JP2006128054A - Lighting structure of operating panel and printed-circuit board as its component - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that in an electric operating panel requiring night-time lighting, conventionally light-emitting diodes for lighting are provided independently for all the plurality of operating buttons or illuminating light is distributed to a plurality of buttons from a small number of light sources using a light guide component made by acrylic material, and in that case, when the number of buttons becomes large, the number of light-emitting diodes for lighting increases or the light guide body component of a complicated shape is required resulting in cost increase. <P>SOLUTION: A printed-circuit board mounted with a switch which operates by pushing a button is formed by a light-transmitting material, and by guiding the irradiation light of a light-emitting diode for light source into the printed-circuit board, light for necessary number of locations is irradiated from the substrate surface at the location corresponding to the button location, thereby, night-time lighting of the operating button is performed without using a light guide component and with a small number of light-emitting diodes. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a known electric operation panel comprising a panel, an operation switch disposed on the panel surface, and a known printed wiring board inside the panel, wherein the operation switch portion is provided with night illumination. Relates to an operation panel.

Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1, this type of technology is electrically connected to the front end of a panel 2, a button 3 movably disposed from the inside of the panel 2, and a push rod 31 extending downward from the button 3. A switch 102 for generating an ON / OFF signal is formed. The switch 102 is fixed to the surface of a known copper-clad laminated wiring board (hereinafter referred to as a printed wiring board) by soldering or the like.

When the button 3 is pressed from the front side of the panel 2, the electric circuit of the switch 102 is activated.

Next, it is known that this type of operation panel generally has a plurality of / for example, 20/20 operation buttons in an audio device for automobiles.

Such an operation button needs to indicate to the operator what the operation button indicates in terms of function, so that an arbitrary function display character can be formed and displayed on the surface of the button or in the vicinity thereof. is necessary.

Further, since the display characters are required to be identifiable even in the dark such as at night, a means for illuminating those identification characters is required.

Therefore, in the prior art, as shown at 101 in FIG. 1, a light emitting diode for illumination is arranged on the back of the button 3 and the display characters drawn on the surface of the button 3 are made a semi-transparent structure, so that at night time. The light emitting diode 101 is turned on, and the display character is illuminated from the front side of the panel 2 by the irradiation light 101a of the light emitting diode 101 so as to make it readable.

By the way, the printed wiring board 102 is configured to transmit the electrical signal of the switch 102 to an external device (not shown), but the electronic circuit parts such as a microcontroller, the switch 102, the light emitting diode 101, and the like are well-known soldered. It is installed for the purpose of mounting.

In the above background art, for example, the number of operation buttons 3 in an automobile instrument panel may be 20 or more, so it can be seen that the required number of light emitting diodes 101 is easily 20 or more. In addition, due to recent interior design requirements for automobiles, there are various demands for night illumination colors, and there are many demands for blue or white illumination as an example.

However, it is known that light emitting diodes having this kind of luminescent color are generally expensive, resulting in a problem that the illumination cost increases and the product price becomes expensive.

Therefore, as another background art, as shown in FIG. 2, there is a method of simultaneously illuminating a plurality of buttons with one light emitting diode by using a small number of light emitting diodes and a known light guide 4 made of a transparent resin molded product. It may be adopted.

However, even in this case, it is obvious that the cost of the light guide 4 having a complicated shape cannot be ignored and that the overall dimension of the panel in the thickness direction increases.
JP2002-110003 SWITCH DEVICE

The problem of the illumination structure of the operation panel according to the present invention is that it is possible to illuminate the entire operation buttons using a small number of light sources without using the light guide in the illumination structure for illuminating the operation buttons. It is a thing.

Therefore, the illumination structure of the operation panel of the present invention distributes illumination light from a single light source to a plurality of operation buttons in addition to the function of distributing a known electrical signal to a printed wiring board for forming an electronic circuit. By providing a light distribution function, it is possible to simultaneously illuminate a plurality of buttons from a small number of light sources without using the light guide.

The illumination structure of the operation panel according to the present invention makes it possible to distribute light emitted from a small number of light sources to an arbitrary place corresponding to the position of the operation button using a printed wiring board having a light distribution function. The night illumination of the operation panel having a large number of buttons can be realized with a small light source and without using an additional member such as a light guide.

However, it has become possible to provide an operation panel using an expensive light emitting diode or the like requiring an increase in the number of buttons or a special illumination color at a low price.

