GB2505878A - Electronic device with housing-integrated functionalities - Google Patents

Abstract

Electronic device comprising housing 210, such as a cover, comprising housing material molded to embed a plurality of functional elements associated with at least two different functionalities: a first element comprises user touch-based control input sensing components (strain, resistive, capacitive, optical) for user input acquisition and a second element comprises tactile and/or vibration components (e.g. piezoelectric actuators) providing the electronic device with tactile or vibrating alarm or feedback. First and second components can be on one base component 204. Moulding incorporates over-molding (injection molding). The housing can be replaceable via snap-fit. Third embedded element (microphone, loudspeaker, data processing device, memory chip, communications chip, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor) can be provided. A corre­sponding method of manufacture comprises: producing base material 204; placing components on base; placing base with components into mould; inject molten material; place components into the mold on preferred places; holding mold under pressure.

Description

ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH HOUSING-INTEGRATED

FIJNCTIONALITIES AND METHOD THEREFOR

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Generally tile present invention concerns electronic devices and related coniponents. Particularly, however not exclusively, the invention pertains to touch UI-provided electronic devices and integration of various ele-nients therein.

BACKGROUND

User interfaces (UI) of electronic devices such as computers including desktop, laptop and palmtop devices have developed tremendously since the advent of the era of modern computing. Simple switches, buttons, and knobs have been in many cases replaced by keyboard, keypad, mouse, speech recognition input, touch display and related UI means like touch- pad. Such more modern UI alternatives can provide the users of the asso-ciated devices with somewhat bearable user experience after a typically extensive adoption period.

h particular, touch surfaces such as touch pads and touch screens mm- doubtedly form the de facto' UI of modern smartphones, tablets and sup-plementary UI of many desktop computers as well. The touch displays may generally app'y of a number of different technologies for implement- ing the touch-sensitive functionality. Among various other potential op-tions, e.g. capacitive, resistive, infrared, optical imaging (camera-based), FTIR (frustrated total internal reflection), acoustic, and hybrid solutions are feasible.

Many electronic devices, such as smart phones, containing a touch- sensitive surface are also capable of executing a load of other functionali- ties many of which can be provided through additional components ar-ranged into the device. For example, vibration/tactile functions are often enabled by such dedicated components.

Loading an electronic device with various components has traditionally turned out difficult, i.e. space-consuming, weighty and expensive, which has set various limitations to the designers and manufacturers trying to produce top notch end products. Previous solutions for locating the neces-sary parts iii electronic devices have generally performed poorly in view of integration and sometimes also function&ity, as the components dis-posed deep within the device internals such as various circuit boards may have ultimately been too isolated from the environment of the device out-side the housiiig to provide optimum level of interaction with the users, for example. Further, awkward solutions, such as intensive packaging or dampening elements, for protecting the potentially rather delicate elements from external shocks and e.g. weather conditions to prevent breakage have been often required.

SUMMARY OF THE iNVENTION

The objective of the embodiments of the present invention is to at least al- leviate one or more of the aforesaid drawbacks evident in the prior art ar- rangements particularly in the context of force touch-based input arrange- ments. The objective is generally achieved with a device and a corre-sponding method of manufacture in accordance with the present invention.

The obtained device with housing-integrated functionalities may be uti- lized for simple buttons and 2D touch displays as well as for a tecirnologi- cal implementation alternative to be exploited in coirnection with 3D ges-ture tracking and position tracking among other potential applications.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention an electronic de-vice comprises -a housing, or a cover', comprising housing material molded so as to at least partially embed a plurality of functional elements associated with at east two different functionalities in said housing material, wherein -a first element of said plurality comprises a number of user touch-based control input sensing components capable of receiving user touch-based control input for user input acquisition and -a second element of said plurality advantageously comprises a number of tactile and/or vibration components configured to provide the electronic device with tactile/vibrating alarm or feedback functionality.

For instance, the embedded elements may be electronic, electro-optic, electroacoustic, piezoelectric, electric, and/or electromechanical by nature, or at least comprise such components.

Optionifily the device may comprise a number of further elements with characterizing functionality or functionalities in said plurality.

