US-12620690-B2 - Electronic device having clutch barrel antenna arm

Abstract

An electronic device such as a laptop computer may have an upper housing and a lower housing. The lower housing may have a clutch barrel coupled to the upper housing by a hinge. The upper housing may be rotatable relative to the lower housing between an open position and a closed position. The upper housing may have a curved metal surface facing the clutch barrel. The device may have an antenna with a radiating arm on a curved interior surface of a substrate in the clutch barrel. The radiating arm may extend parallel to the curved metal surface. The radiating arm may remain separated from the curved metal surface across its lateral area as the upper housing is rotated from the open position to the closed position. This may ensure that the antenna is provided with a uniform capacitive load from the upper housing at all upper housing positions.

Inventors

• Nikolaos Chiotellis
• Michael J Williams
• Joel D Barrera
• Marc Soriano Baliarda
• Ayoub Yari Boroujeni
• Trevor J Edmonds
• Jerzy S Guterman

Assignees

• APPLE INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20230927

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A laptop computer comprising: a lower housing having an upper metal wall and a lower metal wall that define an interior volume of the lower metal housing; an upper housing coupled to the lower housing by a hinge, the upper housing having a curved metal wall; a dielectric substrate mounted to the lower housing and extending out of the interior volume towards the upper housing; and an antenna having a radiating arm on the dielectric substrate, wherein the radiating arm lies in a curved surface parallel to the curved metal wall.
2. 2 . The laptop computer of claim 1 , further comprising: a clutch barrel, wherein the dielectric substrate is disposed in the clutch barrel, the hinge couples the upper housing to the clutch barrel, and the curved metal wall faces the clutch barrel.
3. 3 . The laptop computer of claim 1 , wherein the dielectric substrate has a shaft that extends along a hinge axis of the hinge, the radiating arm being disposed in the shaft.
4. 4 . The laptop computer of claim 3 , wherein the shaft has a cavity with a curved interior surface, the radiating arm being layered onto the curved interior surface.
5. 5 . The laptop computer of claim 4 , wherein the radiating arm comprises a conductive trace patterned onto the curved interior surface.
6. 6 . The laptop computer of claim 4 , wherein the dielectric substrate has a ledge extending away from the shaft and a ground layer on a lower surface of the ledge and the shaft.
7. 7 . The laptop computer of claim 6 , wherein the antenna has a feed leg that extends out of the cavity and has a return path that couples the radiating arm to the ground layer, further comprising: a radio-frequency transmission line having a signal conductor coupled to the feed leg and having a ground conductor coupled to the ground layer.
8. 8 . The laptop computer of claim 1 , wherein the upper housing is rotatable between an open position and a closed position, the antenna being configured to: radiate through a first slot between the upper metal wall and the upper housing when the upper housing is in the open position; radiate through a second slot between the lower metal wall and the upper housing when the upper housing is in the closed position; and radiate through the second slot when the upper housing is in the closed position.
9. 9 . The laptop computer of claim 1 , wherein the curved surface remains parallel to the curved metal wall as the upper housing is rotated from an open position to a closed position.
10. 10 . The laptop computer of claim 1 , wherein the dielectric substrate has an exterior surface that extends parallel to the curved surface and the curved metal wall.
11. 11 . The laptop computer of claim 10 , further comprising: a curved ceramic layer disposed on the exterior surface of the dielectric substrate.
12. 12 . A laptop computer comprising: a lower housing having an upper metal wall and a lower metal wall that define an interior volume of the lower metal housing; a clutch barrel mounted to the lower housing and extending out of the interior volume; an upper housing coupled to the clutch barrel by a hinge, the upper housing having a curved metal surface facing the clutch barrel; and an antenna resonating element arm in the clutch barrel, wherein the antenna resonating element arm has a lateral area and is separated from the curved metal surface by a uniform distance across the lateral area.
13. 13 . The laptop computer of claim 12 , wherein the upper housing is rotatable from an open position to a closed position relative to the lower housing, the antenna resonating element arm being separated from the curved metal surface by the uniform distance across the lateral area when the upper housing is in the open position.
14. 14 . The laptop computer of claim 12 , wherein the upper housing is rotatable from an open position to a closed position relative to the lower housing, the antenna resonating element arm being separated from the curved metal surface by the uniform distance across the lateral area when the upper housing is in the closed position.
15. 15 . The laptop computer of claim 14 , wherein the antenna resonating element arm is separated from the curved metal surface by the uniform distance across the lateral area when the upper housing is at an intermediate angle between the open position and the closed position.
16. 16 . The laptop computer of claim 15 , wherein the antenna resonating element arm is separated from the curved metal surface by the uniform distance across the lateral area when the upper housing is at all angles between the open position and the closed position.
17. 17 . The laptop computer of claim 12 , wherein the clutch barrel comprises: a plastic substrate having a shaft that extends along a hinge axis of the hinge and having a ledge extending away from the shaft and attached to the lower metal wall, the shaft having a cavity with a curved interior surface, the antenna resonating element arm comprising a conductive trace that is patterned onto the curved interior surface, and the antenna resonating arm having a longitudinal axis parallel to the hinge axis.
18. 18 . An electronic device comprising: a housing having an upper housing portion that contains a display and having a lower housing portion, wherein the lower housing portion has opposing first and second conductive walls; a clutch barrel mounted to the lower housing portion; a hinge that couples the upper housing portion to the lower housing portion at the clutch barrel, wherein the upper housing portion is rotatable with respect to the lower housing portion and has a curved metal surface facing the clutch barrel; a dielectric substrate in the clutch barrel and having a curved interior surface that extends parallel to the curved metal surface; and an inverted-F antenna resonating element arm on the curved interior surface of the dielectric substrate.
19. 19 . The electronic device of claim 18 , wherein the inverted-F antenna resonating element arm has a lateral area and is separated from the curved metal surface by a uniform distance across the lateral area.
20. 20 . The laptop computer of claim 1 , wherein the curved metal wall has an additional curved surface facing the lower housing, wherein the additional curved surface and the radiating arm are parallel to the curved surface.

