JP2001045123A - Foldable mobile communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a foldable mobile communication terminal where the number of wires between an upper case and a lower case is decreased and the components are placed to make the thickness of the upper case thin. SOLUTION: A control section (microcomputer) (not shown), a display section (liquid crystal display device) 14 and an RF communication section (not shown) whose function block are mounted on a hard board are placed on an upper case 11, and a key operation section 18, an I/O connector section 20, a vibrator and a battery whose function blocks are mounted on a key board (flexible board) are placed on a lower case 12. As a result, an antenna 13 is placed on the upper case 11 on which the RF communication section (not shown) is placed, and the lower case 12 contains the key operation section 18, the I/O connector section 20, the vibrator and the battery. Thus, the function blocks are placed and contained on the upper case 11 and lower case 12 closely to each other by each function so as to attain weight reduction, miniaturization and thin profile further more.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal device in which an upper case and a lower case are configured to be foldable via a hinge. The components are arranged such that the thickness is reduced.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, as portable communication terminals which can be folded via a hinge, those shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are known.

FIG. 5 shows a first conventional example. FIG. 5 (a) is a plan view excluding a case portion in an opened state, in which an upper portion is on an upper case side and a lower portion is on a lower case side. (B) shows a side view excluding the case portion.

[0005] An antenna 41 and a liquid crystal display 42 are provided on the upper case side in FIG. I have. In addition, a switch 47 for performing key operations is provided on the lower case side of FIG. 5, and a function block corresponding to the switch and a wireless communication (R) are also provided.
RX-type printed circuit board equipped with a functional block that controls X)
48 and a battery 46 are provided. A coaxial cable 44 and a flexible connector 45 are provided to connect the upper and lower functional blocks.

FIG. 6 shows a second conventional example. In FIG. 6, (a) is a plan view excluding a case part in an open state, and is disposed at a lower part at an upper part in a closed state. Key operation switch that allows key operation of the selected key operation unit
56 is arranged on the key board 57.

In the lower part of FIG. 6, a switch 56 for key operation is arranged on a key board 57 to constitute a flip portion.
The antenna 51, LCD 52 and battery
A main printed circuit board 53 is provided with a corresponding functional block and a functional block for radio communication (RX) and logical control. Further, a flexible connector 55 for electrically connecting the upper part and the lower part is provided.

[0007]

In a portable communication terminal device, the weight, size, and thickness of the entire device are evaluated as important indicators of portability. Therefore, the portable communication terminal device must be reduced in weight as well as reduced in size. There is a request.

However, in the first conventional example, a conventional hard printed circuit board is used for both the upper and lower cases, and a conventional coaxial cable is used as a cable for connecting the upper and lower cases. Aside from miniaturization, the weight and thickness of the entire apparatus still remain as issues.

In the second conventional example, the upper and lower cases cannot be folded simply because they have a flip structure, and the weight balance is biased toward the upper side, so that the weight balance is poor. There was a problem that.

[0010] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention reduces the number of wires between an upper case and a lower case, and further comprises a foldable portable communication terminal in which constituent members are arranged so that the thickness of the upper case is reduced. It is intended to provide a device.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a control unit, a display unit, and an RF communication unit whose functional blocks are mounted on a hard board are arranged and accommodated in an upper case. The case has a function block in which an operation section mounted on a key board, an I / O connector section, a vibrator section, and a battery are arranged and accommodated. The number of wires connecting the upper and lower cases is reduced by laying them out close to each function, and the upper case is mounted by mounting only those corresponding to the control unit, display unit and RF communication unit on the hard board of the upper case. Can be further reduced in weight and thickness.

The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, the key substrate disposed and accommodated in the lower case is a flexible substrate, and the flexible substrate is also used as an upper and lower connection substrate for connecting the upper case and the lower case, wherein the flexible substrate is By adopting it, the weight and thickness can be further reduced.

[0013] The invention described in claim 3 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, a battery terminal, a vibrator, a microphone, a buzzer, a key diaphragm, and a key LED are all mounted on the same surface on the flexible substrate and then folded or folded back and housed in a lower case. Further, by simplifying the mounting on the flexible board and devising the accommodation in the lower case, it is possible to further reduce the weight and thickness.

The invention described in claim 4 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, the vicinity of a portion where the upper case and the lower case are mechanically connected is characterized by being narrowed down from other portions, and the grip performance when opened is improved. By narrowing down, the overall weight can be reduced.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an open state of the foldable portable communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an open state of the foldable portable communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a sectional side view showing a closed state of the foldable portable communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing an upper case and a lower case. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional plan view illustrating a schematic configuration of a flexible board on which functional blocks of constituent members arranged in the lower case and electrical connection of the flexible board are mounted.

The foldable portable communication terminal device of the present invention can fold the upper case 11 and the lower case 12 via the hinge portion 16 as shown in FIGS. Then, in the foldable portable communication terminal device of the present invention, the function blocks are brought close to each other for each function so that the upper case 11
And placed in the lower case 12.

That is, the upper case 11 has a control unit (microcomputer) (not shown) whose functional blocks are mounted on a hard board 27, a display unit (liquid crystal display) 14, and an RF communication unit (not shown). The lower case 12 has a function block mounted on a key board (flexible board 28), a key operation section 18, an I / O connector section 20, a vibrator 32, and a battery.
29 are accommodated.

As a result, the antenna 13 is disposed on the upper case 11 having the RF communication unit (not shown), and the key operation unit 18, the I / O connector unit 20, and the vibrator are provided on the lower case 12.
32 and the battery 29 are arranged and accommodated.
The antenna 41 is arranged in the upper case, and the connection path for power supply and signal transmission to the antenna 41 is made to pass through the logical system printed circuit board 43 and the coaxial cable 44, while the lower case is In addition, it is not necessary to mount the battery 46 and the functional block of the RF communication unit on the RX printed circuit board 48 which is a hard board.

