JP2002314310A - Antenna device and wireless device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide an antenna device which has resistance to bending operation of an antenna and enables stable communication. As a linear antenna element, a conductive monopole wire (116), a conductive pipe (130) capable of storing the wire (116), and a flexible resin tube (104) covering the outer periphery of the pipe (130) are provided. Cover member) 122
And The pipe members 130 are composed of a plurality of hollow cylindrical permanent magnets 151 having a conductive surface treatment, and are arranged in tandem so as to attract each other by magnetic force.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an antenna device suitable for performing good communication and a radio device using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, wireless devices, especially portable wireless devices, have a tendency to extend the antenna during a call and retract the antenna during a standby in order to achieve both antenna performance during a call and portability during standby. Many linear antennas that can be used for extension and storage are used.

[0003] In addition, in order to satisfy demands such as enlargement of a display screen area of a portable wireless device, protection of the screen, and improvement of portability, a portable wireless device that can be folded in two is often required. In such a case, the size of the housing in the longitudinal direction becomes small, and there is a tendency that a sufficient storage space for the antenna cannot be obtained. In addition, even with a portable wireless device other than the two-fold type, in consideration of a storage space for other components such as a battery,
The storage space for the antenna may be limited. As described above, an antenna device in which the antenna element itself expands and contracts in order to store the antenna in a small storage space is being put into practical use.

A monopole antenna element is desired to have flexibility in order to prevent breakage of the antenna and to have a certain restoring force against deformation.
A shape memory alloy such as iTi is often used. In an antenna device having a telescopic mechanism, NiT
It is necessary to have a pipe-shaped member for accommodating the wire (i) (hereinafter referred to as a monopole wire).

[0005] However, when a pipe material having no flexibility is used, when a large force is applied to the antenna when the antenna is extended, the pipe is broken or bent, and the antenna is broken, and communication cannot be performed in a good radio wave condition. Or the antenna cannot be stowed and the portability deteriorates. Therefore, an antenna device having flexibility while having a pipe shape has been put to practical use. As such a pipe material, a member formed into a pipe shape by tightly winding a flexible material such as phosphor bronze for a spring (hereinafter, referred to as a monopole pipe material) is known.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show examples of tightly wound portions. The cross-sectional shape of the densely wound wire includes a round shape (FIG. 8) and a flat shape (FIG. 9). (A) is an external view,
(B) is a cross-sectional view in the longitudinal direction. When the flat wire of FIG. 9 is tightly wound, it is possible to reduce irregularities on the inner surface of the pipe material.

It is necessary that both the monopole wire and the monopole pipe be made of a conductive material. Further, in order to protect the monopole antenna portion, improve mechanical strength, improve appearance, and the like, the outer side is often covered with a resin tube.

[0008]

In the conventional linear antenna having the above-described structure, the normal state (FIG. 1)
At 0 (a)), even if a bending force is applied to the monopole pipe portion, if the force is a certain amount, the monopole pipe material is elastically bent, and returns to the original state again when the bending force is released. This can prevent the antenna from being broken.

However, if the bending force concentrates on a part of the antenna (FIG. 10B), the antenna may bend at a large angle and may not be able to maintain a tightly wound state (FIG. 10). (C)). When the user tries to restore the bent state of the antenna as described above, if the user applies a large force in the opposite direction (FIG. 10D), even if the antenna is apparently straightened, The monopole pipe material does not return to the tightly wound state, and there is a gap on the opposite side (FIG. 10E). The state where this gap is left is a state where the length of the antenna is in the initial state (FIG. 10).
Since this is different from (a), the electrical characteristics are not limited to changes in the outer shape of the antenna, but deviate from a state where an optimum design as a monopole antenna is performed. Depending on the degree of deformation, communication may be interrupted in some cases.

The present invention has been made in view of such a background, and an object of the present invention is to provide an antenna device that is resistant to bending operation of an antenna and enables stable communication.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an antenna device according to the present invention is an antenna device in which the length of a linear antenna element expands and contracts. A wire, a conductive pipe capable of storing the wire while maintaining an electrical connection with the conductive wire, and a flexible cover member for covering an outer periphery of the pipe; The material is composed of a plurality of hollow cylindrical ferromagnetic members subjected to a conductive surface treatment, at least one of which is magnetized and the plurality of ferromagnetic members arranged in tandem. The magnetic members are configured to attract each other by magnetic force.

