MOBILE PHONE KEY DEVICE |
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申请号 | EP10818317.9 | 申请日 | 2010-06-25 | 公开(公告)号 | EP2485464B1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2017-11-01 |
申请人 | Huizhou TCL Mobile Communication Co., Ltd.; | 发明人 | CHEN, Wei; | ||||
摘要 | |||||||
权利要求 | |||||||
说明书全文 | The present invention generally relates to a key structure for an electronic circuit, and particularly, to a key device for a mobile phone. Nowadays, keys on electronic products are generally classified into Carbon keys (silicone keys) and DOME keys (metal dome keys). The Carbon keys are suitable for products having low requirements on the appearance such as electronic game machines and TV remote-controller. The DOME keys are suitable for products having high requirements on the appearance such as mobile phones and control keys for TVs. Currently, common mobile phones usually adopt DOME key devices. As shown in As there are different consumer groups in the market, different styles and types of mobile phones have been developed and, accordingly, different mainboards are used by the different types of mobile phones. However, some types of mobile phones have similar mainboards; e.g., a mainboard of a U10 type mobile phone is different from that of a U2 type mobile phone only in positions of some keys. If it is desired to produce the U10 type mobile phone by using the mainboard of the U2 type mobile phone, then use of two PCBs is usually needed, which increases the cost of the product and prolongs the duration of research and development. Therefore, mainboards of conventional mobile phones are incompatible, which brings inconvenience to the production. Accordingly, a need still exists in the art to improve the design of the existing keys. An objective of the present invention is to provide a key device for a mobile phone, in which a key disposed on a circuit board has the compatibility so that a mainboard of one type of mobile phone is more compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones. To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention adopts the following technical solution:
In the key device for a mobile phone, the first electrode is in the form of a circle, an ellipse, or a circle with a trimmed edge. In the key device for a mobile phone, the second electrode is in the form of a circle, an ellipse, or a circle with a trimmed edge. In the key device for a mobile phone, a center point of the first electrode and a center point of the second electrode coincide with center points of the rings where they are located respectively. In the key device for a mobile phone, the key is an "OK" key on the PCB adjacent side thereof. According to the key device for a mobile phone provided by the present invention, the key is formed with three electrodes and has the first electrode and the second electrode of the key electrically connected with each other, so when the metal dome makes contact with the first electrode or the second electrode, the three electrodes of the key are electrically connected with each other simultaneously. This imparts the key for a mobile phone with the compatibility so that a mainboard of one type of mobile phone is compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones, thereby reducing the product cost and shortening the duration of research and development.. Specifically, because the two separate rings are disjoint from each other, and the first electrode and the second electrode are disjoint from each other, thus the first electrode and the second electrode may be spaced apart by a distance, that is, the region defined by the first electrode and the second electrode is larger without changing the sizes of the first electrode and the second electrode. Therefore, if the same keys of different keypad devices are offset largely, the key device of the present invention still can be applied in the different keypad devices. Thus the compatibility of the key device of the present invention is better, and it has a wider application range. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of at least one implementation example of the present invention. In the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout various views, and all the views are schematic.
Reference will now be made to the drawings to describe preferred and exemplary implementations examples of the present disclosure in detail. The present invention provides a key device for a mobile phone. In order to illustrate the objectives, technical solutions and effects of the present invention more clearly, the present invention will be further detailed in conjunction with the attached drawings and implementation examples thereof hereinafter. Currently, there are many types of mobile phones, which are equipped with different mainboards respectively. Generally, mainboards of different types of mobile phones cannot be interchanged; e.g., although a mainboard of a U10 type mobile phone is similar to that of a U2 type mobile phone, they are still differ in positions of some keys on respective circuit boards. For example, numerical keys of the two types of mainboards are identical, but positions of "OK" keys thereof on the circuit boards are slightly offset from each other. If it is desired to produce the U10 type mobile phone by using the mainboard of the U2 type mobile phone, then two PCBs have to be adopted in the layout (circuit wiring of the PCBs) design, which increases the product cost and prolongs the duration of research and development. In view of this, the present invention makes an improvement on the key structure for a mainboard of a mobile phone in such a way that a mainboard of one type of mobile phones is compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones. As shown in In order to impart the key with the compatibility so that a mainboard of one type of mobile phone is compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones, the present invention makes an improvement on the key for a mainboard of a mobile phone. As shown in In this way, a compatible key formed with three electrodes is provided to cater for different key positions on different mainboards of mobile phones. This makes a mainboard of one type of mobile phones compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones, thereby reducing the product cost and shortening the duration of research and development. As shown in The first electrode 301 or the second electrode 302 may be formed in the form of a circle, an ellipse, or a circle with a trimmed edge. In a preferred implementation example, circular electrodes each formed with two trimmed edges are used in order to facilitate wiring of the hardware of the circuit board, as shown in In a furtherimplementation example, a center point of the first electrode 301 coincides with a center point of the ring of the third electrode 303 where it is located, and correspondingly, a center point of the second electrode 302 coincides with a center point of the ring of the third electrode 303 where it is located. For example, when the first electrode is a circular electrode, the three electrodes of the key form a structure of double concentric circles. In a furtherimplementation example, as shown in It shall be appreciated that, in the key device of the present invention, the key may be disposed at other positions of the PCB (e.g., a position of a numerical key or a direction key) according to different key positions on the mainboards of other types of mobile phones, thereby making a mainboard of one type of mobile phones compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones. In other words, although there may be many types of mobile phones, all the types of mobile phones can use a universal mainboard, thus reducing the cost and shortening the duration of research and development. Of course, the key device provided by the present invention is not merely limited to use in mobile phones, but can also be applied to remote controllers for TVs, remote controllers for air conditioners, control keys for TVs or high-end electronic products, and the like. In a furtherimplementation example, the present invention may use a metal dome with a stroke less than 0.3 mm to form an ultra-thin key, thus accomplishing miniaturization of electronic products. In the key device for a mobile phone provided by the present invention, the key is formed with three electrodes and has the first electrode and the second electrode of the key electrically connected with each other, so when the metal dome makes contact with the first electrode or the second electrode, the three electrodes of the key are electrically connected with each other simultaneously. This makes a mainboard of one type of mobile phones compatible with mainboards of other types of mobile phones, thereby reducing the cost of the products and shortening the duration of the research and development. |