JP2023084903A - Electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an electronic apparatus with an antenna capable of suppressing an influence on appearance quality of a housing and ensuring good communication quality.SOLUTION: In an electronic apparatus, an antenna unit 24 includes: a housing; an antenna 22 having an antenna element 26 formed of a meander-shaped metal plate 26Aa and forming part of the outer wall of the housing; and a resin frame 28 integrally molded with the antenna element 26 and forming part of the outer wall.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

The present invention relates to an electronic device with an antenna.

Electronic devices such as notebook PCs and tablet PCs are equipped with antennas for various types of wireless communication such as WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network) and WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) (see Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example). .

JP 2013-162413 A Japanese Patent No. 6952833

For example, in a foldable tablet PC as described in Patent Document 2, a display is arranged on substantially the entire surface of the housing. Therefore, it is difficult to arrange an antenna element that can ensure good communication quality in this type of electronic device. For example, in the configuration of Patent Document 2, an antenna element is arranged under a bezel member surrounding the periphery of the display. Therefore, in this configuration, the width of the bezel member must be increased to accommodate the antenna element, which affects the appearance quality of the device. Of course, the problem of installation space for such an antenna element is not limited to foldable tablet PCs, but is also found in many other electronic devices that require smaller and thinner housings.

In particular, electronic devices such as notebook PCs and tablet PCs are expected to be used worldwide. For this reason, the antenna must be able to support a wide frequency band, and it is preferable to mount an antenna element capable of supporting this.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device capable of suppressing the influence on the external appearance quality of the housing and ensuring good communication quality. With the goal.

An electronic device according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a housing, an antenna formed of a meandering metal plate and having an antenna element forming part of an outer wall of the housing, and an antenna element integrally molded with the antenna element. and a resin frame forming part of the outer wall.

According to the above aspect of the present invention, it is possible to suppress the influence on the appearance quality of the housing, and to ensure better communication quality.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which an electronic device according to an embodiment is closed and in a 0-degree posture. FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing a state in which the electronic device shown in FIG. 1 is opened and placed in a 180-degree posture. FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view along line III-III in FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an antenna unit including antenna 22. As shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an antenna element. 6A is a plan view of the antenna unit shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 6B is a bottom view of the antenna unit shown in FIG. 4. FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a state in which the antenna unit is attached to the first housing.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An electronic device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to preferred embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which an electronic device 10 according to one embodiment is closed and in a 0-degree posture. FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing a state in which the electronic device 10 shown in FIG. 1 is opened and placed in a 180-degree posture.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the electronic device 10 includes a first housing 12A, a second housing 12B, a hinge device 14, and a display 16. As shown in FIG. This embodiment exemplifies an electronic device 10 that is used as a tablet PC or a notebook PC that can be folded like a book. The electronic device 10 may be a mobile phone, a smart phone, a portable game machine, or the like, and may have a housing structure that cannot be folded.

The housings 12A and 12B are arranged adjacent to each other. The edges 12Aa and 12Ba of the housings 12A and 12B that are adjacent to each other are connected by a hinge device 14 so as to be relatively rotatable. The first housing 12A has a rear cover 18A and an upright wall 20A that constitute an outer surface excluding the upper surface on which the display 16 is arranged. The second housing 12B has a back cover 18B and a vertical wall 20B that constitute the outer surface except for the upper surface on which the display 16 is arranged.

The rear covers 18A and 18B are outer walls that form the lower surfaces of the housings 12A and 12B and cover the rear surface 16a of the display 16 (see FIG. 3). The standing walls 20A and 20B are outer walls that form the side surfaces of the three sides other than the edge portions 12Aa and 12Ba and surround the outer peripheral end surface of the display 16 . The rear covers 18A, 18B and the vertical walls 20A, 20B are made of metal such as magnesium alloy or aluminum alloy, or resin such as polycarbonate. In this embodiment, the rear covers 18A, 18 and the standing wall 20B are made of magnesium alloy. In the case of this embodiment, the vertical wall 20A is partly made of magnesium alloy and the rest is made of resin such as polycarbonate.

