An integrated antenna for laptop applications

The present invention relates to antennas, and more particularly towards a dual-band antenna for mobile computer devices.

Typically, a wired cable is used by a laptop to communicate with another processing device such as another laptop, desktop, server, or printer. To communicate without a wired connection, an antenna is needed. <figref idref="f0001">Fig. 1</figref> shows two possibilities of outside antennas. Antennas can be located at the top of a laptop display 100 for better radio frequency (RF) clearance, or just outside (dash line for antenna) of a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card 101. Usually, the laptop will have an optimum wireless performance if the antenna is mounted on the top of the display 100. However, an external antenna will generally be more expensive and susceptible to damage than an internal antenna. Alternatively, an internal or embedded antenna generally will not perform as well as an external antenna. The commonly used method to improve the performance of an embedded antenna is to keep the antenna away from any metal component of the laptop. Depending on the design of the laptop and the type of antenna, the distance between the antenna and metal components could be at least 10mm. <figref idref="f0001">FIG. 2</figref> shows some possible embedded antenna implementations. Two antennas are typically used, though applications implementing one antenna are possible. In one case, the two antennas are placed on the left 200 and right 201 edge of the display. Using two antennas instead of one antenna will reduce the blockage caused by the display in some directions and provide space diversity to the communication system. As a result, the size of the laptop becomes larger to accommodate antenna placement. In another configuration, one antenna can be placed on one side (200 or 201) of the display and a second antenna on the top 202 of the display. This latter antenna configuration may also provide antenna polarisation diversity depending on the antenna design used.

Advances in wireless communications technology are developing rapidly. The 2.4 GHz Instrument, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band is widely used. As an example, many laptop computers will incorporate Bluetooth technology as a cable replacement between portable and/or fixed electronic devices and IEEE 802.11b technology for wireless local area networks (WLAN). If an 802.11b device is used, the 2.4GHz band can provide up to 11Mbps data rate. For higher data rates, the 5GHz Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band can be used. U-NII devices can provide data rates up to 54Mbps. As a result, the demand for a dual-band antenna operating at both bands is increasing. Dual-band antennas with one feed have some advantages over multi-feed antennas for cellular applications.

<patcit id="pcit0001" dnum="US5138328A"><text>US 5,138,328</text></patcit> discloses an integral diversity antenna especially suited for use in a laptop computer device without the need for changing or otherwise altering such devices pre-established form factor.

The article "<nplcit id="ncit0001" npl-type="s"><text>Dual-Frequency Strip-Sleeve Monopole for Laptop Computers" IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation Vol. 47, No. 2, pages 317 to 323, February 1999 by M. Ali</text></nplcit> et al, discloses a dual frequency strip-sleeve monopole antenna for use on a laptop computer.

<patcit id="pcit0002" dnum="WO9102386A"><text>WO 91/02386</text></patcit> disloses an antenna for the transmitter and receiver of a portable radio appliance such as a cordless telephone, mobile telephone, pager or telepoint appliance that includes two sheet metal angles arranged side by side.

As wireless communications among processing devices become increasingly popular and increasingly complex, a need exists for a compact integrated dual-band antenna having reduced costs and reliable performance.

