CN116525336A - Keyboard device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a keyboard device which comprises a base plate, a key cap and a linkage piece. The key cap sets up on the base plate, and the key cap includes the bottom surface, and the bottom surface is towards the base plate and is equipped with the locating part, and the locating part includes roof, diapire and spout, and the spout forms between roof and diapire, and the roof has the first guide inclined plane that is located the spout, and the diapire has the second guide inclined plane that is located the spout. The linkage piece is arranged between the base plate and the key cap, the linkage piece comprises a sliding connection part and a pivoting part, the sliding connection part and the pivoting part are respectively positioned at two opposite sides of the linkage piece, the sliding connection part can be slidably arranged in the sliding groove, and the pivoting part is pivoted on the base plate. When the key cap is pressed to move downwards towards the base plate, the pivoting part of the linkage piece rotates relative to the base plate, and the sliding part slides and moves along the first guide inclined plane and the second guide inclined plane.

Description

Keyboard device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an input device, and more particularly, to a keyboard device.

Background

A keyboard is one of the common input devices of the present electronic devices, and is often used for operating or inputting characters in computer products (such as notebook computers, desktop computers or tablet computers) or industrial large-scale control devices or processing devices which are commonly contacted in daily life.

Generally, a keyboard has a bottom plate and a plurality of key caps disposed on the bottom plate, and a connecting member (e.g., a scissor-type connecting member) is disposed between each key cap and the bottom plate, so that when each key cap is pressed, uneven stress can be avoided based on the support of the connecting member.

At present, one end of the connecting piece is connected with the keycap in a horizontal sliding manner, specifically, in the process of pressing the keyboard, one end of the connecting piece horizontally slides relative to the keycap based on a horizontal component force formed when the keycap is pressed, however, the action manner easily causes insufficient resistance of the connecting piece, so that the keycap is swayed in the action process.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the foregoing, in an embodiment, a keyboard device is provided and includes a substrate, a keycap and a linkage member. The key cap sets up on the base plate and can move downwards towards the base plate, and the key cap includes the bottom surface, and the bottom surface is equipped with the locating part towards the base plate, and the locating part includes roof, diapire and spout, and the spout forms between roof and diapire, and the roof has the first guide inclined plane that is located the spout, and the diapire has the second guide inclined plane that is located the spout. The linkage piece is arranged between the base plate and the key cap, the linkage piece comprises a sliding connection part and a pivoting part, the sliding connection part and the pivoting part are respectively positioned at two opposite sides of the linkage piece, the sliding connection part can be slidably arranged in the sliding groove, and the pivoting part is pivoted on the base plate. When the key cap is pressed to move downwards towards the base plate, the pivoting part of the linkage piece rotates relative to the base plate, and the sliding part slides and moves along the first guide inclined plane and the second guide inclined plane in an inclined way.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the number of the limiting pieces is two, the two limiting pieces are arranged at intervals, the number of the sliding connection parts of the linkage piece is two, and each sliding connection part is slidably arranged in the sliding groove of each limiting piece.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the keyboard device further includes a movable member disposed between the base plate and the keycap and pivoted to the linkage member, the movable member includes a sliding portion and a rotating portion, the sliding portion and the rotating portion are respectively disposed on opposite sides of the movable member, the bottom surface of the keycap is provided with a pivoting member, the pivoting member and the limiting member are respectively adjacent to opposite sides of the keycap, the rotating portion of the movable member is pivotally disposed on the pivoting member, and the sliding portion is slidably disposed on the base plate.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a first included angle is formed between the first guiding inclined plane and the bottom surface, a second included angle is formed between the second guiding inclined plane and the bottom surface, and the first included angle and the second included angle are the same as each other and are respectively acute angles.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first included angle and the second included angle are respectively between 1 ° and 45 °.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first included angle and the second included angle are respectively between 10 ° and 15 °.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the first guiding inclined plane has a first top end and a first bottom end, the first top end is adjacent to the bottom surface relative to the first bottom end, and when the key cap is pressed to move downward toward the substrate, the sliding connection part is slidingly displaced along the first guiding inclined plane and the second guiding inclined plane from the first top end toward the first bottom end.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bottom wall has an inclination angle to form the chute as an inclined chute.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first guiding inclined plane and the second guiding inclined plane are cambered surfaces respectively.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the bottom wall has an outer surface located outside the chute, the outer surface being parallel to the bottom surface of the key cap.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bottom wall has a plane located in the chute, the second guiding inclined plane has a second top end and a second bottom end, the plane is connected to the second top end, a part of the sliding connection portion is located above the plane, and another part of the sliding connection portion is located above the second guiding inclined plane.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the bottom wall has another plane located in the chute, the other plane being connected to the second bottom end.

