Antenna structure and applicable electronic device

Antenna structure and its suitable electronic device

The present invention relates to an antenna structure, and more particularly to an antenna structure that can increase the radiation effect of the overall antenna.

The development of wireless communication technology has led to many wireless communication devices, such as mobile phones, notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), GPS satellite navigation systems, E-book readers, etc., in addition to wireless communication functions, It is still possible to replace the past exposed antennas with hidden antennas, so that the wireless communication device can have both aesthetic and thin industrial design with good wireless communication quality.

However, in the case of electronic products frequently seeking design texture design, it is often desirable to make the outer casing made of metal or metal layer on the outer casing, which will affect the quality of wireless communication. Due to the shielding effect of the metal, electromagnetic waves are blocked from being transmitted, resulting in poor antenna signals.

Please refer to FIG. 1 for a schematic diagram of a conventional wireless communication device 1a. At present, in order to improve the above, the housing 12a must have a non-metallic portion 122a and a metal portion 124a. The non-metal portion 122a may be made of a non-metal material such as plastic or carbon fiber, so that electromagnetic waves can pass through the non-metal portion 122a, and can be received by an antenna (not shown) provided in the casing 12a, or electromagnetic waves radiated by the antenna. It can be radiated through the opening of the non-metal portion 122a.

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of U.S. Patent No. 20100141535. The field pattern and the average gain of the antenna 26a in the casing 22a are lifted by a metal piece 24a disposed on the casing 22a of the electronic device 2a. However, the metal piece 24a must avoid excessive overlap with the antenna 26a, otherwise the effect of boosting the antenna gain will not be achieved, and the shielding effect described above will be caused.

In view of this, the main object of the present invention is to provide an antenna structure and an electronic device therefor, thereby solving the problems of the prior art.

An embodiment of the present invention provides an antenna structure disposed on a substrate, including a radiating unit and a metal plate. The radiation unit is disposed on the substrate. The radiation unit includes a radiation portion and a ground portion. The radiation portion is used to radiate an electromagnetic wave. One end of the grounding portion is connected to the radiating portion, and the other end is electrically connected to the ground. The metal plate includes a hole and is electrically connected to the ground. The hole is spaced apart from the radiating element for being excited by the radiating element to generate at least one resonant mode.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides an electronic device including a housing and an antenna structure. The antenna structure is disposed in the housing and includes a substrate, a radiating unit and a metal plate. The radiation unit is disposed on the substrate. The radiation unit includes a radiation portion and a ground portion. The radiation portion is used to radiate an electromagnetic wave. The grounding portion is electrically connected to the ground. The metal plate includes a hole and is electrically connected to the ground. The hole is spaced apart from the radiating element for being excited by the radiating element to generate at least one resonant mode.

With the embodiment of the present invention, the radiation unit gain can be increased, the bandwidth can be increased, or the multi-mode can be increased. Moreover, when applied to the outer casing of the electronic device, the electronic device can have an aesthetically pleasing metal casing and can avoid reducing the gain of the radiation unit.

Please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, which are respectively a schematic view and a side view of the first embodiment of the present invention. The antenna structure 1 is disposed on the substrate 12 and includes a radiating unit 14 and a metal plate 16.

The radiation unit 14 is disposed on the substrate 12. The radiating element 14 includes a radiating portion 141, a ground portion 143, and a feed point 145 therebetween. The radiating portion 141 is configured to receive the feed signal at the feed point 145 to radiate electromagnetic waves. The grounding portion 143 has one end connected to the radiating portion 141 and the other end electrically connected to the ground. The metal plate 16 includes a hole 162 and is electrically connected to the ground. Thereby, the metal plate 16 can be excited by the radiating element 14 to generate at least one resonant mode.

Here, the ground refers to a reference reference point of a potential in the circuit. That is to say, the metal plate 16 and the radiating unit 14 can be connected to the two grounding ground wires in addition to the same grounding wire. Among them, the two grounding wires can be isolated by isolation components such as inductors and transformers to isolate high and low frequency circuits or strong and weak circuits.

