Patent Description:
With the continuous development of design of mobile terminals including a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant, personal digital assistant), and the like, ID (industrial design, industrial design) of housings of the mobile terminals is also gradually valued by people. ID of a metal housing has become a trend and a tide of design of a mobile terminal. Because the metal housing has better persistence than that of a plastic housing, and has comfortable metal hand-feeling and excellent appearance, the ID of the metal housing gets increasingly more popular with people.

For example, for ID of housings of mobile phones, in numerous mobile phone vendors, the ID of the housings of the mobile phones is basically divided into two categories; one category is metal frame design, that is, a bezel of a mobile phone is designed to be a metal ring, thereby forming a metal bezel; and the other category is local metal design on a rear cover of a mobile phone, that is, to avoid interference to an antenna, a part, corresponding to the antenna of the mobile phone, of the rear cover of the mobile phone is in nonmetallic design, and the remaining parts are all in metal design.

However, the metal frame design causes the whole mobile phone to have no comfortable metal hand-feeling and causes the mobile phone to have undesirable texture; and the local metal design on the rear cover of the mobile phone causes a boundary (a transitional boundary between a nonmetallic part and a metal part) similar to a seam to occur in the rear cover of the mobile phone, which affects appearance of the mobile phone.

<CIT> discloses a mobile terminal with an insulating cover, a conductive trace on top of this insulating cover that serves as an antenna, and electricity conduction members that penetrate through the cover and connect the antenna to the electronics of the mobile terminal.

<CIT> discloses a mobile terminal with a metal front cover and a metal rear cover that is fabricated into two segments. Both the front cover and the two segments of the rear cover are equipped with signal and ground terminals, so that they together form a dual-band antenna.

<CIT> discloses a mobile terminal with a metal rear cover that serves as a ground for an antenna disposed between an edge of the display and an edge of the cover.

<CIT> discloses an antenna device for a portable radio communication device with two coplanar broadband antennas that are electromagnetically screened rom a display means of the portable radio communication device.

Embodiments and examples not covered by the claims are presented to illustrated, and facilitate the understanding of the claimed invention.

A mobile terminal according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a metal rear cover used as a grounding component and at least one antenna, where the antenna includes a grounding pin, and the grounding pin is electrically connected to the metal rear cover. Because the metal rear cover is used as the grounding component, and in this way, the metal rear cover is used as a ground cable of the antenna, interference to the antenna from the metal rear cover can be avoided, and integrity of the metal rear cover can be further ensured. Moreover, it can be clearly seen from a rear view of the mobile terminal that an entire back of the mobile terminal is all-metal, which not only enables the mobile terminal to have good appearance, but also enables the whole mobile terminal to have relatively good metal texture.

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiment of the present invention or in the prior art more clearly, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings required for describing the embodiment or the prior art. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description show merely one embodiment of the present invention, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

The following clearly and completely describes the technical solutions in the embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiment of the present invention. Apparently, the described embodiment is merely one but not all of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiment of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

As shown in <FIG>, an exemplary mobile terminal includes a metal rear cover <NUM> used as a grounding component and an antenna, where the antenna includes a grounding pin <NUM>, and the grounding pin <NUM> is electrically connected to the metal rear cover.

The antenna includes an antenna component <NUM>. <FIG> schematically shows the antenna component <NUM>, and the antenna component <NUM> may also be in other shapes, for example, an antenna component <NUM> shown in <FIG>.

Because the metal rear cover <NUM> is used as the grounding component, and in this way, the metal rear cover <NUM> is used as a ground cable of the antenna, interference to the antenna from the metal rear cover <NUM> can be avoided, and integrity of the metal rear cover <NUM> can be further ensured. Moreover, it can be clearly seen from a rear view (<FIG>) of the mobile terminal that an entire back of the mobile terminal is all-metal, which not only enables the mobile terminal to have good appearance, but also enables the whole mobile terminal to have relatively good metal texture.

To implement electrical connection between the grounding pin and the metal rear cover <NUM> used as the grounding component, as an optional solution, the grounding pin can be electrically connected to the metal rear cover <NUM> directly by means of a first electric conductor, where the first electric conductor may be an electrically conductive medium of a metal material category.

