CN213547482U - Key module, input device and keyboard - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model provides a key module. The key module comprises a pressing body, a key switch and a capacitor circuit, wherein the pressing body responds to an external physical pressing signal, the key switch responds to the triggering of the pressing body to change the working state of the key module, and the capacitor circuit is connected with the key switch in series. The utility model discloses a button module improves the operating condition judgment sensitivity of button module through series capacitance circuit's mode, reduces the equipment required precision, the reduction product installation degree of difficulty requirement to key switch. Simultaneously the utility model also provides an input device and keyboard that adopt above-mentioned button module.

Description

Key module, input device and keyboard

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a key switch, in particular to be used for capacitanc mechanical button as input system's button module, input device and keyboard.

Background

With the development of modern electronic technology, electronic products gradually go deep into the lives of people, and various electronic products such as telephones, mobile phones, notebook computers, remote controllers and the like accompany the daily lives of people.

The role played by the input system of the electronic product is particularly important. The input systems widely used in the industry at present mainly include mechanical keyboards and capacitive keyboards.

The key module of the mechanical keyboard in the prior art generally adopts a contact principle, and two electrode plates are contacted and conducted to be used as a key switch to enable a main control chip to acquire key touch, judge the working state of the key module and further generate an input signal. However, because the electrode plates for conducting are exposed in the air for a long time and are easy to oxidize, in each pressing process, the mutual contact of the two electrode plates can bring abrasion to the electrode plates, the abrasion and the oxidation can cause the electrode plates to have poor contact when being pressed, when the electrode plates of the keys are abraded or oxidized, the keys cannot be identified by the main control chip after being pressed, the pressing is generally judged to belong to invalid input, the keys are actually pressed down, the user experience is influenced, and only the whole keyboard or a single key can be replaced under the condition, so that the cost is high.

In the prior art, the capacitor keypad includes a capacitor formed by two electrode plates arranged at an interval and an insulator clamped between the two electrode plates. The working principle of the capacitance keyboard is as follows: an insulating layer is additionally arranged between the two electrode plates, and the two electrode plates are coupled to form a capacitor structure. When the button is pressed, change the interval between two electrode slices, if two electrode slices are close to each other or keep away from each other, and then make the capacitance value grow or diminish of the capacitor structure that two electrode slices formed, provide the electric capacity detection module again, utilize the electric capacity detection principle to detect the electric capacity variable quantity of this capacitor structure and judge the operating condition of this button, and then confirm whether effective input.

However, in the capacitor key of the prior art, an insulating layer needs to be added between two electrode plates, in order to ensure that the capacitance has large variation and consistency, the insulating layer needs to be thin, and the tolerance needs to be small, so that an additional high-precision machining process is needed, and the cost is increased. In addition, the insulating layer can fall off due to errors in the assembly link or overlarge pressing force in use in production, so that short circuit failure of the capacitor keys is caused, and even the function of the whole keyboard system is abnormal. Moreover, the consistency of electrode plates and insulating layers processed by different processes and processing equipment is poor, so that the working state judgment error of the key is also caused.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide a key module to solve the above problems.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

In order to solve mechanical key input system among the prior art because electrode slice contact failure and unable discernment button cell is pressed technical problem and electric capacity keyboard's abnormal function, the poor technical problem of uniformity, the utility model provides a can accurately judge the button module whether pressed button cell under the poor condition of electrode slice contact.

Simultaneously, the input device and the keyboard adopting the key module are also provided.

The utility model provides a key module, including pressing the body, key switch and capacitor circuit, press the outside physics of body response and press the signal, the key switch response press the body and trigger the operating condition who changes the key module, capacitor circuit with the key switch series connection sets up.

In a preferred embodiment of the key module, the capacitor circuit includes a fixed capacitor or a plurality of fixed capacitors, and the plurality of fixed capacitors are connected in series or in parallel to output capacitance.

The utility model provides a in a preferred embodiment of button module, the electric capacity circuit includes a plurality of branches, each the branch road includes an at least branch switch, closes or breaks branch switch makes the electric capacity circuit output corresponds the capacitance value of settlement, adjusts the capacitance value change of button module.

In a preferred embodiment of the key module, the key switch is a contact switch, and the pressing body moves down or moves up so that the contact switch is switched between on and off states.

