Patent ID: 7109863

Claim:
A radio-frequency (RF) communications apparatus ( 10 ) comprising: a planar dielectric substrate ( 92 ); an RF circuit ( 54 ) mounted on said planar dielectric substrate; a conductive loop ( 56 ) formed as a first conductive trace on said planar dielectric substrate, said conductive loop having a feed point ( 96 ) coupled to said RF circuit by a second conductive trace ( 97 ) on said planar dielectric substrate; and a tuning capacitor ( 26 ) formed as first and second juxtaposed conductive pads ( 26 ′, 26 ″) located on opposing sides of said planar dielectric substrate, said first conductive pad being in contact with a first portion ( 94 ) of said conductive loop and said second conductive pad being in contact with a second portion ( 99 ) of said conductive loop so that said conductive loop and said tuning capacitor together form a loop antenna ( 25 ), said tuning capacitor having a hole ( 27 ), said hole having a size selected to tune said loop antenna.