JP-7854584-B2 - electronic equipment

JP7854584B2JP 7854584 B2JP7854584 B2JP 7854584B2JP-7854584-B2

Inventors

小原一貴

Assignees

パナソニックＩＰマネジメント株式会社

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20221012
Priority Date: 20211112

Claims (15)

An antenna module for communicating at a predetermined communication frequency, A housing having a predetermined surface that constitutes one side of the housing's outer shape , and a recess provided on the predetermined surface, Equipped with, The antenna module is housed in the recess such that the orientation of the antenna surface on which the antenna elements are provided coincides with the orientation of the predetermined surface. The predetermined surface includes a first region and a second region that are opposite to each other in the width direction, which is parallel to the antenna surface, when the antenna surface is housed therein. The housing has conductive protrusions in the first region, The tip of the projection protrudes in the direction perpendicular to the antenna surface, The second region does not protrude beyond the antenna surface in the plane direction of the antenna surface. electronic equipment.
The distance in the planar direction of the antenna surface between the tip of the projection and the antenna surface is 0.15 times or more and 0.40 times or less the wavelength corresponding to the predetermined communication frequency. The electronic device according to claim 1.
The distance along the antenna surface between the center of the antenna surface in the width direction and the projection is 0.30 times or more and 0.8 times or less the wavelength corresponding to the predetermined communication frequency. The electronic device according to claim 1 or 2.
The projection extends across the entire antenna surface in a longitudinal direction that is parallel to the antenna surface and perpendicular to the width direction. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
The second region includes the edge of the predetermined surface, The end of the predetermined surface has a stepped portion that is recessed in the opposite direction to the protruding direction of the projection compared to the antenna surface. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 4.
The stepped portion extends along its entire length, parallel to the antenna surface and perpendicular to the width direction. The electronic device according to claim 5.
The stepped portion is located on the opposite side of the predetermined surface from the bottom surface of the recess. The electronic device according to claim 5 or 6.
It also includes a dielectric radome, The radome includes a first portion that covers the antenna surface and a second portion that extends from the first portion and corresponds to the stepped portion. The electronic device according to any one of claims 5 to 7.
The first portion is parallel to the antenna surface and includes an opposing portion having an opposing region facing the antenna surface, The opposing portion has a uniform thickness. The electronic device according to claim 8.
The aforementioned antenna module has a plurality of antenna elements, The plurality of antenna elements are arranged in a line along the length direction of the antenna surface. The electronic device according to any one of claims 4, 6 to 9.
The antenna module is housed within the recess such that the antenna surface is outside the recess. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 10.
The distance in the planar direction of the antenna surface between the antenna surface and the predetermined surface is 0.03 times or more and 0.05 times or less the wavelength corresponding to the predetermined communication frequency. The electronic device according to claim 11.
The housing comprises a conductive holder, The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 12.
The predetermined surface is the side surface of the housing, The width direction of the antenna surface coincides with the thickness direction of the housing. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 13.
The aforementioned predetermined communication frequency is included in the frequency band of 24.250 GHz to 52.600 GHz. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

Description

This disclosure relates to electronic devices. Patent Document 1 discloses an antenna module housing structure for housing an antenna module, which is constructed by forming an antenna on a substrate, within a housing. The housing is made of resin and has a hollow, box-like shape, with rectangular side plates formed on each of its six faces. An RF antenna module is housed within the side plate located at the front of the housing by the antenna module housing structure. International Publication No. 2016/059961 In the antenna module housing structure of Patent Document 1, the RF antenna module radiates millimeter-wave radio waves toward the front of the side plate exposed to the outside of the housing, using patch antennas that constitute a front-facing radiating antenna. In Patent Document 1, one possible method for changing the direction of radiation of millimeter-wave radio waves is to tilt the antenna module relative to the side plate of the housing. When the antenna module is tilted relative to the side plate, the distance between the antenna module and the side plate becomes uneven. This can be one of the causes of a decrease in the antenna performance of the antenna module. This disclosure provides an electronic device that allows the main radiation direction of an antenna module to be tilted relative to the housing without tilting the antenna module relative to the housing. An electronic device according to one aspect of the present disclosure comprises an antenna module for communication at a predetermined communication frequency, and a housing having a predetermined surface and a recess provided on the predetermined surface. The antenna module is housed in the recess such that the plane direction of the antenna surface of the antenna module coincides with the plane direction of the predetermined surface. The predetermined surface includes a first region and a second region that are opposite each other to the recess in the width direction of the antenna surface. The housing has conductive projections in the first region. The tips of the projections protrude beyond the antenna surface in the plane direction of the antenna surface. The second region does not protrude beyond the antenna surface in the plane direction of the antenna surface. According to an aspect of this disclosure, the main radiation direction of the antenna module can be tilted relative to the housing without tilting the antenna module relative to the housing. Block diagram of an example of the circuit configuration of an electronic device according to one embodiment.Schematic perspective view of the electronic device shown in Figure 1.A partial perspective view showing a portion of the area indicated by P in Figure 2.Figure 3 shows the diagram with the radome omitted.Cross-sectional view of the vicinity of the antenna module of the electronic device shown in Figure 1.Side view of the vicinity of the antenna module of the electronic device shown in Figure 1.Figure 6 shows the diagram with the radome omitted.Figure 1: Heatmap of antenna gain of electronic equipmentFigure 1: Heatmap of antenna gain of electronic equipmentFigure 1: Heatmap of antenna gain of electronic equipmentHeatmap of antenna gain of comparative electronic equipmentHeatmap of antenna gain of comparative electronic equipmentHeatmap of antenna gain of comparative electronic equipment [1. Embodiments] The embodiments will be described in detail below, with reference to the drawings as appropriate. However, unnecessary details may be omitted. For example, detailed explanations of already well-known matters or redundant explanations of substantially identical configurations may be omitted. This is to avoid the following explanation becoming unnecessarily verbose and to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art. The inventors provide the accompanying drawings and the following explanation so that those skilled in the art can fully understand this disclosure, and do not intend to limit the subject matter described in the claims by means of these. Unless otherwise specified, the positional relationships (up, down, left, right, etc.) shall be based on those shown in the drawings. The figures described in the following embodiments are schematic diagrams, and the ratios of the size and thickness of each component in each figure do not necessarily reflect the actual dimensional ratios. Furthermore, the dimensional ratios of each element are not limited to those shown in the drawings. [1.1 Structure] Figure 1 is a block diagram of an example of the circuit configuration of the electronic device 1 according to this embodiment. The electronic device 1 in Figure 1 is a laptop computer. As shown in Figure 1 , the electronic device 1 comprises an antenna module 2, a communication circuit 31, an input/output device 32, a storage device 33, and an arithmetic circuit 34. The antenna module 2 is used for communication at a predetermined communication frequency. As will be desc