System and method for operation of a hinge cavity antenna

1. An information handling system to wirelessly transmit and receive data at an antenna comprising:

a base housing chassis containing components of the information handling system including a processor and memory and including a C-cover and a metal D-cover;

a display chassis assembly having a display screen and including an A-cover;

a hinge mechanically coupling the display chassis assembly to the base housing chassis;

a hinge gap integrated along a hinge, where the hinge gap is between an edge of the A-cover and an edge of the metal D-cover;

an antenna to emit a radio frequency signal to a contained hinge gap resonant cavity formed within the hinge gap; and

a flexible printed circuit (FPC) operatively coupling the base housing chassis to the display chassis assembly to form a ground path across the hinge gap to shunt excitation currents along the hinge gap and to determine a size of the contained hinge gap resonant cavity between the A-cover and D-cover to accommodate an operating frequency of the radio frequency signal or harmonics of the operating frequency.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the FPC includes an insulating sheath to cover data lines and the sheath has a conductive outer layer to form the ground path.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna is a planar wire antenna disposed in the base housing metal chassis along the hinge gap and under the C-cover.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna element is an aperture antenna disposed in a metal hinge barrel of the A-cover forming the hinge such that the metal hinge barrel is moveable with rotation of the display chassis assembly with respect to the base housing metal chassis.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the contained hinge gap resonant cavity is sized to be operable at a half-wavelength of 2.4 GHz and the antenna element is sized to operate at a quarter wavelength of 5 GHz.

6. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the FPC is one of a touch display FPC, an embedded display port (eDP) FPC, or a camera FPC.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 , further comprising a second antenna placed along the hinge gap outside the contained hinge gap resonant cavity to emit a frequency different from the antenna.

8. The information handling system of claim 1 , further comprising a heat sink placed within the hinge gap to reflect RF EM waves emitted by the antenna into the contained hinge gap resonant cavity.

9. A chassis assembly for an information handling system comprising:

a base chassis assembly including a C-cover and a metal D-cover, the base chassis assembly housing components for an information handling system including a processor and a memory;

a display chassis assembly including a metal A-cover and a B-cover;

a flexible cable operatively coupling, via a ground path to shunt surface currents, between the base chassis assembly metal D-cover and the display chassis assembly metal A-cover;

a hinge assembly including a hinge edge coupling point, operatively coupling the base chassis assembly to the display chassis assembly to form a hinge gap between the metal D-cover and the metal A-cover;

the hinge assembly including an antenna element, an antenna cavity, and an antenna aperture integrated into the hinge assembly and the antenna element to emit a radio frequency signal; and

wherein a ground path of the flexible cable is operatively coupled across the hinge gap relative to the hinge edge coupling point to determine a length to tune a contained hinge gap resonant cavity for an operating frequency of the radio frequency signal emitted by the antenna aperture.

10. The assembly of claim 9 , wherein the hinge assembly is a metal drop barrel hinge formed along an edge of the metal A-cover and operatively coupled to the metal D-cover via a plurality of hinge edge coupling points.

11. The assembly of claim 9 , wherein the antenna aperture is angled away from the display chassis assembly and radiates into the hinge gap resonant cavity formed between the hinge assembly and the base chassis assembly.

12. The assembly of claim 9 , wherein the hinge gap resonant cavity formed between the hinge assembly and the base chassis assembly is formed by the flexible cable placed across the hinge gap to tune a length of the hinge gap resonant cavity to operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz.

13. The assembly of claim 9 , wherein the flexible cable is one of a touch display flexible cable, an embedded display port (eDP) flexible cable, or a camera flexible cable.

14. The assembly of claim 9 further comprising:

a second antenna element disposed in the hinge assembly proximate to a second hinge edge coupling point; and

a second flexible cable communicatively coupling base chassis assembly metal D-cover to display chassis assembly metal A-cover across the hinge gap to form a second hinge gap resonant cavity along the hinge gap for the second antenna element.

15. The assembly of claim 9 , wherein the flexible cable includes an insulating sheath to protect data lines and the insulating sheath has a conductive layer to form the ground path.

16. An information handling system to transmit a communication signal comprising:

a wireless interface adapter to selectively apply radiofrequency signal to an antenna element operatively coupled to an antenna aperture;

a base chassis assembly containing components of the information handling system including a C-cover and a metal D-cover a processor, a memory, and the antenna element, wherein the antenna element is disposed along a back edge of the base chassis assembly along a hinge gap;

a display chassis assembly including a display screen and a metal A-cover;

a hinge mechanically coupling the base chassis assembly to the display chassis assembly and forming the hinge gap between the display chassis assembly and the base chassis assembly; and

a flexible cable operatively coupling the metal A-cover to the metal D-cover to form a shunt of surface currents between the metal A-cover and the metal D-cover for a contained hinge gap resonant cavity to contain radiofrequency resonance occurring within the hinge gap.

17. The information handling system of claim 16 , wherein the flexible cable is one of a touch display flexible cable, an embedded display port (eDP) flexible cable, or a camera flexible cable.

18. The information handling system of claim 16 , wherein the contained hinge gap resonant cavity is sized by the flexible cable to be operable at a half-wavelength of 2.4 GHz and the antenna element is sized to operate at a quarter wavelength of 5 GHz.

19. The information handling system of claim 16 , wherein the flexible cable is placed across the contained hinge gap resonant cavity relative to a hinge edge coupling point of the hinge to tune a length of the configurable cavity to operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz.

20. The information handling system of claim 16 further comprising:

a second antenna element disposed along the back edge of the base chassis assembly; and

a second flexible cable operatively coupling the metal A-cover to the metal D-cover across the hinge gap to form a second contained hinge gap resonant cavity along the hinge gap for the second antenna element.