Patents by Inventor Mattia Pascolini

Mattia Pascolini 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: 10218052
    Abstract: An electronic device may have hybrid antennas that include slot antenna resonating elements formed from slots in a ground plane and planar inverted-F antenna resonating elements. The planar inverted-F antenna resonating elements may each have a planar metal member that overlaps one of the slots. The slot of each slot antenna resonating element may divide the ground plane into first and second portions. A return path and feed may be coupled in parallel between the planar metal member and the first portion of the ground plane. Tunable components such as tunable inductors may be used to tune the hybrid antennas. A tunable inductor may bridge the slot in hybrid antenna, may be coupled between the planar metal member of the planar inverted-F antenna resonating element and the ground plane, or multiple tunable inductors may bridge the slot on opposing sides of the planar inverted-F antenna resonating element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mattia Pascolini, Umar Azad, Rodney A. Gomez Angulo, Erdinc Irci, Qingxiang Li, Matthew A. Mow, Harish Rajagopalan, Miroslav Samardzija, Ming-Ju Tsai
  • Patent number: 10205224
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas. The antennas may include millimeter wave antenna arrays formed from arrays of patch antennas, dipole antennas or other millimeter wave antennas on millimeter wave antenna array substrates. Circuitry such as upconverter and downconverter circuitry may be mounted on the substrates. The upconverter and downconverter may be coupled to wireless communications circuitry such as a baseband processor circuit using an intermediate frequency signal path. The electronic device may have opposing front and rear faces. A display may cover the front face. A rear housing wall may cover the rear face. A metal midplate may be interposed between the display and rear housing wall. Millimeter wave antenna arrays may transmit and receive antenna signals through the rear housing wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew A. Mow, Basim H. Noori, Mattia Pascolini, Xu Han, Victor C. Lee, Ming-Ju Tsai, Simone Paulotto
  • Patent number: 10200092
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a peripheral conductive wall. A gap in the wall may divide the wall into first and second segments. The device may include a first antenna having a first resonating element arm formed from the first segment and a second antenna having a second resonating element arm formed from the second segment. A non-near-field communications transceiver may perform multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) operations using the first and second antennas. The gap may provide satisfactory isolation between the first and second antennas while the first and second antennas perform MIMO operations. Near-field communications circuitry may convey near-field communications signals over a conductive loop path that includes portions of the first and second segments and the antenna ground. The volume of the conductive loop path may extend across substantially all of a width of the electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Erdinc Irci, Han Wang, Georgios Atmatzakis, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Erica J. Tong, Xu Gao, Hongfei Hu, Nanbo Jin, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10193597
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a conductive wall. A gap in the wall may divide the wall into first and second segments. A ground may be separated from the wall by first, second, and third slots that form radiating elements for first, second, and third non-near-field communications antennas. First and second conductive structures may be coupled between the wall and the ground. A near-field communications antenna may include a first feed terminal coupled to the first segment and a second feed terminal coupled to the second segment. The antenna may convey signals over a conductive loop path that includes portions of the first and second segments, the antenna ground, and the first and second conductive structures. A differential or single-ended signal transmission line may be coupled to the terminals. Phase shifters may configure the signals to be out of phase at the feed terminals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: David Garrido Lopez, Umar Azad, Harish Rajagopalan, Georgios Atmatzakis, Rodney A. Gomez Angulo, Mattia Pascolini
  • Publication number: 20190027833
    Abstract: An electronic device may include antennas, a ground, and a housing. First and second gaps in the housing may define a segment that forms a resonating element for a first antenna. First, second, third, and fourth antenna feeds may be coupled between the segment and ground. Control circuitry may control adjustable components to place the device in first, second, third, or fourth modes. In the first and second modes, the first and fourth feeds convey signals at the same frequency using a multiple-input and multiple-output scheme while the second and third feeds are inactive. In the third mode, the second feed is active and the first, third, and fourth feeds are inactive. In the fourth mode, the third feed is active and the first, second, and fourth antenna feeds are inactive. Isolating return paths may be coupled between the segment and ground in the first and second modes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Nanbo Jin, Hongfei Hu, Han Wang, Erdinc Irci, Erica J. Tong, Matthew A. Mow, Ming-Ju Tsai, Liang Han, Georgios Atmatzakis, Mattia Pascolini
  • Publication number: 20190027821
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with control signal generation circuitry that generates a differential pair of control signals, power supply circuitry that generates a bias voltage, and an antenna having a tuning circuit. First switching circuitry may be coupled to the power supply circuitry and the control signal generation circuitry. Second switching circuitry may be coupled to the tuning circuit. A pair of control lines may be coupled between the first and second switching circuitry. In a first switching mode, the power supply circuitry may transmit the bias voltage to the tuning circuit over one of the control lines. The bias voltage may charge storage circuitry coupled to the tuning circuit. In a second switching mode, the control signal generation circuitry may transmit the differential pair of control signals to the tuning circuit. The tuning circuit may be powered by the storage circuitry in the second switching mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: James G. Judkins, Jing Zhu, Liang Han, Matthew A. Mow, Mattia Pascolini, Ming-Ju Tsai, Thomas E. Biedka, Victor C. Lee, Xu Han
  • Publication number: 20190027808