In a preferred embodiment of the key module of the present invention, the key switch includes two conductive terminals, and the pressing body moves down or up to make the conductive terminals contact with or separate from each other.

In a preferred embodiment of the key module, the key switch is an adjustable capacitor, and the adjustable capacitor corresponds to the capacitor circuit and is connected in series.

In a preferred embodiment of the key module, the adjustable capacitor includes a first electrode plate and a second electrode plate disposed at a distance from each other, and the first electrode plate and the second electrode are driven by the physical pressing signal to adjust the capacitance.

The utility model provides an input device, includes button module, electric capacity detection module and control module group, the button module receives the physics and presses the signal to correspond feedback electric capacity change signal, electric capacity detection module receives and comes from the electric capacity change signal of button module, and judge the operating condition of button module produces the operating condition signal, the control module group receives and comes from the operating condition signal of electric capacity detection module corresponds and produces input signal, the button module is including pressing the body, key switch and capacitive circuit, press the outside physics of body response and press the signal, key switch responds press the body and trigger the operating condition who changes the button module, capacitive circuit with key switch establishes ties and sets up.

The utility model provides a keyboard, includes button module, the control module group that control panel, electric capacity detection module, a plurality of array set up, button module array is located the control panel, electric capacity detection module locates the control panel, and with button module electricity is connected, the control module group basis electric capacity detection module's testing result corresponds and produces input signal, button module group is including pressing the body, key switch and capacitor circuit, press the external physics of body response and press the signal, key switch response press the body and trigger the operating condition who changes button module, capacitor circuit with key switch establishes ties and sets up.

In a preferred embodiment of the keyboard provided in the present invention, the key module includes a circuit board, and the control board and the circuit board are integrated into the same circuit board.

Compared with the prior art, the utility model provides a, the utility model discloses can discern the keying unit under the bad condition of key switch's electrode contact and press whether, avoid the user because the unable feedback input signal of key switch's electrode contact is bad and must change the condition of button module, practice thrift user cost, improve user experience.

On the other hand, because it is less to detect input device's the electric capacity change degree of difficulty, judge easily based on this the operating condition of button module reduces right the installation degree of difficulty of button module to and improve the input precision, reduce the maloperation.

Moreover, the requirement on the consistency of the key module product is reduced, the working state of the key module can be easily judged, and the product reliability is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained without inventive work, wherein:

fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a key module according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective exploded view of the key module shown in FIG. 1;

fig. 3a and 3b are side cross-sectional views of the key module shown in fig. 1 in two working states of on and off respectively;

fig. 4a and 4b are equivalent circuit diagrams corresponding to the key switches shown in fig. 3a and 3 b;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective exploded view of a key module according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6a and 6b are side sectional views of the key module shown in fig. 5 in different working states, respectively;

FIG. 7 is a series equivalent circuit diagram of the variable capacitor and capacitor circuit shown in FIG. 5;

fig. 8 is a block diagram of an input device according to the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic view of a three-dimensional exploded structure of the keyboard of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by a person skilled in the art without creative efforts belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

First preferred embodiment

Please refer to fig. 1 and fig. 2, in which fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional assembly structure of a key module according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exploded three-dimensional view of the key module shown in fig. 1. The key module 10 includes a housing 11, a pressing body 13, an elastic body 15, a key switch 17, a capacitor circuit 18 and a circuit board 19.

The housing 11 includes an upper cover 111 and a lower cover 113. The upper cover 111 includes a hollow through hole 1111. The lower cap 113 includes a lead post 1131. The lead column 1131 corresponds to the through hole 1111 of the upper cover 111. The upper cover 111 is engaged with the lower cover 113 to form a receiving space by a fastening structure to receive the pressing body 13, the elastic body 15 and the key switch 17 therein.

One end of the pressing body 13 penetrates through the through hole 1111 of the upper cover 111, the other end of the pressing body is correspondingly sleeved in the lead column 1131, and the elastic body 15 is clamped between the lower cover 113 and the pressing body 13. The pressing body 13 is pressed by external physical pressure, and moves downwards along the lead column 1131 in the direction towards the lower cover 113, thereby compressing the elastic body 15.

The key switch 17 includes two conductive terminals 171, 173, the conductive terminal 171 is disposed on the pressing body 13, the conductive terminal 173 is disposed on the lower cover 113, and the conductive terminals 171, 173 are contacted with and separated from each other under the action of the pressing body 13. When the conductive terminals 171 and 173 contact each other, the key switch 17 is turned on, otherwise, the key switch 17 is turned off, as shown in fig. 3a and 3 b.

