TWI642075B - Illuminated keyswitch structure - Google Patents

Abstract

The illuminating button structure comprises a base, a keycap, an elevating mechanism connected between the base and the keycap, a light guide plate located above the base, a layered circuit board located above the light guide plate, and a Light-shielding coating layer. The light guide plate has a recess located below the keycap. The layered circuit board includes a plurality of stacked structural layers and has an opening below the keycap and connecting the recess. The lowermost structural layer of the plurality of structural layers has a protrusion extending from the opening toward a side wall surface of the inner side of the keycap toward the inner side of the keycap. The light shielding coating layer is coated on the surface of the protrusion toward one of the bases. When the keycap is pressed, one of the keycap attachment structures enters the aperture and the recess and elastically deforms the projection to enter the recess.

Description

Illuminated button structure

The invention relates to a button structure, in particular to a light-emitting button structure.

Compared with the general button structure, the light-emitting button structure needs to further include a light guide plate and a mask sheet located thereon. In general, even if the light-emitting button structure needs to be thinned, the light guide plate and the cover sheet design will remain structurally intact, which will limit the height of the light-emitting button structure. If the structure of the light guide plate and the cover sheet is designed to have a escaping space to prevent the structural member from interfering with the light guide plate and the cover sheet when the illuminating button structure is actuated, the mask sheet may not be effectively shielded from the light guide plate. This may cause the user to observe light leakage around the key cap from above the light-emitting button structure. Therefore, the current light-emitting button structure has the aforementioned difficulties in thinning.

In view of the problems in the prior art, the present invention provides an illuminating button structure having a structure avoiding space to avoid structural interference when the illuminating button structure is actuated, and forming a protruding portion on a sidewall of the escaping space, the bottom surface of which is coated with a light shielding layer. Improve the shading effect.

The illuminating button structure according to the present invention comprises a base, a keycap, a lifting mechanism, a light guide plate, a layered circuit board and a light shielding coating layer. The keycap is disposed above the base, and the keycap includes a cap body and a connecting structure disposed on the cap body and protruding toward the base. The lifting mechanism is connected between the base and the keycap. The keycap is movable in a vertical direction relative to the base via the lifting mechanism, wherein the lifting mechanism is coupled to the connecting structure. The light guide plate is disposed above the base and has a recess under the keycap. The layered circuit board is disposed above the light guide plate, the layered circuit board comprises a plurality of stacked structural layers and has an opening, the opening is located under the keycap and is connected to the concave a slot having a side wall facing the inner side of the keycap, and a lowermost structural layer of the plurality of structural layers has a protrusion extending from the side of the side wall toward the inner side of the keycap, when the keycap is pressed The connecting structure enters the opening and the groove and elastically deforms the protrusion to allow the bent protrusion to enter the groove. The light-shielding coating layer is applied to the protruding portion toward a surface of the base. Thereby, the opening and the escaping space formed by the groove can prevent structural interference with the light guide plate and the layered circuit board when the key cap moves downward, and the protruding portion can be elastically bent, so the protruding portion does not The downward movement of the keycap is hindered and the light-shielding effect of the light-shielding coating layer can be increased, which is beneficial to eliminate or suppress the phenomenon of light leakage.

In contrast to the prior art, the illuminating button structure according to the present invention uses a light-shielding coating layer whose thickness is in principle smaller than the thickness of the mask sheet used in the current illuminating button structure. Moreover, the illuminating button structure further utilizes the opening and the groove to move the keycap more toward the base, so that the height of the illuminating button structure can be further reduced. Moreover, the light-emitting button structure also utilizes a protruding portion that can be elastically bent to have both the light shielding and the effect of allowing the keycap to move downward. Therefore, the illuminating button structure according to the present invention can have a smaller height and maintain a considerable degree of shading effect relative to the conventional illuminating button structure.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention will be further understood from the following detailed description of the invention.