In one embodiment, the touch-based control input sensing components comprise at least one component selected from the group consisting of: strain, resistive, capacitive and optical sensing component. The placing of the sensing components in the housing material may depend on the select- ed technology. Optical and strain sensing components such as light detec- tors, cameras (image sensors), and strain gauges may preferably be em- bedded in the housing material surrounding and/or underlying the touch-ing area often constructed utilizing some optically sufficiently transparent material such as glass or plastic. Optical sensing components may, in ad- dition to the aforesaid light/radiation-receiving components, be also sup-plemented with or considered to incorporate embedded light-emitting components such as (O)LEDs ((organic) light-emitting diode) configured to cooperate with the receivers to implement the touch sensing functionali-ty such as a free-space (optical grid on the display)-based touch screen or (F)TIR-based touch screen. Resistive and capacitive sensing components may be utilized by embedding the sensing components within the touching area, for example. In one feasible embodiment the entire housing of the device may be molded as substantially one piece, optionally of optically sufficiently transparent material regarding the desired wavelengths, wherein the touch-sensing components, e.g. resistive or capacitive compo-nents, may be embedded.

In another, either supplementary or alternative, embodiments the tactile and/or vibration components configured to provide the electronic device with tactile/vibrating alarm or feedback functionality comprise at least one piezoelectric actuator or vibration motor.

hi further, either supplementary or alternative, embodiments multiple tac- tile andlor vibration components are configured in a predetermined, sys-tematic, e.g. symmetric, formation.

In further, either supplementary or alternative, embodiments tactile andior vibration components are embedded in the housing material so as to ena- ble functional linkage with the sensing components. Thus, spatially pre-cise, input-location matching, tactile feedback may be arranged regarding touch input substantiafly in real-time. Further on, vibration applying func-tions may be executed in response to sonic device-specific action such as incoming communication, e.g. a phone call or SMS (Short Message Ser-vice).

In further, either supplementaiy or alternative embodiments, additional el- ements and related thnctionalities may be embedded in the housing mate-rial. E.g. additional optical sensing components such as photodiodes or image sensors applicable in Ambient Light Sensing andlor Proximity Sensing components may be embedded. Ambient light sensing may be uti- lized for automatically regulating the screen brightness on basis of the ob-servations of the ambient lighting and proximity sensing (e.g. infrared transmitter/receiver) may be utilized to detect the presence of nearby ob-jects without any physical coiltact, for instance.

Various other elements may also either alternatively or additionally be in-tegrated into the housing. Elements such microphones, communti cation chips (e.g. wir&ess transceiver such as Bluetooth chip or a radio frequency identification/near field communication tag or transceiver), wired commu- nication interfaces, memory and/or device control parts such as a pro-cessing unit may be embedded therein.

In further, either supplementary or ahernative, embodiments one or more embedded elements are provided on a base mateTial (substrate) e.g. before or during embedding in the housing material. The base material may be a flexible substrate optionally comprising p'astics, silicon, rubber, or a mix-ture of these. The base material may be a thin underlay such as a film or sheet. The base may consist of one unitary piece or several pieces brought together before or during the molding process. The base material may be configured to provide electric conductivity within the base material andior providing electricity from and/or to other parts in the electronic device.

Therefore, the base material may contain a number of recesses, cavities, or holes for accommodating electronics such as electronic circuits, conduc-tors, etc. Further, the electronics may be provided on the substrate, e.g. by utilizing a s&ected printing technique, or attached as readymade entities, e.g. SMT (surface-mount technology) and/or flip chip entities, to the sub-strate by e.g. glue or other adhesive.

In further, either supplementary or alternative, embodi nients multiple tac- tile andlor vibration components are configured in a predetermined, sys-teniatic, e.g. symmetric, formation.

In ftirther, either supplementary or alternative, embodiments the housing element is replaceable, e.g. a snap-fit housing with related features.

In another aspect, a housing as described herein for an electronic appa-ratus is provided.

