Patents by Inventor Enrique Ayala Vazquez
Enrique Ayala Vazquez 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).
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Patent number: 10056695Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from conductive housing structures running along the edges of a device. The antenna may have a pair of switchable return paths that bridge a slot between the antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. An adjustable component and a feed may be coupled in parallel across the slot. The adjustable component may switch a capacitor into use or out of use and the return paths may be selectively opened and closed to compensate for antenna loading due to the presence of external objects near the electronic device.Type: GrantFiled: July 28, 2015Date of Patent: August 21, 2018Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, Ming-Ju Tsai, Erica J. Tong, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Mattia Pascolini, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Ruben Caballero
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Patent number: 9997828Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with shared antenna structures that can be used to form both a near-field-communications antenna such as a loop antenna and a non-near-field communications antenna such as an inverted-F antenna. The antenna structures may include conductive structures such as metal traces on printed circuits or other dielectric substrates, internal metal housing structures, or other conductive electronic device housing structures. A main resonating element arm may be separated from an antenna ground by an opening. A non-near-field communications antenna return path and antenna feed path may span the opening. A balun may have first and second electromagnetically coupled inductors. The second inductor may have terminals coupled across differential signal terminals in a near-field communications transceiver. The first inductor may form part of the near-field communications loop antenna.Type: GrantFiled: March 16, 2016Date of Patent: June 12, 2018Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Yuehui Ouyang, Dean F. Darnell, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Erica J. Tong, Hongfei Hu, Matthew A. Mow, Mattia Pascolini, Ming-Ju Tsai, Nanbo Jin, Robert W. Schlub
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Patent number: 9972891Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for a given antenna may be formed from metal structures supported by a plastic carrier. The antenna resonating element arm may be coupled to switching circuitry to isolate the antenna resonating element arm when the antenna resonating element arm is not being used to handle communications in a communications band. The electronic device may have a metal housing. A slot may separate a peripheral portion of the housing such as a sidewall portion from a planar rear portion. The sidewall portion and the planar rear portion may form an additional antenna that operates at communications frequencies outside of the communications band handled by the given antenna. A parasitic antenna resonating element arm may be formed in the slot to enhance the frequency response of the additional antenna.Type: GrantFiled: August 5, 2015Date of Patent: May 15, 2018Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, Mattia Pascolini
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Patent number: 9966667Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from conductive housing structures running along the edges of a device. The antenna may have a pair of switchable return paths that bridge a slot between the antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. An adjustable component and a feed may be coupled in parallel across the slot. The adjustable component may switch a capacitor into use or out of use and the return paths may be selectively opened and closed to compensate for antenna loading due to the presence of external objects near the electronic device.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2017Date of Patent: May 8, 2018Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, Ming-Ju Tsai, Erica J. Tong, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Mattia Pascolini, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Ruben Caballero
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Publication number: 20180115053Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. The peripheral conductive structures may form housing sidewalls. A slot may be machined into a metal housing that separates the housing sidewalls from a planar rear housing portion that forms a ground for an antenna. The slot may be filled with plastic filler. A parasitic antenna resonating element arm that supports an antenna resonance at high band frequencies may be embedded within the plastic filler. The parasitic antenna resonating element may be formed from a portion of the planar rear housing portion.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 11, 2017Publication date: April 26, 2018Inventors: Hongfei Hu, Benjamin hane Bustle, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Nanbo Jin, Miguel Christophy, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Erica Tong, Anand Lakshmanan, Mattia Pascolini, Tyler Cater, Christopher T. Cheng
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Publication number: 20180069317Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from conductive housing structures running along the edges of a device. The antenna may have a pair of switchable return paths that bridge a slot between the antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. An adjustable component and a feed may be coupled in parallel across the slot. The adjustable component may switch a capacitor into use or out of use and the return paths may be selectively opened and closed to compensate for antenna loading due to the presence of external objects near the electronic device.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 8, 2017Publication date: March 8, 2018Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, Ming-Ju Tsai, Erica J. Tong, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Mattia Pascolini, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Ruben Caballero
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Publication number: 20180069308Abstract: A consumer electronic product includes a switchable inductor array coupled to the RF antenna, the switchable inductor array comprising inductive elements and a switch circuit coupled to the inductor array to select at least one of the inductive elements and couple the selected inductive element with the RF antenna. The product can further include an assembly having a mesh that is strengthened by a stiffener. A multi-layer adhesive have a conductive layer that can be used to shield the RF antenna and adhesive layers that can provide adhesion between the stiffener and the housing of the product. The assembly can be covered by a cowling that is made of metal to provide further shielding. To reduce potential coupling between the RF antenna and the cowling, the cowling can have a portion that is formed of plastic to distance its metal portion from the antenna.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 16, 2017Publication date: March 8, 2018Inventors: Christopher J. DURNING, Hongfei HU, Erdinc IRCI, Salih YARGA, Christopher T. CHENG, Enrique AYALA VAZQUEZ, Nanbo JIN, Erica J. TONG, Mattia PASCOLINI, Denis J. LIN, Salome BAVETTA, Sherry LEE