1‧‧‧Lighted button structure

12‧‧‧Base

122‧‧‧floor

124a, 124b, 124c‧‧‧ connection structure

14‧‧‧Key Cap

142‧‧‧Cap

1422‧‧‧ Ontology

1424‧‧‧

144a, 144b, 144c‧‧‧ connection structure

16‧‧‧ Lifting mechanism

162‧‧‧ outer bracket

164‧‧‧ bracket

18‧‧‧Light guide

182a, 182b‧‧‧ grooves

20‧‧‧Layered circuit board

20a‧‧‧ bottom surface

202‧‧‧ switch

202a, 202b‧‧‧ contact pads

204a, 204b‧‧‧ openings

2042‧‧‧ side wall

206a‧‧‧Upper insulation sheet

206b‧‧‧Intermediate insulation sheet

206c‧‧‧lower insulation sheet

2062‧‧‧ lower surface

2064‧‧‧Protruding

2064a‧‧‧ surface

206d‧‧‧Opening

22‧‧‧Flexible Dome

24‧‧‧shading coating

26‧‧‧reflector

262a, 262b, 262c‧‧‧ openings

D1‧‧‧Vertical direction

1 is a schematic diagram of a structure of an illuminated button in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic view showing a partial explosion of the illuminated button structure of FIG. 1.

3 is an exploded view of the structure of the illuminated button of FIG. 1.

4 is a bottom view of a layered circuit board of the illuminated button structure of FIG. 3 to show the coating range of a light-shielding coating layer thereon.

Figure 5 is an exploded view of the layered circuit board of the illuminated key structure of Figure 3.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of the illuminating button structure of Figure 1 taken along line X-X of Figure 2;

Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view of the illuminated button structure of Figure 6 with its keycap depressed.

Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view of the illuminated button structure of Figure 1 taken along line Y-Y of Figure 2;

Figure 9 is a cross-sectional view of the illuminated button structure of Figure 1 taken along line Z-Z of Figure 2;

Please refer to Figure 1 to Figure 4. An illuminating button structure 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a base 12, a keycap 14, a lifting mechanism 16, a light guide plate 18, and a layered circuit board 20. (In order to simplify the drawing, in principle, it is still a single The structural member is shown), an elastic dome 22, a light-shielding coating layer 24 (for the sake of simplicity, a simplified pattern, only shown in FIG. 4 and the cross-sectional view) and a reflective sheet 26. The base 12 includes a bottom plate 122 and a plurality of connecting structures 124a, 124b and 124c. The plurality of connecting structures 124a, 124b and 124c are disposed on the bottom plate 122 and protrude upward (or toward the keycap 14). The key cap 14 is disposed above the base 12. The key cap 14 includes a cap body 142 and a plurality of connecting structures 144a, 144b and 144c. The plurality of connecting structures 144a, 144b and 144c are disposed on the cap body 142 and protrude toward the base 12. The lifting mechanism 16 is connected between the base 12 and the keycap 14, and the keycap 14 is movable relative to the bottom plate 122 in a vertical direction D1 via the lifting mechanism 16. The light guide plate 18 is disposed between the base 12 and the keycap 14 for guiding light to provide a backlight of the keycap 14. The layered circuit board 20 is disposed between the light guide plate 18 and the keycap 14 and has a switch 202 (shown in FIG. 3 as a hatched circle). The elastic dome 22 (such as but not limited to the silicone dome) is disposed between the layered circuit board 20 and the keycap 14 corresponding to the switch 202. When the keycap 14 is pressed, the keycap 14 presses the elastic dome 22 downward. The elastic dome 22 is elastically deformed to trigger the switch 202, and the resilient force of the elastically deformable elastic dome 22 serves as a restoring force of the keycap 14. The layered circuit board 20 is transparent, and the light-shielding coating layer 24 is applied on the bottom surface 20a of the layered circuit board 20 toward the base 12 (the coating range is shown by hatching in FIG. 4) for shielding or limiting Light emitted from the light guide plate 18. The reflection sheet 26 is disposed between the light guide plate 18 and the base 12 for reflecting the light emitted downward from the light guide plate 18 to enter the light guide plate 18 again.

