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US-12627049-B2 - Electronic devices having co-located millimeter wave antennas

US12627049B2US 12627049 B2US12627049 B2US 12627049B2US-12627049-B2

Abstract

An electronic device may include a phased antenna array. The array may include co-located first and second antennas formed on a dielectric substrate. The first antenna may include a first patch element and multi-layer parasitic structures. The multi-layer parasitic structures may include a first set of co-planar parasitic elements. The first set of parasitic elements may overlap the first patch element and may be separated by a gap. The multi-layer parasitic structures may include an additional parasitic element that overlaps the gap. The second antenna may include a second patch element that is co-planar with the additional parasitic patch. The second patch element may at least partially overlap one of the parasitic elements in the first set. The first and second patch antennas may collectively cover first and second frequency bands while occupying a minimal amount of space on the dielectric substrate.

Inventors

  • Siwen Yong
  • Jiangfeng Wu
  • Yi Jiang
  • Simon G. Begashaw
  • Mattia Pascolini

Assignees

  • APPLE INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20200924

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . An electronic device comprising: a dielectric substrate having first, second, and third layers, the second layer being interposed between the first and third layers; a first patch element on the first layer, the first patch element being configured to radiate at a first frequency greater than 10 GHz; a first positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the first patch element; first and second parasitic patches on the second layer, the first and second parasitic patches at least partially overlapping the first patch element and being separated by a gap that overlaps the first patch element, wherein the first and second parasitic patches are each electrically floating; a third parasitic patch on the third layer, the third parasitic patch overlapping the gap and the first patch element; fourth and fifth parasitic patches on the second layer, the fourth parasitic patch being separated from the fifth parasitic patch by the gap; a second patch element on the third layer, the second patch element at least partially overlapping the first parasitic patch and being configured to radiate at a second frequency greater than the first frequency; and a second positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the second patch element.
  2. 2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising: signal traces on the dielectric substrate; a first conductive via that couples the signal traces to the first positive antenna feed terminal; and a second conductive via that couples the signal traces to the second positive antenna feed terminal.
  3. 3 . The electronic device of claim 2 , further comprising: an opening in the first parasitic patch, wherein the second conductive via extends through the opening.
  4. 4 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the second frequency is in a WiGig frequency band.
  5. 5 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising: a third positive antenna feed terminal on the first patch element.
  6. 6 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first frequency is between 24 GHz and 30 GHz and the second frequency is between 57 GHz and 61 GHz.
  7. 7 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the third parasitic patch overlaps only a portion of the gap.
  8. 8 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising: control circuitry configured to perform bidirectional communications using the first patch element and configured to perform spatial ranging operations using the second patch element.
  9. 9 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising: control circuitry configured to perform bidirectional communications using the first and second patch elements.
  10. 10 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first parasitic patch is configured to perform impedance matching in a frequency band that includes the second frequency for the second patch element.
  11. 11 . An electronic device comprising: a first patch antenna having a first patch element and multi-layer parasitic structures that at least partially overlap the first patch element, the first patch antenna being configured to radiate at a first frequency greater than 10 GHz; and a second patch antenna having a second patch element that is co-planar with a first parasitic patch in the multi-layer parasitic structures and that at least partially overlaps a second parasitic patch in the multi-layer parasitic structures, the second patch antenna being configured to radiate at a second frequency greater than the first frequency, wherein the second parasitic patch is electrically floating.
  12. 12 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the second parasitic patch has an opening and the second patch antenna is fed by a conductive via that extends through the opening.
  13. 13 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the first parasitic patch is configured to broaden a bandwidth of the first patch antenna in a first frequency band that includes the first frequency and is configured to perform impedance matching for the second patch antenna in a second frequency band that includes the second frequency.
  14. 14 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the first frequency is between 24 GHz and 30 GHz and the second frequency is between 57 GHz and 61 GHz.
  15. 15 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the multi-layer parasitic structures comprise a third parasitic patch that is coplanar with the second parasitic patch and that is separated from the second parasitic patch by a gap, a fourth parasitic patch that is coplanar with the second parasitic patch, and a fifth parasitic patch that is coplanar with the second parasitic patch, the fourth parasitic patch is separated from the fifth parasitic patch by the gap, the first parasitic patch overlaps the gap, and each of the third, fourth, and fifth parasitic patches is electrically floating.
  16. 16 . The electronic device of claim 15 , further comprising: a first positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the first patch element; and a second positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the second patch element.
  17. 17 . The electronic device of claim 15 , further comprising: first and second positive antenna feed terminals coupled to the first patch element; and a third positive antenna feed terminal coupled to the second patch element.
  18. 18 . Apparatus comprising: a dielectric substrate; a first directly-fed patch element on the dielectric substrate and configured to radiate in a Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) Frequency Range 2 (FR2) frequency band; a first parasitic element on the dielectric substrate and overlapping the first directly-fed patch element; a second directly-fed patch element on the dielectric substrate and at least partially overlapping the first parasitic element, the second directly-fed patch element being configured to radiate in a WiGig frequency band; and a second parasitic element on the dielectric substrate and at least partially overlapping the first directly-fed patch element, the second parasitic element being coplanar with the second directly-fed patch element.
  19. 19 . The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the first and second parasitic elements are non-overlapping.
  20. 20 . The apparatus of claim 19 , further comprising: a third parasitic element on the dielectric substrate and at least partially overlapping the first directly-fed patch element, wherein the third parasitic element is coplanar with the first parasitic element, the third parasitic element is separated from the first parasitic element by a gap, the second parasitic element overlaps the gap, and the second and third parasitic elements are non-overlapping.