The first housing 12A mounts electronic components 21 such as a mother board on which a CPU is mounted, memory, and the like (see FIG. 3). The second housing 12B mounts electronic components such as a battery device, for example.

As shown in FIG. 2, the first housing 12A has a pair of antennas 22 mounted thereon. The antenna 22 is a device for transmitting and receiving radio waves for wireless communication compatible with communication standards such as WWAN or WLAN. Antenna 22 is connected to a communication module mounted on the motherboard. The number of installed antennas 22 may be one or three or more. Antenna 22 may be mounted on second housing 12B or may be mounted on both housings 12A and 12B.

Hereinafter, regarding the electronic device 10, the direction in which the housings 12A and 12B are arranged is the X direction, the direction along the edges 12Aa and 12Ba orthogonal thereto is the Y direction, and the thickness direction of the housings 12A and 12B is the Z direction. call and explain. Regarding the angular posture between the housings 12A and 12B, for convenience, the state in which they are stacked so as to overlap each other in the plane direction is called the 0 degree posture (see FIG. 1), and the direction perpendicular to the plane direction (X direction). The state of lining up is called a 180-degree posture (see FIG. 2).

The display 16 is a flexible display that extends across the housings 12A, 12B. The display 6 is a paper-like structure composed of, for example, organic EL. The display 16 has a region R1 on the first housing 12A side, a region R2 on the second housing 12B side, and a folded region R3 between the regions R1 and R2. The bent region R3 is a strip-shaped region that straddles the edges 12Aa and 12Ba. The bending region R3 is a portion that is bent when the housings 12A and 12B are rotated from the 180-degree posture toward the 0-degree posture.

A display surface 16b of the display 16 faces the upper surfaces of the housings 12A and 12B. The display 16 has a rear surface 16a, which is the rear surface of the display surface 16b, supported by the hinge device 14 and the support plate 23 (see FIG. 3). The support plate 23 is a hard plate made of carbon fiber reinforced resin or metal. The support plate 23 is arranged on top of the housings 12A and 12B, respectively, and has substantially the same surface area as the regions R1 and R2, respectively.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view along line III-III in FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the internal structure of the first housing 12A, exemplifying the structure of the antenna 22 and its peripheral portion. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an antenna unit 24 including antenna 22. As shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the antenna unit 24 includes an antenna 22 having an antenna element 26 and an antenna carrier 27, and a resin frame . In FIG. 4, the antenna unit 24 exemplifies a linear rod-like configuration. In FIG. 2, the antenna unit 24 is formed in a substantially L shape in plan view, and is arranged at a corner portion of the first housing 12A. The shape of the antenna unit 24 is not limited, but if it is arranged in an L shape at the corner of the first housing 12A as shown in FIG.

In order to clarify the shape of the antenna element 26, the antenna element 26 is hatched with oblique lines in FIG. This hatching does not indicate a cross section, but is added to clearly show the antenna element 26. The hatched surface in FIG. 20A of the outer surface 20Aa. In FIG. 7 as well, the antenna element 26 is hatched with oblique lines in the same manner as in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the antenna element 26. FIG.

The antenna element 26 is a part that transmits and receives radio waves for wireless communication. As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the antenna element 26 of this embodiment has a first antenna element 26A and a second antenna element 26B.

The first antenna element 26A has a metal plate 26Aa and a connecting plate 26Ab, and has a substantially L-shaped cross section. The metal plate 26Aa forms the outer side surface 20Aa of the standing wall 20A. The metal plate 26Aa is formed in a meandering shape when viewed from the front. The first antenna element 26A has a meandering metal plate 26Aa, thereby extending the length of the entire element.

