Patents by Inventor Carlo Di Nallo

Carlo Di Nallo has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10734714
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a display having conductive display structures. The display structures may be separated from the sidewalls by a slot for an antenna that runs around the display module. A conductive interconnect may be coupled between the sidewalls and the display structures. A feed and tuning element may be coupled between the display structures and the sidewalls. A first length of the slot from the interconnect to the tuning element may radiate in a satellite band and a cellular band. A second length of the slot from the interconnect to the feed may radiate in a 2.4 GHz band. Harmonics of the second length may radiate in bands at and above 5.0 GHz. If desired, the tuning element may be omitted, and the antenna may be coupled to separate low band and high band matching circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrea Ruaro, Mario Martinis, Jiaxiao Niu, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Dimitrios Papantonis, Jayesh Nath, Zheyu Wang, Carlo Di Nallo, Mattia Pascolini
  • Publication number: 20200182964
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with control circuitry and wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include a phased antenna array and a radio-frequency integrated circuit having transmit and receive ports. The array may include a first set of stacked patch antennas coupled to the transmit ports and a second set of stacked patch antennas coupled to the receive ports. The integrated circuit may transmit ranging signals at millimeter wave frequencies using the transmit ports and the first set of antennas. The integrated circuit may receive a reflected version of the transmitted ranging signals that has been reflected off of an external object using the receive ports and the second set of antennas. The control circuitry may identify a distance between the electronic device and the external object based on the transmitted and received signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2019
    Publication date: June 11, 2020
    Inventors: Carlo Di Nallo, Simone Paulotto
  • Patent number: 10658749
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a display having conductive display structures. Printed circuits having corresponding ground traces may be coupled to the display for conveying data to and/or from the display. The conductive display structures may be separated from the metal sidewalls by a gap. A conductive interconnect may be coupled to the metal sidewalls and may extend across the gap to the conductive display structures. The conductive interconnect may be coupled to the ground traces on the printed circuits and/or may be shorted or capacitively coupled to the conductive display structures. When configured in this way, the metal sidewalls, the conductive display structures, and the conductive interconnect may define the edges of a slot antenna resonating element for a slot antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrea Ruaro, Carlo Di Nallo, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Jayesh Nath, Mario Martinis, Mattia Pascolini, Zheyu Wang, Sameer Pandya
  • Patent number: 10644383
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a dielectric rear wall. The metal sidewalls may form an antenna ground for an antenna. The antenna may include an antenna resonating element formed from conductive traces patterned directly onto an interior surface of the dielectric rear wall. The conductive traces may define a slot at the dielectric rear wall. A coil and a sensor may be mounted to the dielectric rear wall within the slot. Radio-frequency transceiver circuitry may be coupled to the conductive traces and the antenna ground and may transmit and receive radio-frequency signals through the dielectric rear wall using the antenna. Wireless power receiver circuitry may use the coil to receive wireless power signals through the dielectric rear wall. The sensor may emit and/or receive light through a transparent window in the dielectric rear wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Andrea Ruaro, Carlo Di Nallo, Jayesh Nath, Mario Martinis, Zheyu Wang, Mattia Pascolini
  • Publication number: 20200021011
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry that includes first, second, and third antennas used to determine the position and orientation of the electronic device relative to external equipment. The antennas may include patch elements on respective substrates mounted to a flexible printed circuit. Each substrate may include fences of conductive vias that are coupled to ground and that laterally surround the corresponding patch element. Control circuitry may identify phase differences between the first and second antennas and between the second and third antennas and may identify an angle of arrival of received ultra-wideband signals using the phase differences. The control circuitry may compare the phase differences to a set of predetermined surfaces of phase differences to identify environmental loading conditions for the antenna. The control circuitry may correct the angle of arrival using offsets identified based on the environmental loading conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2018
    Publication date: January 16, 2020
    Inventors: Aaron J. Cooper, Amin Tayebi, Carlo Di Nallo, Zheyu Wang
  • Publication number: 20190372205
