from external wireless equipment, or that have been reflected by external objects) to the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 (fig. 3).

The use of multiple antennas 40 in a phased antenna array 54 allows for beam steering arrangements to be achieved by controlling the relative phases and amplitudes (amplitudes) of the radio frequency signals transmitted by the antennas. In the example of fig. 4, the antennas 40 each have a corresponding radio frequency phase and amplitude controller 50 (e.g., a first phase and amplitude controller 50-1 interposed on the radio frequency transmission line 42-1 may control the phase and amplitude of radio frequency signals processed by the antenna 40-1, a second phase and amplitude controller 50-2 interposed on the radio frequency transmission line 42-2 may control the phase and amplitude of radio frequency signals processed by the antenna 40-2, an nth phase and amplitude controller 50-N interposed on the radio frequency transmission line 42-N may control the phase and amplitude of radio frequency signals processed by the antenna 40-N, etc.).

The phase and amplitude controllers 50 may each include circuitry for adjusting the phase of the radio frequency signal on the radio frequency transmission line 42 (e.g., a phase shifter circuit) and/or circuitry for adjusting the amplitude of the radio frequency signal on the radio frequency transmission line 42 (e.g., a power amplifier and/or a low noise amplifier circuit). The phase and amplitude controller 50 may sometimes be referred to herein collectively as a beam steering circuit (e.g., a beam steering circuit that steers a beam of radio frequency signals transmitted and/or received by the phased antenna array 54).

The phase and amplitude controller 50 may adjust the relative phase and/or amplitude of the transmit signals provided to each antenna in the phased antenna array 54 and may adjust the relative phase and/or amplitude of the receive signals received by the phased antenna array 54. If desired, the phase and amplitude controller 50 may include phase detection circuitry for detecting the phase of the received signal received by the phased antenna array 54. The terms "beam" or "signal beam" may be used herein to collectively refer to a wireless signal transmitted and received by phased antenna array 54 in a particular direction. The signal beams may exhibit peak gains that are oriented in a particular pointing direction at a corresponding pointing angle (e.g., based on constructive and destructive interference of the signal combinations from each antenna in a phased antenna array). The term "transmit beam" may sometimes be used herein to refer to radio frequency signals transmitted in a particular direction, while the term "receive beam" may sometimes be used herein to refer to radio frequency signals received from a particular direction.

For example, if the phase and amplitude controller 50 is adjusted to produce a first set of phases and/or amplitudes of the transmitted radio frequency signal, the transmitted signal will form a transmit beam directed in the direction of point a as shown by beam B1 of fig. 4. However, if the phase and amplitude controller 50 is adjusted to produce a second set of phases and/or amplitudes of the transmit signals, the transmit signals will form transmit beams that are directed in the direction of point B as shown by beam B2. Similarly, if the phase and amplitude controller 50 is adjusted to produce a first set of phases and/or amplitudes, then a radio frequency signal may be received from the direction of point a (e.g., a radio frequency signal in a received beam), as shown by beam B1. If the phase and amplitude controller 50 is adjusted to produce the second set of phases and/or amplitudes, then the radio frequency signal may be received from the direction of point B, as shown by beam B2.

Each phase and amplitude controller 50 may be controlled to produce a desired phase and/or amplitude based on a corresponding control signal 52 received from control circuit 28 of fig. 2 (e.g., the phase and/or amplitude provided by phase and amplitude controller 50-1 may be controlled using control signal 52-1, the phase and/or amplitude provided by phase and amplitude controller 50-2 may be controlled using control signal 52-2, etc.). If desired, the control circuitry may actively adjust the control signals 52 in real time to steer the transmit beam or receive beam in different desired directions over time. Phase and amplitude controller 50 may provide information identifying the phase of the received signal to control circuit 28, if desired.

When wireless communications are performed using radio frequency signals at millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave frequencies, the radio frequency signals are transmitted on the line-of-sight path between the phased antenna array 54 and external communications equipment. If the external object is located at point A of FIG. 4, the adjustable phase and amplitude controller 50 directs the signal beam toward point A with a steering (e.g., directs the signal beam toward point A with a steering). Phased antenna array 54 may transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the direction of point a. Similarly, if the external communication equipment is located at point B, the phase and amplitude controller 50 may be adjusted to steer the signal beam toward point B (e.g., to steer the pointing direction of the signal beam toward point B). Phased antenna array 54 may transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the direction of point B. In the example of fig. 4, beam steering is shown to be performed in a single degree of freedom (e.g., to the left and right on the page of fig. 4) for simplicity. In practice, however, the beam may be steered in two or more degrees of freedom (e.g., into and out of the page in three dimensions and to the left and right on the page of fig. 4). The phased antenna array 54 may have a corresponding field of view over which beam steering may be performed (e.g., in a hemisphere or a section of a hemisphere on the phased antenna array). If desired, the device 10 may include multiple phased antenna arrays that each face different directions to provide coverage from multiple sides of the device.

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of device 10 in an example where device 10 has multiple phased antenna arrays. As shown in fig. 5, a peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may extend around the (lateral) periphery of the device 10 and may extend from the rear housing wall 12R to the display 14. Display 14 may have a display module such as display module 68 (sometimes referred to as a display panel). Display module 68 may include pixel circuitry, touch sensor circuitry, force sensor circuitry, and/or any other desired circuitry for forming active area AA of display 14. Display 14 may include a dielectric cover layer, such as display cover layer 56, that overlaps display module 68. Display module 68 may emit image light and may receive sensor input through display overlay 56. The display cover layer 56 and the display 14 may be mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W. The lateral regions of display 14 that do not overlap display module 68 may form inactive area IA of display 14.

The apparatus 10 may include a plurality of phase antenna arrays 54, such as a rear facing phased antenna array 54-1. As shown in fig. 5, the phased antenna array 54-1 may transmit and receive radio frequency signals 60 at millimeter and centimeter wave frequencies through the rear housing wall 12R. In the case where the rear housing wall 12R includes a metal portion, the radio frequency signal 60 may be transmitted through a hole or opening in the metal portion of the rear housing wall 12R, or may be transmitted through other dielectric portions of the rear housing wall 12R. The aperture may overlap a dielectric cover or coating that extends across a lateral region of the rear housing wall 12R (e.g., between the peripheral conductive housing structures 12W). Phased antenna array 54-1 may perform beam steering for radio frequency signal 60 across a hemisphere below device 10, as indicated by arrow 62.

Phased antenna array 54-1 may be mounted to a substrate, such as substrate 64. Substrate 64 may be an integrated circuit chip, a flexible printed circuit, a rigid printed circuit board, or other substrate. The substrate 64 may sometimes be referred to herein as an antenna module 64. Transceiver circuitry (e.g., millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 of fig. 2) may be mounted to the antenna module 64, if desired. The phased antenna array 54-1 may be adhered to the rear housing wall 12R using an adhesive, may be pressed against (e.g., contacted by) the rear housing wall 12R, or may be spaced apart from the rear housing wall 12R.

