Disclosed is an antenna apparatus for a portable terminal which has a variable movement antenna apparatus variably moving a position of a ground surface of an antenna. A sliding type portable terminal includes a body housing, a sliding housing slidably moved to and from the body housing; built-in antenna provided in the body housing; and a variable movement antenna apparatus variably moving a position of a ground surface by separating the ground surface of the antenna and by slidably moving the separated ground surface in the lengthwise direction of the body housing so as to be closer to and farther away from the body housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna apparatus for a portable terminal, and more particularly to an antenna apparatus for a portable terminal which has a variable movement antenna apparatus variably moving a position of a ground surface of the antenna.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, portable communication devices mean devices by which radio communication can be performed, while the devices are being carried. The portable communication devices include a hand-held phone (HHP), cordless telephone (CT-)2 cellular phone, a digital phone, a personal communications systems (PCS) phone, and a personal digital assistant (PDA) and are sorted into various types according to their shapes. For example, the radio terminals are sorted into a bar type, a flip type, a folder type, and a sliding type according to their shapes. The above-mentioned portable terminals always include an antenna apparatus, a data input and output device, and a data transceiver.
The data output device generally uses a liquid crystal display (LCD).
Basically, a plurality of keys are arranged on a key pad used for data input. The keys include a send (SND) key which is a communication start button, a cancel key, a clear key (CLR), number keys, letter keys, an end (END) key, function keys, a power (PWR) key, etc.
Recently, the number of subscribers of the portable terminals has explosively increased, and the portable terminals have become so demanded that almost all people carry portable terminals. Although at the beginning the portable terminals simply provided voice services, portable terminals providing a radio listening function, an MP3 function, a moving image display function, a remote control function, etc., are available now.
Portable terminals providing a camera, a high speed data communication, and a voice communication function have recently been developed. As these new devices demanded by consumers are mounted within the portable terminals, the space for built-in antennas becomes smaller as the mounting areas for the other devices become larger.
To accommodate the expanding volume required by these other devices, the antenna apparatus for receiving signals transmitted from callers and transmitting signals must be properly positioned in the portable terminals.
The antenna apparatus mainly includes a whip antenna and a helical antenna.
The helical antenna is generally used to lower the mounting height of the antenna. Different from a rod antenna in which a rod is drawn to extend the length of the antenna, the helical antenna has a protruding portion on one side and at the upper portion of the body of the terminal and is detachably fixed to the terminal. However, the terminal having the helical antenna does not have an attractive appearance due to the protruding portion of the antenna.
Recently, built-in antennas have become widely used in the terminals to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages. A chip antenna, a planar inverted F antenna (PIFA), and a loop antenna are mainly used as built-in antennas.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the sliding type radio terminal 1 includes a body housing 2 having a main printed circuit board 2a, a sliding housing 3 slidably moved from the body housing 2, and a planar inverted F antenna 4 mounted to the body housing 2. The planar inverted F antenna 4 includes a radiation body 4a including an electric body formed on a main printed circuit board 2a in which a ground surface (not shown) is provided for an impedance value and shorting pins 4b.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, in the planar inverted F antenna, the radiation body 4a is installed so as to be separated from the ground surface by a predetermined height.
As shown in FIG. 2, the reason why the radiation body 4a is installed so as to be separated by a distance L1 (shown in FIG. 2) is because the distance L1 is an element influencing the radiation characteristics and gains of the antenna.
However, for the conventional sliding type portable terminal with the planar inverted F antenna installed, since the space required for mounting a plurality of parts for slidably moving the sliding housing from the body housing becomes greater, less space is available to provide separation between the ground surface and the radiation body due to the limited space in the terminal. Thus the efficiency of the antenna becomes lower and the miniaturization of the terminal is restricted.
Further, with the arrangement of the conventional sliding type portable terminal, if the sliding housing is slidably moved on the body housing, the front surface of the built-in antenna mounted into the body housing is screened, lowering the radiation efficiency of the antenna.


A finger sensing device may include an integrated circuit (IC) substrate and an array of pixels on the IC substrate. Each pixel may be selectively operable in at least a receiving mode for receiving radiation from an adjacent finger, or a transmitting mode for transmitting radiation into the adjacent finger. The finger sensing device may also include a controller coupled to the array of pixels for selectively operating at least one first pixel in the receiving mode, and while selectively operating at least one second pixel in the transmitting mode. Each pixel may also be selectively operable in a mask mode for neither receiving nor transmitting radiation. The controller may also selectively operate at least one third pixel in the mask mode while selectively operating the at least one first and second pixels in the receiving and transmitting modes.

Fingerprint sensing and matching is a reliable and widely used technique for personal identification or verification. In particular, a common approach to fingerprint identification involves scanning a sample fingerprint or an image thereof and storing the image and/or unique characteristics of the fingerprint image. The characteristics of a sample fingerprint may be compared to information for reference fingerprints already in a database to determine proper identification of a person, such as for verification purposes.
A particularly advantageous approach to fingerprint sensing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,441 to Setlak. The fingerprint sensor is an integrated circuit sensor that drives the user's finger with an electric field signal and senses the electric field with an array of electric field sensing pixels on the integrated circuit substrate.
Such an electric field fingerprint sensor includes a finger sensing package surrounding the IC substrate and a drive ring carried by the package to drive the user's finger with an electric field signal. Moreover, drive or excitation electronics are typically used in conjunction with the drive electrode. For example, an excitation drive amplifier may be used that drives the finger, via the drive ring, with a signal that may be typically in the range of about 1 KHz to 1 MHz.
A finger sensing IC typically includes additional pins for coupling to the drive ring or drive electrode. Additionally, an additional resistor and a transient voltage suppressor may both be used when coupling a drive ring to the drive circuitry. Still further, in the case of a drive ring, the drive ring may increase the overall size of the finger sensor. In other words, more space is needed for using the drive ring, and thus the overall area of the finger sensor is also increased.

Finger sensing apparatus with selectively operable transmitting/receiving pixels and associated methods