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a display having conductive display structures. The display structures may be separated from the sidewalls by a slot for an antenna that runs around the display module. A conductive interconnect may be coupled between the sidewalls and the display structures. A feed and tuning element may be coupled between the display structures and the sidewalls. A first length of the slot from the interconnect to the tuning element may radiate in a satellite band and a cellular band. A second length of the slot from the interconnect to the feed may radiate in a 2.4 GHz band. Harmonics of the second length may radiate in bands at and above 5.0 GHz. If desired, the tuning element may be omitted, and the antenna may be coupled to separate low band and high band matching circuits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Publication date: December 5, 2019
    Inventors: Andrea Ruaro, Mario Martinis, Jiaxiao Niu, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Dimitrios Papantonis, Jayesh Nath, Zheyu Wang, Carlo Di Nallo, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10484112
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may include a housing with a dielectric rear wall. Wireless circuitry in the device may include an antenna formed on or over the rear wall. Matching circuitry may match the impedance of the antenna to the rest of the wireless circuitry. Processing circuitry may gather receive signal strength information and/or phase and magnitude information from radio-frequency signals received through the rear wall. The processing circuitry may track the position of the device and accumulate user statistics over time. The processing circuitry may determine whether changes in loading of the antenna through the dielectric rear housing wall have occurred based on the receive signal strength information, user statistics, and/or phase and magnitude information. If a change is detected, the processing circuitry may adjust the matching circuitry to mitigate any potential antenna detuning as a result of the change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mattia Pascolini, Eduardo Jorge da Costa Bras Lima, Carlo Di Nallo, Andrea Ruaro, Mario Martinis, Zheyu Wang, Jayesh Nath
  • Publication number: 20190257933
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may be provided with a phased antenna array for conveying first signals at a first frequency between 10 GHz and 300 GHz and a non-millimeter wave antenna for conveying second signals at a second frequency below 10 GHz. The device may include conductive housing sidewalls and a display. Conductive structures in the display and the conductive housing sidewalls may define a slot element in the non-millimeter wave antenna. The phased antenna array may be mounted within the slot element, aligned with a spatial filter in the display, or aligned with a dielectric window in the conductive housing sidewalls. Control circuitry may process signals transmitted by the phased antenna array and a reflected version of the transmitted signals that has been received by the phased antenna array to detect a range between the device and an external object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2018
    Publication date: August 22, 2019
    Inventors: Jayesh Nath, Simone Paulotto, Mario Martinis, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Andrea Ruaro, Carlo Di Nallo, Matthew A. Mow, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10372166
    Abstract: A housing for an electronic device is disclosed. The housing includes a first conductive component defining a first interface surface, a second conductive component defining a second interface surface facing the first interface surface, and a joint structure between the first and second interface surfaces. The joint structure includes a molded element forming a portion of an exterior surface of the housing, and a sealing member forming a watertight seal between the first and second conductive components. Methods of forming the electronic device housing are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Brian M. Gable, Carlo Di Nallo, Colin M. Ely, Craig A. Horton, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Henry B. Wettersten, Hoishun Li, Jason C. Sauers, Jayesh Nath, Mario Martinis, Mattia Pascolini, Michael P. Coleman, Rex T. Ehman, Zheyu Wang
  • Patent number: 10367252
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal portions such as metal sidewalls. The housing may form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element for the antenna may be formed from a stack of capacitively coupled component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer at a front face of the device. An additional antenna may be formed from a peripheral resonating element that runs along a peripheral edge of the device and the antenna ground. A rear face antenna may be formed using a wireless power receiving coil as a radio-frequency antenna resonating element or may be formed from metal antenna traces on a plastic support for light-based components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Rex T. Ehman, Jayesh Nath, Carlo Di Nallo, James G. Horiuchi, Erik G. de Jong, Jason C. Sauers, Makiko K. Brzezinski, Siwen Yong, Lijun Zhang, Yi Jiang, Zheyu Wang, Mario Martinis, Eduardo Da Costa Bras Lima, Xu Han, Mattia Pascolini, Trevor J. Ness
  • Patent number: 10355344