The present invention provides an antenna for integration into a portable processing device, as claimed in claim 1. Preferred features are recited in the dependent claims.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in more detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings: <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li><figref idref="f0001">Fig. 1</figref> illustrates an example of a laptop computer with external antennas;</li><li><figref idref="f0001">Fig. 2</figref> illustrates a non claimed example of a laptop computer with slot embedded antennas;</li><li><figref idref="f0002">Fig. 3</figref> illustrates a non claimed example of two slot dual-band antennas disposed along a plane of the display frame;</li><li><figref idref="f0002">Fig. 4</figref> illustrates a non claimed example of two slot dual-band antennas transversely disposed on the display frame;</li><li><figref idref="f0003">Fig. 5</figref> illustrates an example of two inverted-F dual-band antennas along the plane of the display frame;</li><li><figref idref="f0003">Fig. 6</figref> illustrates an example of inverted-F dual-band antennas transversely disposed on the display frame;</li><li><figref idref="f0004">Fig. 7</figref> illustrates a non claimed example of an inverted-F dual-band antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0004">Fig. 8</figref> illustrates a non claimed example of a slot dual-band antenna;</li><li><figref idref="f0004">Fig. 9</figref> illustrates a slot-slot dual-band antenna according to the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0005">Fig. 10a</figref> illustrates the operation of an inverted-F dual-band antenna according to a non claimed example;</li><li>Fig. 10b illustrates the operation of an inverted-F dual-band antenna according to a non claimed example ;</li><li><figref idref="f0006">Fig. 11</figref> illustrates the operation of a slot dual-band antenna according to a non claimed example;</li><li><figref idref="f0006">Fig. 12</figref> illustrates the operation of a slot-slot dual-band antenna according to the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0007">Fig. 13</figref> illustrates possible configurations of an antenna according to non claimed examples;</li><li><figref idref="f0007">Fig. 14</figref> illustrates possible configurations of an antenna built on an RF foil according to a non claimed example; ;</li><li><figref idref="f0008">Fig. 15</figref> illustrates a PCB implementation according to a non claimed example;</li><li><figref idref="f0009">Fig. 16</figref> is a graph illustrating the measured SWR at 2.4GHz band according to an embodiment of the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0009">Fig. 17</figref> is a graph illustrating the measured SWR at 5GHz band according to an embodiment of the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0009">Fig. 18</figref> is a graph illustrating the measured radiation patterns at 2.45GHz according to an embodiment of the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0009">Fig. 19</figref> is a graph illustrating the measured radiation patterns at 5.25GHz according to an embodiment of the present invention;</li><li><figref idref="f0010">Fig. 20</figref> illustrates the orientation of the antenna for radiation pattern measurements in <figref idref="f0009">Figs. 18 and 19</figref>; and</li><li><figref idref="f0010">Fig. 21</figref> illustrates a duplexer according to an embodiment of the present invention.</li></ul>

The antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention is designed for the ISM and U-NII band applications, but can be used for other applications such as dual-band cellular applications. According to the present invention, dual-band antenna performance is achieved by adding radiating elements inside a signal band antenna. As a result, the size of a dual-band antenna according to the present invention may be no larger than a single band antenna. A dual-band antenna is capable of operating in either of two frequencies, for example, 800 MHz and 1900 MHz, 2.45GHz and 5 GHz, etc.

<figref idref="f0002">Fig. 3</figref> illustrates an example of two dual-band antennas 301-302 parallel to the display frame, disposed substantially along the plane of the support frame, in the x-y (width-height) plane. <figref idref="f0002">Fig. 4</figref> illustrates an example of two dual-band antennas 401-402 perpendicular to the support frame, substantially transversely disposed (in a z lane relative to the x-y plane) on the support frame. Each antenna is mounted on a display frame 303. Metal supports and/or RF shielding foil on the back of the display 303 can be included as part of an antenna. Parallel or perpendicular antennas may be implemented depending on the industrial design needs. The parallel and perpendicular antennas have similar performances. Further, the various antennas may be implemented together, for example, a parallel inverted-F antenna and a perpendicular slot antenna mounted on the same device.

For applications where space may be limited, a dual-band inverted-F antenna, e.g., 501-502 and 601-602 may be used as shown in <figref idref="f0003">Figs. 5 and 6</figref>. The inverted-F antenna is about half the length of a slot antenna. At the lower frequency band, the inverted-F antenna has wide standing wave ratio (SWR) bandwidth, but the gain value is usually lower than that of the slot antenna. For both slot and inverted-F version dual-band antennas, impedance match is achieved by moving the feed line toward the centre to increase impedance or toward the end to decrease the impedance at the lower band.