In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention a method for manufacturing at least part of an electronic device's housing, comprises -molding the housing material into a desired target shape so as to at least partially embed a plurality of functional elements associated with at least two different functionalities in said housing material, wherein -a first element of said plurality comprising a number of user touch-based control input sensing components capable of receiving user touch-based control input for user input acquisition and -a second element (bob, lOOc, lOOd) of said plurality comprising a num-ber of components configured to provide at least one function selected from the group consisting of: tactile feedback, haptic feedback, vibration, communication, sound output, sound input, data processing, data storage, proximity sensing, and ambient light sensing.

In further, either supplementary or alternative, embodiments the housing is manufactured by over-molding such as injection molding. The elements to be embedded in the housing material may be placed direcfly in the mold frame on preferred places or tile elements iriay be provided first on a base component, which is then placed inside the mold frame. in various embod-iments the elements may be provided partially on a base component and partially directly inside of the mold frame.

The previously presented considerations concerning the various embodi-ments of the eiectronic device may be flexibly applied to the embodiments of the related housing or niethod mutatis mutandis and vice versa, as being appreciated by a skilled person.

As briefly reviewed hereinbefore, the utility of the different aspects of the present invention arises from a plurality of issues depending on each par-ticular embodiment. The manufacturing costs for producing the electronic device in accordance with the present invention to provide a plurality of iS different functionalities may be kept low due to rather extensive use of af- fordable and easily obtainabie materials, elements, and process technolo-gy. The obtainabie housing/electronic device is scalable from hand-held mobile devices and game consoles to larger applications. The feasible pro-cess technology also provides for rapid industrial scale manufacturing of the device in addition to mere prototyping scenarios.

The device may be kept thin, light, and energy conserving in order to suit most use scenarios with little modifications to the surrounding compo- nents and designs. The obtained integration level is high. The device struc- ture and embedded elements may be made robust towards externifi mi-pacts considering the compact structure that is attained. This will offer better protection for the apphed &ements.

Yet, the housing structure suits particularly well various industrial applica-tions including e.g. industrial automation/electronics control apparatuses, as it may provide hermetical and dust repelling isolation from the hostile use environment with e.g. humid and/or dusty air.

Regarding the potential replaceability of the housing, preferably executa- ble without tools (e.g. snap-fit), a number of related benefits may be con- ceived. A housing of the device may be tailored for certain use and pro- vided with related embedded functional elements. Upon new use or break- age, the cover may be flexibly changed to a new one with similar or dif-ferent functional elements embedded. All the possible elements do not have to be included in the same housing, which makes each individual housing simpler, lighter, smifiler and also more affordable.

Still, touch-based input may be cleverly linked with accurate, location-specific tactile, e.g. haptic, feedback by means of the present invention.

The expression "a number of' may herein refer to any positive integer starting from one (1).

The expression "a plurality of' may refer to any positive integer starting from two (2), respectively.

Different embodiments of the present invention are also disclosed in the attached dependent claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED DRAWINGS

Next, the embodiments of the present invention are more closely reviewed with reference to the attached drawings, wherein Fig. 1 illustrates the concept of the base material with attached elements utilized in the present invention via one embodiment thereof.

Fig. 2 illustrates the overall concept of the present invention via one em-bodinient thereof.

Fig. 3 is a flow diagram disdosing an embodiment of a method in accord-ance with the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an apparatus comprising elements in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

With reference to Figure 1, an axonometric view 102 of an embodiment of base element/base material 104, which may be utilized in the present in-vention, is shown. The electronic device andlor base material 104 may comprise various additional components, in addition to the disclosed ones.

As being appreciated by skilled readers, also the configuration of the dis-closed components iriay differ from the explicitly depicted one depending oil the requirements of each intended use scenario wherein the present in-ventiori may be capitalized.

The base material 04 may be used for providing a support surface for the required elements lOÔa, bob, 106c, 106d to be attached/provided thereto, which will then facilitate embedding the elements further on in the device housing.

The base material 104 may establish optionally flexible substrate, e.g. cir-cuit board, optionally comprising plastics, silicon, rubber, or a mixture of these. The base material 104 may thus be a thin underlay such as a film or sheet. The base component 104 may consist of one unitary piece or several pieces brought together before or during the molding process. The base material 104 may be configured to provide electric conductivity within the base material 104 and/or providing electricity from and/or to other parts in the electronic device. Therefore, the base material 104 may contain a number of recesses, cavities, or holes for accommodating various light electronics such as electronic circuits, conductors, etc. in the substrate. Al- ternatively, the electronics may be provided on the substrate, e.g. by utiliz-ing a selected printing technique, or attached as readymade entities, e.g. SMT (surface-mount tecimology) and/or flip chip entities, to the substrate by e.g. glue or other adhesive.