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Publication number: 20180048052Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. Elongated conductive members may longitudinally divide openings between the peripheral conductive housing structures and the ground. The elongated conductive members may extend from an internal ground to outer ends of the elongated conductive members that are located adjacent to the gaps. Transmission lines may extend along the elongated conductive members to antenna feeds at the outer ends. The elongated conductive members may form open slots that serve as slot antenna resonating elements for the antenna.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 14, 2017Publication date: February 15, 2018Inventors: Nanbo Jin, Anand Lakshmanan, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Erica J. Tong, Hongfei Hu, Matthew A. Mow, Mattia Pascolini, Ming-Ju Tsai
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Patent number: 9876272Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. The peripheral conductive structures may form housing sidewalls. A slot may be machined into a metal housing that separates the housing sidewalls from a planar rear housing portion that forms a ground for an antenna. The slot may be filled with plastic filler. A parasitic antenna resonating element arm that supports an antenna resonance at high band frequencies may be embedded within the plastic filler. The parasitic antenna resonating element may be formed from a portion of the planar rear housing portion.Type: GrantFiled: August 18, 2015Date of Patent: January 23, 2018Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Hongfei Hu, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Nanbo Jin, Miguel Christophy, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Erica Tong, Anand Lakshmanan, Mattia Pascolini, Tyler Cater, Christopher T. Cheng
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Patent number: 9768491Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. Elongated conductive members may longitudinally divide openings between the peripheral conductive housing structures and the ground. The elongated conductive members may extend from an internal ground to outer ends of the elongated conductive members that are located adjacent to the gaps. Transmission lines may extend along the elongated conductive members to antenna feeds at the outer ends. The elongated conductive members may form open slots that serve as slot antenna resonating elements for the antenna.Type: GrantFiled: April 20, 2015Date of Patent: September 19, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Nanbo Jin, Anand Lakshmanan, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Erica J. Tong, Hongfei Hu, Matthew A. Mow, Mattia Pascolini, Ming-Ju Tsai
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Patent number: 9742459Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. Control circuitry may be used to adjust the wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include an antenna that is tuned using tunable components. The control circuitry may gather information on the current operating mode of the electronic device, sensor data from a proximity sensor, accelerometer, microphone, and other sensors, antenna impedance information for the antenna, and information on the use of connectors in the electronic device. Based on this gathered data, the control circuitry can adjust the tunable components to compensate for antenna detuning due to loading from nearby external objects, may adjust transmit power levels, and may make other wireless circuit adjustments.Type: GrantFiled: May 20, 2014Date of Patent: August 22, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Mattia Pascolini, Yuehui Ouyang, Salih Yarga, Yijun Zhou, Erdinc Irci, Jayesh Nath, Ming-Ju Tsai, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, James G. Judkins, Robert W. Schlub
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Patent number: 9654164Abstract: A removable case may receive an electronic device. A male connector in the case may mate with a female connector in the device. A battery in the case may supply power to the device through the male connector. The electronic device may have an antenna formed from peripheral conductive housing structures and an antenna ground. The antenna may include a slot antenna resonating element. The case may have supplemental antenna structures such as a metal patch that overlaps an end of the slot antenna resonating element to retune the slot antenna resonating element to a desired operating frequency after being detuned by dielectric loading from the case. The supplemental antenna structures may overlap antennas of other types and may include tunable circuitry that is adjusted based on information received from the electronic device.Type: GrantFiled: April 14, 2015Date of Patent: May 16, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Erdinc Irci, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Mattia Pascolini, Ruben Caballero
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Patent number: 9647332Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with an antenna. The antenna may have an antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. The antenna resonating element may be formed from peripheral conductive housing structures. An audio jack or other connector may be mounted in an opening in the peripheral conductive housing structures. The audio jack may overlap the antenna ground. Contacts in the audio jack may be coupled to an interference mitigation circuit. The interference mitigation circuit may include capacitors coupled to the ground and inductors coupled between the contacts and the capacitors. Radio-frequency signal blocking inductors may be coupled between the interference mitigation circuit and respective ports in an audio circuit.Type: GrantFiled: September 3, 2014Date of Patent: May 9, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Liang Han, Ming-Ju Tsai, Matthew A. Mow, Yijun Zhou, Mattia Pascolini, Salih Yarga, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Xu Han, Robert W. Schlub
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Patent number: 9634709Abstract: A removable case may receive an electronic device. A male connector in the case may mate with a female connector in the device. A battery in the case may supply power to the device through the male connector. The electronic device may have an antenna formed from peripheral conductive housing structures and an antenna ground. The case may have a supplemental antenna that restores antenna performance when the device is received within the case. The supplemental antenna may be formed from a monopole antenna resonating element coupled to the antenna ground through the power pin. The monopole element may have a portion that runs parallel to the peripheral conductive housing structures. During operation of the antenna in the electronic device, the supplemental antenna in the case may be indirectly fed by near-field coupling between the supplemental antenna and the antenna of the electronic device.Type: GrantFiled: September 4, 2014Date of Patent: April 25, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Hongfei Hu, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hao Xu, Mattia Pascolini, Ruben Caballero, Erdinc Irci