The field of view of phased antenna array 54-1 is limited to the hemisphere below the back of device 10. Display module 68 and other components 58 (e.g., portions of input-output circuitry 24 or control circuitry 28 of fig. 2, a battery for device 10, etc.) in device 10 include electrically conductive structures. These conductive structures may prevent radio frequency signals from being transmitted by a phased antenna array within device 10 across the hemisphere on the front face of device 10 if careless. While an additional phased antenna array for covering the hemisphere on the front face of the device 10 may be mounted against the display cover layer 56 within the inactive area IA, there may not be enough space between the lateral periphery of the display module 68 and the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W to form all of the circuitry and radio frequency transmission lines necessary to fully support the phased antenna array.

To alleviate these problems and provide coverage throughout the front of the device 10, a front facing phased antenna array may be mounted within the peripheral area 66 of the device 10. The antennas in the front facing phased antenna array may comprise dielectric resonator antennas. Dielectric resonator antennas may occupy less area in the X-Y plane of fig. 5 than other types of antennas, such as patch antennas and slot antennas. Implementing the antenna as a dielectric resonator antenna may allow the radiating elements of the front facing phased antenna array to fit within the inactive area IA between the display module 68 and the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W. Also, the radio frequency transmission lines and other components of the phased antenna array may be located behind (below) the display module 68.

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional side view of an exemplary dielectric resonator antenna in a front-facing phased antenna array of apparatus 10. As shown in fig. 6, device 10 may include a front-facing phased antenna array with a given antenna 40 (e.g., mounted within peripheral area 66 of fig. 5). The antenna 40 of fig. 6 may be a dielectric resonator antenna. In this example, antenna 40 includes a dielectric resonant element 92 mounted to an underlying substrate, such as flexible printed circuit 72. This example is merely illustrative, and the flexible printed circuit 72 may be replaced with a rigid printed circuit board, a plastic substrate, or any other desired substrate, if desired.

The flexible printed circuit 72 has a transverse region (e.g., in the X-Y plane of fig. 6) that extends along the rear housing wall 12R. The flexible printed circuit 72 may be adhered to the rear housing wall 12R using an adhesive, may be pressed against (e.g., placed in contact with) the rear housing wall 12R, or may be separate from the rear housing wall 12R. The flexible printed circuit 72 may have a first end at the antenna 40 and an opposite second end coupled to millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry (e.g., the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry 38 of fig. 2) in the device 10. In one suitable arrangement, the second end of the flexible printed circuit 72 may be coupled to the antenna module 64 of fig. 5.

As shown in fig. 6, the flexible printed circuit 72 may include stacked dielectric layers 70. Dielectric layer 70 may comprise polyimide, ceramic, liquid crystal polymer, plastic, and/or any other desired dielectric material. Conductive traces such as conductive trace 82 may be patterned on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. Conductive traces such as conductive trace 80 may be patterned on the opposing bottom surface 78 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The conductive trace 80 may be held at ground potential and, therefore, may sometimes be referred to herein as a ground trace 80. The ground traces 80 may be shorted to additional ground traces within the flexible printed circuit 72 and/or on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72 using conductive vias (not shown in fig. 6 for clarity) extending through the flexible printed circuit 72. Ground trace 80 may form a portion of an antenna ground for antenna 40. The ground trace 80 may be coupled to system ground in the apparatus 10 (e.g., using solder, solder joints, conductive adhesives, conductive tapes, conductive brackets, conductive pins, conductive screws, conductive clips, combinations of these). For example, the ground trace 80 may be coupled to the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W, a conductive portion of the rear housing wall 12R, or other ground structure in the device 10. The example of fig. 6 is merely illustrative, with the conductive traces 82 formed on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72 and the ground traces 80 formed on the bottom surface 78 of the flexible printed circuit 72. If desired, one or more dielectric layers 70 may be layered over the conductive traces 82 and/or one or more dielectric layers 70 may be layered under the ground traces 80.

The antenna 40 may be fed using a radio frequency transmission line, such as the radio frequency transmission line 74, formed on the flexible printed circuit 72 and/or embedded within the flexible printed circuit 72. The radio frequency transmission line 74 (e.g., a given radio frequency transmission line 42 of fig. 3) may include a ground trace 80 and a conductive trace 82. The portion of the ground trace 80 that overlaps the conductive trace 82 may form a ground conductor (e.g., ground conductor 48 of fig. 3) of the radio frequency transmission line 74. The conductive traces 82 may form signal conductors (e.g., signal conductors 46 of fig. 3) of the radio frequency transmission line 74, and thus may sometimes be referred to herein as signal traces 82. The rf transmission line 74 may carry rf signals between the antenna 40 and the mm wave/cm wave transceiver circuitry. The example of fig. 6 is merely illustrative, where antenna 40 is fed using signal trace 82 and ground trace 80. In general, antenna 40 may be fed using any desired transmission line structure in flexible printed circuit 72 and/or on flexible printed circuit 72.

The dielectric resonating element 92 of the antenna 40 may be formed from a column (pillar) of dielectric material that is mounted to the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. If desired, the dielectric resonant element 92 may be embedded (e.g., laterally surrounded) within a dielectric substrate, such as the dielectric substrate 90, that is mounted to the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The dielectric substrate 90 and the dielectric resonant elements 92 extend from a bottom surface 100 at the flexible printed circuit 72 to an opposite top surface 98 at the display 14.

The operating (resonant) frequency of antenna 40 may be selected by adjusting the dimensions of dielectric resonating element 92 (e.g., in the direction of the X-axis, Y-axis, and/or Z-axis of fig. 6). The dielectric resonant element 92 may be formed of a dielectric constant d_k3The dielectric material pillar of (2). Dielectric constant d_k3May be relatively high (e.g., greater than 10.0, greater than 12.0, greater than 15.0, greater than 20.0, between 15.0 and 40.0, between 10.0 and 50.0, between 18.0 and 30.0, between 12.0 and 45.0, etc.). In one suitable arrangement, the dielectric resonator element 92 may be formed from zirconia or a ceramic material. Other dielectric materials may be used to form the dielectric resonant element 92 if desired.

The dielectric substrate 90 may have a dielectric constant d_k4Is formed of the material of (1). Dielectric constant d_k4May be smaller than the dielectric constant d of the dielectric resonance element 92_k3(e.g., less than 18.0, less than 15.0, less than 10.0, between 3.0 and 4.0, less than 5.0, between 2.0 and 5.0, etc.). Dielectric constant d_k4Comparable dielectric constant d_k3At least 10.0, 5.0, 15.0, 12.0, 6.0, etc. smaller. In one suitable arrangement, the dielectric substrate 90 may be formed from a molded plastic (e.g., an injection molded plastic). Other dielectric materials may be used to form the dielectric substrate 90,

or the dielectric substrate 90 may be omitted if desired. The difference in dielectric constant between the dielectric resonant element 92 and the dielectric substrate 90 may establish a radio frequency boundary condition between the dielectric resonant element 92 and the dielectric substrate 90 from the bottom surface 100 to the top surface 98. This may configure the dielectric resonant element 92 to act as a waveguide for propagating radio frequency signals at millimeter-wave and centimeter-wave frequencies.