In sonic embodiments, the base material 104 may comprise polyimide (P1). Polyiniide may be utilized to construct flexible, preferably transpar-ent, base elements, or substrates'.

In some embodiments, FR-4 material may be utilized as base material 104.

For example, a printed circuit board (PCB) may be formed.

The elements I 06a, I 06b, I 06c, I OOd comprise may touch sensing and tactile/vibrating alarm or feedback functionality providing components.

Further, they may comprise e.g. sound input (microphone) devices, output devices (beeper/buzzer, loudspeaker), visible or non-visible lights (LED5, etc.), ALS devices, PS devices, processing devices (microprocessor, mi-crocontroller, digital signal processor (DSP)), and/or memory chips, or programmable logic chips in addition to various still unmentioned sensors.

Indeed, a myriad of techiiologies may be implemented.

In the embodiment shown iii Figure 1, wherein the base material 104 is designed to surround and thus define a touching area, the elements I Oba, bob, lOOc, 106d comprising e.g. strain and/or optical sensing components may be utilized. The placing or number of elements 1 OOa, 1 06b, I OOc, lOOd is not restricted and depends considerably on the application and the used technology, which will be apparent to a person skilled in the art. E.g.

the elements lOOa, bob, ]06c, 106d may be evenly distributed on the pe-riphery as in figure 1 or more selectively in key places such as the corners of the touching area.

The applied tactile and/or vibration components providing the electronic device with tactile/vibrating alarm or feedback functionality may comprise at least one piezoelectric actuator or vibration motor. Efficient integration with the housing ensures an efficient tactile feedback to the user.

With integration of multiple tactile and/or vibration components the tactile feedback may be tailored more accurate. The tactile components may be configured in a systematic (matrix etc.), potentially symmetric, formation covering evenly the entire surface or evenly "orbiting" the touch surface, for instance. A formation connected with the touch-sensing components may provide the user with more area-specific feedback providing a supe- nor user experience. E.g. when the entire surface is even'y (at least func-tion&ly, e.g. in the periphery) covered by the tactile components and the user provides pressure on a specific point (e.g. touch-based usage with finger or stylus) the nearest tactile component(s) may be configured to re-spond(s) by giving associated vibration/tactile feedback, hence, providing the user with location-wise accurate, targeted feedback, not just vibra-tion/tactile feedback in general. This may be particularly beneficial in multi-touch applications, for example, wherein the user may siniultane-ously contact a touch surface via multiple points.

Figure 2 illustrates, via two axonometric views at 202a and 202b, an em- bodiment of a device (housing/cover) in accordance with the present in-vention. View 202a presents more of a front view and 202b a back view of such device. Base material 204 (104) is covered with actual housing mate- rial 210 through molding, preferably, injection molding. Therefore, the el-ements lO6a, bob, 106c, 106d presented iii Figure 1 are preferably firmly integrated in the housing material 210.

The shape and size of either the base component 204 (104) or the molded housing 210 is not restricted to any particular form and may thus be manu-factured to fit a wide range of applications.

Figure 3 is a flow diagram of one feasible embodiment for manufacturing the solution of the present invention.

At 302, referring to a start-up phase, the necessary tasks such as material, element and tools selection and acquisition take place. In determining the suitable elements and other components/electronics, specific care must be taken that the individual components and material selections work togeth- er and survive the selected manufacturing process of the overall arrange-ment, which is naturally preferably checked up-front on the basis of the manufacturing process vs. element data sheets, or by analyzing the pro-duced prototypes, for example.

At 304, a base material, described previously, is manufactured to a desired shape and size.

At 306, the preferred elements with different flinctionalities, such as touch sensing components and tactile and/or vibration components are attached to the base material. Supplementary elements and electronics, listed previ-ously, may also be added onto the material. Alternativ&y, the elements and/or electronics may be provided within the substrate.

