Communications: radio wave antennas – Antennas – With radio cabinet
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-18
2001-10-23
Wong, Don (Department: 2821)
Communications: radio wave antennas
Antennas
With radio cabinet
C343S906000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307513
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an Input/Output (I/O) connector in electronic systems, and more particularly to a microwave connector for I/O in portable electronic systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The number of I/O port connectors on portable electronic systems (e.g. laptop computers) keeps increasing and new methods and techniques are required to minimize the number of connectors. For example, a new wireless (e.g., radio communications) technology is being added to portable systems that has a plurality of different frequency bands for a plurality of different applications.
In the near term (e.g., over the next 5-10 years), this technology will evolve and become more widespread. However, a problem will arise in that such technology will lead to physical changes in laptops, thereby creating huge legacy support problems. For example, these problems will include how to insert a radio at a frequency that has yet to be determined, how to have a good antenna external to the system providing optimum performance, how to ensure that the antenna is replaceable in cases where it is broken, and how to manage changes in frequency band.
A further problem with connectors, and particularly, microwave connectors called SMA (an industry standard acronym) connectors used for microwave systems, is that they are made of solid metal (e.g., gold-plated or stainless steel), have highly precise instrumentation, and are designed to carry frequencies from DC to about 18 GHz. As a result, such connectors have high costs typically in a range of $2 to $30 each. This high cost drives up the cost of the systems associated with such connectors.
Additionally, it is noted that device connectors for CB radios and commercial components for televisions have a frequency of up to 800-900 MHz and such devices have not operated in the microwave regime and as such TNC, BNC and F-type connectors associated with this band are also very expensive and/or not practical technically to operate much above 1 GHz.
Further, currently wireless local area network (LANs) systems are becoming popular which use a frequency band around 2.4 GHz, but there are currently no connectors used therewith having a low cost.
Finally, antenna systems are being studied for generic interfacing with a portable devices such as laptops and personal data assistants (PDAs). However, these devices have limited surface area and thus limited I/O ports (“spigots”) for interfacing with an antenna. Thus, a problem has been how to connect such antenna systems to a laptop computer so as to provide wireless connectivity for the laptop which has low cost without adding additional connectors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing and other problems, disadvantages and drawbacks of the conventional connectors, an object of the present invention is to provide a structure that solves these problems by adding a new I/O device without increasing the number of connectors.
It is another object of the invention to use a low cost plastic microwave connector as an antenna connector in a portable computer.
Yet another object is to use an existing standard connector to provide an additional I/O device without having to physically alter the structure of a portable computer.
In a first aspect of the present invention, an antenna connector for a portable device, includes a jack portion integrally formed with the portable device, and a plug portion attached to an antenna subsystem.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a portable device includes a housing, a plastic microwave connector, within the housing, functioning as an antenna connector in the portable device, the connector having an insertion loss of <0.5 dB and a return loss >10 dB, a phone connector having a plurality of spring-loaded contacts, wherein a jack portion of the phone connector is built into the housing of the portable computing device, and wherein a plug portion of the phone connector is for locating an antenna subsystem, thereby allowing a removable antenna to be selectively replaced.
In a third aspect of the invention, the connector may form the basis of a subsystem, that comprises not only the desired connector function, but also provide additional functionality such as a physical switch that allows multi-purpose operation (e.g., V.90 modem functionality if a normal RJ11 connector is plugged into the jack or wireless connectivity if an antenna connector, slightly different in shape, is plugged into the jack). The jack portion may house additional circuitry such as a switch (e.g., electrical or physical), that may route signals from one set of pins to another inside a laptop or other device. In one embodiment of the switch, a PC board can be envisioned that is physically moved side-to-side by the insertion force of a special antenna version of the RJ11 connector. The action of moving the PC board places the traces under one of two sets of contacts, thereby enabling more than one set of signals to pass through the connector based upon what is physically present in the jack. Other functionality that may now be provided might include an LNA (Low Noise Amplifier), a diversity switch for multiple antennas on the connector, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for user indicators, etc.
Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, a simple RJ11/RJ45 (e.g., telephone jack) type of connector is provided which has been modified by the invention to handle radio frequency (RF) communications. Further, a removable antenna can be interfaced (connected) to the connector which can handle a wireless LAN at 2.4 GHz, a cellular telephone at 900 MHz, a cellular telephone at 1.9 GHz, or high-speed wireless connectivity at 5 GHZ. Hence, the generic interface if provided in a portable device can have low cost as well as be upgradable.
With the unique and unobvious structure of the present invention, a new I/O device is provided without increasing the number of connectors. Further, the connectors are preferably provided as a low-cost plastic microwave connector for functioning as an antenna connector in a portable device (e.g., a computer, PDA, etc.). Finally, with the connector of the present invention, an existing standard connector can be used to provide an additional I/O device without having to physically alter the structure of a portable device (e.g., computer).
Another advantage is that such a new connector may provide multi-functionality. The ability to switch from one communications medium to another through this connector opens new paradigms for connectivity without significantly increasing cost.
The ability to change frequency bands as technology progresses is a very attractive feature. Companies will have a reduced legacy issue with their machines. For example, one can see that PC manufacturers have several different interface slots now available including PCMCIA and MiniPCI bay. Neither of these interface slots has the ability to interface an antenna through the PC connector. However, the present invention provides such a capability. Vendors can now select the desired slot and function for wireless communications and add the antenna later.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5828343 (1998-10-01), MacDonald, Jr. et al.
patent: 5929815 (1999-07-01), Elderfield
patent: 5971813 (1999-10-01), Kunz et al.
patent: 6081242 (2000-06-01), Wingo
Gaucher Brian P.
Oprysko Modest M.
Clinger James
International Business Machines - Corporation
McGinn & Gibb PLLC
Otterstedt, Esq. Paul J.
Wong Don
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