With this configuration, the pipe material exerts a strong restoring force by the action of the magnetic force against the bending force.

In order to exhibit a restoring force by a stronger magnetic force, it is preferable that all of the plurality of ferromagnetic members are constituted by permanent magnets.

The pipe member is constituted by, for example, arranging a plurality of annular (donut-shaped) permanent magnets in tandem.

A wireless device according to the present invention is a wireless device having an antenna device capable of extending and retracting and having a linear antenna element which operates as an antenna when extended and contracts in length. As the linear antenna element, a conductive wire, a conductive pipe capable of storing the wire while maintaining an electrical connection with the conductive wire, and covering the outer periphery of the pipe can be used. With a flexible cover member, it is constituted by a plurality of hollow cylindrical ferromagnetic members subjected to a conductive surface treatment,
At least one of the ferromagnetic members is magnetized, and the plurality of tandemly arranged ferromagnetic members are attracted to each other by magnetic force.

In the antenna device and the antenna device of the wireless device according to the present invention, the conductive pipe material may be used alone as the linear antenna element instead of being used together with the wire material.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail.

First, the configuration of a portable wireless device (mobile phone) as a wireless device using the antenna device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6A shows a state in which the antenna device 10 is housed inside the first housing 14, and FIG.
Shows a state in which the antenna device 10 is pulled out (extended) to the maximum from the first housing 14. The first and second housings 14 and 25 are foldable at the hinge 18.
The present invention is not limited to a wireless device having a foldable casing, but is suitably applied to a device in which it is difficult to secure a long antenna storage area.

The antenna device 10 is a separated linear antenna and an antenna having a telescopic mechanism. That is, the separated linear antenna includes a monopole antenna portion 61 that works at the time of extension and a helical antenna portion 6 that works at the time of storage.
Consists of two. These two antenna units 61 and 62 are
Although the physical lengths are different, by making the electrical lengths substantially the same, it is possible to make the alignment state at the time of extension and that at the time of storage substantially the same. However, the helical antenna portion 62 when stored has a narrower bandwidth, is more susceptible to the effect of the human body during a call, and tends to have worse characteristics than when expanded. The monopole antenna section 61 includes a monopole wire 115 and a monopole pipe 130, and the monopole wire 115 can be stored inside the monopole pipe 130. Further, the monopole pipe member 130 itself can be stored in the first housing 14.

The speaker 12 is arranged on the upper portion of the inner side surface of the first housing 14, and the display section 16 is arranged on the inner main surface. On the other hand, a call key 22, a jog dial 20, a left / right key 26, a power key / end key 24 are arranged on the upper part of the inner surface of the second housing 15, and a ten key
8, memo key 30, microphone 32, clear key 3 at the bottom
4 and the like are arranged.

However, since the feature of the present invention lies in the configuration of the antenna device, the configuration itself of the wireless device is not particularly important, and the present invention is not limited to the details.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the portable wireless device of FIG. The antenna device of the present invention corresponds to the whip antenna 201 in the figure. In the reception system of the portable wireless device, a reception signal received through the antenna 201 is supplied to a reception circuit (RX) 206 through a changeover switch 203 as an antenna duplexer. The changeover switch 203 is
It functions to switch between transmission and reception. The receiving circuit 206
The received signal supplied thereto is demodulated and converted into a digital signal by A / D conversion. A DSP (Digital Signal Processor) 212 functioning as a codec performs predetermined processing on this digital signal under the control of the control unit 220, and sends the digital signal to the incoming speaker 224 and the speaker 205 for outputting voices and alarms. Output a signal.

In the transmission system, the audio signal collected by the microphone 210 is converted into digital audio data by the DSP 212 under the control of the control unit 220, and this is subjected to predetermined modulation processing by the transmission circuit (TX) 208 and After performing digital-analog conversion processing and frequency conversion processing, the signal is transmitted from the antenna 201 via the changeover switch 203. The control unit 220 is, for example, a central processing unit (CP
U) and the like, and a readable / writable memory (RAM) 21
4. An operation unit 214 connected to a read-only memory (ROM) 218 and the like and including input means such as the various keys and a jog dial in addition to the DSP 212, and an LC
The display unit 222 (corresponding to the display unit 16 in FIG. 6) such as D is controlled.

