JP2001014062A - Small-sized electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a small-sized electronic equipment which can prevent deflection of a key board and enables the electronic equipment further to be miniaturized. SOLUTION: A print circuit substrate is disposed inside the equipment main body 10 of a personal computer and a hard disk drive 72 is provided on this print circuit substrate. A key board mounting part 90 is provided at an upper face part of the equipment main body. The bottom surface of the key board mounting part is formed partially by a reception plate 92 integrally formed with the equipment main body. The reception plate is located away from a bracket 84 of a hard disk drive and provided in the same plane as the bracket. A key board mounted on the key board mounting part is supporting on the reception plane and the bracket.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a small electronic device such as a portable personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, portable small computers called book-type personal computers or so-called mobile computers have become widespread.
In this type of computer, miniaturization of the device main body is promoted in order to enhance portability, and at the same time, further improvement in performance and multifunctionality are required.

[0003] Such a portable computer generally includes a flat device body having a substantially rectangular shape and a display unit rotatably provided on the device body. A printed circuit board on which a large number of electronic components are mounted, a hard disk drive as an information storage device, and the like are housed in the device body. The hard disk drive is fitted with a metal bracket to cover its outer surface. A keyboard as an input device is provided on the upper surface of the device main body.

[0004] The keyboard receives a pressing force inward of the main body of the device by performing a key input operation. And
If the pressing force is large, the keyboard may bend inside the device main body and abut on electronic components and the like in the device main body, which may damage these electronic components. In order to prevent such damage to the electronic components, a receiving plate is provided below the keyboard to prevent the keyboard from being bent by receiving the pressing force acting on the keyboard.

[0005] The receiving plate is formed integrally with the main body of the apparatus using, for example, a synthetic resin, and is disposed so as to overlap a printed circuit board, a bracket of a hard disk drive, or the like. Then, the keyboard is placed on the receiving plate.

[0006]

However, as described above, when the keyboard receiving plate is placed on the printed circuit board, the bracket of the hard disk drive, or the like, the thickness of the device body is reduced by the thickness of the receiving plate. This is an obstacle to miniaturization of portable computers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a small electronic device capable of preventing a keyboard from being bent and further reducing the size of the keyboard.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a small-sized electronic device according to the present invention has a substantially rectangular box shape having a top wall provided with a keyboard mounting portion and a bottom wall opposed to the top wall. A device main body, a keyboard provided in the keyboard mounting portion, a printed circuit board provided in the device main body facing the bottom wall, and provided on the printed circuit board in the device main body, A magnetic disk device located between the circuit board and the keyboard, and a bracket attached to the magnetic disk device and covering at least a part of the magnetic disk device, and a bracket located between the magnetic disk device and the keyboard; An upper surface wall of the device main body, which is open to the keyboard mounting portion and is opposed to the bracket; A receiving plate, which is arranged offset from the bracket and is located in the same plane as the bracket and forms a bottom surface of the keyboard mounting portion.The keyboard provided in the keyboard mounting portion includes the receiving plate and the bracket. It is characterized by being supported above.

According to the small electronic device configured as described above, the receiving plate provided on the upper surface wall of the device main body is positioned off the bracket without overlapping with the bracket of the magnetic disk drive, and at the same time, the receiving plate is positioned on the upper surface of the device. They are provided in the same plane. Further, since the bottom surface of the keyboard mounting portion is constituted by the receiving plate and the bracket and the keyboard is supported, even when a pressing force is applied to the keyboard in accordance with a key input operation, the pressing force is applied by the receiving plate and the bracket. As a result, the keyboard can be prevented from bending.

Further, since the receiving plate is provided off the bracket without overlapping with the bracket of the magnetic disk drive, the device can be compared with the conventional case where the receiving plate and the bracket are overlapped and arranged. The body can be made thin.

