Apple Inc.
Wireless devices having spirally-distributed beam pointing angles

Abstract:

An electronic device may be provided with a phased antenna array, control circuitry, and a codebook. The control circuitry may control the phased antenna array to form a signal beam at a beam steering angle selected from a set of beam steering angles identified by the codebook. The set of beam steering angles may be evenly distributed along a two-dimensional or three-dimensional spiral path. The control circuitry may control the phased antenna array to sweep over the set of beam steering angles until external wireless equipment is found. Distributing the set of beam steering angles in this way may minimize the size of the codebook while allowing the phased antenna array to cover as much of its field of view as possible with satisfactory gain.