JP2877100B2 - Keyboard input device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a portable information processing device, and more particularly to a keyboard input device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a keyboard input device for an information processing device is equipped with various electronic components, which generate heat during operation. For this reason, various cooling means have conventionally been employed from the standpoint of maintaining the performance.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-318124 adopts a configuration in which heating elements are centrally mounted at one location and connected to a heat sink, and an exhaust port is provided in a cover case located above the heating element. Also, JP-A-6-3181
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 24, a configuration is adopted in which a circuit board provided with a heating element is mounted on a case via a heat sink. Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-73597, a hollow metal base plate is provided at the lower end of the cover case to prevent concentration of heat generation areas, and countless grooves are provided on both sides thereof to disperse the temperature. In this case, the durability of the electronic component is increased.

On the other hand, a conventional keyboard for a portable information processing device is generally known in which a metal plate is attached to the lower surface side of a keyboard body as shown in FIGS. 3 to 4, for example. I have. This is because the number of electronic components increases with the performance improvement of the portable information processing device.
This is for the purpose of increasing the strength for holding the same, and also for making the heat generation of the electronic component uniform and avoiding local concentration. 3 and 4, reference numeral 51 denotes a display unit, reference numeral 52 denotes an apparatus main body of the portable information processing apparatus, and reference numeral 53 denotes a keyboard main body.

[0005]

However, in the conventional examples disclosed in the above publications, the keyboard is enlarged (especially in thickness) even if it is possible to improve the predetermined heat radiation effect. Becomes thicker). In recent years, from the standpoint of improving portability, it is required that the keyboard be formed even thinner, and as a result, the thickness of the metal plate tends to be thin. In this case, the thinner the metal plate, the worse the heat diffusing power becomes,
The heat generated by the electronic component described above is concentrated on the electronic component due to a decrease in the heat diffusing power of the metal plate, and therefore, there is a disadvantage that the electronic component is easily deteriorated.

[0006]

An object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the prior art, to reduce the size of the keyboard body (in particular, to reduce the thickness), and to effectively concentrate heat on a specific portion of the keyboard body. It is an object to provide a keyboard input device that can be avoided.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a nail according to the first aspect includes a keyboard body having a plurality of through holes and a keyboard body having a plurality of through holes. A plurality of push-button-type input keys disposed in the through-hole, and a metal plate which is mounted in a state of being stacked or close to the entire area of the keyboard body without obstructing the operation of each of the input keys; A keyboard input device comprising a circuit board provided with a heating element such as one or more electronic components disposed on the lower surface side of the metal plate. Is provided with a heat dissipating member of a predetermined thickness made of a material having good thermal conductivity reaching the end of the heat dissipating member.

For this reason, in the invention according to claim 1,
The heat in the heat generating region is first transmitted to the metal plate on the mask side of the keyboard body. The heat transmitted to the metal plate is transmitted to the heat pipe and diffuses throughout the keyboard body. The heat transmitted to the entire keyboard body can be radiated to the outside in a large area, thereby increasing the heat radiation capability. In addition, since heat is easily diffused to the entire keyboard by the heat pipe, even if the metal plate mounted on the lower surface of the keyboard body is made thinner, the heat diffusion ability can be maintained without decreasing the same as when the metal plate is thicker. it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the keyboard input device of the first aspect, the heat dissipating member is
It is configured to be formed of a columnar member. Therefore, according to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to functioning similarly to the first aspect of the present invention, since the columnar member has a large heat capacity, unlike the pipe, the keyboard body is more uniformly dispersed and heat-transferred. be able to.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the keyboard input device of the first aspect, the heat dissipation member is
It is configured to be formed by a pipe-shaped member. Therefore, according to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to obtain a keyboard input device that functions similarly to the second aspect of the invention.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the keyboard input device according to the first, second or third aspect of the present invention, the heat dissipating member is provided along a longitudinal direction of the keyboard main body at a predetermined interval. And at least two devices. Therefore, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to functioning equivalently to the above-described first, second, or third aspect, the heat of the heat generating area can be more reliably dispersed to the entire keyboard body.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the keyboard input device according to the first, second, third, or fourth aspect, a heating element such as an electronic component mounted on a circuit board is provided. It is configured to contact the above-described metal plate via a heat conductor having a thickness. Therefore, in the invention according to claim 5, claims 1, 2, and
In addition to functioning equivalently to the invention described in 3 or 4, it is possible to quickly and reliably transfer the heat of the heat generating region on the circuit board to the metal plate side by the action of the heat conductor.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example in which the present invention is applied to a portable information processing apparatus. In this embodiment, while the conventional example described above transmits heat to the metal plate below the keyboard of the portable information processing device to radiate heat, the heat transmitted to this metal plate is more efficiently radiated. For this purpose, a heat pipe is attached to the metal plate, thereby preventing heat from being concentrated on a part of the metal plate and dispersing the heat to the entire keyboard.

First, in FIG. 1 and FIG.
Denotes a display unit constituted by a liquid crystal display, reference numeral 2 denotes a main body case of the portable information processing apparatus, and reference numeral 3 denotes a keyboard.

