Patent Publication Number: US-8111207-B2

Title: Antenna structure and related expansion card and computer apparatus

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an antenna structure combined with an expansion card connector and related expansion card and computer apparatus, and more particularly, to an antenna structure disposing an antenna on the expansion card connector and related expansion card and computer apparatus. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Notebook computers are now commonly used for personal computing. Because they are small and light, notebook computers are suitable to be taken out of the home or office for document processing. Because wireless transmission techniques are maturing, hard-wired connections with electric network lines are no longer needed to transmit electrical signals, and signals may be received or transmitted from anywhere in a wireless manner. 
     However, the space in a notebook computer is limited, so it is very difficult or impossible to include all possible functions into a small notebook computer. Therefore, an expansion mechanism such as an Express Card, a PCMCIA card, or a PC card is needed to provide the new generation of mobile or desktop host computer more functionality. Regardless of demand for wired/wireless communications, multimedia, data security, data transmission, or memory cards, the problem of insufficient and excluded functions can be solved through an expansion card. 
     As wireless transmission techniques develop, antenna design becomes more important. If an antenna structure is desired to be disposed on the expansion card, the wrong location of the antenna or other reasons may result in poor performance due to the very small size of the expansion card. Therefore, rather unfortunately, the antenna is unable to demonstrate its actual efficiency. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is one of the objectives of the claimed invention to provide an antenna structure and related expansion card and computer apparatus to solve the abovementioned problems. 
     The present invention discloses an antenna structure. The antenna structure includes an expansion card connector, an antenna, and a plurality of metal pins. The antenna is disposed on the expansion card connector. The plurality of metal pins is disposed on the expansion card connector and has a first designated pin to be a feeding point of the antenna. 
     In one embodiment, the plurality of metal pins includes a plurality of second designated pins, and the plurality of second designated pins is electrically connected to each other to be a radiator of the antenna. 
     In one embodiment, the antenna structure further includes a circuit board, wherein a side of the circuit board includes a protruding section, and at least one part of a radiator of the antenna is disposed on the protruding section. 
     In one embodiment, the expansion card connector includes a containing space and the containing space has a first plane parallel to a second plane. The plurality of metal pins is disposed in parallel on the first plane, and a radiator of the antenna is disposed on the second plane. 
     In one embodiment, the expansion card connector further includes an idiot-proof device being disposed on a surface of the expansion card connector, and a radiator of the antenna disposed on the idiot-proof device. 
     The present invention further discloses an expansion card. The expansion card includes an expansion card connector, a circuit board, an antenna, and a plurality of metal pins. The antenna is disposed on the expansion card connector and electrically connected to the circuit board. The plurality of metal pins is disposed on the expansion card connector and has a first designated pin to be a feeding point of the antenna. 
     In one embodiment, the expansion card is an Express card, a PCMCIA card, or a PC card. 
     The present invention further discloses a computer apparatus. The computer apparatus includes an expansion card slot and an expansion card. The expansion card includes an expansion card connector, a circuit board, an antenna, and a plurality of metal pins. The expansion card connector is used for connecting to the expansion card slot in a plug-and-play manner. The antenna is disposed on the expansion card connector and electrically connected to the circuit board. The plurality of metal pins is disposed on the expansion card connector and has a first designated pin to be a feeding point of the antenna. 
     In one embodiment, the expansion card is an Express card, a PCMCIA card, or a PC card. 
     In one embodiment, the computer apparatus is a notebook computer. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of an expansion card according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of a computer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram of an example showing a location to dispose the antenna shown in  FIG. 1  on the expansion card. 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna shown in  FIG. 1  on the expansion card. 
         FIG. 5  is a diagram of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna shown in  FIG. 1  on the expansion card. 
         FIG. 6  is a diagram of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna shown in  FIG. 1  on the expansion card. 