The connection plate 26Ab is arranged orthogonally to the metal plate 26Aa. The connection plate 26Ab is a portion that is connected to the antenna carrier 27 and the resin frame 28 . The connection plate 26Ab of the first antenna element 26A is fastened to the antenna carrier 27 using metal screws 30. As shown in FIG. Accordingly, the antenna element 26A and the antenna carrier 27 are electrically connected to each other.

The first antenna element 26A of the configuration example shown in FIG. 4 constitutes a loop antenna having two loops 26Ac. However, the shape of the first antenna element 26A, more specifically, the shape of the metal plate 26Aa may be meandering, and is not limited to the shape shown in FIG.

The second antenna element 26B is formed of a substantially rectangular metal plate with one end narrowed. The narrow portion at one end of the second antenna element 26B faces the first antenna element 26A with a slight gap therebetween so that they can resonate with each other. That is, the second antenna element 26B is a sub-resonant antenna induced by resonance with the first antenna element 26A. The second antenna element 26B substantially extends the element length of the first antenna element 26A in order to deal with radio waves in a low frequency band that cannot be dealt with by the first antenna element 26A alone. In this embodiment, the second antenna element 26B is also provided with a connecting plate 26Ba similar to the connecting plate 26Ab.

The second antenna element 26B may be configured in the same meander shape as the first antenna element 26A. The second antenna element 26B may be omitted.

The antenna elements 26A, 26B are made of magnesium alloy, for example. In particular, the metal plate 26Aa of the first antenna element 26A and the metal plate of the second antenna element 26B have a plate thickness of about 1 mm, for example, and have high strength and rigidity. Therefore, the antenna elements 26A and 26B have sufficient strength and rigidity as a housing member forming part of the vertical wall 20A.

In actual products, the antenna elements 26A and 26B are coated on the surface or provided with a thin resin plate for decoration on the surface. However, these resin plates for painting and decoration are decorative, and substantially the antenna elements 26A and 26B form the outer surface 20Aa of the standing wall 20A.

The antenna carrier 27 is connected to the communication module mounted on the motherboard using a cable. As shown in FIG. 3, the antenna carrier 27 induces the antenna element 26 by being electrically connected to the first antenna element 26A.

The antenna carrier 27 of this embodiment is formed to have a substantially L-shaped cross section. An L-shaped vertical portion 27 a of the antenna carrier 27 stands up in the Z direction between the rear cover 18 A and the support plate 23 . The vertical portion 27a is supported by the inner surfaces of the rear cover 18A and the support plate 23 via gaskets 32. As shown in FIG. The antenna carrier 27 has a shield wall 33 on the side surface of the vertical portion 27a facing the inside of the first housing 12A. The shield wall 33 is a metal wall that electrically isolates between the antenna 22 and electronic components inside the first housing 12A.

Reference numeral 34 in FIG. 3 is a conductive tape, such as a copper tape, for grounding the antenna 22 to the first housing 12A. Reference numeral 35 in FIG. 3 denotes an antenna window made of radio wave transparent resin material. The antenna window 35 is provided in a portion of the rear cover 18A and positioned below the antenna 22. As shown in FIG.

6A is a plan view of the antenna unit 24 shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 6B is a bottom view of the antenna unit 24 shown in FIG. 4. FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a state in which the antenna unit 24 is attached to the first housing 12A.

As shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 6A, and 6B, the resin frame 28 is a resin block-shaped component integrally molded (insert-molded) with the antenna element 26. As shown in FIG. The resin frame 28 is made of a radio wave transmitting resin material such as PPS (polyphenylene sulfide). The resin frame 28 also functions as a housing member forming part of the vertical wall 20A.

The resin frame 28 has a housing fixing portion 36 , a blocking wall 37 and a bezel mounting surface 38 .

