CN212085209U

CN212085209U - Communication terminal and antenna assembly thereof

Info

Publication number: CN212085209U
Application number: CN202020486965.7U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 仝庆贻; 高峰
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2020-04-03
Filing date: 2020-04-03
Publication date: 2020-12-04
Anticipated expiration: 2030-04-03

Abstract

The embodiment of the utility model provides a communication terminal and antenna module thereof, the antenna module includes communication terminal's structure, has the antenna bearing area on the structure, and the antenna bearing area is provided with the through-hole that runs through its lateral surface and medial surface, and the opening that the through-hole is located lateral surface and medial surface is outer opening and interior opening respectively; the antenna assembly further includes: the outer metal antenna layer is arranged on the outer side surface of the antenna bearing area and at least partially covers the outer opening, and the inner metal antenna layer is arranged from the outer opening to the inner opening along the inner wall of the through hole in an extending mode; the outer metal antenna layer is arranged on the outer side face of the antenna bearing area, and the antenna bearing area is made of insulating materials, so that the area of the antenna bearing area in the thickness direction can form a part of a clearance area of the outer antenna metal layer, the utilization rate of an antenna design space can be greatly improved, larger antenna clearance can be obtained under the condition of the same size, and the antenna performance can be improved.

Description

Communication terminal and antenna assembly thereof

Technical Field

The utility model relates to the field of communication, especially, relate to a communication terminal and antenna module thereof.

Background

In communication terminals, for example, smart mobile terminals such as mobile phones, antennas for communication are generally installed inside the terminals at present, and certain clearance is required for the installation of the antennas, that is, metal is not required to exist in a partial area below the antennas. Taking a mobile phone as an example, please refer to fig. 1, in the related art, an antenna 011 on the mobile phone is generally disposed on an inner side surface of a structural member 01 (e.g., a middle frame of the mobile phone) of the mobile phone; or on a separate antenna mount. Therefore, when designing the terminal, the space corresponding to the antenna clearance area under the antenna 011 needs to be considered, and for calculating the overall length of the terminal, the length corresponding to the antenna clearance area at the top and the bottom of the terminal needs to be included. In the terminal field, terminals are developed to be as light, thin and small as possible, and radio frequency indexes are required to be not weakened. Especially for 5G terminal antennas, the number of antennas is more; the application rate of the current antenna setting mode to the internal space of the terminal is too low, and the current antenna design requirement is difficult to meet.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The embodiment of the utility model provides a pair of communication terminal and antenna module thereof, there is space utilization low in the setting of antenna among the solution correlation technique, can not fine satisfy the problem of antenna design demand.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides an antenna assembly for a communication terminal, where the antenna assembly includes a structural member of the communication terminal, the structural member has an antenna bearing area, the antenna bearing area is made of an insulating material, one surface of the antenna bearing area, which is close to the outside of the communication terminal in the thickness direction, is an outer side surface, one surface, which is opposite to the outer side surface and close to the inside of the terminal, is an inner side surface, the antenna bearing area is provided with a through hole penetrating through the outer side surface and the inner side surface of the antenna bearing area, and openings of the through hole, which are located on the outer side surface and the inner side;

the antenna assembly further includes: the antenna comprises an outer metal antenna layer, an inner metal antenna layer and an inner metal antenna layer, wherein the outer metal antenna layer is arranged on the outer side surface of the antenna bearing area and at least partially covers the outer opening, the outer opening is arranged along the inner wall of the through hole, the inner opening extends to form the inner metal antenna layer, the inner metal antenna layer is arranged at one end of the outer opening and electrically connected with the outer metal antenna layer, and one end of the inner opening is arranged along the inner side surface of the antenna bearing area and extends to form an electric connection area used for being connected with a circuit.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a communication terminal, the communication terminal includes the antenna assembly as described above.