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may be provided with a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver, satellite receiver, and cellular transceiver. A first antenna may include a radiating slot between a conductive housing wall and a display module. A second antenna may include conductive structures that radiate through a rear face of the device. The WLAN transceiver and the satellite receiver may be coupled to the first antenna. A switch may be coupled between the cellular transceiver and the first and second antennas. Control circuitry may adjust the switch to route signals between the cellular transceiver and a selected one of the first and second antennas based on wireless performance metric data so that the antenna exhibiting superior wireless performance at cellular telephone frequencies is used for cellular telephone communications regardless of environmental conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrea Ruaro, Carlo Di Nallo, Dimitrios Papantonis, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Jayesh Nath, Jiaxiao Niu, Mario Martinis, Mattia Pascolini, Zheyu Wang
  • Patent number: 10290941
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display in a housing with a metal wall. An antenna may have an antenna ground formed from the wall and an antenna resonating element. Transceiver circuitry may be coupled to an antenna feed that extends between the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground. A return path may extend between the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground in parallel with the feed. The antenna resonating element may have segments that are coupled by a frequency dependent filter. At a first frequency, the filter may have a low impedance so that the antenna resonating element has a first effectively length. At a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency, the filter may have a high impedance so that the antenna resonating element has a second effective length that is shorter than the first effective length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Erdinc Irci, Carlo Di Nallo, Jayesh Nath, Zheyu Wang, Eduardo Da Costa Bras Lima, Hongfei Hu, Mario Martinis, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10284942
    Abstract: An accessory such as a wireless earbud may have an antenna for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. A housing for the earbud may have a main body portion and an extended portion that forms a stalk protruding from the main body portion. The earbud may have a speaker aligned with a speaker port in the main body portion. The antenna may have an elongated shape and may extend along the stalk. The stalk may have a plastic housing wall portion. The antenna may be formed from first and second metal traces on opposing sides of a printed circuit substrate. The first metal trace may form an antenna resonating element arm and may lie between the substrate and the plastic housing wall portion. The second metal trace may be a ground trace. A feed for the antenna may be located at a juncture between the main body portion and the stalk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Erin A. McAuliffe, Carlo Di Nallo, Huan-Chu Huang, Joel D. Barrera, Mattia Pascolini, Jerzy S. Guterman, Arun Chawan, Benjamin Cousins, Lee M. Panecki
  • Publication number: 20190123431
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal portions such as metal sidewalls. The housing may form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element for the antenna may be formed from a stack of capacitively coupled component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer at a front face of the device. An additional antenna may be formed from a peripheral resonating element that runs along a peripheral edge of the device and the antenna ground. A rear face antenna may be formed using a wireless power receiving coil as a radio-frequency antenna resonating element or may be formed from metal antenna traces on a plastic support for light-based components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2018
    Publication date: April 25, 2019
    Inventors: Rex T. Ehman, Jayesh Nath, Carlo Di Nallo, James G. Horiuchi, Erik G. de Jong, Jason C. Sauers, Makiko K. Brzezinski, Siwen Yong, Lijun Zhang, Yi Jiang, Zheyu Wang, Mario Martinis, Eduardo Da costa Bras Lima, Xu Han, Mattia Pascolini, Trevor J. Ness
  • Publication number: 20190103661
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wireless earbud may have antenna structures that are configured to form one or more antenna portions or antennas for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. The device may include control circuitry that is configured to selectively activate one or more antennas or antenna portions to transmit and receive wireless signals for the device. The device may include sensor circuitry that provide sensor data to the control circuitry. The control circuitry may use the sensor data to select and activate an optimal antenna based on the orientation of the earbud or the environment of the device. The antennas may be formed on opposing sides of a housing for the device. By providing configurable antenna structures, the device may be configured to adapt to the current environment and efficiently perform communications operations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2017
    Publication date: April 4, 2019
    Inventors: Benjamin A. Cousins, Carlo Di Nallo, Ethan L. Huwe, Jerzy S. Guterman, Joachim S. Hammerschmidt, Mattia Pascolini, Ruben Caballero, Samuel G. Parker
  • Patent number: 10250289