The main body case 2 includes an information input circuit and an information processing circuit which are arranged on the lower surface side of the keyboard 3 (the lower side in FIG. 1) and which incorporate a plurality of heating elements 4A such as electronic components. Circuit board 4 is provided. Since the circuit board 4 is provided with an information input circuit for converting the input information set by the keyboard 3 into a predetermined signal in order to reduce the size of the main body case 2, the circuit board 4 is close to the back side of the keyboard 3. Equipped.

As shown in FIG. 2, the keyboard 3 includes a keyboard body 11 having a plurality of through holes, a plurality of push-button input keys 12 provided in the through holes on the keyboard body 11, and A metal plate 13 is provided over the entire area of the keyboard main body 11 without hindering the operation of each of the input keys 12 and is provided in a state of being stacked or close to the metal plate 13.

The metal plate 13 has heat pipes 14 and 15 as heat transfer members made of a material having good thermal conductivity (such as metal) extending from one end to the other end of the keyboard body 11. Equipped. Further, in the present embodiment, the heat pipes 14 and 15 are provided on the display unit 1 side of the keyboard main body 11 and both ends on the front side thereof (almost parallel) along the display unit 1 described above.
It is mounted and fixedly mounted on the metal plate 13 so as to be wound around the metal plate 13 described above.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, between the above-described heating element (or heating area) 4A portion of the circuit board 4 and the metal plate 13, it is in contact with or close to the heating element 4A. A strip-shaped heat conductor 20 is interposed. As a result, the heat of the heating element area on the circuit board 4 is transferred to the heat conductor 2.
The heat is easily transmitted to the above-mentioned metal plate 13 through the metal plate 13. Then, the heat transmitted to the metal plate 13 is transported by the heat pipes 14 and 15 and is easily diffused throughout the metal plate 13, and is radiated to the outside over a large area of the keyboard 3.

Here, the heat pipes 14 and 15 are
Even if it is formed by a columnar member or by a pipe-shaped member,
Alternatively, it may be formed of a rectangular column or a relatively thick strip-shaped member. Further, in the present embodiment, the case where two heat pipes 14 and 15 are provided as described above is exemplified. However, one or three or more heat pipes may be provided. Also, if the equipment is connected to the above-described metal plate 13 of the keyboard body 11,
It does not necessarily have to be the end of the keyboard body 11.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. In FIG. 4, the heat generated from the heating element 4 </ b> A inside the main body is transmitted to the metal plate 4 via the heat conductor 20. Next, the heat transmitted to the metal plate 13 is
To the heat pipes 14 and 15 attached to the heat pipes. The heat transmitted to the heat pipes 14 and 15 is transmitted by the heat pipes 14 and 15 and
Is transmitted to the metal plate 13 again at the portion where the temperature is low.

Then, the entire surface of the metal plate 13 is heated substantially uniformly, so that heat is radiated from the metal plate 13 to the outside via the keyboard 3 above.
Since heat is distributed to the entire metal plate 13 by the heat pipe 5, heat can be radiated over a wide area, and the heat radiation efficiency is also increased.

[0022]

According to the present invention, the heat transmitted to the keyboard side is diffused to the entire keyboard by the heat transfer member (heat pipe). In the case where heat is not concentrated on the metal plate, especially when a heat conductor is provided, the heat of the above-mentioned heat generating region can be easily and quickly conducted to the metal plate. Of the circuit board, especially the circuit board 4
Since the heat of the upper heating element region is easily dispersed, the performance of the electronic component or the like can be constantly maintained satisfactorily, and in this respect, the reliability of the entire device can be improved, which is an unprecedented superiority. A keyboard input device can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a portable information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a keyboard provided in FIG. 1;
2A is a front view, FIG. 2B is a plan view of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 2C is a right side view of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing a portable information processing apparatus incorporating a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a keyboard provided in FIG. 3;
4A is a front view, FIG. 4B is a plan view of FIG. 4A, and FIG. 4C is a right side view of FIG. 4A.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Display part 2 Main body case 3 Keyboard 4 Circuit board 4A Heating element (heating element area) 11 Keyboard body 13 Metal plate 14, 15 Heat pipe as heat transfer member 20 Heat conductor

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A keyboard body having a plurality of through-holes, a plurality of push-button-type input keys disposed in the through-holes on the keyboard body, and an operation of each of the input keys is not hindered. A metal plate provided in a state of being laminated or close to the entire keyboard body, and a circuit board provided with a heating element such as one or more electronic components disposed on a lower surface side of the metal plate. The keyboard input device according to claim 1, wherein a heat transfer member made of a material having good thermal conductivity from one end to the other end of the keyboard body is fixedly mounted on the metal plate. 2. The keyboard input device according to claim 1, wherein said heat transfer member is formed of a columnar member. 3. The keyboard input device according to claim 1, wherein said heat transfer member is formed of a pipe-shaped member. 4. The keyboard input device according to claim 1, wherein at least two heat transfer members are provided along a longitudinal direction of the keyboard main body and at predetermined intervals. 5. A heating element such as an electronic component mounted on the circuit board is brought into contact with the metal plate via a strip-shaped heat conductor. Keyboard input device as described.