In summary, according to the keyboard device of the embodiment of the invention, the first guiding inclined plane and the second guiding inclined plane are provided in the chute of the limiting member, and when the key cap is pressed to move downward toward the substrate, the sliding connection portion of the linking member slides along the first guiding inclined plane and the second guiding inclined plane in an inclined manner, so that the force of the limiting member to the sliding connection portion can be increased, the resistance of the linking member can be increased, the shaking condition of the key cap in the actuating process can be greatly reduced, and the operating feel can be further improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a first embodiment of a keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of a first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial perspective view of a first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a press actuation diagram of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a force diagram of a first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is another stressed schematic view of the first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is an assembled schematic view of a first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a partial cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a press actuation diagram of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a partial cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of a keyboard apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a partial cross-sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention.

Description of the reference numerals

1 keyboard device

10 substrate

11 circuit board

12 pivoting seat

13 sliding seat

20 key cap

21 bottom surface

22,22a,22b,22c, limiting element

221,221a top wall

222,222a,222b,222c, first guide slope

2221 first tip

2222 first bottom end

223,223a,223b bottom wall

2231,2232 plane surface

2233 outer surface

224,224a,224b,224c, second guide ramp

2241 second tip

2242, second bottom end

225,225a,225b chute

226,226a connecting wall

227 opening(s)

23 pivot joint

30 linkage piece

31 sliding contact portion

35 pivot joint part

40 moving part

41 sliding portion

45 rotation part

A1, a first included angle

A2, second included angle

A3 included angle

A4 assembly angle

F1 pressing force

F2 horizontal component force

F3 force

C central axis

Detailed Description

The following detailed description of various embodiments is provided merely as an example, however, and does not limit the scope of the invention. In addition, the drawings in the embodiments omit part of elements to clearly show technical features of the present invention. The same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements.

Fig. 1 is a partial perspective view of a first embodiment of a keyboard apparatus according to the present invention, fig. 2 is a partial perspective view of the first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus according to the present invention, fig. 3 is a partial enlarged perspective view of the first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus according to the present invention, and fig. 4 is a partial sectional view of the first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to fig. 1 to 4, the keyboard apparatus 1 includes a substrate 10, a key cap 20 and a linkage member 30, wherein the keyboard apparatus 1 can be applied to various electronic products, for example, the keyboard apparatus 1 can be used as an input device of a desktop computer, a notebook computer or other electronic devices for a user to operate to generate corresponding signals.

As shown in fig. 1 to 4, in the present embodiment, the keyboard apparatus 1 is a computer keyboard, and the substrate 10 may be provided with a circuit board 11, wherein the substrate 10 may be a hard board body made of metal (such as iron, aluminum or alloy) or plastic, and the circuit board 11 may be a general circuit board (Printed Circuit Board, PCB), a flexible circuit board (Flexible Print Circuit Board, FPCB) or a flexible-Rigid composite circuit board (rib-Flex PCB).

As shown in fig. 1 to 4, the number of key Caps 20 may be plural and arranged on the substrate 10 and the circuit board 11, for example, the plural key Caps 20 may include plural letter keys, plural number keys, space keys, enter keys (Enter keys), and Caps Lock keys (Caps Lock keys).