Description

FIELD This relates generally to electronic devices, including electronic devices with wireless communications capabilities. BACKGROUND Electronic devices such as portable computers and cellular telephones are often provided with wireless communications capabilities and displays. To satisfy consumer demand for small form factor wireless devices, manufacturers are continually striving to implement wireless communications circuitry such as antenna components using compact structures. It can be challenging to form electronic device antenna structures with desired attributes. In some wireless devices, the presence of conductive housing structures can impact antenna performance. Device size can also affect performance. It can be difficult to achieve desired performance levels in a compact device, particularly when the compact device has conductive housing structures. SUMMARY An electronic device such as a laptop computer may have an upper housing and a lower housing. The lower housing may have a clutch barrel protruding from the lower housing. The upper housing may be coupled to the clutch barrel by a hinge. The upper housing may be rotatable relative to the lower housing between an open position and a closed position. The upper housing may have a curved metal surface facing the clutch barrel. The laptop computer may have wireless circuitry with an antenna. The antenna may have a radiating arm on a curved interior surface of a substrate in the clutch barrel. The radiating arm may extend parallel to the curved metal surface. The radiating arm may remain separated from the curved metal surface across its lateral area as the upper housing is rotated from the open position to the closed position. This may ensure that the antenna is provided with a uniform capacitive load from the upper housing at all upper housing positions. This may minimize detuning and deterioration of antenna performance even when the upper housing is rotated to different positions over time. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a laptop computer having a clutch barrel in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device with wireless circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 3 is a diagram of an illustrative antenna in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an illustrative antenna having a resonating element arm disposed within a cavity of a clutch barrel substrate in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative resonating element arm disposed within a cavity of a clutch barrel substrate in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view showing how an illustrative antenna of the type shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 may be disposed within the clutch barrel of a laptop computer in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative clutch barrel substrate having a dielectric cover layer in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative clutch barrel substrate having conductive portions and dielectric portions in accordance with some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION An electronic device such as electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 may contain wireless circuitry. For example, electronic device 10 may contain wireless communications circuitry that operates in long-range communications bands such as cellular telephone bands and wireless circuitry that operates in short-range communications bands such as the 2.4 GHZ Bluetooth® or other wireless personal area network (WPAN) bands and the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi® band or other wireless local area network (WLAN) bands (sometimes referred to as IEEE 802.11 bands or wireless local area network communications bands). Device 10 may also contain wireless communications circuitry for performing near-field communications, communications at millimeter/centimeter wave frequencies, light-based wireless communications, satellite navigation system communications, or other wireless communications. Device 10 may be a handheld electronic device such as a cellular telephone, media player, gaming device, or other device, may be a laptop computer, tablet computer, or other portable computer, may be a desktop computer, may be a computer display, may be a display containing an embedded computer, may be a television or set top box, wireless base station, wireless access point, home entertainment console, portable speaker, gaming accessory, wristwatch device, head-mounted display device, or other wearable device, or may be other electronic equipment. Configurations in which device 10 has a rotatable lid as in a portable (e.g., laptop) computer are sometimes described herein as an example. This is, however, merely illustrative. Device 10 may be any suitable electronic equipment. As shown in the example of FIG. 1, device 10 may have a