The capacitor circuit 18 is disposed on the circuit board 19, and the capacitor circuit 18 is connected in series with the key switch 17, as shown in fig. 4a and 4 b. In this embodiment, the capacitor circuit 18 is a fixed capacitor, as a further improvement of this embodiment, the capacitor circuit 18 may further include multiple fixed capacitors, the multiple fixed capacitors are connected in series or in parallel, and may form multiple branches, each branch includes at least one branch switch, and the branch switches may be turned on or off to enable the capacitor circuit 18 to output a corresponding set capacitance value, so as to adjust the change of the capacitance value of the key module 10.

When the key module 10 is operated, an external force is firstly applied to the pressing body 13, the pressing body 13 receives the physical pressing signal and moves down along the guiding direction of the lead column 1131 until the key switch 17 is turned on, that is: the key switch 17 responds to the external physical pressing signal and triggers the key switch to be in a conducting state. When the external pressure is removed, the pressing body 13 moves upward away from the lower cover 113 under the reaction of the elastic body 15, so that the conductive terminals 171 and 173 are separated from each other, and the key switch 17 is in an off state: the key switch 17 responds to the external physical pressing signal and triggers the key switch to be in an off state.

When the key switch 17 is turned off, it is turned off, and at this time, the capacitance value of the key switch 17 is set to be equal to a smaller relative capacitance value C1 existing between the conductive terminal 171 and the conductive terminal 173, and the capacitance value of the capacitor circuit 18 is set to be C0, and the capacitance value of the C0 is set to be much larger than that of the C1, so that when the key switch 17 is turned off, the capacitance value of a branch formed by the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit 18 in series is C1 × C0/(C1+ C0), and considering that the value of the C0 is smaller, correspondingly, when the key switch 17 is turned off, the total capacitance value of the branch formed by the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit in series is smaller.

When the key switch 17 is set to be in contact, it forms a short circuit, and at this time, the capacitance value C of the branch formed by the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit 18 in series is C0. When the key switch 17 is switched between off and on, the value of C1 is small, the value of C0 is much larger than the value of C1, and then the capacitance value of the branch formed by connecting the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit 18 in series changes greatly, so that the working state of the key switch 17 is determined according to the amplitude of the capacitance value change of the branch formed by connecting the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit 18 in series, and the working state can also be used as a basis for determining whether the pressing body 13 is pressed down.

In summary, with the application of the external pressure, the pressing body 13 moves back and forth by moving up or down under the guidance of the lead column 1131, the capacitance value of the branch formed by connecting the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit 18 in series changes greatly, and the working state of the key switch 17 is determined to be in the on or off state according to the change of the capacitance value, and the change is also used as a basis for determining whether the pressing body 13 is pressed down. That is, under the action of the external pressure, the conductive terminals 171 and 173 of the key switch 17 are switched between contact and separation, and accordingly, the operating state of the key switch 17 is adjusted to be continuously switched between the on state and the off state. When the key switch 17 is in the on state, the key module 10 is activated and is regarded as valid input; when the key switch 17 is in the off state, the key module 10 is not activated and is regarded as an invalid input.

In particular, if the key switch 17 is in poor contact, that is, the conductive terminals 171 and 173 are very close to each other, the relative capacitance value C1 between the conductive terminals 171 and 173 is significantly increased compared to when the key switch 17 is turned off, and the capacitance value C of the branch formed by the key switch 17 and the capacitor circuit 18 in series is C1C 0/(C1+ C0), and accordingly, the change in C is also large. In the present embodiment, the operating state of the key switch 17 and whether or not the pressing body 13 is pressed are determined based on the change in the capacitance value C, so that even if the key switch 17 is in poor contact, the key module 10 is activated due to a large change in C, and is regarded as an effective input.

Second preferred embodiment

Referring to fig. 5, 6a and 6b, fig. 5 is a schematic perspective exploded view of a key module according to a second embodiment of the present invention, fig. 6a and 6b are side sectional views of the key module in different working states, respectively, fig. 6a is a side sectional view of the pressing body not being pressed, the key module is in an unactivated state, and fig. 6b is a side sectional view of the pressing body being pressed, the key module is in an activated state. The key module 20 includes a housing 21, a pressing body 23, an elastic body 25, a variable capacitor 27, a capacitor circuit 28, and a circuit board 29.