The housing fixing portion 36 is a portion to which screws are fastened for fixing the antenna unit 24 to the first housing 12A. That is, the resin frame 28 also functions as a bracket for attaching the antenna element 26 to the first housing 12A. The housing fixing portion 36 is formed with a hole coaxial with the hole provided in the connecting plates 26Ab and 26Ba of the antenna element 26, for example.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 7, the vertical wall 20A is composed of an antenna element 26, a resin frame 28, and a metal frame 40. As shown in FIG. The metal frame 40 constitutes most of the vertical wall 20A except for the antenna unit 24. As shown in FIG. In other words, the metal frame 40 extends along the outer circumference of the first housing 12A, but is divided at two dividing portions 40a. Each antenna unit 24 is arranged in each division part 40 a so as to complement the metal frame 40 .

The shielding wall 37 is a resin wall for electrically separating the metal frame 40 and the antenna element 26 from each other. That is, the blocking walls 37 are arranged at both ends of the antenna element 26, respectively.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the electronic device 10 includes a bezel member 42 that surrounds the outer periphery of the display surface 16b of the display. The bezel member 42 is a rectangular frame member made of a resin plate that is thin when standing.

The bezel mounting surface 38 is the mounting surface of the bezel member 42 . As shown in FIG. 2, the bezel member 42 is provided so as to straddle the outer peripheral edge of the display surface 16b and the upper end surfaces 20Ab and 20Ba of the vertical walls 20A and 20B. The bezel member 42 is fixed to the upper end surfaces 20Ab and 20Ba of the metal frame 40 at the portions where the vertical walls 20A and 20B are formed of the metal frame 40. As shown in FIG. The bezel member 42 is fixed to the bezel mounting surface 38 at the portion where the standing wall 20A is formed by the antenna unit 24 .

In this case, the electronic device 10 of the present embodiment includes an antenna 22 having a first antenna element 26A formed of a meander-shaped metal plate 26Aa and forming part of the outer wall of the first housing 12A, and a first antenna A resin frame 28 integrally molded with the element 26A and forming a part of the outer wall of the first housing 12A is provided.

As described above, the electronic device 10 is composed of a first antenna element 26A formed of a meander-shaped metal plate 26Aa, and a resin frame 28 integrally molded with the first antenna element 26A. ing. As a result, the first antenna element 26A has an extended element length due to its meandering shape, and can satisfactorily respond to radio waves in a wide frequency band. Specifically, the first antenna element 26A can accommodate radio waves in a wide frequency band, for example, 700 MHz to 6 GHz. The antenna 22 further has a second antenna element 26B, so that it can handle radio waves in a lower frequency band. This is because, in general, it is necessary to increase the length of the antenna element in order to support a low frequency band.

Moreover, since the antenna element 26 has the meander-shaped first antenna element 26A, the thickness thereof can be easily reduced. Specifically, if the antenna element 26 were not meander-shaped but simply rectangular or the like, a pseudo element (parasitic element) would be required to accommodate radio waves in a wide frequency band. In other words, if the shape is not meandering, the parasitic element must be provided, for example, inside the antenna element 26, which causes the width dimension W (see FIG. 2) of the bezel member 42 to increase.

On the other hand, the antenna element 26 of this embodiment does not require the parasitic element described above. Therefore, the thickness of the antenna element 26 in the width direction of the bezel member 42 is substantially reduced to the thickness of the metal plate 26Aa. As a result, the electronic device 10 can reduce the width dimension W (see FIG. 2) of the bezel member 42 covering the antenna element 26 to, for example, about 6 mm. In other words, the electronic device 10 can ensure good communication quality by the antenna 22 while suppressing the influence on the appearance quality of the housings 12A and 12B.

Further, since the antenna element 26 is located on the outer wall of the first housing 12A, good communication quality can always be ensured in the 0-degree orientation shown in FIG. 1, the 180-degree orientation shown in FIG. 2, and any intermediate orientations. That is, the antenna element 26 of this embodiment utilizes part of the outer wall of the first housing 12A. Therefore, the antenna element 26 can always ensure good communication quality without being affected by the angular orientation between the housings 12A and 12B, the orientation of the electronic device 10, and the like.