Further, according to the small electronic device of the present invention, the bracket is formed by bending a metal plate, and the keyboard is provided on one surface of a substrate on which a number of keys are arranged, and on the other surface of the substrate. And a shield layer in contact with the bracket. Therefore, the bracket can function as a shield plate by contacting the shield layer of the keyboard.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a portable personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the personal computer includes a flat rectangular box-shaped device body 10 and a flat rectangular display unit 12. The device main body 10 includes a rectangular box-shaped lower case 14 with an open upper surface, and a cover 16 attached to the lower case so as to cover the upper surface opening of the lower case and forming an upper wall.

The device body 10 has a keyboard 20 exposed on the upper surface of the cover 16, and a card slot 22 in which a PC card can be inserted. A power connector 23 is provided. On the other side of the device body 10, a telephone line connection jack 24, a remote controller connection terminal 2
5, a smart media insertion port 26 and the like are provided.

A battery 28 is provided at the front end of the main body 10.
Is detachably attached. Further, a shutter button 30 of a camera, which will be described later, is provided at the rear end of the upper surface of the cover 16. An infrared port 31, a USB terminal 32, a microphone input terminal 33, a headphone connection terminal 34, a plurality of exhaust holes 36, an external display output terminal 37, and the like are provided on the outer surface of the rear wall of the device body 10.

The display unit 12 has a pair of legs 38 projecting from both ends of a lower end thereof, and these legs are connected to a pair of hinges 4 provided at the rear end of the cover 16.
It is rotatably supported by 0. Hinge part 40
Has a hinge axis (not shown) extending substantially parallel to the upper surface of the cover 16 and defines the rotation center axis of the display unit 12. Thereby, the display unit 1
2 is a pivotable position in FIG. 1 that exposes the keyboard 20 and a closed position in FIG. 2 that covers the keyboard 20 and forms a single box with the device body 10.
Mounted on top. The outer surface of each hinge portion 40 is covered by a separate decorative plate.

On the inner surface of the display unit 12, an opening 44 exposing a liquid crystal display panel 42, a power switch 4
5, a rib point 46, a display section 48 composed of LEDs, and the like are provided. A pair of click switches 50 are provided on the outer surface of the display unit 12 so as to face the rib points 46.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the personal computer is provided with a camera 52 which is detachably attached to the rear end of the apparatus main body 10. This camera 5
2 is between the pair of hinge portions 40, that is, the device body 10
Is provided at the center of the rear end.

The camera 52 has a camera body 54 and a base 56 supporting the camera body. The camera body 54 houses a solid-state imaging device (CCD) (not shown) and has a lens 57 that can be adjusted in focus, and is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape. And lens 5
Numeral 7 is provided such that its incident surface is exposed on the outer peripheral surface of the camera body 54.

The base portion 56 has a pair of support portions 58 located at both ends in the axial direction of the camera main body 54. The camera main body is substantially three-axis around the center axis by these support portions.
It is rotatably supported by 60 degrees. A pair of support portions 58
Is formed in a cylindrical shape having the same diameter as the camera body 54, and is provided continuously with the camera body. Also, one of the support portions 5
A shutter button 60 on the camera side is provided on the end surface of the shutter 8.

The base portion 56 is provided with a connector (not shown) electrically connected to the camera body 54 and a hook (not shown) which can reciprocate in a direction parallel to the central axis of the camera body 54. In addition, the outer wall 56 of the base portion 56
An operation lever 65 for releasing the hook is provided at b, and a guide groove 66 for guiding the attachment and detachment of the camera 52 is formed on the side wall.

The camera 52 having the above-mentioned structure is detachably mounted on a camera mounting portion 68 formed of a recess formed at the center of the rear end of the device body 10. Camera mounting part 6
8, the camera 52 is mechanically held in the camera mounting portion by engaging the hook with the device main body 10, and the connector is connected to a connector (not shown) on the device main body side, and the camera 52 is electrically connected to the device main body 10. Connected to.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG.
When the camera body 54 is mounted on the camera mounting section 68, the camera body 54 and the pair of support sections 58 formed in a cylindrical shape are provided.
Are continuously arranged on the pair of hinge portions 40 of the device body 10. The rear wall 56b of the base 56 is
It is located continuously with the rear surface of the device main body 10 and forms a part of the rear surface of the device main body. Further, the camera body 54 has a center axis located substantially coaxially with the hinge axis of the hinge portion 40, that is, the rotation center axis of the display unit 12, and is rotatable around this center axis.