The dielectric substrate 90 may have a width (thickness) 106 on each side of the dielectric resonant element 92. The width 106 may be selected to isolate the dielectric resonant element 92 from the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W and to minimize signal reflections in the dielectric substrate 90. Width 106 may be, for example, a dielectric constant d_k4At least one tenth of the effective wavelength of the radio frequency signal in the dielectric material. For example, the width 106 may be 0.4-0.5mm, 0.3-0.5mm, 0.2-0.6mm, greater than 0.1mm, greater than 0.3mm, 0.2-2.0mm, 0.3-1.0mm, or greater than 0.4mm to 0.5 mm.

The dielectric resonant element 92 may radiate an rf signal 104 when excited by the signal conductor of the rf transmission line 74. In some cases, the slot is formed in a ground trace on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit, the slot is indirectly fed by a signal conductor embedded within the flexible printed circuit 72, and the slot excites the dielectric resonant element 92 to radiate the radio frequency signal 104. However, in these cases, the radiation characteristics of the antenna may be affected by how the dielectric resonant element is mounted to the flexible printed circuit 72. For example, air gaps or adhesive layers used to mount the dielectric resonant element to the flexible printed circuit may be difficult to control and may inadvertently affect the radiation characteristics of the antenna. To alleviate the problems associated with using an underlying slot to excite dielectric resonant element 92, antenna 40 may be fed using a radio frequency feed probe, such as feed probe 85. Feed probe 85 may form a portion of an antenna feed (e.g., antenna feed 44 of fig. 3) of antenna 40.

As shown in fig. 6, the feed probe 85 may be formed from a conductive trace 84. The conductive trace 84 may include a first portion patterned onto a given sidewall 102 of the dielectric resonator element 92 (e.g., a conductive patch on the sidewall 102 formed using a sputtering process or other conductive deposition technique). The conductive trace 84 may include a second portion coupled to the signal trace 82 using a conductive interconnect structure 86. The conductive interconnect structure 86 may include solder, solder joints, conductive adhesives, conductive tapes, conductive foams, conductive springs, conductive brackets, and/or any other desired conductive interconnect structure. The feed probe 85 may be formed from any desired conductive structure (e.g., conductive traces, conductive foils, metal sheets, and/or other conductive structures).

The signal trace 82 may carry radio frequency signals to and from the feed probe 85. The feed probe 85 may electromagnetically couple the radio frequency signal on the signal trace 82 into the dielectric resonant element 92. This may be used to excite one or more electromagnetic modes (e.g., radio frequency cavity modes or waveguide modes) of the dielectric resonant element 92. When excited by the feed probe 85, the electromagnetic mode of the dielectric resonant element 92 may configure the dielectric resonant element to act as a waveguide that propagates a wavefront of the radio frequency signal 104 along the length of the dielectric resonant element 92 (e.g., in the Z-axis direction of fig. 6) through the top surface 98 and through the display 14.

For example, during signal transmission, the radio frequency transmission line 74 may supply radio frequency signals from the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry to the antenna 40. The feed probe 85 may couple the radio frequency signal on the signal trace 82 into the dielectric resonant element 92. This may be used to excite one or more electromagnetic modes of the dielectric resonant element 92, thereby causing the radio frequency signal 104 to propagate up the length of the dielectric resonant element 92 and out of the device 10 through the display cover layer 56. Similarly, during signal reception, the radio frequency signal 104 may be received through the display overlay 56. The received radio frequency signal may excite an electromagnetic mode of the dielectric resonant element 92, thereby causing the radio frequency signal to propagate down the length of the dielectric resonant element 92. The feed probe 85 may couple the received radio frequency signal onto the radio frequency transmission line 74, which passes the radio frequency signal to the millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry. The relatively large difference in dielectric constants between the dielectric resonating element 92 and the dielectric substrate 90 may allow the dielectric resonating element 92 to transmit the radio frequency signal 104 with relatively high antenna efficiency (e.g., by establishing a strong boundary between the dielectric resonating element 92 and the dielectric substrate 90 for the radio frequency signal). The relatively high permittivity of the dielectric resonant element 92 may also allow the dielectric resonant element 92 to occupy a relatively small volume compared to the case where a material having a lower permittivity is used.

The dimensions of the feed probe 85 (e.g., in the directions of the X-axis and Z-axis of fig. 6) may be selected to help match the impedance of the radio frequency transmission line 74 with the impedance of the dielectric resonant element 92. Feed probe 85 may be positioned on a particular sidewall 102 of dielectric resonating element 92 to provide a desired linear polarization (e.g., vertical polarization or horizontal polarization) to antenna 40. If desired, multiple feed probes 85 may be formed on multiple sidewalls 102 of the dielectric resonator element 92 to configure the antenna 40 to cover multiple orthogonal linear polarizations simultaneously. The phase of each feed probe can be independently adjusted over time to provide other polarizations to the antenna, such as elliptical or circular polarizations, if desired. The feed probe 85 may sometimes be referred to herein as a feed conductor 85, feed patch 85, or probe feed 85. The dielectric resonating element 92 may sometimes be referred to herein as a dielectric radiating element, a dielectric radiator, a dielectric resonator, a dielectric antenna resonating element, a dielectric cylinder (column), a dielectric pillar (pilar), a radiating element, or a resonating element. A dielectric resonator antenna, such as antenna 40 of fig. 6, may sometimes be referred to herein as a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna when fed by one or more feed probes, such as feed probe 85.

The display cover layer 56 may be made of a material having a dielectric constant d less than_k3Has a dielectric constant of d_k1Is formed. For example, the dielectric constant may be between about 3.0 and 10.0 (e.g., between 4.0 and 9.0, between 5.0 and 8.0, between 5.5 and 7.0, between 5.0 and 7.0, etc.). In one suitable arrangement, the display cover layer 56 may be formed of glass, plastic, or sapphire. If careless, a relatively large difference in dielectric constant between the display cover layer 56 and the dielectric resonating element 92 may cause undesirable signal reflections at the boundary between the display cover layer and the dielectric resonating element. These reflections can cause destructive interference between the transmitted and reflected signalsAnd stray signal losses that inadvertently limit the antenna efficiency of antenna 40.

To mitigate the effects, antenna 40 may be provided with an impedance matching layer, such as dielectric matching layer 94. The dielectric matching layer 94 may be mounted to a top surface 98 of the dielectric resonator element 92 between the dielectric resonator element 92 and the display cover layer 56. If desired, the dielectric matching layer 94 may be adhered to the dielectric resonant element 92 using an adhesive layer 96. An adhesive may also or alternatively be used to adhere the dielectric matching layer 94 to the display cover layer 56, if desired. The adhesive 96 may be relatively thin so as not to significantly affect the propagation of the radio frequency signal 104.

The dielectric matching layer 94 may be formed of a material having a dielectric constant d_k2Is formed. Dielectric constant d_k2Can be larger than the dielectric constant d_k1And less than the dielectric constant d_k3. E.g. dielectric constant d_k2May be equal to SQRT (d)_k1*d_k3) Where SQRT () is the square root operator and "+" is the multiplication operator. The presence of the dielectric matching layer 94 may allow radio frequency signals to propagate without facing the dielectric constant d_k1Material of (d) and a dielectric constant of_k3To help reduce signal reflections.

