Apparatus comprising an antenna element and a metal part

1. An apparatus comprising:

an antenna element;

a ground;

a metal part having non-antenna related functionality and configured to be non-moveable relative to the ground;

a plurality of conductive connections providing galvanic dc current paths between the metal part and the ground; and

a further conductive connection comprising a filter electrically interconnected between the metal part and the ground wherein the filter is a band-stop filter having a very high impedance at a particular frequency band.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises a parallel LC circuit.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the parallel LC circuit comprises discrete components.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said further conductive connection is one of multiple conductive connections between the metal part and the ground which incorporate a filter.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the conductive connection nearest the antenna element comprises the filter.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the conductive connections are provided by connectors that connect the metal part to a grounded printed wiring board.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the antenna element is a monopole antenna element.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the antenna element is positioned adjacent a ground plane that provides the ground.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the antenna element is a multi band antenna element having a first frequency band of operation and a second, different, frequency band of operation.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the filter is tuned to the second frequency band.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the filter is a band-stop filter having a very high impedance at the second frequency band.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the metal part is any one of a supporting chassis, an electromagnetic shield, a frame, a component part, a decorative trimming, a battery casing or a support for a keypad.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 embodied as a module for a radio communication device or embodied as a radio communication device.

14. A personal electronic device incorporating the apparatus as claimed in claim 1 .

15. A method comprising:

providing an antenna element; and

electrically interconnecting a metal part having non-antenna related functionality and a ground via a filter and via a plurality of conductive connections to provide galvanic dc current paths between the metal part and the ground, wherein the metal part is configured to be non-moveable relative to the ground and wherein the filter is a band-stop filter having a very high impedance at a particular frequency band.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the apparatus comprises a plurality of separate filters having frequency dependent impedances and a plurality of the conductive connections provides a separate current path to ground via the plurality of separate filters.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the filter provides a permanent direct current path to ground from the metal part.

18. The method according to claim 15 wherein providing an antenna element comprises providing a multi band antenna element having a first frequency band of operation and a second, different, frequency band of operation.

19. The method according to claim 15 wherein said electrically interconnecting comprises electrically interconnecting the metal part and the ground via a plurality of conductive connections which incorporate a filter.

20. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15 wherein the antenna element is a multi band antenna element having a first frequency band of operation and a second, different, frequency band of operation, the band-stop filter has a very high impedance at the second frequency band of operation and is tuned to the second frequency band of operation.