Referring to <figref idref="f0004">Fig. 7</figref>, an inverted-F dual-band antenna according to a non claimed example includes a ground plate 701 provided by the laptop display frame, a metal support structure or other RF shielding foil on the back of the display. The dual-band antenna, including inter alia, 702-704 and 708, may be formed of a single thin wire or stamped from a metal sheet. The inner conductor 705 of the coaxial cable 706 is also illustrated. The outside metal shield 707 of the coaxial cable 706 is connected to the ground plate 701. The antenna structures presented in this invention can be easily implemented on a printed circuit board (PCB).

<figref idref="f0004">Fig. 8</figref> illustrates a general configuration of the slot dual-band antenna according to a non claimed example. . The slot dual-band antenna includes the elements of the inverted-F antenna and additionally element 801 closing an outside loop.

<figref idref="f0004">Fig. 9</figref> illustrates a general configuration of a slot-slot dual-band antenna according to the present invention. The slot-slot dual-band antenna includes the elements of the slot antenna and additionally element 901 closing an inside loop.

<figref idref="f0005">Fig. 10a</figref> illustrates an operation principle of the inverted-F example dual-band antenna. H+L1 is about one quarter wavelength at the centre of the lower frequency band. Increasing S1 (moving the feed line to the right) will increase the input impedance of the antenna at the lower band. Making W narrower will achieve the same effect. Increasing the length of L1 will reduce the resonate frequency at the lower band. L2+(H-S) is about one quarter wavelength long at the centre of the high band. Separations S and S2 determine the input impedance match of the antenna at the high band. Referring to Fig. 10b, generally speaking, impedance can be changed according to the following relationships at the high band: moving edge A up to increase the impedance; moving edge B down to decrease the impedance; and moving edge C to the left or towards the feed to increase the impedance. Making the line strips wide and H larger will increase the bandwidths of the antenna at both bands.

For a dual-band antenna according to the present invention, the input impedance match is effected by factors including, inter alia, the separations S and S2 as well as the height H. Further, the band of the antenna can affect the relationships, for example, the relationships observed for a 2.4GHz band antenna may not be the same as the relationships observed for a 5GHz band antenna. Therefore, determining the input impedance match for a dual-band antenna according to the present invention can be done according to experimentation. The experimentation and relationships for different antennas would be obvious to one skilled in the art in light of the present invention.

Referring to <figref idref="f0006">Fig. 11</figref>, an operation principle of the slot example dual-band antenna is shown. In this case, 2H+L1 is about one half wavelength at the centre of the lower frequency.

Referring to <figref idref="f0006">Fig. 12</figref>, an operation principle of the slot-slot dual-band antenna according to the present invention is shown. In this case, 2H+L1 is about one half wavelength at the centre of the lower frequency band, while L2+2(H-S) is about one half wavelength long at the centre of the high band.

The antenna impedance and resonate frequencies in antenna structures in <figref idref="f0006">Figs. 11 and 12</figref> are tuned in the same way as described with respect to <figref idref="f0005">Fig. 10</figref>.

<figref idref="f0007">Fig. 13</figref> shows non claimed examples of antenna constructions stamped from a metal sheet or fabricated PCB. These including the inverted-F antenna 1301, the slot antenna 1302, and the slot-slot antenna 1303.

<figref idref="f0007">Fig. 14</figref> shows non claimed examples of slot, slot-slot, and inverted-F dual-band antennas according to <figref idref="f0007">Fig. 13</figref> built on the RF shielding foil 1401 on the back of a display. To ensure the antennas built of RF shielding foil have desirable efficiency, the foil material should have good conductivity, such as that of aluminium, copper, brass, or gold.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, dual-band antennas can be fabricated on, for example, a 0.01" GETEK PCB. The GETEK PCB substrate has, for example, 3.98 dielectric constant and 0.014 loss tangent measured from 0.3 GHz to 6 GHz. <figref idref="f0008">Fig. 15</figref> is an illustrative example of a dual-band antenna fabrication on GETEK PCB. While a double-sided PCB is shown, a single-sided PCB can also be used. Removing the strip on the backside 1501 will not affect the antenna performance. The strip can be made of any conductive material, for example, copper.