Dielectric matching layer 94 may be provided with thickness 88. Thickness 88 may be selected to be approximately equal to one quarter (e.g., within 15%) of the effective wavelength of radio frequency signal 104 in dielectric matching layer 94. By dividing the free-space wavelength of the radio frequency signal 104 (e.g., a centimeter or millimeter wavelength corresponding to a frequency between 10Ghz and 300 Ghz) by a constant factor (e.g., d_k3Square root of) gives the effective wavelength. When provided with thickness 88, dielectric matching layer 94 may form a quarter-wave impedance transformer that mitigates any destructive interference associated with reflecting radio frequency signals 104 at the boundaries between display cover layer 56, dielectric matching layer 94, and dielectric resonant element 92.

When configured in this manner, antenna 40 may radiate radio frequency signals 104 through the front face of device 10,

although it is coupled to millimeter wave/centimeter wave transceiver circuitry on a flexible printed circuit located at the rear of the device 10. The relatively narrow width of dielectric resonating element 92 may allow antenna 40 to fit in the volume between display module 68, other components 58, and peripheral conductive housing structure 12W. The antenna 40 of fig. 6 may be formed in a front facing phased antenna array that transmits radio frequency signals across at least a partial hemisphere on the front face of the device 10.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna of fig. 6 in a situation where the dielectric resonant element is fed using multiple feed probes for covering multiple polarizations. The peripheral conductive housing structure 12W, dielectric substrate 90, dielectric matching layer 94, adhesive 96, rear housing wall 12R, display 14, and other components 58 of fig. 6 have been omitted from fig. 7 for clarity.

As shown in fig. 7, dielectric resonating element 92 of antenna 40 is mounted to top surface 76 of flexible printed circuit 72. The antenna 40 may be fed using a plurality of feed probes 85, such as a first feed probe 85V and a second feed probe 85H mounted to the dielectric resonant element 92 and the flexible printed circuit 72. The feed probe 85V includes a conductive trace 84V patterned on a first sidewall 102 of the dielectric resonant element 92. The feed probe 85H includes a conductive trace 84H patterned on a second (orthogonal) sidewall 102 of the dielectric resonant element 92.

The antenna 40 may be fed using a plurality of radio frequency transmission lines 74, such as a first radio frequency transmission line 74V and a second radio frequency transmission line 74H. The first radio frequency transmission line 74V may include conductive traces 122V and 120V on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The conductive traces 122V and 120V may form part of a signal conductor (e.g., signal trace 82 of fig. 6) of the radio frequency transmission line 74V. Similarly, the second radio frequency transmission line 74H may include conductive traces 122H and 120H on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The conductive traces 122H and 120H may form part of a signal conductor (e.g., signal trace 82 of fig. 6) of the radio frequency transmission line 74H.

Conductive trace 122V may be narrower than conductive trace 120V. Conductive trace 122H may be narrower than conductive trace 120H. The conductive traces 120V and 120H may be, for example, conductive contact pads on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The conductive trace 84V of the feed probe 85V may be mounted and coupled to the conductive trace 120V (e.g., using the conductive interconnect structure 86 of fig. 6). Similarly, the conductive trace 84H of the feed probe 85H may be mounted and coupled to the conductive trace 120H.

The rf transmission line 74V and the feed probe 85V may transmit a first rf signal having a first linear polarization (e.g., a vertical polarization). When driven using a first radio frequency signal, the feed probe 85V may excite one or more electromagnetic modes of the dielectric resonant element 92 associated with a first polarization. When excited in this manner, a wavefront associated with the first radio frequency signal may propagate along the length of the dielectric resonant element 92 (e.g., along the central/longitudinal axis 109) and may be radiated through the display (e.g., through the display cover layer 56 of fig. 6).

Similarly, the radio frequency transmission line 74H and the feed probe 85H may transmit radio frequency signals having a second linear polarization orthogonal to the first polarization (e.g., horizontal polarization). When driven with a second radio frequency signal, the feed probe 85H may excite one or more electromagnetic modes of the dielectric resonant element 92 associated with the second polarization. When excited in this manner, a wavefront associated with the second radio frequency signal may propagate along the length of the dielectric resonant element 92 and may be radiated through the display (e.g., through the display cover layer 56 of fig. 6). Both feed probes 85H and 85V may be active simultaneously so that antenna 40 transmits both the first and second radio frequency signals at any given time. In another suitable arrangement, a single one of feed probes 85H and 85V may be active simultaneously, such that antenna 40 transmits radio frequency signals of only a single polarization at any given time.

The dielectric resonant element 92 may have a length 110, a width 112, and a height 114. The length 110, width 112, and height 114 may be selected to provide the dielectric resonant element 92 with a corresponding mix of electromagnetic cavity/waveguide modes that, when excited by the feed probes 85H and/or 85V, configure the antenna 40 to radiate at a desired frequency. For example, the height 114 may be 2-10mm, 4-6mm, 3-7mm, 4.5-5.5mm, or greater than 2 mm. The width 112 and length 110 may each be 0.5-1.0mm, 0.4-1.2mm, 0.7-0.9mm, 0.5-2.0mm, 1.5mm-2.5mm, 1.7mm-1.9mm, 1.0mm-3.0mm, and the like. Width 112 may be equal to length 110 or may be different than length 110 in other arrangements. The sidewalls 102 of the dielectric resonator element 92 may contact a surrounding dielectric substrate (e.g., the dielectric substrate 90 of fig. 6). The dielectric substrate may be molded over the feed probes 85H and 85V or may include openings, notches, or other structures that accommodate the presence of the feed probes 85H and 85V. The example of fig. 7 is merely illustrative, and the dielectric resonant element 92 can have other shapes (e.g., shapes having any desired number of straight sidewalls and/or curved sidewalls 102), if desired.

The conductive traces 84V and 84H may each have a width 118 and a height 116. The width 118 and height 116 may be selected to match the impedance of the radio frequency transmission lines 74V and 74H with the impedance of the dielectric resonant element 92. For example, the width 118 may be between 0.3mm and 0.7mm, between 0.2mm and 0.8mm, between 0.4mm and 0.6mm, or other values. The height 116 may be between 0.3mm and 0.7mm, between 0.2mm and 0.8mm, between 0.4mm and 0.6mm, or other values. The height 116 may be equal to the width 118 or may be different than the width 118.

Transmission lines 74V and 74H can include one or more transmission line matching stubs, such as matching stub 124 coupled to traces 122V and 122H, if desired. The matching stub 124 can help ensure that the impedance of the rf transmission lines 74H and 74V matches the impedance of the dielectric resonator element 92. The mating stub 124 can have any desired shape or can be omitted. The conductive traces 84V and 84H can have other shapes (e.g., shapes having any desired number of straight edges and/or curved edges).