Advantageous effects

The embodiment of the utility model provides a communication terminal and antenna module thereof, the antenna module includes communication terminal's structure, has the antenna bearing area on the structure, and the antenna bearing area is provided with the through-hole that runs through its lateral surface and medial surface, and the opening that the through-hole is located lateral surface and medial surface is outer opening and interior opening respectively; the antenna assembly further includes: the outer metal antenna layer is arranged on the outer side surface of the antenna bearing area and at least partially covers the outer opening, and the inner metal antenna layer is arranged from the outer opening to the inner opening along the inner wall of the through hole in an extending mode; the outer metal antenna layer is arranged on the outer side face of the antenna bearing area, and the antenna bearing area is made of insulating materials, so that the area of the antenna bearing area in the thickness direction can form a part of a clearance area of the outer antenna metal layer, the utilization rate of an antenna design space can be greatly improved, and under the condition of the same size, larger antenna clearance can be obtained, so that the antenna performance can be improved possibly, and the design requirements of the conventional multi-antenna can be better met; for example:

if the communication terminal adopting the antenna structure shown in fig. 1 has an antenna clearance area a, assuming that the size (such as length) of the whole communication terminal is not changed, the antenna assembly provided by the utility model is adopted, and if the thickness of the structural member is B, the antenna clearance of the communication terminal at this time becomes a + B; thereby lifting the clearance area of the antenna pair; for another example, if the antenna clearance of the terminal using the antenna assembly provided by the present invention is kept as a, the overall length of the communication terminal can be reduced by B, and the original antenna performance can be kept; after the length size of the terminal is reduced, the screen occupation ratio is improved, and therefore product competitiveness and user experience are improved.

Other features and corresponding advantages of the invention are set forth in the following part of the specification, and it is to be understood that at least some of the advantages become apparent from the description of the invention.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an antenna arrangement in the related art;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of an antenna carrying area according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of a metal antenna layer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a metal antenna layer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic view of an insulating protection layer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic view of an insulating sealing body according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic view of another antenna assembly provided by an embodiment of the present invention

Fig. 8 is a first schematic diagram of a middle frame of a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a second schematic diagram of a middle frame of the communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, the embodiments of the present invention are described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings by way of specific embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

Aiming at the problems that the space utilization rate is low and the design requirement of the antenna cannot be well met in the arrangement of the antenna in the related technology, the communication terminal is provided in real time, and can be an intelligent mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone, an IPAD (internet protocol ad), a notebook computer and the like, and can also be various non-mobile communication terminals.

The antenna assembly provided by the embodiment comprises a structural member of a communication terminal, wherein an antenna bearing area for bearing an antenna is arranged on the structural member, and the antenna bearing area is made of an insulating material; the antenna bearing area is provided with a through hole penetrating through the outer side surface and the inner side surface, and openings of the through hole positioned on the outer side surface and the inner side surface are respectively an outer opening and an inner opening;

the antenna assembly in this embodiment further includes an outer metal antenna layer disposed on the outer side surface of the antenna carrying area and covering at least a portion of the outer opening, and an inner metal antenna layer disposed to extend from the outer opening along the inner wall of the through hole toward the inner opening, wherein one end of the inner metal antenna layer located at the outer opening is electrically connected to the outer metal antenna layer, and one end located at the inner opening extends along the inner side surface of the antenna carrying area to form an electrical connection area for connecting to a circuit. The outer metal antenna layer is arranged on the outer side face of the antenna bearing area, and the antenna bearing area is made of insulating materials, so that the area of the antenna bearing area in the thickness direction can form a part of a clearance area of the outer antenna metal layer, the utilization rate of an antenna design space can be greatly improved, and under the condition of the same size, larger antenna clearance can be obtained, so that the antenna performance can be improved, and the design requirements of the existing multi-antenna can be better met.

It should be understood that the structural component of the communication terminal in the present embodiment may be various components capable of carrying an antenna constituting the communication terminal. For example, in some examples, the structural member may be a middle frame of the communication terminal, and in other examples, the structural member may also be a housing of the communication terminal.

In this embodiment, the other regions of the structural member except the antenna carrying region may be made of an insulating material, and may be made of the same material as the antenna carrying region, such as plastic, glass, ceramic, etc.; of course, in other examples, the other areas of the structural member except the antenna carrying area may also be made of conductive materials, such as various metal materials.