When the radiating element 14 radiates the electromagnetic wave signal, the metal plate 16 having the broken hole 162 is used to couple the electromagnetic wave signal, and emits the electromagnetic wave signal with the radiating area larger than the radiating unit 14. Therefore, the gain of the radiating unit 14 can be increased, and the communication quality can be improved. On the other hand, when receiving the electromagnetic wave signal, the metal plate 16 is used to couple the electromagnetic wave signal to the radiation unit 14 and convert it into an electrical signal. The metal plate 16 provides a large area to receive electromagnetic wave signals, so that the signal quality can be improved. It should be noted that the hole 162 and the radiation unit 14 need to be separated by a distance d, so as to avoid being too far apart to couple the electromagnetic wave signal; or, too close to each other, so that the intensity of the electromagnetic wave signal radiated exceeds the legal standard.

Here, the broken hole 162 can be formed in a U shape in FIG. 3, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The shape of the hole 162 may also be a geometric shape such as a circle or a square, or other irregular shapes. For example, the hole 162 can be designed as a trademark pattern.

Preferably, the hole 162 is not connected to the edge of the metal plate 16, that is, the hole 162 is a hole that is closed around. It should be noted that the projection 164 formed by the projection 162 being projected onto the substrate 12 at least partially overlaps the radiation unit 14. The radiating unit 14 may be a microstrip antenna, a slot antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a patch antenna, a loop antenna. , an array antenna or a group of its components.

In addition, the antenna structure 1 further includes a fixing member (not shown) connected to at least one of the substrate 12 and the metal plate 16 for maintaining the distance DD between the hole 162 and the radiation unit 14. Here, the fixing member may be a support frame, a stud, a screw, or the like that can support and fix the substrate 12 or the metal plate 16. Moreover, when the antenna structure 1 is applied to an electronic device, the metal plate 16 can be attached to or become a part of the outer casing of the electronic device. The material of the metal plate 16 may be magnesium, aluminum, stainless steel, copper or an alloy thereof, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Referring to Fig. 5, it is a schematic view of a conventional metal plate 16' opening. The radiating element 14 is the same as in FIG. 3, with the difference that the conventional metal plate 16' needs to include an opening 168 having a larger antenna area, so that electromagnetic waves radiated by the antenna can radiate through the opening 168.

Figure 6 is a gain diagram of Figure 3. Figure 7 is a diagram of the feedback loss of Figure 3. Figure 8 is a gain diagram of Figure 5. Figure 9 is a diagram of the feedback loss of Figure 5.

Referring to Figures 6 through 9, it can be seen that the first embodiment of the present invention has better gain and feedback losses than conventional ones. Since the conventional opening system only allows electromagnetic waves of the antenna to pass, in the present embodiment, the metal plate 16 interacts with the radiating element 14, the gain is increased due to resonance, and more resonant modes can be generated.

Referring to Figures 10 and 11, there are shown a schematic view and a side view of a second embodiment of the present invention. The difference in the first embodiment is that the metal plate 16 of the present embodiment is in the shape of a casing, and covers the radiation unit 14 and the substrate 12. And the hole 162 is located at the bottom surface of the metal casing, and the bottom surface is spaced apart from the radiation unit 14 by a distance d.

Figure 12 is a gain diagram of Figure 10. Figure 13 is a diagram of the feedback loss of Figure 10.

Referring to FIGS. 12 and 13 , it can be seen that when the metal plate 16 of the antenna structure 1 of the second embodiment of the present invention is grounded and formed into a casing shape, compared with the sixth embodiment of the first embodiment and Figure 7, there can also be similar gain and feedback losses.