If desired, slots may be formed in the ground trace 80 on the flexible printed circuit 72 to help match the impedance of the radio frequency transmission line(s) and the dielectric resonant element 92. Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional side view of antenna 40, illustrating how ground trace 80 may include openings to help match the impedance of the radio frequency transmission line(s) with dielectric resonating element 92. In the example of fig. 8, only a single feed probe is shown for clarity, and the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W, dielectric substrate 90, dielectric matching layer 94, adhesive 96, rear housing wall 12R, display 14, and other components 58 of fig. 6 are omitted.

As shown in fig. 8, the ground trace 80 may include a slot or opening, such as a slot 126 at the bottom surface 78 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The dielectric resonating element 92 of the antenna 40 may be mounted to the flexible printed circuit 72 and may be aligned with the underlying slot 126. The slot 126 may have a width 128. The width 128 may, for example, be greater than or equal to the width 112 of the dielectric resonant element 92 (e.g., the entire lateral area of the dielectric resonant element 92 may overlap the slot 126). The slot 126 may help match the impedance of the transmission line 74 to the impedance of the dielectric resonant element 92. The presence of slot 126 may also allow feed probe 85 to excite additional electromagnetic modes of dielectric resonant element 92 to extend the frequency and/or bandwidth covered by antenna 40, if desired. The width 128 may be adjusted to optimize impedance matching between the radio frequency transmission line 74 and the dielectric resonant element 92 and/or to tune the frequency response (e.g., peak response frequency and bandwidth) of the antenna 40. In addition, the slot 126 may be used to minimize coupling between two linear polarizations (e.g., horizontal polarization and vertical polarization) in the dielectric resonant element 92. For example, the slot 126 may help to interfere with ground current flow between the transceiver ports associated with the transmission lines 74V and 74H (fig. 7).

Fig. 9 is a top-down view of antenna 40, showing how dielectric resonant element 92 may overlap with a bottom layer slot 126 in ground trace 80 (e.g., as in the direction of arrow 130 of fig. 8). In the example of fig. 9, the dielectric material in the flexible printed circuit 72 of fig. 8 has been omitted for clarity.

As shown in fig. 9, the dielectric resonant element 92 may be aligned with a slot 126 in the bottom layer ground trace 80. The slot 126 may have a rectangular shape (e.g., the same shape as the lateral shape of the dielectric resonant element 92) or may have other shapes. The signal trace 82 may be coupled to a conductive trace 84 located on a given sidewall of the dielectric resonant element 92 in a corresponding feed probe 85. This example is merely illustrative and additional feed probes and radio frequency transmission lines may be provided to cover additional polarizations, if desired.

In practice, dielectric resonator antennas such as antenna 40 may experience undesirable cross-polarization interference if careless. Cross-polarization interference may occur when radio frequency signals to be transmitted in a first polarization are undesirably transmitted or received using an antenna feed for transmitting radio frequency signals in a second polarization. For example, cross-polarization interference may involve leakage of horizontally polarized signals onto feed probe 85V of fig. 7 (e.g., a feed probe intended to transmit vertically polarized signals) and/or leakage of vertically polarized signals onto feed probe 85H of fig. 7 (e.g., a feed probe intended to transmit horizontally polarized signals). Cross-polarization interference may occur when the electric field generated by the feed probe 85V has components of mixed orientation at different angles or when the electric field generated by the feed probe 85H has components of mixed orientation at different angles within the dielectric resonant element 92. Cross-polarization interference may result in a reduction in overall data throughput, errors in transmitted or received data, or otherwise degraded antenna performance. These effects are also particularly detrimental where antennas 40 transmit independent data streams using horizontal and vertical polarizations (e.g., in a MIMO scheme), as cross-polarization interference reduces the independence of the data streams. It is therefore desirable to be able to provide a structure for a dielectric resonator antenna, such as antenna 40, for mitigating cross-polarization interference (e.g., for maximizing isolation between polarizations handled by the antenna).

Fig. 10 is a top down view of an antenna 40 having a structure for mitigating cross-polarization interference. In the example of fig. 10, antenna 40 is a dual polarized dielectric resonator antenna having feed probes 85V and 85H for exciting different polarizations of dielectric resonant element 92.

As shown in fig. 10, the dielectric resonant element 92 may have a rectangular lateral profile. The dielectric resonant element 92 may have four sidewalls 102 (e.g., four vertical faces or surfaces), such as a first sidewall 102A, a second sidewall 102B, a third sidewall 102C, and a fourth sidewall 102D. On the dielectric resonant element 92, the third sidewall 102C may be opposed to the first sidewall 102A, and the fourth sidewall 102D may be opposed to the second sidewall 102B. The conductive trace 84V of the feed probe 85V may be patterned onto the first sidewall 102A. The conductive traces 84V may also be coupled to conductive traces 120V on the underlying flexible printed circuit 72. Conductive trace 122V may be coupled to conductive trace 120V. Similarly, the conductive trace 84H of the feed probe 85H may be patterned onto the second sidewall 102B. The conductive trace 84V may also be coupled to a conductive trace 120H on the flexible printed circuit 72. Conductive trace 122H may be coupled to conductive trace 120H.

To mitigate cross-polarization interference, parasitic elements such as parasitic elements 132H and 132V may be patterned onto the sidewalls of dielectric resonant element 92. Parasitic elements 132H and 132V may be formed, for example, from floating patches of conductive material (e.g., conductive patches that are not coupled to ground or signal traces of antenna 40) patterned onto sidewalls of dielectric resonant element 92. As shown in fig. 10, the parasitic element 132H may be patterned onto the fourth sidewall 102D opposite the feed probe 85H. The parasitic element 132V may be patterned onto the third sidewall 102C opposite the first feed probe 85V.

The presence of conductive material in the parasitic element 132H may be used to alter the boundary conditions of the electric field excited by the feed probe 85H within the dielectric resonant element 92. For example, in the case where the parasitic element 132H is omitted, the electric field excited by the feed probe 85H may include a mixture of different electric field components oriented in different directions. This can result in cross-polarization interference, where some of the vertically polarized signal undesirably leaks onto the feed probe 85H. However, the boundary condition created by the parasitic element 132H may be used to align the electric field excited by the feed probe 85H in a single direction between the sidewalls 102B and 102D, as indicated by arrow 131 (e.g., in a horizontal direction parallel to the X-axis). Since the entire electric field excited by the feed probe 85H is horizontal, the feed probe 85H can transmit only a horizontally polarized signal without a vertically polarized signal interfering with the horizontally polarized signal.

Similarly, the presence of conductive material in the parasitic element 132V may be used to alter the boundary conditions of the electric field excited by the feed probe 85V within the dielectric resonant element 92. For example, in the case where the parasitic element 132V is omitted, the electric field excited by the feeding probe 85V may include a mixture of different electric field components oriented in different directions. This can result in cross-polarization interference, where some of the horizontally polarized signal undesirably leaks onto the feed probe 85V. However, the boundary condition created by the parasitic element 132V may be used to align the electric field excited by the feed probe 85V in a single direction between the sidewalls 102A and 102C, as indicated by arrow 133 (e.g., in a vertical direction parallel to the Y-axis). Because the entire electric field excited by feed probe 85V is vertical, feed probe 85V can only transmit vertically polarized signals without horizontally polarized signals interfering with vertically polarized signals.