As shown in fig. 1 to 4, the number of the interlocking members 30 is also plural, and each interlocking member 30 is disposed between the base plate 10 and each key cap 20 to support the key cap 20 and guide the key cap 20 to lift relative to the base plate 10 (as shown in fig. 2, only one set of key caps 20 and interlocking members 30 is illustrated and described in this example). In addition, when the key caps 20 are pressed, the key caps 20 can move downwards towards the base plate 10 to trigger the circuit board 11 to generate a signal, and when each key cap 20 is released, the circuit board can be lifted to return to an unpressed position, for example, a plurality of resetting pieces (not shown in the drawing) can be arranged on the base plate 10 to respectively correspond to the plurality of key caps 20, for example, the resetting pieces can be rubber domes (rubber domes) or metal domes (metal domes), so that when the key caps 20 are released, the circuit board can be lifted and reset through the resetting pieces.

As shown in fig. 2 to 4, the key cap 20 includes a bottom surface 21, the bottom surface 21 faces the substrate 10 and is provided with at least one limiting member 22 for assembling the linking member 30, for example, in the present embodiment, the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 is provided with two limiting members 22, and the two limiting members 22 are respectively adjacent to two corners of the same side of the bottom surface 21 and are spaced apart from each other, but this is not a limitation, and in some embodiments, the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 may be provided with only one limiting member 22, and the other limiting member 22 is replaced by another different limiting structure.

As shown in fig. 2 to 4, each of the stoppers 22 includes a top wall 221, a bottom wall 223, and a slide groove 225, the slide groove 225 is formed between the top wall 221 and the bottom wall 223, in this embodiment, the top wall 221 is connected to the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20, the bottom wall 223 is close to the substrate 10 with respect to the top wall 221, the stoppers 22 have a connecting wall 226 extending in a vertical direction, and the connecting wall 226 is connected between the top wall 221 and the bottom wall 223 so that the bottom wall 223 is spaced from the top wall 221, thereby forming the slide groove 225 between the top wall 221 and the bottom wall 223.

Fig. 5 is a partial enlarged view of fig. 4, and fig. 6 is a pressing action diagram of fig. 5. As shown in fig. 4 to 6, the top wall 221 of the stopper 22 has a first guiding slope 222 located in the sliding groove 225, and the bottom wall 223 has a second guiding slope 224 located in the sliding groove 225, that is, the first guiding slope 222 forms an upper surface of the sliding groove 225, and the second guiding slope 224 forms a lower surface of the sliding groove 225. In addition, the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 have a first included angle A1, and the second guiding inclined plane 224 and the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 have a second included angle A2, that is, the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the second guiding inclined plane 224 are not parallel to the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20.

In some embodiments, the first angle A1 and the second angle A2 may be the same as each other and respectively form an acute angle, and the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the second guiding inclined plane 224 are parallel to each other, for example, the first angle A1 and the second angle A2 may be between 1 ° and 45 ° (e.g. 5 °, 20 °, 30 ° or 40 °); alternatively, the first angle A1 and the second angle A2 may be between 10 ° and 15 ° (e.g. 12 ° or 14 °), respectively, depending on the actual product requirement. However, the above embodiment is merely an example, the first angle A1 and the second angle A2 may be different, for example, the first angle A1 and the second angle A2 may be slightly different due to the manufacturing tolerance of the limiting member 22, or the first angle A1 and the second angle A2 may be designed to be different based on the shape of the linking member 30.

As shown in fig. 2 and fig. 4, the linking member 30 may be a rod or a frame (here, the linking member 30 is a U-shaped rod, but not limited thereto), and the linking member 30 includes a sliding portion 31 and a pivoting portion 35, and the sliding portion 31 and the pivoting portion 35 are respectively located at two opposite sides of the linking member 30. Here, the number of the sliding parts 31 is two to match the number of the stoppers 22, and the two sliding parts 31 are shafts and are respectively disposed in the two sliding grooves 225 of the two stoppers 22, so that each sliding part 31 can slide, displace and rotate relative to each sliding groove 225.

