Communications: radio wave antennas – Antennas – With support for antenna – reflector or director
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-12
2003-01-28
Wong, Don (Department: 2821)
Communications: radio wave antennas
Antennas
With support for antenna, reflector or director
C343S702000, C343S872000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06512491
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to antenna device and its assembly method as well as wireless communication terminal and its assembly method, and more particularly, is suitably applied to wireless communication terminals to realize a network by wireless by connecting a variety of electronic equipment one another for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been Local Area Network (LAN), a conventional network configured by connecting various electronic equipment to one another such as personal computers and printers, which are used within an architecture or on the premises.
Various electronic devices are usually connected one another in such a LAN system by means of a dedicated communication cable. However, to dissolve complexity in routing the communication cable connecting such electronic devices, of late there:are cases where a wireless communication terminal is connected to each electronic device, thereby realizing wireless communication among those wireless communication terminals.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, a wireless communication terminal
1
houses inside its housing case
2
made of a nonconductive material, for example, various circuit elements forming transmitting/receiving circuits and a matching circuit, a circuit board
4
mounted with an antenna element
3
produced of a bar-shaped conductive material as well as a shield
5
case made of a conductive material covering various circuit elements on circuit board
4
.
Practically, as shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3
, formed on a surface
4
A of circuit board
4
are an electrode
6
A (called “feeding point rand” hereinafter) to feed power to an antenna element
3
by means of a conductive pattern, and a wiring pattern
6
B to electrically connect feeding point rand
6
A to a transmitting/receiving circuit
8
through a matching circuit
7
.
Also, a stopper
3
A, wider in diameter than antenna element itself
3
, is formed at one end of antenna element
3
, and a through hole
4
B matching the girth of that end of antenna element
3
on circuit board
4
so that it may fit into feeding point rand.
6
A.
With the one end inserted into through hole
4
B causing stopper
3
A to be implanted into surface
4
A of circuit board
4
, antenna element
3
is connected electrically and mechanically at stopper
3
A area to feeding point
6
B by means of solder
9
.
Thus, wireless communication terminal
1
is designed such that it captures given transmit data supplied from an electric device (not shown in Fig.) into circuit board
4
, which is transmitted from transmitting/receiving circuit
8
to other wireless communication terminals via matching circuit
7
and antenna element
3
in order, and such that it also receives data transmitted from other wireless communication terminals at transmitting/receiving circuit
8
through antenna element
3
and matching circuit
7
in order, which is transferred to proper electronic equipment.
For additional information, such a wireless communication terminal
1
is designed such that a shield case
5
inside housing case
2
functions as an electric shield preventing against external noises and electric waves radiated from antenna element
3
going around into various circuit elements in transmitting and receiving.
There has been a tendency that those such as wireless communication terminal
1
are made compact as circuit boards
4
are downsized thanks to the advancement of the mounting technology in recent years.
However, if a wireless communication terminal
1
is used in a bandwidth of about 2.4GHz in transmitting and receiving data for example, an antenna element
3
designed to an electric length of &lgr;/4 requires a physical length of about 30 mm, and another antenna element
3
designed to an electric length of &lgr;/2, a physical length of about 60 mm.
Because of the above, as is apparent from
FIG. 1
, in a wireless communication terminal
1
a projection
10
is formed on housing case
2
, with the other end of antenna element
3
housed in projection
10
.
In practice, in such a wireless communication terminal
1
housing case
2
is made up of a case half, bottom
2
A, and a case half, top
2
B formed with projection
10
. And, when assembled, the circuit board
4
mounted with the shield case
5
is placed on the bottom
2
AX; of the case half, bottom
2
A by means of legs (not shown in Fig.), and then the case half, top
2
B, is placed over the case half, bottom
2
A.
However, in assembling the wireless communication terminal
1
a worker holding the case half, top
2
B can not see the antenna element
3
because of the case half, top
2
B being a cover, making it hard to;have the other end of the antenna element
3
housed into the projection
10
and to mount the case half, top
2
B, on the case half, bottom
2
A, resulting in poor assemblage.
In order to solve such a problem, as
FIG. 4
shows, it can be thought for a wireless communication terminal
14
to house a circuit board
17
with a shield case
16
attached into the housing case
15
consisting of a case half, bottom
15
A, and a case half, top
15
B, and to hold an antenna element
19
in a nonconductive antenna holding member
18
implanted in a through hole
15
BX formed on case half, top
15
B, with a male connector (called “male connector” hereinafter)
21
electrically connected to antenna element
19
by means of a coaxial cable
20
capable of forming into any shape, electrically and mechanically connected to a female connector (called “female connector” hereinafter)
22
mounted on circuit board
17
.
As shown in
FIG. 5
, in assembling wireless communication terminal
14
thus constructed, circuit board
17
mounted with shield case
16
is placed on a bottom
15
AX of case half, bottom
15
B by means of legs (not shown in Fig.), and antenna holding member
18
housing antenna element
19
is inserted into through hole
15
BX of case half, top
15
B. Then, with male connector
21
connected electrically and mechanically to female connector
22
, case half, top
15
B is placed over case half, bottom
15
A in a overlapping manner, so that case half, top
15
B is easily fixed on case half, bottom
15
A because antenna element
19
is housed in antenna holding member
18
in advance.
However, in wireless communication terminal
14
thus constructed, because a coaxial cable
21
connected with antenna element
19
is connected to female connector
22
on circuit board
17
by means of male connector
21
before case half, top
15
B is fixed on case half, bottom
15
A, coaxial cable
21
comparatively long must be used considering the work to fix case half, top
15
B on case half, bottom
15
A.
Due to the above, care must be taken in assembling wireless communication terminal
14
in a way that coaxial cable
21
is bent in a given shape so that it would not protrude between case half, bottom
15
A and case half, top
15
B when mounting case half, top
15
B on case half, bottom
15
A, which still remains unsolved as a problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, an object of this invention is to provide an antenna device and its assembling method as well as a wireless communication terminal and its assembling method, with a markedly enhanced assemblage.
The foregoing object and other objects of the invention have been achieved by the provision of an antenna device and a wireless communication terminal. An antenna element is held by an antenna holding member, and a circuit board formed with an. electrode to feed power into the antenna element is held by the board holding member, and the antenna element and the electrode of the circuit board are electrically connected by means of a resilient connecting member by fixing the antenna holding member on the board holding member.
Accordingly, because the antenna element is supported by the antenna holding member in advance it is easy to fix the antenna holding member on the board holding member, enabling the antenna element to be electrically connected to the electrode of the circuit board membe
Kanayama Yoshiki
Saito Yuichiro
Dinh Trinh Vo
Frommer William S.
Frommer Lawrence & Haug LP
Ryan Matthew K.
LandOfFree
Antenna device and its assembly method and wireless... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Antenna device and its assembly method and wireless..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Antenna device and its assembly method and wireless... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3055730