The parasitic element 132V may have a shape (e.g., lateral dimension in the X-Z plane) that matches the shape of the portion of the conductive trace 84V on the sidewall 102A (e.g., the parasitic element 132V may have the width 118 and height 116 of fig. 7. similarly, the parasitic element 132H may have a shape (e.g., lateral dimension in the Y-Z plane) that matches the shape of the portion of the conductive trace 84H on the sidewall 102B (e.g., the parasitic element 132H may have the width 118 and height 116 of fig. 7.) this may ensure that there is a symmetric boundary condition between the feed probe 85V and the parasitic element 132V and between the feed probe 85H and the parasitic element 132H. if desired, the parasitic element 132V need not have exactly the same dimension as the feed probe 85V, and the parasitic element 132H need not be exactly the same size as the feed probe 85H.

Fig. 11 is a cross-sectional side view (e.g., taken along line AA' of fig. 10) of antenna 40 with parasitic elements 132H and 132V. As shown in fig. 11, the conductive trace 84H of the feed probe 85H may be coupled to the trace 120H using a conductive interconnect structure 86 (e.g., solder). The parasitic element 132H may be formed on a sidewall 102D of the dielectric resonant element 92 opposite the feed probe 85H. The parasitic element 132H may have the same dimensions as the portion of the conductive trace 84H patterned onto the sidewall 102B of the dielectric resonant element 92. The parasitic element 132H may extend down to the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72 if desired. Parasitic element 132H is not coupled to a signal trace of antenna 40 or a ground trace of antenna 40 (e.g., parasitic element 132H is a floating parasitic patch on sidewall 102D). The parasitic element 132H may be soldered to floating traces on the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72 if desired (e.g., to help provide mechanical support for the parasitic element 132H). A similar structure may be used to form the parasitic element 132V on the sidewall 102C of fig. 10.

The parasitic element 132H may be aligned with and overlap (e.g., completely overlap) the lateral region of the feed probe 85H in the Y-Z plane. Similarly, the parasitic element 132V may be aligned with and overlap (e.g., fully overlap) the lateral region of the feed probe 85V in the X-Z plane (fig. 10). The parasitic elements 132H and 132V may be used to mitigate cross-polarization interference for relatively low frequencies, such as frequencies of about 24Ghz to about 30 Ghz. However, if care is not taken, cross-polarization interference can still occur at higher frequencies, such as frequencies from about 37Ghz to about 43 Ghz. To mitigate cross polarization at higher frequencies, antenna 40 may include additional parasitic patches on other portions of dielectric resonant element 92.

As shown in fig. 11, the dielectric resonant element 92 may have a tip (portion) 136 at the top surface 98 (e.g., the end of the dielectric resonant element 92 opposite the feed probe 85H and the flexible printed circuit 72). Antenna 40 may include one or more parasitic elements 134 patterned at end 136 onto one or more sidewalls of dielectric resonant element 92. For example, the antenna 40 may include a first parasitic element 134D patterned onto the sidewall 102D at the end 136 and/or a second parasitic element 134B patterned onto the sidewall 102B. Parasitic elements 134D and 134B may be floating conductive patches that are not coupled to a signal trace or a ground trace of antenna 40. Parasitic element 134D may be aligned with and overlap (e.g., completely overlap) parasitic element 134B. Parasitic element 134D may have the same shape and size as parasitic element 134B, if desired. Parasitic elements 134D and 134B may be used to create additional electromagnetic boundary conditions for dielectric resonant element 92. These boundary conditions may be used to align the electric field excited by the feed probe 85H at a relatively high frequency (such as a frequency of about 37Ghz to about 43 Ghz) in a single direction (e.g., in a horizontal direction parallel to the X-axis) between the sidewalls 102D and 102B. This can be used to mitigate cross-polarization interference of the feed probe 85H at these relatively high frequencies.

The example of fig. 11 is merely illustrative. In another suitable arrangement, the parasitic elements 134D and 134B may be patterned onto portions of the sidewalls 102D and 102B interposed between the end 136 and the feed probe 85H (e.g., the parasitic elements 134D and 134B need not be formed at the end 136 of the dielectric resonant element 92). When a similar parasitic element 134 is patterned onto the dielectric resonant element 92 for mitigating cross-polarization interference on the feed probe 85V of fig. 10, the antenna 40 may include a total of six parasitic elements. Fig. 12 is a perspective view showing how antenna 40 may include six parasitic elements.

In the example of fig. 12, the feed probes 85H and 85V are omitted for clarity. The dielectric resonator element 92 of fig. 12 is shown in a transparent manner for the sake of illustration. As shown in fig. 12, antenna 40 may include a parasitic element 132H on sidewall 102D at an end of dielectric resonating element 92 opposite top surface 98. Antenna 40 may include a parasitic element 132V on sidewall 102C at an end of dielectric resonating element 92 opposite top surface 98. Antenna 40 may also include a parasitic element 134A patterned onto sidewall 102A at end 136 of dielectric resonant element 92 and may include a parasitic element 134C patterned onto sidewall 102C at end 136 of dielectric resonant element 92.

Parasitic elements 134A and 134C may be floating conductive patches that are not coupled to a signal trace or a ground trace of antenna 40. Parasitic element 134C may be aligned with and overlap (e.g., completely overlap) parasitic element 134A. Parasitic element 134C may have the same shape and size as parasitic element 134A, if desired. Parasitic elements 134C and 134A may be used to create additional electromagnetic boundary conditions for dielectric resonant element 92. These boundary conditions may be used to align the electric field excited by the feed probe 85V (fig. 10) at relatively high frequencies, such as frequencies of about 37Ghz to about 43Ghz, in a single direction between the sidewalls 102A and 102C (e.g., in a vertical direction parallel to the Y-axis). This can be used to mitigate cross-polarization interference of the feed probe 85V (fig. 10) at these relatively high frequencies.

The example of fig. 12 is merely illustrative. Additional parasitic elements may be patterned onto any desired portion of sidewall 102 if desired (e.g., antenna 40 may include more than six parasitic elements). Parasitic elements 132H, 132V, 134A, 134B, 134C, and/or 134D may be omitted, if desired. The parasitic elements may collectively serve to isolate antenna 40 from cross-polarization interference at any desired frequency.

Where antenna 40 is fed using only a single feed probe, antenna 40 may also include cross-polarization interference mitigation parasitic elements. Fig. 13 is a top down view showing how the antenna 40 may include cross-polarized interference mitigation parasitic elements in an arrangement in which only a single feed probe 85 is used to feed the antenna 40.

As shown in fig. 13, the antenna 40 may be fed using a single feed probe 85. The conductive trace 84 of the feed probe 85 may be patterned onto the sidewall 102A of the dielectric resonant element 92. The conductive traces 84 may be coupled to the signal traces 82 on the underlying flexible printed circuit 72. Ground traces such as ground trace 140 may also be patterned onto the flexible printed circuit 72.

