JP3994777B2 - Equipment case and electronic equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an equipment case for housing electronic components and an electronic equipment.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, plastic is used as a material for a device case of a mobile communication electronic device such as a mobile phone, a PHS (Personal Handy Phone System), and a portable wireless data terminal. This is because the material can be reduced in weight compared to metal materials such as magnesium die-casting, and is therefore suitable for portability, and also has the advantages of low cost and few restrictions on the shape of the mold. It is.
The plastic device case is generally subjected to metal plating for decoration purposes.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, the mobile phone needs to have impact resistance against dropping due to its characteristics of being portable, but with metal plating for decoration purposes, the plating layer is thin and the rigidity of the device case itself can be improved. There wasn't.
Therefore, it is conceivable to secure the rigidity by plating the metal thickly. However, if the metal plating is thick, the device case itself becomes magnetized, which makes it difficult to use it for electronic devices that measure geomagnetism. It was.
[0004]
This invention is made | formed in view of the said situation, Comprising: While keeping rigidity, it aims at providing the apparatus case and electronic device which do not interfere with the detection of geomagnetism.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
To solve the above problems, a first aspect of the present invention, a device cases for accommodating a plurality of electronic components including an azimuth sensor for obtaining azimuth information by detecting the geomagnetism, plastic core A nonmagnetic metal plating layer having an element content of nickel of between 83% and 90% and containing an element that suppresses the band magnetization of nickel is applied to a thickness of 5 μm or more and 10 μm or less on at least one surface of the inner and outer surfaces. It is characterized by that.
[0006]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the metal plating layer applied to the plastic core of the device case includes an element whose nickel content is between 83% and 90% and suppresses nickel band magnetization. By reducing the thickness of the metal plating layer to 10 μm or less, the band magnetization of the device case itself is suppressed , and by increasing the thickness of the metal plating layer to 5 μm or more, the rigidity of the device case is improved. Therefore, it is possible to provide a device case that is light and resistant to impact without adversely affecting geomagnetic detection by the direction sensor .
[0007]
Here, the element that suppresses the band magnetization of nickel is, for example, phosphorus or boric acid, but is not limited thereto, and any element can be used as long as nonmagnetic metal plating is possible. Good.
[0008]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the device case according to the first aspect, the element that suppresses the band magnetization of nickel is phosphorus, and contains at least 2% of the phosphorus.
[0009]
According to the invention described in claim 2, the same effect as that of the invention described in claim 1 can be obtained. In particular, since the phosphor contains at least 2% of the phosphorus, It is possible to suppress the band magnetization of the device case due to nickel while maintaining rigidity.
[0010]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the equipment case according to the first or second aspect, a copper plating layer is provided under the nonmagnetic metal plating layer.
[0011]
According to the invention of claim 3 , since the copper plating layer which is a nonmagnetic metal is applied under the nickel-based nonmagnetic metal plating layer, the rigidity of the device case can be further improved. It becomes.
[0012]
Invention of Claim 4 is an electronic device, Comprising: The apparatus case as described in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3, The direction which acquires the direction information by detecting geomagnetism accommodated in this apparatus case A plurality of electronic components including a sensor are provided.
[0013]
According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the electronic component is housed in the device case provided with the nonmagnetic metal plating layer, the direction sensor as one of the electronic components is affected by the metal plating layer. that it is possible to detect the geomagnetic rather than to receive, it is possible to provide a capable of providing electronic equipment information of the direction that he faces the user.
[0014]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic device according to the fourth aspect , the electronic device is a portable device.
[0015]
According to the fifth aspect of the invention, it of course is obtained the same effect as the invention described in claim 4 is, in particular, the electronic device, since a portable device, according to claim 4 Electronic devices can be carried and used. Further, since the device case of the electronic device has rigidity, it is not easily broken even by an impact such as dropping while being carried.
[0016]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, a mobile phone will be described as an example of the electronic apparatus according to the present invention.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 1, a mobile phone (electronic device) 10 according to the present embodiment includes a substrate (electronic component) 15 provided with an electronic component 14 inside a device case 13 including an upper case 11 and a lower case 12. Is provided so as to be located at the boundary between the upper case 11 and the lower case 12, and the display device 16 of the electronic component 14 and a plurality of operation buttons 17 are provided so as to be exposed on the surface portion of the upper case 11, A battery lid or a battery lid-integrated battery 18 is provided on the back surface of the lower case 12, and further provided with an orientation sensor (electronic component) 19 for obtaining orientation information at the lower portion of the substrate 15, and a GPS (Global positioning System) not shown. This is a configuration with functions.