The housing 21 includes an upper cover 211 and a lower cover 213, and the upper cover 211 and the lower cover 213 cooperate to define a receiving space for receiving the pressing body 23, the elastic body 25, the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28. The circuit board 29 is stacked on the lower side of the lower cover 213.

The pressing body 23 elastically abuts against the elastic body 25. The elastic body 25 is interposed between the pressing body 23 and the lower cover 213.

The variable capacitor 27 includes two first electrode sheets 271 and two second electrode sheets 273 coupled with each other at an interval. The pressing body 23 transmits a physical pressing signal to the variable capacitor 27 by an external physical pressing action, and changes the relative area and distance between the first electrode sheet 271 and the second electrode sheet 273, thereby changing the capacitance of the variable capacitor 27. When an external force is applied to the pressing body 23, the pressing body 23 presses and triggers the variable capacitor 27, and the capacitance value of the variable capacitor 27 is C1, and when the external force is cancelled, the capacitance value of the variable capacitor 27 is C2. By pressing the pressing body 23 with or without applying an external force, the capacitance value of the variable capacitor 27 is correspondingly changed between C2 and C1.

The capacitor circuit 28 is disposed on the circuit board 29, the capacitor circuit 28 is disposed in series with the variable capacitor 27, and an equivalent circuit diagram thereof is shown in fig. 7. In this embodiment, the capacitor circuit 28 is a fixed capacitor, and as a further improvement of this embodiment, the capacitor circuit 28 may further include multiple fixed capacitors, the multiple fixed capacitors are connected in series or in parallel, and may form multiple branches, each branch includes at least one branch switch, and the branch switches may be turned on or off to enable the capacitor circuit 28 to output a corresponding set capacitance value, so as to adjust the change of the capacitance value of the key module 20.

When the capacitance value of the capacitor circuit 28 is set to C0, and the pressing body 23 is pressed, the capacitance value of the branch formed by the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28 in series is C1C 0/(C1+ C0); when the external force is removed and the pressing body 23 does not trigger the variable capacitor 27, the capacitance value of the variable capacitor 27 is C2, and the capacitance value of the branch formed by the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28 in series is C2C 0/(C2+ C0).

In this embodiment, the capacitances formed by the first electrode plate 271 and the second electrode plate 273 of the variable capacitor 27 are in the triggered and non-triggered states, and accordingly, the capacitance value of the variable capacitor 27 is switched between the C1 and the C2, so that the capacitance value of the branch formed by the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28 connected in series is greatly changed. Based on the change of the capacitance value, the operating state of the key module 20 is determined, specifically, when the pressing body 23 is pressed, the capacitance value C of the branch formed by the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28 in series is C1 × C0/(C1+ C0), and the key module 20 is in the triggered state; when the pressing body 23 is not pressed or the pressure is released, the capacitance value C of the branch formed by the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28 in series is C2C 0/(C2+ C0), and the key module 20 is in the non-activated state.

In particular, when the first electrode plate 271 and the second electrode plate 273 are pressed by the pressing body 23 to contact each other, the variable capacitor 27 is short-circuited, the variable capacitor 27 does not output a capacitance value, the capacitance value C of the branch formed by the variable capacitor 27 and the capacitor circuit 28 in series is C0, and the key module 20 is also in the activated state. Please refer to fig. 8, which is a block diagram of an input device according to the present invention. The input device 40 includes a key module 41, a capacitance detection module 43 and a control module 45.

The key module 41 receives the physical pressing signal and correspondingly feeds back the capacitance variation signal.

The capacitance detection module 43 detects a capacitance change signal of the key module 41, and determines a working state of the key module 41 according to a capacitance change result, specifically, the key module 41 includes a trigger working state and a non-trigger working state, and when the key module 41 is pressed, the key module is correspondingly in the trigger state, and when the key module 41 is not pressed, the key module is correspondingly in the non-trigger state.

The control module 45 receives the determination result from the capacitance detection module 43, and generates an input signal according to the operating state of the key module 41. Specifically, when the input device 40 is a keyboard, the operator intends to input the letter a. When the A key is pressed down, the capacitance value of the key module corresponding to the A key is increased; correspondingly, the capacitance detection module 43 determines that the key module 41 is in the trigger state according to the capacitance variation value; the control module 45 generates a control signal for inputting the letter a according to the trigger state of the key module 41, so as to realize the input operation of the letter a.