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display cover layer mounted to a metal housing. Electrical component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer may be mounted under the display cover layer. An antenna feed may have a positive feed terminal coupled to the electrical component layers and a ground feed terminal coupled to the metal housing. The electrical component layers may serve as an antenna resonating element for an antenna. The antenna may cover cellular telephone bands and may receive satellite navigation system signals. A system-in-package device may be mounted to the metal housing. A flexible printed circuit may extend between the electrical component layers and the system-in-package device. A mounting bracket for the system-in-package device may be provided with electrical isolation to enhance antenna performance in bands such as a satellite navigation system band.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yi Jiang, Jiangfeng Wu, Lijun Zhang, Siwen Yong, Jiaxiao Niu, Mattia Pascolini, Jayesh Nath, Carlo Di Nallo, Zheyu Wang, Mario Martinis, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Steven P. Cardinali, Rex Tyler Ehman, James G. Horiuchi, Trevor J. Ness, Scott D. Morrison, Siddharth Nangia, Mushtaq A. Sarwar
  • Publication number: 20190097314
    Abstract: An electronic device may have peripheral conductive structures and a conductive layer that define edges of a slot element for a slot antenna. The slot element may be configured to cover wireless communications in a 1575 MHz satellite navigation band and 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless local area network bands. A tuning circuit may be coupled across the slot approximately half way across the length of the slot. The antenna tuning circuit may include an inductor coupled in series with a notch filter (in scenarios where the slot is long enough to cover the 1575 MHz satellite navigation band in its fundamental mode) or may include a capacitor coupled in series with a notch or low pass filter. The fundamental mode and one or more harmonic modes of the slot element may cover the satellite navigation and wireless local area network bands.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2017
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Inventors: Harish Rajagopalan, Pietro Romano, Umar Azad, David Garrido Lopez, Lu Zhang, Rodney A. Gomez Angulo, Mario Martinis, Carlo Di Nallo, Mattia Pascolini
  • Publication number: 20190097317
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry that includes antenna structures used to determine the position and orientation of the electronic device relative to external wireless equipment. The electronic device may include a housing having a planar conductive layer, a first slot antenna that includes a first bent slot element in the planar conductive layer, and a second slot antenna that includes a second bent slot element in the planar conductive layer. The first and second bent slot elements may be configured to receive radio-frequency signals at the same frequency. The first and second bent slot elements may have the same shape. The electronic device may include control circuitry configured to measure a phase difference between the radio-frequency signals received by the first and second slot antennas. The control circuitry may identify an angle of arrival of the received radio-frequency signals based on the measured phase difference.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Inventors: Carlo Di Nallo, Mattia Pascolini, Aaron J. Cooper, Amin Tayebi
  • Publication number: 20190081387
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject technology relate to electronic devices with antennas. The antenna may be a display-integrated antenna. An antenna feed for the antenna may be located in a recess in a sidewall of a housing of the device. The antenna feed may be coupled to transceiver circuitry on a logic board of the device by a pair of flex circuits. A first one of the pair of flex circuits may form a portion of an antenna feed assembly. A second one of the pair of flex circuits may be an impedance-matching flex having an end that is soldered to the main logic board. The antenna may be coupled to a conductive portion of the housing of the device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2018
    Publication date: March 14, 2019
    Inventors: Sameer PANDYA, Mario MARTINIS, Baris OZGEN, Tyler S. BUSHNELL, Sherry TANG, Henry H. YANG, Christopher M. WERNER, Jayesh NATH, Carlo DI NALLO, Andrea RUARO
  • Publication number: 20190074586
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a display having conductive display structures. Printed circuits having corresponding ground traces may be coupled to the display for conveying data to and/or from the display. The conductive display structures may be separated from the metal sidewalls by a gap. A conductive interconnect may be coupled to the metal sidewalls and may extend across the gap to the conductive display structures. The conductive interconnect may be coupled to the ground traces on the printed circuits and/or may be shorted or capacitively coupled to the conductive display structures. When configured in this way, the metal sidewalls, the conductive display structures, and the conductive interconnect may define the edges of a slot antenna resonating element for a slot antenna.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Publication date: March 7, 2019
    Inventors: Andrea Ruaro, Carlo Di Nallo, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Jayesh Nath, Mario Martinis, Mattia Pascolini, Zheyu Wang, Sameer Pandya