For example, at least one substrate layer such as a sheet or film may be first provided with electronics such as conductors, and desired control cir-cuitry. The associated chips and other entities may be provided onto the substrate by a flip-chip bonding apparatus or constructed utilizing an inkjet printer, for example.

The used substrate(s) may include, for example, polymers such as a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or PC (polycarbonate) film. P1 may be uti- lized. Alternatively, e.g. FR-4 based substrate may be exploited. An appli-cable substrate shall be generally selected such that the desired flexibility, robustness, and other requirements like adhesion properties in view of the electronics and the adjacent materials, or e.g. in view of available manu-facturing techniques, are met.

The selected substrate may also be preconditioned prior to and/or during the illustrated processing phases. The substrate may be preconditioned to increase adhesion with other materials such as injection molded cover plastics, for example.

Elements mid electronics may be attached to the target substrates by adhe- sive, such as an epoxy adhesive, for example. Both conductive (for ena-bling electrical contact) and non-conductive (for mere fixing) adhesives may be utilized. Such components are preferably selected so as to with- stand the pressure and temperature of the utilized housing component-establishing process such as injection molding process.

Accordingly, suitable printing technologies may also be exploited. E.g.

components may be printed on the substrate by an inkjet printer or other applicable device.

Generally, feasible techniques for providing printed electronics may in- clude screen printing, rotary screen printing, gravure printing, flexog-raphy, ink-jet printing, tanipo printing, etching (like with PWB-substrates, printed wiring board), transfer laminating, thin-film deposition, etc. For instance, in the context of conductive pastes, silver-based PTF (Polymer Thick Film) paste could be utilized for screen printing the desired circuit design on the substrate. A'so e.g. copper or carbon-based PIF pastes may be used. Alternatively, copper/aluminum layers may be obtained by etch-ing. In a further alternative, conductive LTCC (low temperature co-fired ceramic) or I-ITCC (high temperature co-fired ceramic) pastes may be sin-tered onto the substrate. One shall take into account the properties of the substrate when selecting the material for conductors. For example, sinter-ing temperature of LTCC pastes may be about 850 to 900°C, which may require using ceramic substrates. Further, silver/gold-based nanoparticle inks could be used for producing the conductors.

The paste/ink shall be preferably selected in connection with the printing teclrnique and the substrate material because different printing techniques require different rheoiogical properties from the used ink/paste, for iii-stance. Further, different printing technologies provide varying amounts of ink/paste per time unit, which often affects the achievable conductivity figures.

At 308, the assembly comprising the preferred elements attached to the base material is placed into a mold frame.

Considering tile process parameters and set-up, few further guidelines can be given as mere examples as being understood by the skilled persons.

When the substrate is PET and the plastics to be, for example, over-molded thereon is PC, the temperature of the melted PC may be about 280 to 320°C and mold temperature about 20 to 95°C, e.g. about 80°C. The used substrate and the process parameters shall be preferably selected such that the substrate does not melt and remains substantially solid during the process. The substrate shall be positioned in the mold such that it remains properly fixed. Likewise, the preinstalled components and/or electronics shall be attached to the substrate such that they remain static during the molding.

At 310, granules of plastic material are poured into the molding device.

The material is then heated until molten, and is then force injected into the mold, wherein it sets around the supportive components. Materiffi used is chosen accordingly to the desired features.

Generally in the embodiments of the present invention, the thickness of the established housing as well as the installation depth of said elements and electronics in the housing may be varied according to the application so that they may form a part of the surface (inner or outer surface of the overall electronic device) thereof or be completely embedded, or hidden', inside the housing. This enables customization of the toughness, &asticity, transparency, etc., of the constructed device as a whole as well as custom-ization of the maintenance capabilities and protection of said embedded elements. Embedding the elements completely inside the housing typically provides better protection. Optionally leaving the elements to the surface provides less protection but enables easier maintenance or replacement of said elements. Depending on the application certain elements may be em-bedded entirely, when other elements are oniy partially embedded.

At 312, the molten material inserted into the mold is kept under a pressure so that the mold becomes even.

At 314, the mold is let to cool down.

At 316, the finished product is taken out of the mold.