FIG. 1 shows a detailed configuration example of an antenna device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A shows an external view of a side part of the antenna device 10, and FIG. 1B shows a cross section in the longitudinal direction. As described above, the antenna device 1
Numeral 0 is composed of a monopole antenna section 61 that works at the time of extension and a helical antenna section 62 that works at the time of storage. The antenna device 10 having a telescopic mechanism has a monopole pipe material 130 as a pipe-shaped element for storing a monopole wire material 115 such as NiTi. It is desirable that this pipe-shaped member also has flexibility for preventing breakage of the antenna and has a certain degree of restoring force against deformation. For this reason, in one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. ) 151 are linearly arranged in tandem. The individual permanent magnets are arranged to attract each other. On the surface of this permanent magnet,
Metal plating is applied to make it conductive. However, when a ferromagnetic material that is originally conductive is magnetized into a permanent magnet, it may not be necessary to perform surface treatment. In that case, rust prevention treatment or the like is necessary. A pipe composed of a plurality of permanent magnets 151 arranged in a line in a straight line,
Resin tube 1 whose outer periphery is a flexible cover member
Cover with 22. That is, the monopole pipe member 130 including the plurality of permanent magnets 115 is
Are supported on the outside so that the arrangement is not largely shifted.

With the above configuration, the resin tube 122
Inside, the permanent magnets 151 come into close contact with each other, and a high-frequency current flows outside the permanent magnets 151. Monopole pipe material 130
Even if an external force that bends at a large angle is received, the pipe returns to the original normal shape finally by the magnetic force of the permanent magnet 151.

Hereinafter, a detailed configuration of the antenna of FIG. 1 will be described.

As described above, the monopole antenna portion 61 that operates when the antenna is extended has a monopole wire 115 having flexibility, such as NiTi, and a plurality of donut-shaped permanent magnets 151 arranged in a straight line. And the monopole pipe member 130 thus configured. Monopole wire 115
A sliding spring 119 is fixed to an end region on the side of the monopole pipe member 130 for electrical and mechanical connection with the monopole pipe member 130. As shown in FIG. 3, the sliding spring 119 is fixed directly to the monopole wire 115 by caulking directly to the monopole wire 115 (a) or by fixing both sides with the fixing bracket 113 or the like (b). I have.

On the other hand, a stopper 120 is provided on the monopole wire 115 side of the monopole pipe 130 in order to prevent the monopole wire 115 from falling off from the monopole pipe 130. FIG. 4 shows an enlarged view of the stopper 120. Stopper 120 is monopole pipe material 13
0 is fixed to the upper end of the resin tube 122 by screwing or bonding. By making the inner diameter of the upper end of the stopper 120 larger than the outer diameter of the resin tube covering the monopole wire 115 and smaller than the outer diameter of the end of the fixing fitting or the sliding spring 119, the fixing fitting or the sliding spring The end portion 119 is caught by the small diameter portion, and the monopole wire 115 does not fall off the monopole pipe 130. The outer diameter of the sliding spring 119 in a natural state is larger than the inner diameter of the monopole pipe member 130.
Is set so that an appropriate sliding force (frictional force) can be obtained when the antenna is pushed into the inside, so that the monopole wire 115 is connected to the monopole pipe 13 with the antenna extended.
It is possible to prevent the antenna length from changing due to falling into zero.

The lower end (base end) side (right side in the figure) of the resin tube 122 is fixed to a stopper 124 made of a conductive material by using a method such as screwing or bonding. Further, the permanent magnet 151 constituting the monopole pipe member 130 is fixed inside the stopper 124 using a method such as caulking.

It is desirable that the end of the monopole pipe member 130 (the monopole wire 115 side) is not mechanically fixed to the stopper 120 or the resin tube 122. In the example of FIG. 4, inside the stopper 120, the permanent magnet 15
A cavity 131 is formed on one end side. This is because even if the antenna is bent, if both ends of the pipe material are fixed, the resin tube 122 will expand, and when the antenna is straightened, it is necessary to avoid a possibility that a gap is formed in the pipe material. Means. However, if the cover member is
In the case of having not only flexibility but also a certain degree of elasticity or elasticity, both ends of the monopole pipe material 130 may be fixed to the resin tube 122 together,
This cavity 131 does not necessarily have to be provided.