It should be understood that, in the present embodiment, the shape and size of the outer metal antenna layer disposed on the outer side surface of the antenna carrying area and the specific material adopted can be flexibly set according to specific requirements. In this embodiment, the outer metal antenna layer and the inner metal antenna layer may be made of the same material.

In this embodiment, the outer metal antenna layer may specifically cover the outside of the outer opening on the outer side surface of the antenna carrying area, or may partially cover the outer opening, as long as the area covering the outer opening can form a reliable electrical connection with the end of the inner metal antenna layer located at the outer opening. And it should be understood that the inner metal antenna layer in this embodiment may cover the entire inner wall of the through hole, i.e. only partially cover the inner wall of the through hole. The forming method of the outer metal antenna layer and the inner metal antenna layer can also be flexibly selected, such as but not limited to a cold-melting spraying process and a chemical copper deposition process.

In this embodiment, the size and shape of the through hole penetrating through the outer side surface and the inner side surface of the antenna bearing area can be flexibly set, for example, for the size of the outer opening of the through hole, the size can be flexibly set according to the performance requirement of the outer metal antenna layer and the process requirement of forming the metal antenna layer on the outer opening. In this embodiment, the cross-sectional shape (i.e., the shape of the hole) of the through hole in the thickness direction of the antenna carrying area can also be flexibly set. For example, the inner metal antenna layer may be a "bell-shaped" hole, a "tapered" hole, etc., which has a smaller top and a larger bottom, i.e., the diameter of the outer opening of the through hole is smaller than the diameter of the inner opening in some examples, so that when the inner metal antenna layer is formed in the through hole, the corresponding inner metal antenna layer can be formed from the inner opening to the through hole.

In some examples of this embodiment, in order to further improve the reliability and durability of the antenna, the antenna assembly may further include an insulating protection layer disposed on an outer side surface of the antenna bearing region and covering the outer metal antenna layer; the external metal antenna layer is physically protected by the insulating protection layer. The insulating protection layer in this embodiment may be formed of various insulating materials, for example, it may be a paint layer or an insulating glue layer with insulating property.

Optionally, in order to further improve the reliability of the antenna and further support and protect the antenna, the antenna assembly further includes an insulating sealing body filled in the through hole, located above the inner metal antenna layer and sealing the through hole, where the insulating sealing body can both support and protect the inner metal antenna layer and increase the mechanical strength of the antenna bearing area, thereby improving the reliability and stability of the antenna. The insulating sealing body in the present embodiment can be, but is not limited to, various insulating colloids.

In this embodiment, when the structural member that the antenna assembly includes is communication terminal's center, this center can be become by last frame, lower frame, left frame and right frame group, and can set up at least one antenna bearing area on at least one on last frame, lower frame, left frame and right frame according to specific demand. At this time, the antenna bearing area is a certain partial area on the frame, the outer side surface of the antenna bearing area is the outer side surface of the corresponding frame, and the inner side surface of the antenna bearing area is the inner side surface of the corresponding frame. And it should be understood that the antenna carrying areas are specifically set on which frames, and which areas on a certain frame are used as the antenna carrying areas can be flexibly set. For example, in an application example, at least one antenna carrying area may be disposed on the upper frame and the lower frame of the middle frame, respectively.

The embodiment also provides a communication terminal which can be an intelligent mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, an IPAD, a notebook computer and the like, and can also be various non-mobile communication terminals, wherein the communication terminal comprises the antenna component.

For ease of understanding, the present embodiments are described below with reference to the antenna assembly shown in the drawings.