As shown in fig. 2 and fig. 4, the pivoting portion 35 of the linking member 30 is a shaft (the number of the pivoting portions 35 is two, but not limited to this, and is pivotally disposed on the base plate 10, so that the pivoting portion 35 can rotate relative to the base plate 10, for example, in this embodiment, two pivoting seats 12 (the L-shaped pivoting seats are herein, but may also be U-shaped or T-shaped pivoting seats) are disposed on the base plate 10, and each pivoting seat 12 is integrally bent and extended upward from the base plate 10 for pivoting the pivoting portion 35.

As shown in fig. 4 to 6, in the present embodiment, the top wall 221 and the bottom wall 223 of the limiting member 22 have an inclination angle (for example, the inclination angle is the same as the first included angle A1), so that the limiting member 22 is inclined as a whole, and the sliding groove 225 is an inclined sliding groove instead of a horizontal sliding groove as a whole. In addition, when the key cap 20 is not pressed (as shown in fig. 5), the sliding portion 31 contacts the first guiding inclined surface 222 and the second guiding inclined surface 224 of the limiting member 22 at the same time.

As shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6, when the key cap 20 is pressed by a user to move downward toward the base plate 10, the pressing force can drive the pivot portion 35 of the linkage member 30 to rotate relative to the base plate 10, and drive the sliding portion 31 to slide along the first guiding inclined surface 222 and the second guiding inclined surface 224, so that the key cap 20 can smoothly descend to the position of triggering the circuit board 11 (as shown in fig. 6). In addition, in the present embodiment, the first guiding inclined surface 222 has a first top end 2221 and a first bottom end 2222, the first top end 2221 is adjacent to the bottom surface 21 relative to the first bottom end 2222, and when the key cap 20 is pressed to move downward toward the substrate 10, the sliding contact portion 31 is slidingly displaced along the first guiding inclined surface 222 and the second guiding inclined surface 224 from the first top end 2221 toward the first bottom end 2222.

As shown in fig. 5 and 6, the limiting member 22 further has an opening 227, the opening 227 is connected to the sliding groove 225, and the connecting wall 226 and the opening 227 are located on opposite sides of the limiting member 22, respectively, so that the sliding groove 225 is located between the connecting wall 226 and the opening 227. In the present embodiment, the first bottom end 2222 of the first guiding inclined surface 222 is adjacent to the opening 227 with respect to the first top end 2221, and the opening 227 is adjacent to the side edge of the key cap 20 with respect to the connecting wall 226. In addition, when the key cap 20 is pressed to move downward toward the base plate 10, the sliding contact portion 31 is displaced by the connecting wall 226 in a sliding manner along the first guide slope 222 and the second guide slope 224 in the direction of the opening 227.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the invention, the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the second guiding inclined plane 224 are provided in the sliding groove 225 of the limiting member 22, and when the key cap 20 is pressed to move downward toward the substrate 10, the sliding portion 31 of the linking member 30 slides along the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the second guiding inclined plane 224 instead of sliding horizontally, so that the force of the limiting member 22 on the sliding portion 31 can be increased, the resistance of the linking member 30 can be increased, the shaking condition of the key cap 20 during the actuation process can be greatly reduced, and the operating feel can be further improved.