<FIG> shows a front view of an exemplary mobile terminal. The mobile terminal includes a metal rear cover <NUM>, as shown in <FIG>, used as a grounding component, a display <NUM>, and an antenna, where the antenna is located between an edge of the display and an edge of the metal rear cover, and the antenna may be located on the top, the bottom, the left and the right of the mobile terminal. In the example shown in <FIG>, antennas are disposed on the top, the bottom, and the right of the mobile terminal, and this example is described by separately using an upper antenna, a lower antenna, and a right antenna.

The mobile terminal further includes a printed circuit board (Printed Circuit Board, PCB) <NUM> accommodated between the metal rear cover <NUM> and the display <NUM>. <FIG> shows a part of the printed circuit board, and the remaining part is not drawn in <FIG>. A radio frequency circuit, a feeding pad, a reference ground, and a grounding pad that are corresponding to each of the antennas are disposed on the printed circuit board <NUM>, and the reference ground or the grounding pad may be connected to the metal rear cover by means of an electrically conductive medium such as an electrically conductive adhesive, a metal dome, or a screw.

The lower antenna includes an antenna component <NUM>, a first grounding pin <NUM>, and a first feeding pin <NUM>. The antenna component <NUM> is an independent metal component, that is, a separate component. The antenna component <NUM> may be connected to the reference ground on the printed circuit board <NUM> by means of the first grounding pin <NUM>, so that the antenna component <NUM> is electrically connected to the metal rear cover by means of the first grounding pin <NUM>. The antenna component <NUM> is connected to the radio frequency circuit corresponding to the antenna component <NUM> on the printed circuit board <NUM> by means of the first feeding pin <NUM>.

As mentioned above, seen from the back, the mobile terminal is all-metal. To make the whole mobile terminal look more of metal texture, bezels of a metal material may be disposed on the metal rear cover <NUM>. In this way, seen from both a side and a front, the mobile terminal has metal bright edges, so that the mobile terminal has more excellent appearance. Moreover, the bezels may be in a bending shape or in a shape similar to a straight shape shown in <FIG>, which is not limited.

As shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, bezels <NUM> to <NUM> are disposed on the metal rear cover <NUM>. As mentioned above, to make the whole mobile terminal more of metal texture, the bezels <NUM> to <NUM> may be of a metal material. Optionally, any bezel of the bezels <NUM> to <NUM> may be of a metal material, or be of a nonmetallic material, or be of both of a metal material and a nonmetallic material.

In the example shown in <FIG>, the bezels <NUM> and <NUM> may be of a metal material, or be of a nonmetallic material, or be of both of a metal material and a nonmetallic material. To implement the upper antenna and the right antenna, the bezels <NUM> and <NUM> may be of a metal material or be of both of a metal material and a nonmetallic material.

As shown in <FIG>, the bezel <NUM> is a metal bezel that is grooved in the middle. As shown in <FIG>, for the sake of beauty, a nonmetallic material (as shown by <NUM>) such as plastic may be embedded in a grooved position, and in this way, the bezel <NUM> is of both of the metal material and the nonmetallic material.

The upper antenna in <FIG> includes an antenna component, a second grounding pin <NUM>, and a second feeding pin <NUM>. The antenna component is a metal structural component of the bezel <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the antenna component is the bezel <NUM>, and as shown in <FIG>, the antenna component is <NUM> on the bezel <NUM>. The antenna component is connected to the reference ground on the printed circuit board <NUM> by means of the second grounding pin <NUM> to implement electrical connection to the metal rear cover. The antenna component is connected to the radio frequency circuit corresponding to the upper antenna on the printed circuit board <NUM> by means of the second feeding pin.

As shown in <FIG>, to implement the right antenna, the side bezel <NUM> is of a metal material, and the side bezel <NUM> has a metal thin bezel <NUM>. One end of the metal thin bezel is opened, that is, one end of the metal thin bezel <NUM> is a gap <NUM>. For the sake of beauty, as shown in <FIG>, the nonmetallic material (such as <NUM>) may be embedded in a blank area of the side bezel <NUM>, that is, the side bezel <NUM> is of both of the metal material and the nonmetallic material by using the example shown in <FIG>.