Then, by rotating the camera body 54 to adjust the direction of the lens 57, an arbitrary image can be obtained by using the camera 52 regardless of whether the display unit 12 is open or closed. You can shoot. The image captured by the camera 52 can be displayed on the display unit 12 as a moving image or a still image, and can be captured as a snap image into the memory in the device main body 10 by pressing the shutter button 30 on the main body.

When the camera 52 is detached from the apparatus main body 10, the entire camera 52 can be detached by pulling the camera 52 rearward from the camera mounting portion 68 in a state where the hook is released by operating the operation lever 65.

As shown in FIG. 3 to FIG.
0, a substantially rectangular main printed circuit board 70 is provided in the lower case 14, and faces substantially the entire surface of the rectangular case bottom wall 14a. On the upper surface of the main printed circuit board 70, a hard disk drive 72 as a magnetic disk device, a card holder 74 for holding a PC card inserted from the card slot 22, a connector 75 connected to the inserted PC card, a sub print circuit Substrate 7
6, the connector 77 to which the connector of the camera 52 is connected,
DC power connector 23, connection jack 24, remote controller connection terminal 25, infrared port 3
1, a USB terminal 32, a microphone input terminal 33, a headphone connection terminal 34, an external display output terminal 37, and other electronic components are provided. On the lower surface side of the main printed circuit board 70, a semiconductor package 78 constituting a main processor and other many electronic components are mounted.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the hard disk drive 72 includes a flat rectangular box-shaped housing 80, and the lower surface of the housing is substantially parallel to the upper surface of the main printed circuit board 70. And provided on the main printed circuit board. The hard disk drive 72 is electrically connected to the main printed circuit board by fitting a connector 81 located on the front end side of the housing 80 into a connector 82 provided on the main printed circuit board 70. I have.

The hard disk drive 72 includes:
A bracket 84 formed by bending a metal plate is screwed with a plurality of screws. Then, the bracket 84
Is opposed to the upper surface of the housing 80 in parallel with a predetermined gap, and covers almost the entire upper surface of the housing except for a part on the connector 81 side.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the keyboard 20 includes a rectangular board 86 and a number of keys aligned on the board. A plurality of engagement projections 87 are provided on both long sides of the substrate 86. A shield layer 88 is formed on the back surface of the substrate 86.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1, 3 to 5, a keyboard mounting portion 90 formed of a rectangular recess corresponding to the keyboard 20 is formed on the upper surface of the cover 16 of the device main body 10. . Approximately half of the bottom surface of the keyboard mounting portion 90 is constituted by a flat receiving plate 92 formed integrally with the cover 16, and the other half is open. That is, the receiving plate 92 is provided in an area facing the card slot 22 in the keyboard mounting section 90, and the opening 93 is formed excluding the area facing the hard disk drive 72.

The keyboard 20 is mounted on the keyboard mounting portion 90 in a state where the engaging projections 87 are engaged with the plurality of engaging portions 94 formed on the cover 16, and is elongated at a predetermined position on the cover 16. It is held by fitting the decorative plate 96.

3 and 5, when the cover 16 is fitted to the lower case 14, the bracket 84 of the hard disk drive 72
The upper surface of the bracket 84 and the upper surface of the receiving plate 92 are located in the same plane in the bottom opening 93 of the keyboard mounting portion 90. Therefore, the bracket 84 constitutes a part of the bottom surface of the keyboard mounting portion 90, and
Is mounted on the keyboard mounting portion 90 while being supported on the receiving plate 92 and the bracket 84.