<figref idref="f0009">Figs. 16 and 17</figref> show the measured SWR of the antenna at 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands respectively. The antenna has enough 2:1 SWR bandwidth to cover the 2.4 GHz band (2.4-2.5GHz) completely. The 2:1 SWR antenna bandwidth at the 5GHz band (5.15-5.35GHz) covers a majority of the band. However, the band can be completely covered with optimization.

Table 1 shows the measured dual-band antenna gain values at different frequencies. <tables id="tabl0001" num="0001"><table frame="all"><title>Table 1.</title><tgroup cols="7"><colspec colnum="1" colname="col1" colwidth="17mm" /><colspec colnum="2" colname="col2" colwidth="35mm" /><colspec colnum="3" colname="col3" colwidth="17mm" /><colspec colnum="4" colname="col4" colwidth="17mm" /><colspec colnum="5" colname="col5" colwidth="17mm" /><colspec colnum="6" colname="col6" colwidth="17mm" /><colspec colnum="7" colname="col7" colwidth="17mm" /><thead><row><entry valign="top">2.4GHz</entry><entry valign="top">Freq. (GHz)</entry><entry valign="top">2.35</entry><entry valign="top">2.4</entry><entry valign="top">2.45</entry><entry valign="top">2.5</entry><entry valign="top">2.55</entry></row></thead><tbody><row><entry /><entry>Ave/Peak Gains (dBi)</entry><entry>-1.8/1.8</entry><entry>-0.9/1.7</entry><entry>-0.5/2.3</entry><entry>-0.6/2.4</entry><entry>-1.4/2.0</entry></row><row><entry>5GHz</entry><entry>Freq. (GHz)</entry><entry>-5.05</entry><entry>5.15</entry><entry>5.25</entry><entry>5.35</entry><entry>5.45</entry></row><row><entry /><entry>Ave/Peak Gains (dBi)</entry><entry>-0.7/3.2</entry><entry>-0.7/2.9</entry><entry>-1.0/3.3</entry><entry>-1.7/3.3</entry><entry>-2.9/1.9</entry></row></tbody></tgroup></table></tables>

<figref idref="f0009">Figs. 18 and 19</figref> show the horizontal plane radiation patterns at 2.45GHz and 5.25GHz respectively. The antenna at 2.45GHz has both vertical and horizontal polarisation, but it has a substantially vertical polarisation at 5.25GHz band. The effect of the laptop display on the radiation patterns is obvious. The solid line is for the horizontal polarisation, the dash line is for the vertical polarisation, and the dash-dot line is the total radiation pattern. In the radiation patterns, H, V, and T refer to the horizontal, vertical and total electrical fields respectively. In the legend of <figref idref="f0009">Fig. 18 and Fig. 19</figref>, the number before the slash (/) is the average gain value while the number after the slash (/) is the peak gain values on the horizontal plane.

<figref idref="f0010">Fig. 20</figref> shows laptop orientation (top view) corresponding to the radiation measurements shown in <figref idref="f0009">Figs. 18 and 19</figref> when the laptop is open and the angle between the display 2001-2005 and the base 2006-2010 is 90 degrees.

Referring to <figref idref="f0010">Fig. 21</figref>, using a dual-band antenna and a duplexer, for example, implemented on a printed circuit board, two communications systems can work simultaneously. For laptop applications, the low band for Bluetooth (IEEE 802.11b) at the 2.4GHz ISM band and the high band for IEEE 802.11a at U-NII band. Other combinations would be obvious to one skilled in the art in light of the present invention.