Referring to fig. 4, 5 and 7, when the key cap 20 is pressed by a user, the pressing force F1 forms a horizontal component F2 in a horizontal direction to act on the sliding portion 31 of the linkage 30 and the position of the limiting member 22, for example, assuming that an included angle A3 between the linkage 30 and the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 is 12 °, and the pressing force F1 is 60g, the horizontal component F2 is about 12.8g (60 g×tan12 ° =12.75 g). Referring to fig. 4, 5 and 8, through the sliding displacement of the sliding portion 31 of the linking member 30 along the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the second guiding inclined plane 224 of the limiting member 22, the horizontal component force F2 at the positions of the sliding portion 31 and the limiting member 22 can be further lifted, for example, assuming that the first inclined angle A1 between the first guiding inclined plane 222 and the bottom surface 21 and the second inclined angle A2 between the second guiding inclined plane 224 and the bottom surface 21 are both 15 °, the acting force F3 applied to the sliding portion 31 by the limiting member 22 can be lifted from 12.8g (horizontal component force F2) to 13.25g (12.8 g/cos 15 ° =13.25 g), and the larger the first inclined angle A1 and the second inclined angle A2 is, the more the acting force F3 is lifted, so as to increase the overall situation that the key cap 20 can be synchronously lowered when being stressed, thereby avoiding the shaking situation of the key cap 20 in the lowering operation process, and further improving the hand feeling of the user.

As shown in fig. 2 and 4, in the present embodiment, the keyboard apparatus 1 further includes a movable member 40, wherein the movable member 40 may be a rod or a frame (the movable member 40 is a rectangular frame, but not limited to this), the movable member 40 is disposed between the base plate 10 and the keycap 20 and pivotally connected to the movable member 30, wherein the size of the movable member 30 is larger than that of the movable member 40 to be sleeved outside the movable member 40, and the inner side of the movable member 30 is pivotally connected to the outer side of the movable member 40, so that the movable member 30 and the movable member 40 can be movably unfolded or folded relative to each other.

As shown in fig. 2 and fig. 4, the movable member 40 includes a sliding portion 41 and a rotating portion 45, the sliding portion 41 and the rotating portion 45 are respectively located at opposite sides of the movable member 40, the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 is provided with pivoting members 23, the pivoting members 23 and the limiting members 22 are respectively adjacent to opposite sides of the key cap 20, for example, in the present embodiment, the number of the pivoting members 23 is two, and the two pivoting members 23 and the two limiting members 22 are respectively adjacent to four corners of the bottom surface 21. The rotating portion 45 of the movable member 40 is at least one shaft and is pivotally disposed on the pivot member 23, so that the rotating portion 45 can rotate relative to the base plate 10, and the sliding portion 41 of the movable member 40 is slidably disposed on the base plate 10, for example, in this embodiment, two sliding seats 13 (L-shaped sliding seats in this case, but sliding seats with other shapes such as U-shaped or T-shaped may also be provided) are disposed on the base plate 10, each sliding seat 13 is integrally bent and extended upward from the base plate 10, and the number of sliding portions 41 of the movable member 40 is two (the sliding portions 41 are shafts in this case) and are respectively assembled in the two sliding seats 13, so that each sliding portion 41 can slide, displace and rotate relative to each sliding seat 13.

In some embodiments, the limiting member 22, the pivot member 23 and the key cap 20 may be integrally formed, for example, the limiting member 22, the pivot member 23 and the key cap 20 may be integrally formed by injection molding (Injection Molding); alternatively, the limiting member 22 and the pivoting member 23 may be embedded and fixed on the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 by Insert Molding (Insert Molding) so as to be made of different materials from the key cap 20, for example, the limiting member 22 and the pivoting member 23 may be made of materials with better rigidity to enhance the structural strength.

Fig. 9 is an assembly schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the keyboard apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in fig. 9, the whole of the limiting member 22 is inclined, and the whole of the chute 225 is an inclined chute instead of a horizontal chute, so that the assembly angle A4 of the keycap 20 can be further reduced during the process of assembling the keycap 20 on the substrate 10 and the linking member 30, for example, the assembly angle A4 can be reduced from 30 ° to within 15 °, so that the keycap 20 can be assembled in a state of being horizontal, and the purpose of avoiding the keycap 20 from extruding components during the assembly process to improve the product yield is achieved.