         FIG. 7  is a diagram of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna shown in  FIG. 1  on the expansion card. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 1  is a diagram of an expansion card  100  according to an embodiment of the present invention. The expansion card  100  includes, but is not limited to, an expansion card connector  110 , a circuit board  120 , an antenna  130 , a plurality of metal pins  140 , and a peripheral device  224 . The peripheral device  224  can be a loudspeaker or a microphone, as shown in  FIG. 1 , but is not limited to these embodiments. The expansion card connector  110  is a hollow cuboid and has a containing space  112 . The expansion card connector  110  is composed of plastic material. The plurality of metal pins  140  is disposed on a first plane  114  of the expansion card connector  110  in parallel, and has a first designated pin  141  to be a feeding point of the antenna  130 . The antenna  130  is disposed on the expansion card connector  110  and electrically connects to a wireless communication module  122  of the circuit board  120  through the first designated pin  141 . The location of the antenna  130  will be explained in detail in the following embodiments. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 2 .  FIG. 2  is a diagram of a computer apparatus  200  according to an embodiment of the present invention. The computer apparatus  200  includes an expansion card slot  210  and an expansion card  220 . The expansion card  220  includes an expansion card connector  222  for connecting to the expansion card slot  210  in a plug-and-play manner. In this embodiment, the expansion card  220  can be implemented by the expansion card  100  shown in  FIG. 1 . The expansion card  100  or  220  can be an Express card, a PCMCIA card, or a PC card, but is not limited to those and can be expansion cards of other types. When the expansion card connector  222  of the expansion card  220  is inserted into the expansion card slot  210  of the computer apparatus  200 , the expansion card  220  can electrically connects to the computer apparatus  200  to let the computer apparatus  200  charge a battery (not shown in  FIG. 2 ) of the expansion card  220 . When the expansion card  220  is pulled out from the expansion card slot  210 , the battery of the expansion card  220  can provide needed operation power to the wireless communication module (such as the wireless communication module  122  in  FIG. 1 ) to communicate with the computer apparatus  200  wirelessly. For example, the expansion card  220  can be a VoIP phone, and the wireless communication module  122  can be a Bluetooth module. At this time, the expansion card  220  further includes common peripheral devices (not shown in  FIG. 2 ) of a general mobile device, such as a loudspeaker or a microphone, to be used for sounds. Please note that, the abovementioned computer apparatus  200  is not limited to desktop personal computers (PC), and can be notebook PCs. Hence, the computer apparatus  200  includes other computer components except the expansion card slot  210  and expansion card  220 . Those skilled in the art know that this is not a limitation of the present invention. 
     In the following, several embodiments are taken to describe the positions of the antenna  130 . Please refer to  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 3  is a diagram of an example showing a location to dispose the antenna  130  shown in  FIG. 1  on an expansion card  300 . Please note that devices shown in  FIG. 3  and the following diagrams that have the same reference numerals as those shown in  FIG. 1  also have the same function, and therefore will not be described again. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the plurality of metal pins  140  of the expansion card  300  includes a plurality of second designated pins  142  and the plurality of second designated pins  142  is electrically connected to each other to be a radiator of the antenna  130 . And then the antenna  130  uses the first designated pin  141  of the plurality of metal pins  140  as its feeding point to be electrically connected to the wireless communication module  122  of the circuit board  120 . In this embodiment, the first designated pin  141  and the second designated pins  142  are unused pins of the expansion card  300 , such as reserved pins or idle pins. Please note that, the antenna  130  can be a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a chip antenna, or a planar antenna, but this should not be a limitation of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should know that an antenna structure of other types could be used. 
     In the abovementioned embodiment, the first designated pin  141  of the expansion card  300  is the feeding point of the antenna  130  and the plurality of second designated pins  142  is used to be the radiator of the antenna  130 . The antenna  130  above is merely an exemplary implementation. In other embodiments, different antenna structures and different locations of the antenna can be designed. Please refer to  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 .  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5  are diagrams of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna  130  shown in  FIG. 1  on an expansion card  400 .  FIG. 4  shows all the elements of the expansion card  400  and  FIG. 5  shows the other elements except for the expansion card connector  110 . As shown in  FIG. 5 , a side of a circuit board  420  includes a protruding section  422 . Furthermore, at least one part of the radiator of the antenna  130  is disposed on the protruding section  422 , and the antenna  130  uses the first designated pin  141  as its feeding point to be electrically connected to the wireless communication module  122  of the circuit board  420 . As shown in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 1 , the expansion card connector  110  includes a containing space  112 , and the protruding section  422  of the circuit board  420  is disposed inside the containing space  112 . The circuit board  420  is composed of plastic material, and the radiator of the antenna  130  is disposed on the circuit board  420  by layout or in an embedded manner. Because the protruding section  422  is disposed inside the containing space  112  and the expansion card connector  110  and the circuit board  420  are both composed of non-metal plastic materials, such as plastic materials or glass fiber, it won&#39;t affect the operations and efficiency of the antenna  130  to dispose it on the protruding section  422 . 