Hereinafter, a configuration for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the reference numerals in the drawings.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 2 denotes a panel made of a resin molding material, and a button 3 is inserted in an arbitrary position of the panel 2 so as to be able to move forward from above. Further, a switch 102 which is an electrical connector part such as a known tact switch is disposed at the tip of a push rod 31 extending downward from the button 3.

Next, the button 3 is made of a light-transmitting resin molding material such as milky white, and a design color that does not transmit light is applied to the surface of the button 3.

Further, since a function display character (not shown) such as “POWER” is formed on the design color surface by a manufacturing method such as laser cutting, only the display character portion transmits illumination light from the back surface of the button 3. It has become.

The printed wiring board 1 is a known copper-clad laminate as shown in FIG. 4 and is a double-sided wiring board formed of a resist layer, a copper foil layer, a base material, a copper foil layer, and a resist layer in order from the surface.

By the way, a glass fiber reinforced epoxy material or composite material, a phenol resin, or the like is generally used as a substrate of a printed wiring board.

On the other hand, in the printed wiring board 1 of the present invention, strength, heat resistance, and thermal expansion coefficient are satisfied so as to satisfy physical properties as a desired printed wiring board based on a transparent resin found in a high heat-resistant acrylic resin material or polycarbonate. The material which adjusted etc. is adopted.

Thus, the substrate of the printed wiring board of the present invention is characterized in that the light transmittance inside thereof is kept extremely high.

Next, in FIG. 3, the light emitting diode 101 for night illumination is mounted by soldering with its light emitting surface facing the inside of the printed wiring board 1.

The switch 102 and the electronic circuit component 103 for processing the electrical signal of the switch 102 and sending it to the outside are mounted on the surface of the printed wiring board 1 by a known solder mounting technique.

Further, a conical depression having a cross-sectional angle of about 90 degrees passing through the resist layer and the copper foil layer at a portion facing the light emitting diode 101 of the printed wiring board 1 and a portion facing the button 3. 104, 105, etc. are formed.

Hereinafter, the operation of the illumination structure of the operation panel of the present invention based on the above configuration will be described.

The light emitting diode 101 of the printed wiring board 1 becomes a desired lighting state by the operation of the electronic circuit component.
Irradiation light 101a of the light emitting diode is formed by the depression 104 penetrating through the resist layer and the copper foil layer, and the depression 104 has a cross-sectional angle of about 90 degrees. 101b is diffused horizontally and over the entire surface of the substrate of the wiring board 1.

Although a part of the irradiation light 101b propagated in this way is irregularly reflected inside the base material, most of the surface of the base material is covered with the copper foil. Propagates inside the material.

Next, since the propagating light 101b reaches the back of the depression 105, the traveling direction thereof is changed by approximately 90 degrees to become irradiation light 101c irradiated upward from the surface of the depression 105 toward the vertical direction of the printed wiring board 1. .

In this way, the irradiation light 101c irradiates the back surface of the button 3, so that the function display character of the button 3 is illuminated brightly when viewed from the upper surface of the panel 2.

The light emitting diode as the light source disclosed in the present embodiment may be other light emitting components such as a light bulb. Further, it is obvious that the light-transmitting printed wiring board substrate is not limited to acrylic / polycarbonate but may be a material having the same function, such as glass.

As described above, the illumination structure of the operation panel according to the present invention can provide an operation panel for a vehicle and a switch illumination structure for a mobile phone at a low cost. It is not limited to telephones, but can also be applied to operation panels for household electric appliances, and can be applied to simple display panels that do not have a switch. This is an analogy range.

Example 1 of the prior art Example 2 of the prior art Examples of the present invention Detailed printed wiring board structure of the present invention

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printed wiring board 2 Panel 3 Button 4 Light guide 31 Push rod 101 Light emitting diode 102 Switch 103 Electronic components 104-105 Indentation 101a-101c Irradiation light

Claims (2)

An electric operation panel comprising a panel, an operation switch arranged on the panel surface, and a printed wiring board inside the panel, and particularly an operation requiring night illumination at or near the operation switch portion An illumination structure for an operation panel, characterized in that a light guide function is provided on a substrate of the printed wiring board. A printed wiring board, wherein a pattern for electric wiring is formed on a base material of a light transmissive material, which is suitable for application to the illumination structure of the operation panel.

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