The right antenna of the mobile terminal shown in <FIG> includes an antenna component <NUM>, a third grounding pin <NUM>, and a third feeding pin <NUM>. The antenna component <NUM> is a part of a metal structural component of the bezel <NUM>. The antenna component <NUM> is connected to the reference ground on the printed circuit board <NUM> by means of the third grounding pin <NUM> to implement electrical connection to the metal rear cover. The antenna component is connected to the radio frequency circuit corresponding to the right antenna on the printed circuit board <NUM> by means of the third feeding pin.

As shown in <FIG> is a view of a mobile terminal according to the present invention. The mobile terminal includes a metal rear cover <NUM> shown in <FIG> or <FIG>, a display screen <NUM>, a printed circuit board <NUM>, and a lower antenna. Bezels are disposed around the metal rear cover, where a lower bezel <NUM> includes a metal material and a nonmetallic material to form metal thin bezels <NUM> and <NUM> shown in <FIG>. The lower antenna includes an antenna component, a first grounding pin <NUM>, and a second feeding pin <NUM>. The antenna component includes an antenna wire <NUM>, and the metal thin bezels <NUM> and <NUM>. Compared with the lower antenna shown in <FIG>, the lower antenna shown in <FIG> utilizes a part of a metal structural component (the metal thin bezels <NUM> and <NUM>) of the bezel <NUM>, which can reduce space occupied by the lower antenna.

As shown in <FIG>, a parasitic component of the antenna component <NUM> is disposed in a position that is close to, for example, <NUM> to <NUM> away from the first feeding pin <NUM>. To implement performance of the specific parasitic component, a metal thin bezel <NUM> may be formed on the lower bezel <NUM>, and an antenna wire <NUM> and the metal thin bezel <NUM> jointly implement a function of the parasitic component. A position of the antenna wire <NUM> and a position of a gap <NUM> are set according to design needs of antenna performance.

It can be seen from the upper antenna and the right antenna in the example shown in <FIG> and the lower antenna shown in <FIG> that the antenna components are partially or completely the metal structural components of the bezels, which can reduce space occupied by the antennas.

In the embodiment of the present invention, because a metal rear cover is used as a grounding component, and in this way, the metal rear cover is used as a ground cable of an antenna, interference to the antenna from the metal rear cover can be avoided, and integrity of the metal rear cover can be further ensured. Moreover, it can be clearly seen from a rear view of a mobile terminal that an entire back of the mobile terminal is all-metal, which not only enables the mobile terminal to have good appearance, but also enables the whole mobile terminal to have relatively good metal texture.

Claim 1:
A mobile terminal, comprising a metal rear cover (<NUM>) used as a grounding component, bezels (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>), a display (<NUM>), a printed circuit board (<NUM>) accommodated between the metal rear cover (<NUM>) and the display (<NUM>), and at least one antenna (<NUM>, <NUM>),
wherein a radio frequency circuit and a reference ground that are corresponding to each antenna are disposed on the printed circuit board (<NUM>), the reference ground is connected to the metal rear cover (<NUM>), each antenna comprises a grounding pin (<NUM>), the grounding pin (<NUM>) is electrically connected to the metal rear cover (<NUM>), and wherein bezels are disposed around the metal rear cover (<NUM>), each antenna further comprises a feeding pin (<NUM>), and the feeding pin (<NUM>) is electrically connected to the radio frequency circuit corresponding to the respective antenna,
characterized in that
the bezels comprise a lower bezel (<NUM>) which includes a metal material and gaps (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>) of a nonmetallic material to form metal parts (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>);
one of the at least one antenna comprises an antenna wire (<NUM>) that is connected to two metal parts (<NUM>, <NUM>) of the lower bezel (<NUM>); and
said one of the at least one antenna further comprises a parasitic component in a position that is close to the feeding pin (<NUM>), said parasitic component comprising a further antenna wire (<NUM>) and a further metal part (<NUM>) of the lower bezel (<NUM>).