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry, a conductive housing, and a display. The display may have an active area that displays image data and an inactive area that does not display image data. The active area may completely surround the inactive area at a front face of the device. A speaker port may be aligned with the inactive area and may emit sound through the inactive area. The wireless circuitry may include first and second antenna arrays. The first array may be configured to transmit and receive wireless signals at frequencies between 10 GHz and 300 GHz through the inactive area of the display. The second array may be configured to transmit and receive wireless signals at frequencies between 10 GHz and 300 GHz through a slot in a rear wall of the conductive housing. Control circuitry may perform beam steering using the first and second arrays.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: Matthew A. Mow, Basim H. Noori, Khan M. Salam, Mattia Pascolini, Ming-Ju Tsai, Simone Paulotto, Travis A. Barbieri, Victor C. Lee, Xu Han
  • Publication number: 20190027822
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a housing and four antennas at respective corners of the housing. Cellular telephone transceiver circuitry may concurrently convey signals at one or more of the same frequencies over one or more of the four antennas using a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme. In order to isolate adjacent antennas, dielectric-filled openings may be formed in conductive walls of the housing to divide the walls into segments that are used to form resonating element arms for the antennas. If desired, first and second antennas may include resonating element arms formed from a wall without any gaps. The first and second antennas may include adjacent return paths. A magnetic field associated with currents for the first antenna may cancel out with a magnetic field associated with currents for the second antenna at the adjacent return paths, thereby serving to electromagnetically isolate the first and second antennas.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2017
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Hongfei Hu, Mattia Pascolini, Nanbo Jin, Matthew A. Mow, Erdinc Irci, Erica J. Tong, Han Wang
  • Patent number: 10186769
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with control signal generation circuitry that generates a differential pair of control signals, power supply circuitry that generates a bias voltage, and an antenna having a tuning circuit. First switching circuitry may be coupled to the power supply circuitry and the control signal generation circuitry. Second switching circuitry may be coupled to the tuning circuit. A pair of control lines may be coupled between the first and second switching circuitry. In a first switching mode, the power supply circuitry may transmit the bias voltage to the tuning circuit over one of the control lines. The bias voltage may charge storage circuitry coupled to the tuning circuit. In a second switching mode, the control signal generation circuitry may transmit the differential pair of control signals to the tuning circuit. The tuning circuit may be powered by the storage circuitry in the second switching mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James G. Judkins, Jing Zhu, Liang Han, Matthew A. Mow, Mattia Pascolini, Ming-Ju Tsai, Thomas E. Biedka, Victor C. Lee, Xu Han
  • Publication number: 20190020365
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include one or more antennas. The antennas may include phased antenna arrays each of which includes multiple antenna elements. Phased antenna arrays may be mounted along edges of a housing for the electronic device, behind a dielectric window such as a dielectric logo window in the housing, in alignment with dielectric housing portions at corners of the housing, or elsewhere in the electronic device. A phased antenna array may include arrays of patch antenna elements on dielectric layers separated by a ground layer. A baseband processor may distribute wireless signals to the phased antenna arrays at intermediate frequencies over intermediate frequency signal paths. Transceiver circuits at the phased antenna arrays may include upconverters and downconverters coupled to the intermediate frequency signal paths.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Publication date: January 17, 2019
    Inventors: Yuehui Ouyang, Yi Jiang, Matthew A. Mow, Basim Noori, Mattia Pascolini, Ruben Caballero
  • Patent number: 10181640
    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: January 15, 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
  • Publication number: 20190013570
    Abstract: Electronic devices may be provided that contain wireless communications circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and first and second antennas. An electronic device may include a housing. The first antenna may be located at an upper end of the housing and the second antenna may be located at a lower end of the housing. A peripheral conductive member may run around the edges of the housing and may be used in forming the first and second antennas. The radio-frequency transceiver circuitry may have a transmit-receive port and a receive port. Switching circuitry may connect the first antenna to the transmit-receive port and the second antenna to the receiver port or may connect the first antenna to the receive port and the second antenna to the transmit-receive port.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2018
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Inventors: Ruben Caballero, Mattia Pascolini, Mohit Narang, Matt A. Mow, Robert W. Schlub
  • Patent number: 10177447
    Abstract: Methods and devices useful in radio frequency (RF) signal transmission are provided. By way of example, a wireless electronic device may include a transceiver, and an enclosure in which the transceiver is disposed. The enclosure may include an RF transparent layer and an RF opaque coating disposed on the RF transparent layer, where the RF opaque coating includes a pattern formed therein to enable RF signals to pass therethrough.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yi Jiang, Jiangfeng Wu, Siwen Yong, Lijun Zhang, Mattia Pascolini, Martin Melcher, James Wilson
  • Patent number: 10171125
    Abstract: An electronic device has wireless communications circuitry including an adjustable antenna system coupled to a radio-frequency transceiver. The adjustable antenna system may include one or more adjustable electrical components that are controlled by storage and processing circuitry in the electronic device. The adjustable electrical components may include switches and components that can be adjusted between numerous different states. The adjustable electrical components may be coupled between antenna system components such as transmission line elements, matching network elements, antenna elements and antenna feeds. By adjusting the adjustable electrical components, the storage and processing circuitry can tune the adjustable antenna system to ensure that the adjustable antenna system covers communications bands of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew A. Mow, Robert W. Schlub, Mattia Pascolini, Robert J. Hill, Ruben Caballero