Antenna 40 may include one or more parasitic elements 138, such as a first parasitic element 138-1 and a second parasitic element 138-2. The parasitic element 138-1 may be formed from a conductive trace patch (e.g., a conductive patch) patterned onto the sidewall 102D of the dielectric resonant element 92. The parasitic element 138-2 may be formed from a patch of conductive traces (e.g., a conductive patch) patterned onto the sidewall 102B of the dielectric resonant element 92. Parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 may, for example, each have the same size and lateral dimensions (e.g., in the Y-Z plane) as conductive trace 84 (e.g., in the X-Z plane). The parasitic element 138-1 and the parasitic element 138-2 may each be coupled to a ground trace 140 at the flexible printed circuit 72 by a conductive interconnect structure 142. The conductive interconnect structure 142 may include solder, solder joints, conductive adhesives, conductive tapes, conductive foams, conductive springs, conductive brackets, and/or any other desired conductive interconnect structure. In this way, parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 may each be held at ground potential (e.g., parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 may be ground patches). Parasitic element 138-1 may be omitted or parasitic element 138-2 may be omitted if desired (e.g., antenna 40 may include only a single parasitic element 138 if desired).

Parasitic element 138-1 and/or parasitic element 138-2 may be used to alter electromagnetic boundary conditions of dielectric resonant element 92 to mitigate cross-polarization interference of feed probe 85 (e.g., to isolate feed probe 85 from interference from horizontally polarized signals in the case of feed probe 85 processing vertically polarized signals). The sidewall 102C of the dielectric resonant element 92 may be free of conductive material, such as the parasitic element 138.

Fig. 14 is a side view of antenna 40 of fig. 13 (e.g., taken in the direction of arrow 143 of fig. 13). As shown in fig. 14, the ground trace 140 may be patterned onto the top surface 76 of the flexible printed circuit 72. The ground trace 140 may be coupled to other ground structures in the device 10. For example, the ground trace 140 may be coupled to the ground trace 80 of fig. 6-8 using conductive vias 145 extending through the flexible printed circuit 72. The ground trace 140 may have a lateral opening to accommodate the signal trace 82 of fig. 13, if desired. Parasitic element 138-1 may be formed from a patch of conductive traces patterned onto sidewall 102D, while parasitic element 138-2 is formed from a patch of conductive traces patterned onto sidewall 102B. The parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 may be coupled to the underlying ground trace 140. Parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 are located at an end of the dielectric resonant element 92 opposite the top surface 98 (e.g., the end of the dielectric resonant element 92 at the flexible printed circuit 72). If desired, the single-polarized antenna 40 of fig. 13 and 14 may include additional parasitic elements (e.g., at the ends of the dielectric resonant element 92 at the top surface 98), such as the parasitic elements 134A-134D of fig. 12.

Fig. 15 is a graph of antenna performance (return loss) versus frequency for the single-polarized antenna 40 of fig. 13 and 14. Curve 144 of fig. 15 plots the response of antenna 40 in the absence of parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2. As illustrated by curve 144, antenna 40 exhibits a relatively narrow response peak within the operating band of dielectric resonating element 92 (e.g., band B extending from frequency F1 to frequency F2). As just one example, the frequency F1 may be approximately 26GHz, while the frequency F2 is approximately 30 GHz. The narrow response peak of the curve 144 may not be sufficient to satisfactorily cover the entire frequency band B from the frequency F1 to the frequency F2.

Curve 146 of fig. 15 plots the response of antenna 40 in an example where antenna 40 includes only one of parasitic element 138-1 and parasitic element 138-2. As shown by curve 146, the presence of a single parasitic element 138 may be used to improve the response of antenna 40 at the lower end of band B (e.g., a frequency near frequency F1) and the upper end of band B (e.g., a frequency near frequency F2) relative to the case where no parasitic element is used.

Curve 148 of fig. 15 depicts the response of antenna 40 in an example where antenna 40 includes both parasitic element 138-1 and parasitic element 138-2. As shown by curve 148, the presence of both parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 may be used to improve the response of antenna 40 across a large portion of band B relative to the case where no parasitic elements are used. Furthermore, the presence of both parasitic elements 138-1 and 138-2 may be used to improve the response of antenna 40 near the center of frequency band B relative to the situation where only one parasitic element 138 is used. The example of fig. 15 is merely illustrative. Curves 144, 146 and 148 may have other shapes. Band B may include any desired millimeter and/or centimeter wave frequency.

One or more forward phased antenna arrays 54-2 (e.g., a phased antenna array including the dual-polarized antenna 40 of fig. 10-12 and/or the single-polarized antenna 40 of fig. 13 and 14) may be mounted at any desired location in the device 10 along the perimeter of the display 14 for radiation through the display (e.g., within the inactive area IA of the display 14 of fig. 1). Fig. 16 is a top down view of the device 10 showing how a given phased antenna array 54-2 may be aligned with a notch in the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W.

As shown in fig. 16, peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may extend around the periphery of display module 68 in device 10. The display cover layer 56 of fig. 5 and 6 has been omitted from fig. 16 for clarity. The peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may include an inwardly projecting lip 149 (sometimes referred to herein as a flange or datum) and a raised portion 151. The raised portion 151 may extend around a peripheral edge of the display cover layer. Lip 149 of peripheral conductive housing structure 12W may include an opening such as notch 150. Phased antenna array 54-2 (e.g., a phased antenna array covering a single polarization and frequency band, a phased antenna array covering multiple polarizations in the same frequency band, a phased antenna array covering multiple polarizations and multiple frequency bands, or a phased antenna array covering a single polarization and multiple frequency bands) may be mounted under lip 149 and aligned with notch 150.

Antennas 40 in phased antenna array 54-2 may each include a dielectric resonating element 92 surrounded by one or more dielectric substrates 90. Each antenna 40 in the phased antenna array 54-2 may be fed using a corresponding radio frequency transmission line in the same flexible printed circuit 72. This example is merely illustrative and, if desired, two or more antennas 40 in the phased antenna array 54-2 may be fed using radio frequency transmission lines in separate flexible printed circuits. The antennas 40 in the phased antenna array 54-2 may transmit radio frequency signals through the notch 150 and the display cover layer (not shown). Phased antenna array 54-2 may perform beam steering within a hemisphere on the front face of device 10. The example of fig. 16 is merely illustrative. If desired, antennas 40 in phased antenna array 54-2 may be arranged in a two-dimensional pattern having multiple rows and columns of antennas, or in other patterns.

Phased antenna array 54-2 may be located elsewhere within device 10, if desired. In one suitable arrangement, phased antenna array 54-2 may be located within a notch 8 in an active area AA of display 14 (FIG. 1). Fig. 17 is a top down view showing how phased antenna array 54-2 may be aligned with notch 8 in active area AA of display 14.

As shown in fig. 17, display module 68 of display 14 may include notch 8. The display cover layer 56 of fig. 5 and 6 has been omitted from fig. 17 for clarity. Display module 68 may form an active area AA of display 14 while notch 8 forms a portion of an inactive area IA of display 14 (fig. 1). The edges of the recess 8 may be defined by the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W and the display module 68. For example, the recess 8 may have two or more edges (e.g., three edges) defined by the display module 68 and one or more edges defined by the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W.