At 318, the method execution is ended. Further actions such as element regulation may take place.

At 320, is provided an optional manufacturing method, wherein the dc-ments to be embedded in the housing material are placed directly in the mold frame on preferred places. During this alternative process, steps 304, 306 and 308 are replaced with step 320.

In the above mentioned method, the granular material of injection molding may include, for example, polymers such as PC (polycarbonate), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate), PA (pol-yamide, nylon), COC (cyclo olefin copolymer), and/or COP (cyclo olefin polymer), PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) and/or PVC (polyvinyl chlo- ride). Alternatively or additionally, the material nay include glass. An ap-plicable layer material shall be generally selected such that the desired flexibility, robustness, and other requirements like adhesion properties in view of the electronics and the adjacent materials, or e.g. in view of avail-able manufacturing techniques, are met.

The use of advantageously flexible materials preferably enables carrying out at least some of the method items by roll-to-roll methods, which may provide additional benefits time-, cost-and even space-wise considering e.g. transportation and storage. In roll-to-roll, or reel-to-reel', methods the desired components, such as optical and/or electrical ones, may be depos-ited on a continuous roll' substrate, which may be both long and wide, advancing either in constant or dynamic speed from a source roll, or a plu-rality of source rolls, to a destination roll during the procedure. Thus the substrate may thus comprise multiple products that are to be cut separate later.

The roll-to-roll manufacturing advantageously enables rapid and cost ef- fective manufacturing of products also in accordance with the present in-vention. During the roll-to-roll process several material layers may be joined together on the fly', and the aforesaid components such as elec-tronics may be structured on them prior to, upon, or after the actual joining instant. The source layers and the resuhing band-like aggregate entity may be further subjected to vanous treatments during the process. Layer thick-nesses (thinner hyers such as films' are generally preferred in facilitating roll-to-roll processing) and optionally also other properties should be se-lected so as to enable roll-to-roll processing to a preferred extent.

Figure 4 is a general block diagram of one embodiment of a device com- prising the housing and elements embedded therein according to the pre-sent invention.

The device 401 may include or constitute, a mobile terminal, a PDA (per-sonal digital assistant), a control device for industrial or other applications, a specific-or multipurpose computer (desktop/laptop/palmtop), a music or multimedia player, etc. As being clear to a skilled person, various ele-ments of the device 401 may be directly integrated in the same housing or provided at least with functional coirnectivity, e.g. wired or wireless con-nectivity, with each other.

One potential, if not mandatory, component that is included in the appa-ratus is memory 406, which may be divided between one or more physical memory chips and/or cards, may comprise necessary code, e.g. in a form of a computer program/application, for enabling the control and operation of the apparatus. The memory 406 may include e.g. ROM (read only memory) or RAM -type (random access memory) implementations. The memory 406 may further refer to an advantageously detachable memory card/stick, a floppy disc, an optical disc, such as a CD-ROM, or a fixed/removable hard drive.

A processing component 404, e.g. at least one processing/controlling unit such as a microprocessor, a DSP (digital signal processor), a micro-controller or programmable logic chip(s), optionally comprising a plurality of co-operating or parallel (sub-)units, may be needed for the actual exe- cution of the application code that may be stored in memory 406 as men-tioned above.

A display 402 and possible traditional control input means, such as keys, buttons, knobs, voice control interface, sliders, rocker switches, etc. may provide the user of the device 401 with data visualization means and con-trifi input means in connection with the disphy panel 402. Nevertheless, a number of touch sensing components 408 are preferaHy utilized for im-plementing the touch based UI in accordance with the present invention.

Tactile and/or vibration components 410 are preferably utilized for provid- ing the electronic device with tactile/vibrating alarm or feedback function-ality in accordance with the present invention.

Data interface 414, e.g. a wireless transceiver (GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), Bluetooth, infrared, etc), and/or an interface for a fixed/wired connection, such as an USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, a LAN (e.g. Ethernet) interface, or Firewire- compliant (e.g. IEEE 1394) interface, is typically required for communica-tion with other devices.