In the input device 40, the key module 40 may be one of the key module 10 disclosed in the first embodiment and the key module 20 disclosed in the second embodiment.

Compared with the prior art, the utility model discloses an in input device 40, the increase sets up the capacitor circuit, by capacitor circuit and key switch perhaps the branch road is constituteed with variable capacitance series connection to the capacitor circuit, judges through the electric capacity variation value of judging this branch road whether the body of pressing is effectively pressed, and then judges the operating condition of button module. Based on this, the input signal of the input device is controlled. In the process, because the change of the key switch or the variable capacitor is triggered based on the response of the pressing body to an external physical pressing signal, even if the key switch is in poor contact, the input device cannot be disabled, and the capacitor circuit can be set to selectively output different set capacitance values, so that the capacitance change amplitude of the key module is adjusted, and the sensitivity of the key module is improved; in addition, because the detection of the capacitance change value is relatively easy to obtain, the requirements on installation and reliability of the key switch are reduced, the reliability of the product is improved, and the requirements on processing difficulty and assembly precision are reduced.

Please refer to fig. 9, which is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional structure of a keyboard according to the present invention. The keyboard 50 includes a control board 51, a capacitance detection module 53, a plurality of key modules 55 arranged in an array, and a control module 57. The array of the key modules 55 is disposed on the control board 51, the capacitance detection module 53 is disposed on the control board 51 and electrically connected to the key modules 55, and the control module 57 correspondingly generates an input signal according to a detection result of the capacitance detection module 53, wherein the key modules 55 include a circuit board, and as a further improvement, the control board 51 and the circuit board can be integrated into a same circuit board. The key module 55 may be one of the key modules 10 or 20 described above.

The above only is the embodiment of the present invention, not limiting the scope of the present invention, all the equivalent structures or equivalent processes of the present invention are used in the specification and the attached drawings, or directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, and the same principle is included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A key module, comprising:

a pressing body responding to an external physical pressing signal;

the key switch responds to press the body to trigger the operating condition who changes the button module, its characterized in that still includes:

and the capacitor circuit is connected with the key switch in series.

2. The key module of claim 1, wherein the capacitor circuit comprises a fixed capacitor or a plurality of fixed capacitors, and the plurality of fixed capacitors are connected in series or in parallel with the output capacitance.

3. The key module of claim 1, wherein the capacitive circuit comprises a plurality of branches, each branch comprises at least one branch switch, and the branch switch is turned on or off to enable the capacitive circuit to output a corresponding set capacitance value, so as to adjust the capacitance value of the key module.

4. The key module of claim 1, wherein the key switch is a contact switch, and the downward movement or the upward movement of the pressing body switches the contact switch between the on state and the off state.

5. The key module as claimed in claim 4, wherein the key switch includes two conductive terminals, and the pressing body moves down or up to make the conductive terminals contact with or separate from each other.

6. The key module of claim 1, wherein the key switch is an adjustable capacitor, and the adjustable capacitor is connected in series with the capacitor circuit.

7. The key module of claim 6, wherein the adjustable capacitor comprises a first electrode plate and a second electrode plate coupled to each other at an interval, and the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate are driven by the physical pressing signal to adjust a capacitance value.

8. An input device, comprising:

the key module receives the physical pressing signal and correspondingly feeds back the capacitance change signal;

the capacitance detection module receives the capacitance change signal from the key module, judges the working state of the key module and generates a working state signal;

the control module receives the working state signal from the capacitance detection module and correspondingly generates an input signal, and is characterized in that the key module comprises an adjustable capacitor and a capacitor circuit which are arranged in series, the key module responds to an external physical pressing signal and correspondingly adjusts the capacitance value of the key module, and the key module is the key module according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. The utility model provides a keyboard, includes control panel, electric capacity detection module, the button module, the control module group that a plurality of arrays set up, button module array is located the control panel, electric capacity detection module group locates the control panel, and with button module group electricity is connected, the control module group basis electric capacity detection module group's testing result corresponds produces input signal, its characterized in that: the key module is as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. The keyboard of claim 9, wherein the key module comprises a circuit board, and the control board and the circuit board are integrated into the same circuit board.

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