The lower case 12 includes a vibrator 32 and an I / O
Since the O connector portion 20 is arranged and accommodated, the vibrator is attached to the upper case as seen in the second conventional example.
(Not shown) or an I / O connector (not shown), the weight balance is better, as a result, the power of the vibrator is reduced, and the weight and thickness can be reduced.

Further, in the foldable portable communication terminal device of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, the key substrate accommodated in the lower case 12 is a flexible substrate 28. And
The flexible substrate 28 is also used as an upper and lower connection substrate for connecting the upper case 11 and the lower case 12. As described above, since the flexible substrate 28 is employed in the present invention, in the first conventional example shown in FIG.
Since it is not used, it is possible to further reduce the weight and thickness.

Further, on the flexible board 28 of the present invention, a buzzer 34 as a constituent member disposed and housed in the lower case, a battery terminal
33, a vibrator 32, a microphone 19, a key diaphragm, and a key display LED (not shown) are all surface-mounted on the same surface, and then folded or folded back and accommodated in a lower case. That is, as shown in FIG.
A certain mounting component is folded back by the folding portion 31 and accommodated in the lower case, which simplifies mounting on the flexible board 28 and devises accommodation in the lower case 12 to reduce the weight. And a reduction in thickness can be achieved.

Further, in the foldable portable communication terminal device of the present invention, a narrowing portion 17 is provided in the upper case 11 and the lower case 12 around the hinge portion 16. In this way, when the user opens and uses the mobile communication terminal device, the narrowing unit
Since the vicinity of the portion 17 is gripped, if the portion is narrowed down, the grip property is good. Further, since the narrowed portion 17 is formed, the case member is cut correspondingly, and the total weight can be reduced.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the menu selection section
15 is provided on the upper part of the lower case 12, but this is
It may be provided near the lower part of the display unit 11. In this case, the operability of the navigation operation can be improved because the display unit 14 is very close to the display unit 14.

[0025]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the control unit, the display unit, and the RF communication unit whose functional blocks are mounted on a hard board are arranged and housed in the upper case. The lower case has a function block in which an operation section, an I / O connector section, a vibrator section, and a battery are mounted and mounted on a key board. The number of wires connecting the upper and lower cases should be reduced by laying out the blocks close to each function, and only those corresponding to the control unit, display unit and RF communication unit should be mounted on the hard board of the upper case Thereby, there is an advantage that the weight and thickness of the upper case can be further reduced.

The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, the key substrate disposed and accommodated in the lower case is a flexible substrate, and the flexible substrate is also used as an upper and lower connection substrate for connecting the upper case and the lower case, wherein the flexible substrate is Adopting this method has the advantage that the weight and thickness can be further reduced.

[0027] The invention described in claim 3 is the same as in claim 1.
In the invention described in the above, a battery terminal, a vibrator, a microphone, a buzzer, a key diaphragm, and a key LED are all mounted on the same surface on the flexible substrate and then folded or folded back and housed in a lower case. Further, there is an advantage that the weight and thickness can be further reduced by simplifying the mounting on the flexible board and devising the accommodation in the lower case.

The invention described in claim 4 is the first invention.
In the invention described, the vicinity of a portion where the upper case and the lower case are mechanically connected is characterized by being narrowed down from other portions, and the grip characteristics when opened are improved. By narrowing down, there is an advantage that the overall weight can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an open state of a foldable portable communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view showing an open state of the foldable portable communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional side view showing a closed state of the foldable portable communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional plan view illustrating a schematic configuration of a flexible board on which functional blocks of constituent members arranged in the lower case and electrical connection between the upper case and the lower case are mounted.

FIG. 5 is an internal configuration diagram showing a first conventional example of a portable communication terminal device that can be folded via a hinge,

FIG. 6 is an internal configuration diagram showing a second conventional example of a portable communication terminal device that can be folded via a hinge.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Upper case 12 Lower case 13 Antenna 14 Display section (LCD display) 15 Menu selection section 16 Hinge section 17 Refinement section 18 Key operation section 19 Microphone 20 I / O connector section 21 Speaker 27 Hard board 28 Flexible board 29 Battery 31 Fold back Unit 32 Vibrator 33 Battery terminal 34 Buzzer 41, 51 Antenna 42, 52 Liquid crystal display 43 Logic (LOGIC) printed circuit board 44 Coaxial cable 45, 55 Flexible connector 46, 53 Battery 47, 56 Switch 48 RX system printed circuit board 54 Main print Board (RX / LOGIC) 57 key board

Claims (4)

[Claims] An upper case accommodates a control unit, a display unit, and an RF communication unit whose functional blocks are mounted on a hard board, and an operating unit whose functional blocks are mounted on a key board. A foldable portable communication terminal device in which an I / O connector unit, a vibrator unit, and a battery are arranged and housed. 2. The foldable board according to claim 1, wherein the key board disposed and accommodated in the lower case is a flexible board, and the flexible board is also used as an upper and lower connection board for connecting the upper case and the lower case. Mobile communication terminal device. 3. A battery according to claim 1, wherein a battery terminal, a vibrator, a microphone, a buzzer, a key diaphragm, and a key LED are all mounted on the same surface and then folded or folded back and housed in a lower case. A foldable portable communication terminal device according to claim 1. 4. The foldable portable communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein a portion near a portion where the upper case and the lower case are mechanically connected is narrowed down from another portion.