According to the personal computer configured as described above, the receiving plate 92 formed integrally with the cover 16 of the device main body 10 is mounted on the hard disk drive 72.
Of the bracket 84 without being overlapped with the bracket 84, and at the same time, the upper surface of the receiving plate 92 is
4 are provided in the same plane as the upper surface. Since the bottom surface of the keyboard mounting portion 90 is constituted by the receiving plate 92 and the bracket 84 and the keyboard 20 is supported, even when a pressing force is applied to the keyboard 20 in response to a key input operation, the receiving plate 92 is provided. The keyboard 84 receives this pressing force and can prevent the keyboard from bending. As a result, undesired contact between the electronic component provided in the device body 10 and the keyboard 20 can be restricted, and damage to the electronic component can be prevented.

Since the receiving plate 92 is provided so as to be separated from the bracket without overlapping the bracket 84 of the hard disk drive 72, the receiving plate 92 is compared with a conventional case where the receiving plate and the bracket are overlapped. In addition, the thickness of the device body 10 can be reduced, and as a result, the size of the entire personal computer can be reduced.

Further, the bracket 84 made of a metal plate
Since it is in contact with and conductive to the shield layer 88 provided on the lower surface of the keyboard 20, it can function as a shield plate.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the receiving plate is formed integrally with the cover of the device main body, but a separate plate may be fixed to the cover. Further, the bracket and the receiving plate of the magnetic disk device may be provided on the same plane so as to be shifted from each other, and the arrangement of the bracket and the receiving plate in the apparatus main body can be variously changed as necessary.

[0037]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the keyboard is supported by the receiving plate and the bracket of the hard disk so that the keyboard can be prevented from bending, and the receiving plate and the bracket are provided in the same plane. This makes it possible to provide a small electronic device in which the device main body can be made thinner and further downsized.

[0038]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exemplary perspective view of a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary perspective view showing the personal computer from the back side in a state where a display unit is closed;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing a state where the keyboard of the personal computer is removed.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a state where a cover of the personal computer is removed.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing a hard disk drive and a bracket provided in the device main body of the personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Device main body 12 ... Disc play unit 14 ... Lower case 16 ... Cover 20 ... Keyboard 52 ... Camera 70 ... Main printed circuit board 72 ... Hard disk drive 80 ... Housing 84 ... Bracket 90 ... Keyboard mounting part 92 ... Receiving plate 93 ... Aperture

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kodaira Wada 1-3-3 Shinmachi, Ome-shi, Tokyo Toshiba Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takumi Komura 3-3-1 Shinmachi, Ome-shi, Tokyo 1 F-term (reference) in Toshiba Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. 5B020 BB10 CC12 DD51

Claims (4)

[Claims] A substantially rectangular box-shaped device main body having an upper wall provided with a keyboard mounting portion and a bottom wall opposed to the upper surface wall; a keyboard provided in the keyboard mounting portion; A printed circuit board provided to face the bottom wall and provided on the printed circuit board in the device body;
A magnetic disk drive positioned between the printed circuit board and the keyboard; and a bracket mounted on the magnetic disk drive, covering at least a portion of the magnetic disk drive, and positioned between the magnetic disk drive and the keyboard. An upper surface wall of the device main body is open to the keyboard mounting portion and an opening facing the bracket,
A receiving plate, which is displaced from the bracket and is located in the same plane as the bracket and forms a bottom surface of the keyboard mounting portion.The keyboard provided on the keyboard mounting portion includes the receiving plate and A small electronic device supported on a bracket. 2. The bracket is formed by bending a metal plate. The keyboard is provided on a substrate having a large number of keys arranged on one surface, and is provided on the other surface of the substrate and contacts the bracket. The small electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising: a shielding layer. 3. The small electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the receiving plate is formed integrally with an upper wall of the device main body. 4. The magnetic disk drive has a flat rectangular box-shaped housing, and one surface of the housing is arranged so as to face substantially parallel to the printed circuit board. The small electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the small electronic device faces the other surface of the body substantially in parallel with a predetermined gap.