In this embodiment, in the embodiment, the lifting mechanism 16 is a scissor foot bracket, and includes an outer bracket 162 and an inner bracket 164 pivotally connected to the outer bracket 162. The outer bracket 162 is connected to the connection structure 144b, 144c and connecting structures 124b, 124c, the inner bracket 164 is connected to the connecting structure 144a and the connecting structure 124a. The layered circuit board 20 has at least one opening 204a, 204b below the keycap 14, and the light guide plate 18 has at least one recess 182a, 182b below the keycap 14. The openings 204a, 204b and the recesses 182a, 182 are connected to provide a escaping space for exposing the connecting structures 124a, 124b and 124c of the base 12, and also allowing the connecting structures 144a, 144b and 144c of the keycap 14 to be used in the keycaps. When 14 moves downward, it can reduce the height of the illuminated button structure 1. The reflection sheet 26 has at least one opening 262a, 262b, and 262c, and the connection structures 124a, 124b, and 124c are exposed from the openings 262a, 262b, and 262c. In addition, in the embodiment, the grooves 182a, 182b are realized by openings, and the reflection sheet 26 can be exposed from the grooves 182a, 182b; however, the invention is not limited thereto.

Please also refer to Figure 5. In addition, in the embodiment, the layered circuit board 20 includes a plurality of stacked structural layers. For example, the layered circuit board 20 is implemented by a thin film circuit board, and includes an upper insulating sheet 206a and an intermediate insulating sheet 206b. The insulating sheet 206c is disposed between the upper insulating sheet 206a and the lower insulating sheet 206c. The upper insulating sheet 206a, the intermediate insulating sheet 206b and the lower insulating sheet 206c respectively form corresponding opening structures to form the opening 204a. And 204b. The intermediate insulating sheet 206b further has an opening 206d. The contact pads 202a and 202b of the switch 202 and the connecting lines (both shown in FIG. 5 in a hatched pattern) are formed on the upper insulating sheet 206a toward the lower insulating sheet 206c at the opening 206d. The surface upper and lower insulating sheets 206c face the surface of the upper insulating sheet 206a, so that the elastic dome 22 can pass through the portion of the insulating sheet 206a corresponding to the opening 206d to contact the contact pads 202a and 202b, thereby implementing the switch 202. Trigger. In addition, in the present embodiment, the key cap 14 (or the cap body 142) covers the openings 204a, 204b and the recesses 182a, 182b in the vertical direction D1, so that in principle, no overflow will be seen from directly above the keycap 14. The light.

Please also refer to Figure 6. In the present embodiment, the lower insulating sheet 206c is the lowermost structural layer among the plurality of structural layers, and the light-shielding coating layer 24 (the cross section of which is shown by thick solid lines in FIG. 6 and other cross-sectional views) is applied to The lower surface 2062 of the lower insulating sheet 206c (i.e., the surface facing the base 12 or the light guide plate 18) is such that the lower surface 2062 corresponds to the bottom surface 20a of the layered circuit board 20. The opening 204a has one of the inner sides of the keycap 14 The sidewall surface 2042, the lowermost structural layer (ie, the lower insulating sheet 206c) has a protruding portion 2064 extending from the sidewall surface 2042 toward the inside of the key cap 14 (the range is indicated by a broken line in FIG. 4), and the light shielding coating layer 24 also extends to the projection 2064 toward one of the surfaces 2064a of the base 12. In the present embodiment, the cap body 142 has a body 1422 and a surrounding portion 1424 connected to the body 1422. The protruding portion 2064 is located below the surrounding portion 1424, so the protruding portion 2064 (and the light shielding coating layer 24 on the surface 2064a thereof) The effect of scattering the light emitted from the side wall surface of the recess 182a of the light guide plate 18 underneath can be hindered, that is, the effect of suppressing the overflow of the light from the periphery of the cap body 142, or the phenomenon of eliminating or suppressing light leakage. .