The stopper 124 is provided with a step at its lowermost end (right side in the figure), and serves to fix the antenna so that the antenna is not caught by the holder lower end when the antenna is extended. The main body of the stopper 124 is mechanically fixed by a slide spring 117 provided in the holder 118.

The holder 118 is generally fixed to the portable radio, and is generally supplied with power by a contact spring (not shown) for transmitting a high-frequency signal of the portable radio to its main body. On the open end side (left side in the figure) of the monopole wire 115, a non-conductive joint 114 is provided to provide an insulating portion with the helical antenna 111. A deformed portion 132 is provided at the tip of the monopole wire 115 so that the monopole wire 115 does not fall out of the joint 114.

The open end of the non-conductive joint 114 is mechanically connected to a sleeve 112 for holding the helical antenna element 111. The helical antenna element 111 is mechanically fixed to the sleeve 112 by caulking or the like, and is also electrically connected. Helical antenna element 111 is helical cover 110
Thus, deformation is prevented by being protected.

Further, since the diameter of the helical antenna 62 is larger than that of the sleeve 112, the movable range of the helical antenna 62 relative to the holder 118 is restricted. The outer diameter of the joint 114, the stopper 120, and the resin tube 116 is smaller than that of the sleeve 112 and the stopper 124, and the lower end of the stopper 124 and the helical cover 110 are larger than that.

The sliding spring 117 in the holder 118 plays a role of mechanically holding and transmitting a high-frequency signal supplied to the holder 118 to the stopper 124 and the sleeve 112 which are in contact.

With the above structure, the holder 118, the sliding spring 117, the stopper 124, the monopole pipe member 130, the (stopper 120), the slide when the antenna is extended (the holder 118 is moved to the right in the drawing). The dynamic spring 119, the monopole wire 115, and the high-frequency signal are transmitted, and the monopole antenna unit 151 mainly operates as an antenna.

When the antenna is housed (in a state where the holder 118 has moved to the left in the drawing), the holder 118 and the sliding spring 1
17, sleeve 112, helical antenna element 1
11, and a high-frequency signal is transmitted, and the helical antenna element 111 mainly operates as an antenna.

Various components have been described above, and these materials are summarized below. (1) Components that are essential to be conductive (however, basically, it is only necessary that the surface be subjected to conductive treatment): helical antenna element 111, sleeve 112,
Monopole wire 115, sliding spring 117, holder 11
8, sliding spring 119, stopper 124, monopole pipe material 130 (2) Parts that must have no conductivity (insulation): helical cover 110, joint 112, resin tube 1
16. Resin tube 122 (3) Parts that may or may not have conductivity: stopper 1
20

The joint 114 and the resin tube 1
Since some flexibility is required for 12,116,
It is desirable to use materials such as OM (polyacetal) and PA (polyamide).

In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which a plurality of permanent magnets having the same shape are arranged in tandem as the monopole pipe member 130, but the permanent magnets do not necessarily have to have the same size and shape. Further, a combination of at least one permanent magnet and a pipe made of a material (ferromagnetic member) attracted to the magnet may be used. FIGS. 5A to 5E show examples of the configuration of various monopole pipe members 130. In these examples, as a plurality of hollow cylindrical ferromagnetic members, ferromagnetic members 51, 52, 53 and
54 and 55 are used to show various combinations of these. In any combination, at least a part of the ferromagnetic members is magnetized to form a permanent magnet.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, various modifications and changes are possible.

For example, although the example of the permanent magnet in which the cross section in the longitudinal direction of the pipe is rectangular has been described, the corner of the rectangle may be rounded or rounded so that the sliding spring slides. It is possible to make it difficult for catching to occur. The cross-sectional shape does not need to be basically rectangular.

Although the structure in which the monopole pipe material 130 is at the base of the antenna is shown, the structure at the tip of the antenna may be used.

Although the example in which the helical antenna element 111 is made of a conductive wire has been described, the present invention is not limited to the configuration and mounting method of the helical antenna.

Although the example of the separated type antenna in which the helical antenna element 111 and the monopole antenna part 61 are separated has been described, a top-loading type antenna, a bottom-loading type antenna or the like in which these are electrically connected. It may be present, and its shape does not matter.

The example of the antenna which can be extended and stored has been described.
An antenna that is always used in an extended state may be used. Also,
It is also possible to use only a monopole pipe material alone without using a monopole wire.