     Please refer to  FIG. 6 .  FIG. 6  is a diagram of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna  130  shown in  FIG. 1  on an expansion card  600 . An expansion card connector  610  has a containing space  612 , and the containing space  612  includes a first plane  614  parallel to a second plane  616 . The plurality of metal pins  140  is disposed on the first plane  614  in parallel, and the radiator of the antenna  130  is disposed on the second plane  616 . For example, the antenna  130  is buried into the inner plastic of the second plane  616 , and then the antenna  130  uses the first designated pin  141  to be the feeding point to be electrically connected to the wireless communication module  122  of the circuit board  120 . Because the antenna  130  is disposed on the second plane  616  inside the containing space  612 , it won&#39;t be affected by the metal pins  140  disposed on the first plane  614 . In addition, the expansion card connector  610  is composed of plastic materials or other non-metal materials, thus it won&#39;t affect the operations and efficiency of the antenna  130  to dispose it on the second plane  616  of the expansion card connector  610 . 
     Please refer to  FIG. 7 .  FIG. 7  is a diagram of another example showing a location to dispose the antenna  130  shown in  FIG. 1  on an expansion card  700 . As shown in  FIG. 7 , an expansion card connector  710  further includes an idiot-proof device  718  being disposed on a surface of the expansion card connector  710 . (The idiot-proof device is a device whereby the expansion card or some structure is not permitted to be inserted or attached in a way that is not intended by the design of the device. Please note that because those skilled in the field already appreciate the architecture, shape, and location of the idiot-proof device  718 , a function block is used to simply represent the idiot-proof device  718  in  FIG. 7  without affecting the disclosure of the present invention.) The radiator of the antenna  130  is disposed on the idiot-proof device  718 . For example, the antenna  130  is buried into the inner plastic of the idiot-proof device  718 . In this embodiment, the idiot-proof device  718  is an established component of the expansion card connector  710  and is composed of plastic materials or other non-metal materials; hence, it will neither spend extra money nor affect the operations and efficiency of the antenna  130  to dispose it on the idiot-proof device  718 . 
     The abovementioned embodiments are presented merely for describing the present invention, and in no way should be considered to be limitations of the scope of the present invention. The abovementioned computer apparatus  200  can be a desktop PC or a notebook PC, but is not limited to this only and can be computer apparatuses of other types. The expansion cards  100 - 700  can be Express cards, PCMCIA cards, or PC cards, but are not limited to this only and can be expansion cards of other types. In the abovementioned embodiments, unused pins such as reserved pins or idle pins, are used to be the feeding point (the first designated pin  141 ) of the antenna  130 . The radiator of the antenna  130  can have various modifications, for example, the plurality of second designated pins  142  can be electrically connected to each other to be the radiator of the antenna  130 . Or the radiator of the antenna  130  can be disposed on the protruding section  422  of the circuit board  420 , the second plane  616  of the expansion card connector  610 , or the idiot-proof device  718  of the expansion card connector  710 . Those skilled in the art should appreciate that various modifications of the locations of the radiator of the antenna  130  may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Please note that, the antenna  130  can be a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a chip antenna, or a planar antenna, but this should not be a limitation of the present invention. Those skilled in the art know that antenna structures of other types could be used. 
     In summary, the present invention provides an antenna structure combined application with an expansion card connector and related expansion card and computer apparatus. Through disposing the antenna structure on the expansion card connector and using unused pins of the expansion card connector to be the feeding point of the antenna, not only can the functions of the expansion card be fully utilized but also no extra fees are needed. Because the expansion card connectors  110 - 710 , the circuit board  120 - 420 , and the idiot-proof device  718  are composed of plastic materials or other non-metal materials; hence, it won&#39;t affect the operations and efficiency of the antenna  130  to dispose it on the plastic materials. Furthermore, if the antenna is not suitable to be disposed on the circuit board of the expansion card or there is no surplus space to dispose the antenna, it can not only save area but also can fully take advantage of the efficiency of the antenna if the antenna is disposed on the expansion card connector. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.