The device 10 may include a speaker port 16 (e.g., an ear speaker) within the recess 8. The apparatus 10 may include other features 152 within the recess 10 if desired. Other components 152 may include one or more image sensors, such as one or more cameras, infrared image sensors, infrared light emitters (e.g., infrared point projectors and/or flood illuminators), ambient light sensors, fingerprint sensors, capacitive proximity sensors, heat sensors, humidity sensors, or any other desired input/output components (e.g., input/output device 26 of FIG. 2). One or more phased antenna arrays 54-2 may be aligned with the portion(s) of notch 8 not occupied by other components 152 or speaker ports 16. The phased antenna array 54-2 aligned with the notch 8 may include a one-dimensional phased antenna array such as one-dimensional phased antenna array 54-2' and/or a two-dimensional phased antenna array such as two-dimensional phased antenna array 54-2 ". Because dielectric resonating element 92 occupies less lateral area than a patch or slot antenna covering the same frequency, phased antenna arrays 54-2' and 54-2 "may fit within notch 8 and still exhibit satisfactory antenna efficiency despite the presence of speaker port 16 and other components 152.

If desired, the plurality of phased antenna arrays 54-2 may be aligned with a plurality of notches in the peripheral conductive housing structure 12W (e.g., the plurality of notches 150 of fig. 16) and/or may be aligned with the notches 8 in the display module 68. Phased antenna array 54-2 may provide beam steering in one or more frequency bands between 10GHz and 300GHz within some or all of the hemispheres on the front face of device 10. When combined with the operation of phased antenna array 54-1 at the rear of device 10 (fig. 5), the phased antenna arrays in device 10 may collectively provide coverage in approximately the entire sphere around device 10. The presence of parasitic elements in the antennas of phased antenna array 54-2 may be used to mitigate cross-polarization interference in the phased antenna array, thereby optimizing the radio frequency performance of the phased antenna array.

According to one embodiment, there is provided an electronic device including: a housing; a display having a display cover layer mounted to the housing; and a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna located in the housing and configured to transmit radio frequency signals in a frequency band greater than 10GHz through the display overlay, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna comprising: a parasitic element configured to isolate the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna from cross-polarization interference.

According to another embodiment, a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna includes a dielectric resonating element and a feed probe on the dielectric resonating element configured to excite the dielectric resonating element to resonate in a frequency band.

According to another embodiment, the dielectric resonator element includes a first sidewall, a second sidewall, a third sidewall opposite the first sidewall, and a fourth sidewall opposite the second sidewall, the feed probe being coupled to the first sidewall.

According to another embodiment, a parasitic element is coupled to the third sidewall and aligned with the feed probe.

According to another embodiment, an electronic device includes a substrate to which the dielectric resonant element is mounted; and a radio frequency transmission line on the substrate and coupled to the feed probe, the dielectric resonant element having a first end at the display and an opposite second end at the substrate, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna including an additional parasitic element coupled to the dielectric resonant element at the first end of the dielectric resonant element.

According to another embodiment, a probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna comprises an additional feed probe coupled to the second sidewall of the dielectric resonant element, the additional feed probe configured to excite the dielectric resonant element; and an additional parasitic element configured to isolate the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna from cross-polarization interference, the additional parasitic element coupled to the fourth sidewall and aligned with the additional-fed probe.

According to another embodiment, the dielectric resonator element has a first end at the feed probe and has an opposite second end, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna comprising: a first floating conductive patch coupled to the first sidewall at the second end; a second floating conductive patch coupled to the second sidewall at the second end; a third floating conductive patch coupled to the third sidewall at the second end, the third floating conductive patch aligned with the first floating conductive patch; and a fourth floating conductive patch coupled to the fourth sidewall at the second end, the fourth floating conductive patch aligned with the second floating conductive patch.

According to another embodiment, the parasitic element is coupled to the second sidewall.

In accordance with another embodiment, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna includes an additional parasitic element configured to isolate the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna from cross-polarization interference, the additional parasitic element coupled to the fourth sidewall.

According to another embodiment, the third sidewall is free of conductive material.

According to another embodiment, an electronic device includes a substrate, the dielectric resonant element being mounted to a surface of the substrate; a radio frequency transmission line on the substrate and coupled to the feed probe; and a ground trace on the surface of the substrate, wherein the parasitic element and the additional parasitic element are coupled to the ground trace.

According to another embodiment, the housing includes a peripheral conductive housing structure extending around a periphery of the electronic device, the display overlay is mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structure, and the electronic device includes a notch in the peripheral conductive housing structure, the probe-fed dielectric resonating element is aligned with the notch and configured to transmit the radio frequency signal through the notch.

According to another embodiment, the housing includes a peripheral conductive housing structure extending around a periphery of the electronic device, the display cover is mounted to the peripheral conductive housing structure, the display includes a display module configured to emit light through the display cover, the display module includes a notch having an edge defined by the display module and the peripheral conductive housing structure, and the electronic device includes: an audio speaker aligned with the notch; and an image sensor aligned with the notch, the probe-fed dielectric resonator antenna aligned with the notch and configured to transmit the radio frequency signal through the notch.

According to one embodiment, there is provided an antenna comprising a dielectric resonating element having a bottom surface, a top surface, and first, second, third, and fourth sidewalls extending from the bottom surface to the top surface, the first sidewall being opposite the third sidewall and the second sidewall being opposite the fourth sidewall; a feed probe coupled to the first sidewall, the feed probe configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in a frequency band greater than 10 GHz; and a floating parasitic patch coupled to the third sidewall and overlapping the feed probe.

According to another embodiment, the antenna comprises an additional feed probe coupled to the second sidewall, the additional feed probe configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in the frequency band; and an additional floating parasitic patch coupled to the fourth sidewall and overlapping the additional feed probe.

According to another embodiment, the dielectric resonator element has a first end at the bottom surface and a second end at the top surface, the feed probe, the additional feed probe, the floating parasitic patch and the additional floating parasitic patch being located at the first end of the dielectric resonator element.

According to another embodiment, the antenna includes at least one floating parasitic patch coupled to the dielectric resonating element at the second end of the dielectric resonating element.

According to one embodiment, there is provided an antenna comprising a dielectric resonating element having a bottom surface, a top surface, and first, second, third, and fourth sidewalls extending from the bottom surface to the top surface, the first sidewall being opposite the third sidewall and the second sidewall being opposite the fourth sidewall; a feed probe coupled to the first sidewall, the feed probe configured to excite the dielectric resonant element to resonate in a frequency band greater than 10 GHz; and a ground parasitic patch coupled to the second sidewall.

According to another embodiment, the antenna includes an additional ground parasitic patch coupled to the fourth sidewall, the additional ground parasitic patch overlapping the ground parasitic patch.

According to another embodiment, the dielectric resonator element has a first end at the bottom surface and a second end at the top surface, the feed probe, the ground parasitic patch and the additional ground parasitic patch being located at the first end of the dielectric resonator element.

The foregoing is merely exemplary and various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented independently or in any combination.