Further, only the portable wireless device has been described, but the present invention is also applicable to a stationary wireless device.

[0048]

According to the present invention, a plurality of hollow cylindrical permanent magnets shorter than the length of the antenna element are connected to each other by using the magnetic force of the antenna element having the expansion / contraction mechanism instead of a densely wound spring or the like. By doing so, it is possible to suppress the possibility of damage due to the bending operation of the antenna. As a result, at least with respect to the antenna
Stable communication can be guaranteed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is an external view of an antenna device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a monopole antenna unit of the antenna device shown in FIG.

3A and 3B are schematic diagrams showing two configuration examples (a) and (b) of a connecting portion of a monopole wire rod and a sliding spring of the antenna device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view around a stopper 120 of the antenna device shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a structural example (a) of various monopole pipe materials.
It is a figure showing (e).

FIG. 6 is an external configuration of a portable wireless device (mobile phone) as a wireless device using the antenna device of FIG. 1 (a).
It is a figure showing (b).

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the portable wireless device in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a close-wound portion of a monopole pipe material of a conventional antenna device.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of a close-wound portion of a monopole pipe material of a conventional antenna device.

FIGS. 10A to 10E are explanatory diagrams of a process of bending (a) to (e) for explaining a problem of a monopole pipe portion of a conventional antenna device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10. Antenna device, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55 ...
Ferromagnetic member, 61 monopole antenna, 62 helical antenna, 110 helical cover, 112
Sleeve 114 114 Joint 115 Monopole wire 116 Resin tube 117 Sliding spring 118
... Holder, 119 ... Sliding spring, 120 ... Stopper, 1
22 ... resin tube (cover member), 124 ... stopper, 130 ... monopole pipe material, 132 ... deformed part,
151: permanent magnet (ferromagnetic material)

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An antenna device in which the length of a linear antenna element expands and contracts, wherein the linear antenna element includes a conductive wire and an electrically connected state of the conductive wire. And a flexible cover member for covering an outer periphery of the pipe material, wherein the pipe material has a plurality of hollow cylindrical members having a conductive surface treatment. An antenna comprising a magnetic member, at least one of which is magnetized, and the plurality of tandemly arranged ferromagnetic members are attracted to each other by magnetic force. apparatus. 2. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein all of said plurality of ferromagnetic members are permanent magnets. 3. The antenna device according to claim 2, wherein the pipe member is configured by arranging a plurality of annular permanent magnets in tandem. 4. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein a base end side of said cover member is fixed to said pipe member, and a distal end side is not fixed to said pipe member. 5. A stopper member coupled to a tip of said cover member for preventing the wire from coming off when said wire is extended, wherein said stopper member is provided inside said stopper with said ferromagnetic member at the tip of said pipe material. The antenna device according to claim 4, wherein a cavity is formed at an end. 6. An antenna device having a linear antenna element, comprising a conductive pipe material as the linear antenna element, wherein the pipe material has a plurality of hollow cylindrical shapes subjected to a conductive surface treatment. Wherein at least one of the ferromagnetic members is magnetized, and the plurality of tandemly arranged ferromagnetic members are attracted to each other by magnetic force. Antenna device. 7. A wireless device comprising an antenna device capable of extending and retracting and having a length of a linear antenna element which operates as an antenna when extended and contracts, wherein said antenna device comprises: As an element, a conductive wire, a conductive pipe capable of storing the wire while maintaining an electrical connection with the conductive wire, and a flexible cover member for covering an outer periphery of the pipe Comprising a plurality of hollow cylindrical ferromagnetic members subjected to a conductive surface treatment, at least one of which is magnetized, and the plurality of the plurality of ferromagnetic members arranged in tandem are arranged in tandem. A wireless device, wherein the ferromagnetic members are configured to attract each other by magnetic force. 8. The wireless device according to claim 7, wherein the pipe member is configured to be housed in a housing of the wireless device. 9. A wireless device including an antenna device having a linear antenna element, wherein the antenna device includes a conductive pipe material as the linear antenna element, and the pipe material has a conductive surface. A plurality of processed hollow cylindrical ferromagnetic members are formed, and at least one of the ferromagnetic members is magnetized, and the plurality of ferromagnetic members arranged in tandem are mutually magnetized. A wireless device configured to attract information.