In other words, when the metal plate 16 extends at least one side, it also has the effect of increasing the gain and feedback loss of the radiation unit 14. As shown in Fig. 14, another schematic view of the metal plate 16 of the second embodiment of the present invention is shown. The opposite sides of the metal plate 16 may extend out of the side 166, respectively, and have a "U" shape from a side view. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. When the metal plate 16 extends only on one side 166, it is "L" shaped in side view (not shown).

In the third embodiment of the present invention, the antenna structure 1 of the first embodiment (Fig. 3) can be applied to an electronic device. The electronic device may include a housing, a circuit board, and the antenna structure 1 described in the first embodiment, and the antenna structure 1 is disposed in the housing. Herein, the electronic device can be a device having a communication function such as a notebook computer, a mobile phone, or a wireless router.

The housing can be locked to the circuit board by screws (ie, the aforementioned fixing members). Moreover, the housing can be electrically connected to the grounding wire of the circuit board through screws. The circuit board can be electrically connected to the radiating unit 14 by means of an external conductor to feed the signal to the radiating unit 14. And, the grounding portion of the radiating unit 14 is connected to the grounding line of the circuit board by means of an external wire.

As described above, in the third embodiment of the present invention, the antenna structure 1 further includes a fixing member, at least one of the substrate 12 and the metal plate 16, for maintaining the distance DD between the hole 162 and the radiation unit 14. The radiating unit 14 can be a microstrip antenna, a slot antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a panel antenna, a loop antenna, an array antenna, and a group thereof. The aperture 162 is projected onto the projection of the substrate 12, at least partially overlapping the radiating element 14. Please refer to the above for related instructions, and the description will not be repeated here.

Further, referring to Fig. 15, there is shown a schematic view of a fourth embodiment of the present invention. Here, the electronic device 2 will be described by taking a notebook computer as an example. Compared to the third embodiment, the metal plate 16 of the present embodiment is a part of the housing 22 of the electronic device 2. Alternatively, the casing 22 may be formed directly of a metal material and formed integrally with the metal plate 16.

Here, the hole 162 can be filled with a non-metal material such as plastic or carbon fiber to keep the appearance of the electronic device 2 intact.

In summary, the present invention can improve the communication capability of the radiating unit 14 through the metal plate 16 having the broken holes 162, and can apply the metal plate 16 to the casing 22 of the electronic device 2, thereby improving the design of the electronic device 2. The degree of freedom.

Although the technical content of the present invention has been disclosed in the above preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and any modifications and refinements made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention should be encompassed by the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of this new type is subject to the definition of the scope of the patent application.

<p>1a. . . Wireless communication device</p><p>12a. . . case</p><p>122a. . . Non-metal department</p><p>124a. . . Metal department</p><p>2a. . . Electronic device</p><p>22a. . . case</p><p>24a. . . Metal sheets</p><p>26a. . . antenna</p><p>1. . . Antenna structure</p><p>12. . . Substrate</p><p>14. . . Radiation unit</p><p>141. . . Radiation department</p><p>143. . . Grounding</p><p>145. . . Feed point</p><p>16, 16'. . . Metal plate</p><p>162. . . Broken hole</p><p>164. . . Projection department</p><p>166. . . side</p><p>168. . . Opening</p><p>2. . . Electronic device</p><p>twenty two. . . case</p><p>d. . . distance</p>

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional wireless communication device.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of U.S. Patent No. 20,100,141,535.

Figure 3 is a schematic view and a side view of the first embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a side view of the first embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic view of a conventional metal plate opening.

Figure 6 is a gain diagram of Figure 3.

Figure 7 is a diagram of the feedback loss of Figure 3.

Figure 8 is a gain diagram of Figure 5.

Figure 9 is a diagram of the feedback loss of Figure 5.

Figure 10 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 11 is a side view of the second embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 12 is a gain diagram of Figure 10.

Figure 13 is a diagram of the feedback loss of Figure 10.

Figure 14 is another schematic view of the metal plate of the second embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 15 is a schematic view of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.