The device may include various alternative or supplementary elements 412a, 412b such as camera, microphone, LED, Ambient Light Sensing and/or Proximity Sensing components as mentioned hereinbefore for providing the device with desired functionalities. It is self-evident that fur- ther functionalities may be added to the device and the aforesaid function-alities niay be modified depending on each particular embodiment.

The scope of the invention is determined by the attached claims together with the equivalents thereof The skilled persons will again appreciate the fact that the disclosed embodiments were constructed for illustrative pur-poses only, and the innovative fulcrum reviewed herein will cover further embodiments, embodiment combinations, variations and equivalents that better suit each particular use case of the invention. For instance, instead of a touch display, the suggested solution could be applied to implement a touch pad or some other touclilgesture input device with iio mandatory display-associated function. Yet, instead of touch-based control input sensing components or tactile/vibration components, the first and second elements, respectiv&y, could include some other type of functional dc-nients such as the ones described hereinbefore.

Claims (12)

1. Claims I. An electronic device (401) comprising -a housing (210), such as a cover, comprising housing material molded so as to at least partially embed a plurality of functional elements (bOa, 1 06b, 1 06c, 1 06d) associated with at least two different flinctionalities in said housing material, wherein -a first element (106a, 408) of said phirality comprises a number of user touch-based control input sensing components capable of receiving user touch-based control input for user input acquisition and -a second element (bOb, 410) of said plurality comprises a number of tac- tile and/or vibration components configured to provide the electronic de-vice with tactile/vibrating alarm or feedback functionality.
2. 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the touch-based control input sens-ing components comprise at least one component selected from the group consisting of: strain, resistive, capacitive and optical sensing component.
3. 3. The device of any preceding claim, wherein the housing is replace-able, optionally without tools such as of snap-fit construction.
4. 4. The device of any preceding claim, wherein the tactile and/or vibra-tion components comprise at least one piezoelectric actuator or vibration motor.
5. 5. The device of any preceding claim, wherein multiple tactile and/or vibration components are configured in a systematic, optionally symmet-ric, formation in said housing relative to a predetermined reference, such as the location of a display.
6. 6. The device of any preceding claim, configured to provide localized tactile feedback, such as haptic feedback, via said second element, the lo-cation of feedback sensation substantially corresponding to touch location detected by said first element.
7. 7. The device of any preceding claim, comprising a third embedded firnctional element (1 06c) including at least one component selected from the group consisting of a microphone, a loudspeaker, a data processing device, a memory chip, a communications chip, a proximity sensor, and an ambient light sensor.
8. 8. A housing (210) for an electronic device (401), comprising a hous-ing structure of housing material molded so as to at least partially embed a plur&ity of functional elements (106a, bob, 106c, 106d) associated with at least two different functionalities in said hoLising materi&, wherein a first element (1 06a, 408) of said plurality comprises a number of user touch-based control input sensing components capable of receiving user touch-based control input for user input acqu sition, and a second element (bob, 106c, 106d, 410, 412a, 4l2b) of said plurality comprises a number of components configured to provide at least one thnction selected from the group consisting of tactile feedback, haptic feedback, vibration, com-munication, sound output, sound input, data processing, data storage, proximity sensing, and ambient light sensing.
9. 9. A system comprising an electronic device (401) and a plur&ity of housings according to claim 8, wherein each housing is replaceaHe and contains at least one embedded functional element different from the ones of other housings in said plurality.
10. 10. A method for manufacturing at east part of an electronic device's housing, comprising: -molding (306, 308, 310, 312, 320) predetermined housing material into a shape so as to at least partially embed a plurality of functional elements associated with at least two different ifinctionalities in said housing mate-rial, wherein -a first element (106a, 408) of said plurality comprising a number of user touch-based control input sensing components capable of receiving user touch-based control input for user input acquisition and -a second element (bob, 106c, lOOd, 410, 412a, 412b) of said plurality comprising a number of components configured to provide at least one fkrnction selected from the group consisting of tactile feedback, haptic feedback, vibration, communication, sound output, sound input, data pro-cessing, data storage, proximity sensing, and ambient light sensing.
11. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first and second elements are provided on at least one base component (306).
12. 12. The method of any of claims 10-il, wherein the molding incorpo-rates over-molding, preferably injection molding.