In the electronic device 10 , the meander-shaped first antenna element 26</b>A is integrally formed with the resin frame 28 . That is, it is difficult to use the meandering first antenna element 26A alone as the outer wall of the first housing 12, and if it were to be used alone, the housing structure would need to be complicated. In this regard, the first antenna element 26A of the present embodiment is integrally molded with the resin frame 28. As shown in FIG. Therefore, the first antenna element 26A can be easily attached to the first housing 12A using the resin frame 28 as a bracket. Moreover, since the first antenna element 26A is integrally molded with the resin frame 28, it can be easily electrically separated from the surrounding metal frame 40. FIG.

In particular, in the case of this embodiment, the antenna element 26 and the resin frame 28 stand upright on the outer peripheral edge of the back cover 18A and constitute part of the upright wall 20A surrounding the outer peripheral end face of the display 16. As shown in FIG. Here, the width dimension W of the bezel member 42 is, for example, about 6 mm as described above. On the other hand, the thickness in the Z direction of the housings 12A and 12B can be secured, for example, about 7 mm, and the influence of the thickness on the appearance quality is smaller than that in the width direction W of the bezel member 42 . Therefore, in the electronic device 10, by arranging the antenna element 26 on the vertical wall 20A that can secure a wider space than the bezel member 42, it is possible to mount the meander-shaped antenna element 26 without affecting the appearance quality. can be suppressed.

Here, the resin frame 28 has a bezel mounting surface 38 on which the bezel member 42 is mounted. As a result, the electronic device 10 secures the mounting position of the bezel member 42 while providing the antenna element 26 on a part of the vertical wall 20A. In other words, in the electronic device 10, even though the antenna element 26 and the resin frame 28 are provided on the vertical wall 20A, the width dimension W of the bezel member 42 does not increase due to the effect thereof.

The electronic device 10 has a metal frame 40 partly divided at a dividing portion 40a, and an antenna element 26 and a resin frame 28 arranged at the dividing portion 40a. Resin frame 28 has blocking wall 37 interposed between antenna element 26 and metal frame 40 . As a result, most of the standing walls 20A and 20B surrounding the outer circumferences of the housings 12A and 12B of the electronic device 10 can be formed of the metal frame 40, and the strength thereof can be ensured. Moreover, since the antenna element 26 is isolated from the metal frame 40 by the blocking wall 37 which is a part of the resin frame 28, the occurrence of poor communication can be suppressed.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be freely modified without departing from the gist of the present invention.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 electronic device 12A first housing 12B second housing 16 display 18A, 18B rear cover 20A, 20B standing wall 22 antenna 24 antenna unit 26 antenna element 26A first antenna element 26Aa metal plate 28 resin frame 37 blocking wall 38 bezel mounting surface 40 metal frame 42 bezel member

Claims (5)

an electronic device,
a housing;
an antenna having an antenna element formed of a meander-shaped metal plate and forming part of an outer wall of the housing;
a resin frame integrally molded with the antenna element and forming a part of the outer wall;
An electronic device comprising: The electronic device according to claim 1,
The outer wall is
a cover member;
a standing wall standing at the outer peripheral edge of the cover member;
has
The electronic device, wherein the antenna element and the resin frame constitute a part of the vertical wall. The electronic device according to claim 2,
further comprising a display supported within the housing and having a display surface facing the surface of the housing;
The cover member covers the back surface of the display,
The electronic device, wherein the vertical wall surrounds an outer peripheral end surface of the display. The electronic device according to claim 3,
further comprising a bezel member provided so as to surround the outer peripheral edge of the display surface of the display;
The electronic device, wherein the bezel member is provided so as to straddle the outer peripheral edge of the display surface and the upper end surface of the standing wall, and is partially supported by the upper end surface of the resin frame. The electronic device according to any one of claims 2 to 4,
The standing wall is
a metal frame partly divided by a dividing part;
the antenna element and the resin frame arranged at the divided portion of the metal frame;
has
An electronic device, wherein a part of the resin frame is interposed between the antenna element and the metal frame.

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