Description

BACKGROUND This relates generally to electronic devices and, more particularly, to electronic devices with wireless communications circuitry. Electronic devices often include wireless communications circuitry. For example, cellular telephones, computers, and other devices often contain antennas and wireless transceivers for supporting wireless communications. It may be desirable to support wireless communications in millimeter wave and centimeter wave communications bands. Millimeter wave communications, which are sometimes referred to as extremely high frequency (EHF) communications, and centimeter wave communications involve communications at frequencies of about 10-300 GHz. Operation at these frequencies can support high throughputs but may raise significant challenges. For example, if care is not taken, the antennas might occupy an excessive amount of space or may exhibit insufficient bandwidth to cover the entirety of one or more frequency bands of interest. It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide electronic devices with improved wireless communications circuitry such as communications circuitry that supports millimeter and centimeter wave communications. SUMMARY An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include a phased antenna array. The phased antenna array may convey radio-frequency signals in a signal beam at a frequency greater than 10 GHz. The phased antenna array may include co-located first and second patch antennas formed on a dielectric substrate. The first patch antenna may include a first directly-fed patch element and multi-layer parasitic structures. The multi-layer parasitic structures may include a first set of co-planar parasitic elements. The first set of parasitic elements may overlap the first directly-fed patch element and may be separated by a gap. The multi-layer parasitic structures may include an additional parasitic element that overlaps the gap. The second patch antenna may include a second directly-fed patch element that is co-planar with the additional parasitic element. The second directly-fed patch element may at least partially overlap one of the parasitic elements in the first set. The first and second patch antennas may collectively cover a first frequency band from 24-30 GHz and a second frequency band from 57-61 GHz while occupying a minimal amount of space on the dielectric substrate. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of an illustrative electronic device with wireless circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of an illustrative electronic device with wireless circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device with wireless circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 4 is a diagram of an illustrative phased antenna array that forms a radio-frequency signal beam at different beam pointing angles in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 5 is a diagram of illustrative wireless circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 6 is a top view of an illustrative co-located antennas in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional side view of illustrative co-located antennas in accordance with some embodiments. FIGS. 8 and 9 are plots of antenna performance (antenna efficiency) as a function of frequency for illustrative co-located antennas in accordance with some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION An electronic device such as electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 may contain wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas. The antennas may include phased antenna arrays that are used for performing wireless communications and/or spatial ranging operations using millimeter and centimeter wave signals. Millimeter wave signals, which are sometimes referred to as extremely high frequency (EHF) signals, propagate at frequencies above about 30 GHz (e.g., at 60 GHz or other frequencies between about 30 GHz and 300 GHz). Centimeter wave signals propagate at frequencies between about 10 GHz and 30 GHz. If desired, device 10 may also contain antennas for handling satellite navigation system signals, cellular telephone signals, local wireless area network signals, near-field communications, light-based wireless communications, or other wireless communications. Electronic device 10 may be a computing device such as a laptop computer, a computer monitor containing an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smaller device such as a wristwatch device, a pendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, a virtual or augmented reality headset device, a device embedded in eyeglasses or other equipment worn on a user's head, or other wearable or miniature device, a television, a computer display that does not contain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigati