JP2000243181A - Pressed-type switch structure - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a switch structure less liable to cause an erroneous operation, and realizing the enhancement of assembling work as well as the reduction of the number of component items. SOLUTION: This switch structure comprises a movable part 10 and a fixed part 30. The movable part 10 is made up of a pair of key-top parts 16 close disposed so as to neighbor each other, movable contacts 13 formed in fixed positions on bottom surfaces of the key-top parts 16, first spring members 11 provided on the neighboring sides of the key-top parts 16 for supporting the pressing motion of the key-top parts 16, and second spring members 12 provided on the opposite sides to the neighboring sides of the key-top parts 16. The fixed part 30 has fixed contacts 31 disposed at its positions corresponding to the movable contacts 13 so as to confront bottom surfaces of the key-top parts 16. The spring constant of the first spring members 11 is adapted to be larger than the spring constant of the second spring members 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a push-type switch structure used for small and portable electronic devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electronic devices have tended to become smaller and more sophisticated, and accordingly, the number of operation buttons has tended to increase. As a result, since the number of operation buttons increases in a limited space, the operation buttons themselves are naturally reduced, and there has been a problem that an erroneous input occurs at the time of button input. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-227634 is an application publication for solving such a problem. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-227634 using FIGS.
A key switch structure of an electronic device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-205 will be described.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the entire portable telephone 1. The mobile phone 1 is provided with an antenna 200 at an upper end of a housing 7000, a receiving unit 300 at an upper part on the front side of the housing 700, a transmitting unit 600 at a lower part, and a transmitting unit 6 on the front side.
A dial key 500 is provided in a portion closer to 00. Further, a liquid crystal display unit 400 and function keys 100 are provided between the earpiece unit 300 and the dial keys 500 on the front side of the housing 700.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing a key switch 100 which is a function key of a portable telephone, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line B. The circuit board 30 is provided in the housing 700.
The circuit board 30 has a pattern contact 31 formed by a pattern. The key switch 100 includes a key top portion 110 and the key top portion 11.
And a skirt-shaped rubber portion 120 for holding 0. The key top portion 110 includes a lower portion 112 formed of the same material as the rubber portion 120 and a plastic upper portion 111 provided on the lower portion 112. The lower part 111 and the rubber part 120 are integrated, and the rubber part 120 and the sheet-like member 150 are connected. Bottom surface 10 of lower portion 112
A conductive contact portion 13 corresponding to the pattern contact 31 is printed on 0 a, and a protrusion 130 integrally formed of the same material as the upper portion 111 penetrates the lower portion 112, and a tip portion of the protrusion 130 is formed on the lower portion 112. It protrudes from the bottom surface 100a. Also,
As can be seen from FIG. 3, the protrusion 130 is arranged at a position close to the key switch 100 of the other party, and the conductive contact part 2 is arranged at a position far from the key switch 100 of the other party. An information display section 140 is formed on the upper surface 100b of the upper section 111.

The key switch 100 is mounted on the circuit board 30 by attaching the sheet-like member 150 to the surface of the circuit board 30 and has a slight gap between the pattern contact 31 and the conductive contact 13. Rubber part 1
It is held at 20. The housing 700 is provided with a partition 40 for partitioning the adjacent key switch 100, and the partition 40 allows the sheet-like member 150 to be separated from the circuit board 30.
Is pressed down. Therefore, even if one of the pair of adjacent key switches 100 is pressed, the vibration is not transmitted to the other key switch 100.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional key switch structure, even if a finger pressing one of the pair of adjacent key switches comes into contact with the other key switch, the key switch that is in contact with the other key switch has a protrusion. Since the first contact is made with the circuit board, the conductive contact portion does not contact the pattern contact of the circuit board, so that erroneous input can be prevented.
However, the conventional configuration described above has a disadvantage that the number of components increases because the key top portion of the key switch is composed of separate upper and lower components. Furthermore, since the components constituting the key switch are also miniaturized with the miniaturization of electronic devices, there is a problem that if the key top portion is formed of separate components, the workability of assembly is deteriorated. there were.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks. In a push-type switch structure, the number of parts is minimized, assembling workability is improved, and erroneous operations are less likely to occur. An object of the present invention is to provide a pressing switch structure.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A pair of key tops disposed adjacent to each other, a movable contact formed at a predetermined position on the bottom surface of the key tops, and a pressing operation of the key tops. A movable portion including a first spring member provided in a direction adjacent to the key top portion and a second spring member provided in a side opposite to the direction adjacent to the key top portion; and a bottom surface of the key top. And a fixed portion having a fixed contact disposed at a position corresponding to the movable contact, wherein a spring constant of the first spring member is larger than a spring constant of the second spring member. Things.

Further, the first spring member and the second spring member are formed of an elastic member, and a sectional shape of the first spring member is larger than a sectional shape of the second spring member. Things.

Further, the first spring member and the second spring member are formed integrally with the same material as the key top portion.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a conventional example, and FIGS.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view when the press-type switch structure of the present invention is applied to the function key switch portion shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line AA of FIG.
It is a line sectional view. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation when a key switch, which is a movable portion of the present invention, is pressed by a finger.

In this embodiment, a push-type switch structure according to the present invention is applied to the conventional key switch 100 shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. The configuration is the same as the conventional example, and the description is omitted. Further, similarly to the conventional key switch 100, the distance between the key switches 10 of the present embodiment is as short as possible, and a pair of key switches 10 are arranged adjacently at the center, and separate key switches are provided on both sides of the key switch 10. Are arranged. Hereinafter, the push-type switch structure of the present invention will be described mainly with respect to a pair of key switches 10 at the center.

As shown in FIG. 1, a circuit board 30, which is a fixing portion similar to the conventional example, is provided in a frame 20.
On the surface 30a of the circuit board 30, a pattern contact 31, which is a fixed contact, is formed. The key switch 10 which is a movable part includes a key top part 16 and a key top part bottom surface 1.
Skirt-shaped second spring member 12 for holding the peripheral edge on the 6a side
And the first spring member 11 arranged substantially perpendicular to the circuit board 30. The second spring member 12 is configured to be further connected to the sheet-like member 14. The first spring member 11 is formed at a position of the pair of adjacent key switches 10 close to the counterpart key switch 10,
The second spring member 12 is formed at a position far from the key switch 10 of the other party.

The key top portion 16 and the first spring member 1
The first and second spring members 12 are integrally formed of the same material. As the material, an elastic member such as rubber is suitable. The conductive contact portion 13 which is a movable contact corresponding to the pattern contact 31 is directly formed on the bottom surface 16a of the key top portion 16 by printing, and the function of the key switch 10 is provided on the upper surface 16b of the key top portion 16. Is formed on the information display unit 15. In addition, the conductive contact portion 13
It is formed at a position far from the key switch 10 of the other party.

The sectional shape of the first spring member 11 and the second spring member 12 is, as shown in FIG.
Is formed to be larger than the cross-sectional width of the second spring member 12. Therefore, the spring constant of the first spring member 11 is larger than the spring constant of the second spring member, and the first spring member 11 is less likely to deform than the second spring member 12. With such a characteristic structure, even if a finger pressing one of the pair of adjacent key switches 10 comes into contact with the other key switch 10, the key switch 10 does not rotate and the conductive contact portion 13 contacts the pattern contact 31. There is no contact, so that erroneous input can be prevented.

When the key switch 10 is assembled, since the key switch 10 is formed as an integral member, after the key switch 10 is installed on the upper surface of the circuit board 30,
The assembly is easily completed simply by putting the frame 20 on the sheet-like member 14. The operation of the key switch 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

P1 in FIG. 3 represents a pressing force generated when a finger pressing one of the pair of adjacent key switches 10 contacts the other key switch 10, and P2 presses one of the key switches 10. This represents a pressing force generated near the center of the key switch at times. For convenience of explanation, the right key switch 10 is on the right side and the left key switch 10 is on the left side of the partition 40 of the pair of adjacent key switches 10 shown in FIG.