Please also refer to Figure 7. In the present embodiment, when the keycap 14 is pressed, the connecting structure 144c enters the opening 204a and the recess 182a and elastically deforms the projection 2064 to cause the curved projection 2064 to enter the recess 182a. Therefore, the protruding portion 2064 has elasticity, and the protruding portion 2064 does not hinder the downward movement of the keycap 14 (or the connecting structure 144c), so that it can both shield light and allow the keycap 14 to move downward. In addition, in the embodiment, the opening 204a and the recess 182a are contour-aligned, so that the protruding portion 2064 has a cantilever structure as a whole in the perspective of FIG. 6 or FIG. 7, which can provide a large deflection (or deformation amount). And the surface 2064a of the protrusion 2064 faces the reflection sheet 26. In addition, in the present embodiment, the light-emitting button structure 1 is substantially bilaterally symmetrical in the perspective of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, so that the light-emitting button structure 1 is also coated with a light-shielding coating on the left side as the above-mentioned protruding portion 2064. The structure of the layer 24, the related description is also as described above, and will not be further described.

In addition, please refer to FIG. 3, FIG. 8 and FIG. In the present embodiment, the connecting structures 124a, 124b and 124c are fitted to the bottom plate 122. For example, the bottom plate 122 is a metal plate or a plastic plate, and the connecting structures 124a, 124b and 124c are respectively a plastic piece, and the connecting structures 124a and 124b and The 124c is fitted to the bottom plate 122 by means of burying. However, the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the base 12 is directly formed by a metal stamping plate or a plastic injection member.

The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all changes and modifications made to the scope of the present invention should be within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (9)

The illuminating button structure comprises: a base; a key cap disposed above the base, the key cap comprises a cap body and a first connecting structure disposed on the cap body and protruding toward the base; a lifting mechanism, connecting Between the base and the keycap, the keycap is movable in a vertical direction relative to the base via the lifting mechanism, wherein the lifting mechanism is coupled to the first connecting structure; a light guide plate is disposed on the base Above and having a recess under the keycap; and a layered circuit board disposed above the light guide plate, the layered circuit board comprising a plurality of stacked structural layers and having a first opening, the first An opening is located under the keycap and is connected to the groove, the first opening has a side wall surface facing the inner side of the keycap, and a lowermost structural layer of the plurality of structural layers has a side wall facing the key a protrusion extending inside the cap, the first connecting structure enters the first opening and the groove when the keycap is pressed and elastically deforms the protrusion to allow the curved protrusion to enter the groove; a blackout coating Layer applied to the upper surface of the projecting portion toward the base one. The illuminating button structure of claim 1, wherein the cap body has a body and a surrounding portion connected to the body, the protruding portion being located below the surrounding portion. The illuminating button structure of claim 1, further comprising a reflective sheet between the light guide plate and the base, wherein the recess is an opening, the reflective sheet is exposed from the recess, and the protruding portion faces the The surface of the base faces the reflective sheet. The light-emitting button structure of claim 3, wherein the base comprises a second connecting structure, the lifting mechanism is connected to the second connecting structure, the reflective sheet has a second opening, and the second connecting structure passes through the The second opening. The illuminating button structure of claim 4, wherein the base comprises a bottom plate, and the second connecting structure is a plastic piece and is fitted to the bottom plate. The illuminating button structure of claim 1, wherein the opaque coating layer extends to the lowermost structural layer toward a surface of the light guide plate. The illuminating button structure of claim 1, wherein the key cap covers the first opening and the groove in the vertical direction. The illuminating button structure of claim 1, wherein the layered circuit board comprises an upper insulating sheet, a lower insulating sheet and an intermediate insulating sheet disposed therebetween, wherein the lower insulating sheet is the lowermost structural layer, the intermediate insulating layer The sheet has a third opening, the layered circuit board includes a switch formed on the surface of the upper insulating sheet facing the lower insulating sheet and the lower insulating sheet facing the surface of the upper insulating sheet Upper, the cap triggers the switch when the keycap is pressed. The illuminating button structure of claim 1, wherein the lifting mechanism is a scissor foot bracket.