  • Publication number: 20180376275
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless communications circuitry and control circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include millimeter wave transceiver circuitry and a phased antenna array. The phased antenna array may transmit and receive millimeter wave signals. Beam steering circuitry may be coupled to the phased antenna array and may be adjusted to steer the millimeter wave signals in a particular direction. The control circuitry may track the location of an external device using sensor data. The control circuitry may control a mechanical positioner to mechanically adjust an orientation of the phased antenna array and/or may control the beam steering circuitry to steer the millimeter wave signals towards the location of the external device. In this way, a line of sight millimeter wave communications link may be maintained between the phased antenna array and the external device even if the external device moves over time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2017
    Publication date: December 27, 2018
    Inventors: Yi Jiang, Siwen Yong, Jiangfeng Wu, Lijun Zhang, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10164679
    Abstract: An electronic device may have conductive housing structures and first, second, third, and fourth slot antennas having respective first, second, third, and fourth slot elements in the conductive housing structures. The third slot element may be interposed between the first and second slot elements and the second slot element may be interposed between the third and fourth slot elements. Switching circuitry may be coupled between a transceiver and the slot elements. Control circuitry may control the switching circuitry to activate a selected pair of the slot antennas based on an orientation of the device or other data. The active pair of antennas may convey radio-frequency signals at the same frequencies using a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) communications scheme. In this way, the device may perform wireless communications at relatively high data throughputs regardless of how the device is being held by a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Harish Rajagopalan, Umar Azad, Pietro Romano, David Garrido Lopez, Lu Zhang, Rodney A. Gomez Angulo, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10165426
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless communications circuitry and control circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include millimeter wave transceiver circuitry and a phased antenna array. The phased antenna array may transmit and receive millimeter wave signals. Beam steering circuitry may be coupled to the phased antenna array and may be adjusted to steer the millimeter wave signals in a particular direction. The control circuitry may track the location of an external device using sensor data. The control circuitry may control a mechanical positioner to mechanically adjust an orientation of the phased antenna array and/or may control the beam steering circuitry to steer the millimeter wave signals towards the location of the external device. In this way, a line of sight millimeter wave communications link may be maintained between the phased antenna array and the external device even if the external device moves over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yi Jiang, Siwen Yong, Jiangfeng Wu, Lijun Zhang, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10158384
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry and control circuitry. The wireless circuitry may include multiple antennas and transceiver circuitry. An antenna in the electronic device may have an inverted-F antenna resonating element formed from portions of a peripheral conductive electronic device housing structure and may have an antenna ground that is separated from the antenna resonating element by a gap. The antenna may also include an indirectly-fed antenna resonating element that is indirectly fed by a harmonic mode of the inverted-F antenna resonating element via near field electromagnetic coupling. The indirectly-fed antenna resonating element may be a slot. The antenna ground may define at least three edges of the slot and the slot may be aligned with a dielectric-filled gap in the peripheral conductive housing structures. An adjustable circuit may be coupled across the slot to tune the indirectly-fed antenna resonating element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Salih Yarga, Xu Gao, Georgios Atmatzakis, Xu Han, Bilgehan Avser, Hao Xu, Yijun Zhou, Mattia Pascolini
  • Patent number: 10153554
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing and other structures that form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element arm for the antenna may extend along the periphery of the housing. The resonating element arm may have opposing first and second ends. A return path may couple the resonating element arm to the antenna ground at the first end. An antenna feed may be coupled between the resonating element arm and the antenna ground in parallel with the return path. Electrical components such as first and second capacitors may be coupled between the antenna resonating element arm and the antenna ground. A first of the capacitors may be coupled between the antenna resonating element arm and the antenna ground at a location between the first and second ends. A second of the capacitors may be coupled between the second end and the antenna ground.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mario Martinis, Carlo Di Nallo, Jayesh Nath, Yi Jiang, Jiangfeng Wu, Lijun Zhang, Siwen Yong, Mattia Pascolini, Zheyu Wang, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima
  • Publication number: 20180351244
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a speaker mounted in a housing. The housing may have a top face and a longitudinal axis that passes through the top face. A printed circuit may lie parallel to the top face. Input-output circuitry such as a touch sensor and other components may be mounted on the top face overlapping the printed circuit. First and second antennas may be formed on the printed circuit. A speaker may be mounted in the housing facing along the longitudinal axis. A metal layer on a movable portion of the speaker may be patterned to form a slot antenna isolation element or other antenna isolation element. The antenna isolation element may be configured to exhibit a resonance at a frequency of operation of the first and second antennas and may therefore enhance isolation between the first and second antennas.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Publication date: December 6, 2018
    Inventors: Erin A. McAuliffe, Joel D. Barrera, Jerzy S. Guterman, Mattia Pascolini