Key Button Antenna Structure for mmWave Coverage in Foldables
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The spatial restrictions in electronic devices, particularly on the side surface, pose challenges for arranging mmWave antenna modules to ensure spherical coverage for wireless communication, while also complicating the design and processing of rear surface covers.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device design featuring a flexible display, a key button with protrusions, and an antenna structure with a substrate having alternately stacked conductive and non-conductive layers, dome switches, and conductive patches, allowing for flexible arrangement of the antenna structure without spatial restrictions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If mmWave antenna modules are arranged on the side surface of the housing to ensure spherical coverage, then wireless communication coverage is improved, but spatial restrictions make it difficult to arrange multiple antenna modules
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the antenna structure within the key button assembly, transitioning from traditional side-surface mounting to embedding within the housing body. The antenna elements are arranged in a three-dimensional configuration inside the key button, utilizing internal space rather than external surface area, thereby achieving spherical coverage without consuming additional side surface space.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna structure is nested within the key button assembly, which itself is integrated into the housing. The substrate with antenna elements is positioned within the key button's internal cavity, allowing the antenna system to be contained within the existing structural footprint of the key button rather than requiring separate mounting space.
2Reliability
If the rear surface cover is made of glass and bent to cover the antenna structure, then beam characteristics are improved, but the complicated shape causes processing difficulty and yield degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the antenna structure from the rear surface cover design. Instead of requiring the glass cover to be bent into a complicated shape to accommodate the antenna, the antenna is integrated into the key button assembly which has a simpler, more manufacturable form factor. The rear surface cover can maintain its conventional shape while the antenna functionality is provided by the integrated key button structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than shaping the rear surface cover to accommodate the antenna structure, the patent inverts the approach by integrating the antenna into the key button assembly and allowing the rear surface cover to maintain its conventional simple shape. This reverses the traditional design sequence and simplifies manufacturing.
3Adaptability or versatility
If legacy antennas and other components are placed on the side surface, then functional requirements are met, but spatial restrictions prevent optimal arrangement of mmWave antenna modules
Solution Approach 1:
The key button assembly serves multiple functions: it provides user interaction functionality as a key button and simultaneously houses the mmWave antenna structure. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate dedicated space for the antenna on the side surface, as the key button assembly fulfills both input and communication functions within the same structural footprint.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the key button assembly and antenna structure into a single integrated unit. The substrate with antenna elements is positioned within the key button assembly, combining what were traditionally separate components into one unified structure that occupies shared space rather than requiring additional area.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic apparatus having a housing, a flexible display, and a key button which is arranged in a first area on a side of a first part is provided. The key button includes at least one protrusion extending toward the inside of the first part and an antenna structure arranged on the inside of the first part with respect to the first area. The housing includes the first part, a second part, and a connection part arranged between the first part and the second part, the second part being rotatably coupled to the first part through the connection part. The antenna structure includes a dome switch arranged above a substrate at a position corresponding to the at least one protrusion, and a plurality of conductive patches provided on a conductive layer of the substrate. The dome switch may be arranged at the corresponding position between the plurality of conductive patches.