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Publication number: 20170054196Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. The peripheral conductive structures may form housing sidewalls. A slot may be machined into a metal housing that separates the housing sidewalls from a planar rear housing portion that forms a ground for an antenna. The slot may be filled with plastic filler. A parasitic antenna resonating element arm that supports an antenna resonance at high band frequencies may be embedded within the plastic filler. The parasitic antenna resonating element may be formed from a portion of the planar rear housing portion.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 18, 2015Publication date: February 23, 2017Inventors: Hongfei Hu, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Nanbo Jin, Miguel Christophy, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Erica Tong, Anand Lakshmanan, Mattia Pascolini, Tyler Cater, Christopher T. Cheng
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Publication number: 20170040668Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for a given antenna may be formed from metal structures supported by a plastic carrier. The antenna resonating element arm may be coupled to switching circuitry to isolate the antenna resonating element arm when the antenna resonating element arm is not being used to handle communications in a communications band. The electronic device may have a metal housing. A slot may separate a peripheral portion of the housing such as a sidewall portion from a planar rear portion. The sidewall portion and the planar rear portion may form an additional antenna that operates at communications frequencies outside of the communications band handled by the given antenna. A parasitic antenna resonating element arm may be formed in the slot to enhance the frequency response of the additional antenna.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 5, 2015Publication date: February 9, 2017Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, Mattia Pascolini
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Publication number: 20170033460Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from conductive housing structures running along the edges of a device. The antenna may have a pair of switchable return paths that bridge a slot between the antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. An adjustable component and a feed may be coupled in parallel across the slot. The adjustable component may switch a capacitor into use or out of use and the return paths may be selectively opened and closed to compensate for antenna loading due to the presence of external objects near the electronic device.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 28, 2015Publication date: February 2, 2017Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Liang Han, Ming-Ju Tsai, Erica J. Tong, Erdinc Irci, Salih Yarga, Mattia Pascolini, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Ruben Caballero
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Patent number: 9559433Abstract: Electronic devices may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. The antenna structures may form a dual arm inverted-F antenna and a monopole antenna sharing a common antenna ground. The antenna structures may have three ports. A first antenna port may be coupled to an inverted-F antenna resonating element at a first location and a second antenna port may be coupled to the inverted-F antenna resonating element at a second location. A third antenna port may be coupled to the monopole antenna. Tunable circuitry can be used to tune the antenna structures. An adjustable capacitor may be coupled to the first port to tune the inverted-F antenna. An additional adjustable capacitor may be coupled to the third port to tune the monopole antenna. Transceiver circuitry for supporting wireless local area network communications, satellite navigation system communications, and cellular communications may be coupled to the first, second, and third antenna ports.Type: GrantFiled: March 18, 2013Date of Patent: January 31, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Yijun Zhou, Nanbo Jin, Yuehui Ouyang, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Anand Lakshmanan, Robert W. Schlub, Mattia Pascolini, Matthew A. Mow
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Patent number: 9537219Abstract: An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna may have an inverted-F antenna resonating element, an antenna ground, and other resonating element structures. A tip of the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground may be separated by a peripheral housing gap filled with plastic. The antenna may be sensitive to capacitance changes induced by the presence of a user's hand overlapping the gap or other portions of the antenna. A hand capacitance sensing electrode may be mounted in the plastic of the gap or elsewhere in the vicinity of the antenna. A transmission line may couple the hand capacitance sensing electrode to the antenna to retune the antenna in the event that the user's hand overlaps the antenna.Type: GrantFiled: September 29, 2014Date of Patent: January 3, 2017Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Mattia Pascolini, Hongfei Hu, Erdinc Irci, Yuehui Ouyang, Jennifer M. Edwards, Jayesh Nath, Salih Yarga, Yijun Zhou, Hao Xu
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Patent number: 9531061Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with an antenna. The antenna may have an antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. An adjustable inductor may be coupled between the antenna resonating element and the antenna ground. An antenna feed may have a positive feed terminal coupled to the antenna resonating element and a ground antenna feed coupled to the antenna ground. The adjustable inductor may have first and second inductors coupled to respective first and second ports of a switch. The switch may have a third port coupled to the antenna ground. A capacitor may have a first terminal coupled to ground and a second terminal coupled to the first inductor at the first port of the switch. An inductor may be coupled between the antenna resonating element and antenna ground at a location between the adjustable inductor and the antenna feed.Type: GrantFiled: September 3, 2014Date of Patent: December 27, 2016Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Liang Han, Matthew A. Mow, Ming-Ju Tsai, Yijun Zhou, Hongfei Hu, Salih Yarga, Mattia Pascolini, Yuehui Ouyang, Erdinc Irci, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Robert W. Schlub