Fig. 10 is a partial sectional view of a second embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention, and fig. 11 is a press-action diagram of fig. 10. As shown in fig. 10, the difference between the present embodiment and the first embodiment is at least that the bottom wall 223a of the stopper 22a of the present embodiment is horizontally disposed, and the outer surface 2233 of the bottom wall 223a located outside the chute 225a is parallel to the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20. Thereby, as shown in fig. 11, when the key cap 20 is pressed to descend toward the base plate 10, the bottom wall 223a of the stopper 22a is prevented from colliding with other components (e.g., the base plate 10) under the key cap 20, compared to the inclined bottom wall 223 of the first embodiment.

In addition, as shown in fig. 10, the inner surface of the bottom wall 223a of the limiting member 22a located in the sliding groove 225a of the present embodiment is formed by a plane and an inclined plane. Specifically, the bottom wall 223a of the limiting member 22a has a plane 2231 located in the chute 225a, the second guiding inclined surface 224a has a second top end 2241 and a second bottom end 2242, the second top end 2241 is close to the bottom surface 21 of the key cap 20 relative to the second bottom end 2242, the plane 2231 is connected to the second top end 2241 of the second guiding inclined surface 224a, the second top end 2241 is located between the second bottom end 2242 and the plane 2231, a part of the sliding connection part 31 is located above the plane 2231, and another part of the sliding connection part 31 is located above the second guiding inclined surface 224a, for example, in this embodiment, the central axis C of the sliding connection part 31 may be adjacent to the second top end 2241 of the second guiding inclined surface 224a, the sliding connection part 31 of the other half is located above the plane 2231, and the sliding connection part 31 of the other half is located above the second guiding inclined surface 224 a. Therefore, as shown in fig. 11, when the key cap 20 is pressed and descends toward the substrate 10, the sliding portion 31 can immediately move toward the second bottom end 2242 to slide along the first guiding inclined plane 222a and the second guiding inclined plane 224a, so as to increase the force of the limiting member 22a on the sliding portion 31, and greatly reduce the shaking of the key cap 20 during the actuation process.

In addition, as shown in fig. 10 and 11, the inner surface of the top wall 221a of the limiting member 22a located in the sliding groove 225a is also formed by a plane and an inclined surface, and the first top end 2221 of the first guiding inclined surface 222a is closer to the connecting wall 226a than the second top end 2241 of the second guiding inclined surface 224 a. Therefore, when the key cap 20 is not pressed, the sliding portion 31 can contact the first guiding inclined surface 222a, and when the key cap 20 is pressed and descends towards the substrate 10, the first guiding inclined surface 222a can immediately exert a force on the sliding portion 31 to increase the force of the limiting member 22a applied to the sliding portion 31.

Fig. 12 is a partial cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of the keyboard apparatus of the present invention. As shown in fig. 12, the difference between the present embodiment and the second embodiment is at least that the inner surface of the bottom wall 223b of the limiting member 22b located in the chute 225b is formed by a plurality of planes and inclined planes, specifically, the bottom wall 223b of the limiting member 22b has two planes 2231 and 2232 located in the chute 225b, one plane 2231 is connected to the second top end 2241 of the second guiding inclined plane 224b, and the other plane 2232 is connected to the second bottom end 2242 of the second guiding inclined plane 224b and extends towards the opening 227, so that the inner surface of the bottom wall 223b located in the chute 225b is a stepped surface. In addition, the first guiding inclined surface 222b and the second guiding inclined surface 224b of the limiting member 22b of the present embodiment are respectively cambered surfaces, wherein the first guiding inclined surface 222b is a concave cambered surface, and the second guiding inclined surface 224b is a convex cambered surface to match the edge shape of the sliding connection portion 31.

In some embodiments, the first guide inclined surfaces 222,222a,222b and the second guide inclined surfaces 224,224a,224b of the above embodiments may each be curved or flat, depending on the actual product requirements. For example, fig. 13 is a partial cross-sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the keyboard apparatus according to the present invention, and the difference between the present embodiment and the third embodiment is that the first guiding inclined surface 222c and the second guiding inclined surface 224c of the limiting member 22c of the present invention are both flat surfaces, but not cambered surfaces.