Referring to fig. 2, in a certain antenna carrying area 1 on the structural member shown in the figure, the antenna carrying area 1 is made of an insulating material, one surface of the antenna carrying area 1, which is close to the outside of the communication terminal in the thickness direction, is an outer side surface 11, one surface of the antenna carrying area 1, which is opposite to the outer side surface 11 and close to the inside of the terminal, is an inner side surface 12, the antenna carrying area 1 is provided with a through hole 13 penetrating through the outer side surface and the inner side surface, and openings of the through hole, which are located on the outer side surface 11 and the inner side surface; the diameter of the outer opening 131 is smaller than the diameter of the inner opening 132. The inner wall 133 of the through hole 13 in this embodiment is an inner wall having a natural angle (or a natural arc), so as to form an inner metal antenna layer on the inner wall 133 later.

For example, referring to fig. 3, in an example, an outer metal antenna layer 21 may be sprayed on the outer side surface 11 and an inner metal antenna layer 22 may be formed inside the through hole 13 by, but not limited to, a cold melting process, and the outer metal antenna layer 21 and the inner metal antenna layer 22 may be made of the same material, and may be formed non-integrally or integrally. In the structure shown in fig. 3, the inner metal antenna layer 22 covers the entire inner wall 133 of the through hole 13. Of course, in some examples, the inner metal antenna layer 22 may also partially cover the inner wall 133 of the through hole 13, for example, see the inner metal antenna layer 22 shown in fig. 4. When the antenna is used specifically, the electric connection area of the inner metal antenna layer on the inner side surface 12 can be electrically connected with the corresponding circuit connection on the PCB in modes of a structural member or an elastic sheet on the PCB and the like, so that an antenna signal is transmitted to the mainboard, and then subsequent processing is performed. In this embodiment, the through hole 13 can be used as an antenna feeding point or an antenna grounding point after being introduced into a corresponding circuit.

In this example, please refer to fig. 5, an insulating protection layer 3 covering the outer metal antenna layer 21 may be further formed on the outer side 11 of the antenna bearing area 1, where the insulating protection layer 3 may be a paint layer or an insulating glue layer, and the thickness thereof may be flexibly set according to a specific application scenario.

In order to further improve the reliability of the antenna and further support and protect the antenna, please refer to fig. 6, the antenna assembly further includes an insulating sealing body 4 (e.g., a sealing colloid) filled in the through hole 13, located on the inner metal antenna layer 133 and sealing the through hole 13, wherein the insulating sealing body 4 can both support and protect the inner metal antenna layer 22 and increase the mechanical strength of the antenna carrying area, thereby improving the reliability and stability of the antenna.

Referring to fig. 7, the present embodiment further provides another antenna assembly structure, which includes an antenna carrying area 1, where the antenna carrying area 1 is made of plastic material, a surface of the antenna carrying area 1, which is close to the outside of the communication terminal in the thickness direction, is an outer side surface, a surface of the antenna carrying area, which is opposite to the outer side surface and close to the inside of the terminal, is an inner side surface 12, the antenna carrying area 1 is provided with through holes (shown in the figure as bell-shaped holes) penetrating through the outer side surface and the inner side surface, and openings of the through holes, which are located on the outer side surface; the diameter of the outer opening is smaller than the diameter of the inner opening. The inner wall of the through hole in this embodiment is an inner wall with a natural angle C, so as to form the inner metal antenna layer 22 on the inner wall 133 in the following; an outer metal antenna layer 21 can be sprayed on the outer side surface through a cold melting process, an inner metal antenna layer 22 is formed inside the through hole, the materials of the outer metal antenna layer 21 and the inner metal antenna layer 22 can be the same, the material of the antenna layer can be selected from various materials, and the antenna layer can be made of a certain metal as long as the material and the process can realize the antenna receiving performance; the layer thickness D of the outer metal antenna layer 21 and the inner metal antenna layer 22 may be set as desired without particular limitation. In the structure shown in fig. 7, the inner metal antenna layer 22 covers the entire inner wall 133 of the through hole. When the antenna is used specifically, the electric connection area of the inner metal antenna layer on the inner side surface can be electrically connected with the corresponding circuit connection on the PCB in modes of a structural member or an elastic sheet on the PCB and the like, an antenna signal is transmitted to the mainboard, and then subsequent processing is carried out. In addition, the through hole can be used as an antenna feed point or an antenna grounding point after the corresponding circuit is introduced into the through hole. Referring to fig. 7, it also includes an insulating protection layer 3 covering the outer metal antenna layer 21, and an insulating sealing body 4 filling and penetrating the hole, so as to improve the reliability and stability of the antenna.