When the finger pressing the left key switch 10 contacts the right key switch 10 by mistake, the pressing force P1 shown in FIG. However, the position where the pressing force P1 acts is the right key switch 10
Is located very close to the left key switch 10 side.
This is because the left key switch 10 is pressed for the purpose of pressing the left key switch 10. Therefore, even if a finger contacts the right key switch 10 by mistake, the part touched by the finger is, of course, the left key switch of the right key switch 10. It is a place close to the 10 side. As a result, the right key switch 10 erroneously pressed is the first spring member 11 which is a characteristic structure of the present invention.
Is larger than the cross-sectional width of the second spring member 12, so that no rotational movement occurs. Therefore, the conductive contact portion 13 of the right key switch 10 is
Since no contact is made, incorrect input can be prevented.

When the right key switch 10 is pressed for the purpose of pressing the right key switch 10, the pressing force P2 acts on the right key switch 10, and the action of the pressing force P2 at that time is performed. The right key switch 10
Near the center of. As a result, since the sectional width of the second spring member 12 is smaller than the sectional width of the first spring member 11, the first spring member 11 has a higher spring constant than the second spring member 12, and the right key The switch 10 includes the first spring member 1
Rotational movement is caused clockwise with 1 as a fulcrum, and the conductive contact portion 13 and the pattern contact 31 come into contact with each other, so that input is performed normally. In the above embodiment, the case where the key top portion of the key switch and the first spring member and the second spring member are integrally formed of the same material has been described. The first spring member and the second spring member are not limited to those made of the same material.

[0020]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the structure is such that the spring constant of the first spring member at a position close to the adjacent key switch is larger than the spring constant of the second spring member. Even if a finger touches the end of the other key top portion when one of the pair of key top portions is pressed, the key top portion does not rotate and the contact portion does not contact the pattern contact . According to the configuration of the second aspect, since the first spring member and the second spring member are formed by the elastic members, the manufacturing cost can be reduced. Further, since the cross-sectional shape of the first spring member is larger than the cross-sectional shape of the second spring member, erroneous input can be prevented. According to the configuration of the third aspect, since the first spring member and the second spring member are integrally formed of the same material as the key top portion, the number of parts can be reduced and the assemblability can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a push-type switch structure of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing an operation when a key switch is pressed.

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view showing the external appearance of the mobile phone.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing a conventional key switch portion.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 5;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cellular phone 10, 100 Key switch 11 1st spring member 12 2nd spring member 13 Conductive contact part 14, 150 Sheet-shaped member 15, 140 Information display part 16, 110 Key top part 16a, 110a Key top part bottom surface 16b, 110b Key top part upper surface 20 Frame 30 Circuit board 30a Circuit board surface 31 Pattern contact 40 Partition part 111 Upper part 112 Lower part 120 Rubber part 130 Projection part 200 Antenna 300 Receiver part 400 Liquid crystal display part 500 Dial key 600 Transmission part 700 Housing

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pair of adjacent key tops (16), a movable contact (13) formed at a predetermined position on the bottom surface of the key tops (16), and the key tops (16). ), The first spring member (1) provided in the direction adjacent to the key top portion (16) to support the pressing operation of the key top portion (16).
1) and a movable part (10) composed of a second spring member (12) provided on the opposite side of the key top part (16) in the direction opposite to the key top part (16), and a bottom side of the key top part (16) And a fixed portion (30) having a fixed contact (31) at a position corresponding to the movable contact (13), wherein a spring constant of the first spring member (11) is a second spring. A push-type switch structure characterized by having a spring constant greater than that of the member (12). 2. The first spring member (11) and the second spring member (12) are formed of an elastic member, and the cross-sectional shape of the first spring member (11) is the second spring member (12). 2. The push-type switch structure according to claim 1, wherein the cross-sectional shape is larger than (1). 3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the first spring member and the second spring member are integrally formed of the same material as the key top portion. Push-type switch structure.