In summary, according to the keyboard device of the embodiment of the invention, the first guiding inclined plane and the second guiding inclined plane are provided in the chute of the limiting member, and when the key cap is pressed to move downward toward the substrate, the sliding connection portion of the linking member slides along the first guiding inclined plane and the second guiding inclined plane in an inclined manner, so that the force of the limiting member to the sliding connection portion can be increased, the resistance of the linking member can be increased, the shaking condition of the key cap in the actuating process can be greatly reduced, and the operating feel can be further improved.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but rather, it should be understood that various changes and modifications can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Claims (12)

1. A keyboard apparatus, comprising:

a substrate;

the key cap is arranged on the base plate and can move downwards towards the base plate, the key cap comprises a bottom surface, the bottom surface faces the base plate and is provided with a limiting piece, the limiting piece comprises a top wall, a bottom wall and a sliding groove, the sliding groove is formed between the top wall and the bottom wall, the top wall is provided with a first guide inclined surface positioned in the sliding groove, and the bottom wall is provided with a second guide inclined surface positioned in the sliding groove; and

the linkage piece is arranged between the base plate and the key cap and comprises a sliding connection part and a pivoting part, the sliding connection part and the pivoting part are respectively positioned at two opposite sides of the linkage piece, the sliding connection part is slidably arranged in the chute, and the pivoting part is pivoted on the base plate;

when the key cap is pressed to move downwards towards the base plate, the pivoting part of the linkage piece rotates relative to the base plate, and the sliding part slides along the first guide inclined plane and the second guide inclined plane.

2. The keyboard device according to claim 1, wherein the number of the limiting members is two, the two limiting members are arranged at intervals, the number of the sliding connection parts of the linkage member is two, and each sliding connection part is slidably arranged in the sliding groove of each limiting member.

3. The keyboard device of claim 1, further comprising a movable member disposed between the base plate and the keycap and pivotally connected to the movable member, wherein the movable member includes a sliding portion and a rotating portion, the sliding portion and the rotating portion are respectively disposed on opposite sides of the movable member, the bottom surface of the keycap is provided with a pivoting member, the pivoting member and the limiting member are respectively adjacent to opposite sides of the keycap, the rotating portion of the movable member is pivotally disposed on the pivoting member, and the sliding portion is slidably disposed on the base plate.

4. The keyboard device of claim 1, wherein a first angle is formed between the first guiding inclined surface and the bottom surface, a second angle is formed between the second guiding inclined surface and the bottom surface, and the first angle and the second angle are identical to each other and are respectively acute angles.

5. The keyboard apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first angle and the second angle are each between 1 ° and 45 °.

6. The keyboard apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first angle and the second angle are each between 10 ° and 15 °.

7. The keyboard device of claim 1, wherein the first guide slope has a first top end and a first bottom end, the first top end is adjacent to the bottom surface with respect to the first bottom end, and the sliding portion is slidably displaced along the first guide slope and the second guide slope from the first top end toward the first bottom end when the key cap is pressed to move downward toward the substrate.

8. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bottom wall has an inclined angle to form the chute as an inclined chute.

9. The keyboard device of claim 1, wherein the first guide slope and the second guide slope are cambered surfaces, respectively.

10. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bottom wall has an outer surface located outside the chute, the outer surface being parallel to the bottom surface of the keycap.

11. The keyboard device of claim 1, wherein the bottom wall has a flat surface located in the chute, the second guiding ramp has a second top end and a second bottom end, the flat surface is connected to the second top end, a portion of the sliding contact portion is located above the flat surface, and another portion of the sliding contact portion is located above the second guiding ramp.

12. The keyboard apparatus of claim 11, wherein the bottom wall has another plane located within the chute, the another plane being connected to the second bottom end.