Referring to fig. 8, an upper frame and a lower frame of the middle frame 5 of the communication terminal are provided with antenna bearing areas 51, so as to form an outer metal antenna layer and an inner metal antenna layer with corresponding shapes and sizes on the antenna bearing areas 51 according to requirements. And the shape and the specific setting position of the outer metal antenna layer can be designed according to the actual antenna performance requirement. Of course, at least one antenna bearing area can be flexibly selected to be arranged on at least one of the left frame and the right frame of the middle frame according to requirements, for example, as shown in fig. 9, the antenna bearing areas 51 can be arranged on the upper frame, the lower frame, the left frame and the right frame of the middle frame according to specific requirements according to requirements, and corresponding metal antenna layers can be arranged in the antenna bearing areas 51 by the above-mentioned exemplary method, so that the space of the whole machine in the length direction occupied by the antenna can be greatly reduced, the screen occupation ratio is improved, and the user experience is greatly improved.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that all or some of the steps of the methods, systems, functional modules/units in the devices disclosed above may be implemented as software (which may be implemented in computer program code executable by a computing device), firmware, hardware, and suitable combinations thereof. In a hardware implementation, the division between functional modules/units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, one physical component may have multiple functions, or one function or step may be performed by several physical components in cooperation. Some or all of the physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a central processing unit, digital signal processor, or microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application specific integrated circuit.

In addition, communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, computer program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media as known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

The foregoing is a more detailed description of embodiments of the present invention, and the specific embodiments are not to be considered in a limiting sense. To the utility model belongs to the technical field of ordinary technical personnel, do not deviate from the utility model discloses under the prerequisite of design, can also make a plurality of simple deductions or replacement, all should regard as belonging to the utility model discloses a protection scope.

Claims

1. An antenna assembly of a communication terminal, characterized in that the antenna assembly comprises a structural component of the communication terminal, the structural component is provided with an antenna bearing area, the antenna bearing area is made of insulating materials, one surface of the antenna bearing area, which is close to the outside of the communication terminal, in the thickness direction is an outer side surface, one surface, which is opposite to the outer side surface and close to the inside of the terminal, is an inner side surface, the antenna bearing area is provided with through holes penetrating through the outer side surface and the inner side surface of the antenna bearing area, and openings of the through holes, which are located on the outer side surface and the inner side surface, are an;

2. The antenna assembly of claim 1, further comprising an insulating protective layer disposed on an outer side of the antenna-bearing region and covering the outer metallic antenna layer.

3. The antenna assembly of the communication terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein the insulating protection layer is a paint layer or an insulating glue layer.

4. The antenna assembly for a communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the antenna assembly further comprises an insulating seal filled in the through hole, located above the inner metallic antenna layer, and sealing the through hole.

5. An antenna assembly for a communication terminal according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the outer metallic antenna layer and the inner metallic antenna layer are of the same material.

6. An antenna assembly for a communication terminal according to any of claims 1-3, characterized in that the inner metal antenna layer covers the entire inner wall of the through hole.

7. An antenna assembly for a communications terminal according to any of claims 1-3, characterized in that the diameter of the outer opening is smaller than the diameter of the inner opening.

8. An antenna assembly for a communication terminal according to any of claims 1-3, characterized in that the structural element is a middle frame of the communication terminal, the middle frame being composed of an upper frame, a lower frame, a left frame and a right frame, at least one of the upper frame, the lower frame, the left frame and the right frame being provided with at least one of the antenna bearing areas.

9. The antenna assembly for a communication terminal according to claim 8, wherein at least one of said antenna bearing areas is disposed on each of said upper and lower rims.

10. A communication terminal, characterized in that the communication terminal comprises an antenna assembly according to any of claims 1-9.