[0018]
The upper case 11 and the lower case 12 constituting the device case 13 have a structure in which three plating layers are provided on both surfaces of a core portion made of a thermoplastic plastic such as ABS resin. Specifically, as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, for example, an electroless copper plating layer 11b is applied on both surfaces of the core 11a of the upper case 11 to a thickness of about 0.1 μm. An electrolytic copper plating layer 11c is applied to a thickness of about 20 [mu] m, and a phosphorus-nickel plating layer 11d is applied to a thickness of about 5 to 7 [mu] m on the electrolytic copper plating. Although not shown, the lower case 12 has a plastic core, an electroless copper plating layer, an electrolytic copper plating layer, and an electrolytic phosphorus-nickel plating layer, which are provided in the same configuration as the upper case 11. .
[0019]
Next, a method of applying the metal plating configured as described above to the plastic core portion of the device case 13 will be described below. The following description will be made by taking the upper case 11 as an example, but the lower case 12 has the same structure.
[0020]
First, a general pretreatment process is performed before plating the core 11a made of a plastic material. In this pretreatment step, oil and dirt on the plastic molding surface are washed, and surface conditioning treatment such as drying is performed. Next, in order to strengthen the adhesion of the plating film, a dent is formed on the surface of the core 11a with a chemical. A chemical etching process is performed. Then, a catalyst treatment for applying a catalyst with a stannous chloride aqueous hydrochloric acid solution and an accelerator treatment for activation with a hydrochloric acid aqueous solution of palladium chloride are performed.
[0021]
Next, electroless copper plating is performed on the core 11a on which the pretreatment step has been performed to a thickness of about 0.1 μm to form the electroless copper plating layer 11b. Electroless copper plating is chemical plating and is performed as a pretreatment for the subsequent electroplating. Specifically, it is a method of generating a plating surface film on the surface of a material by chemically reducing metal ions in a solution with a reducing agent without passing an electric current from the outside.
[0022]
Next, the electroless copper plating material is electroplated for thick plating to give rigidity. For electroplating, first, electrolytic copper plating is applied to a thickness of about 20 μm to form an electrolytic copper plating layer 11c. Then, electrolytic phosphorus-nickel plating is applied to a thickness of about 5 to 7 μm to form an electrolytic phosphorus-nickel plating layer 11d.
[0023]
Here, instead of the commonly used electrolytic nickel plating, the phosphor-nickel plating is applied because the device case becomes magnetic when nickel plating is applied, but the electrolytic phosphor-nickel plating is applied to the upper case 11 and the lower case 12. This is because it is possible to suppress magnetism and make it substantially non-magnetic. The reason why it is necessary to suppress the magnetism of the device case 13 is that the azimuth sensor 19 provided in the mobile phone 10 is an element for detecting geomagnetism as described above. This is because cannot be detected accurately. More specifically, since the geomagnetism is 0.3 G (30 μT), the surrounding magnetism, that is, the magnetism of the upper case 11 and the lower case 12 is set to 0. It is necessary to keep it lower than 3G (30 μT).
[0024]
Therefore, the phosphor-nickel to be electroplated is one having a component composition of 90% nickel and 10% phosphorus. In addition, the permissible range of the component structure defined as phosphorus-nickel plating in JIS is that the nickel content is 83 to 98%, the phosphorus content is 2 to 15%, and the other components are 0 to 0. Between 2%.
[0025]
However, for example, when phosphorus-nickel with a phosphorus-nickel content of 95% (phosphorus is 5%) is applied as a thick plating of 5 μm or more with a rigid effect, the magnetic properties increase, and the above allowable magnetic range. Will be exceeded. Therefore, phosphorus-nickel having a nickel content of 90% is used as described above in order to keep the magnetism within the allowable magnetic range even when a thick plating of 5 μm or more is applied. However, the nickel content is not limited to 90%, and the nickel content may be between 90% and 83%.
[0026]
In addition, in order to give rigidity to the equipment case made of plastic material, electroplating is performed with a thickness of about 5 μm or more. However, phosphorous-nickel with a nickel content of 90% is magnetized when plated with a thickness of 10 μm or more. The surrounding magnetism cannot be kept below 0.03G. That is, thick plating is possible in the range of about 5 μm or more and less than 10 μm, but in the present embodiment, plating is performed at a thickness of about 7 μm from the balance between rigidity and nonmagnetic properties.
[0027]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the electrolytic copper plating is 20 μm and the electrolytic phosphorus-nickel plating is 7 μm to form the thick plating, the rigidity of the plastic device case 13 can be improved. Non-magnetic rigid plating is realized. Therefore, a sufficient function can be achieved as a device case of a mobile phone incorporating the direction sensor 19.
[0028]
That is, for example, by receiving radio waves from an artificial satellite by GPS (not shown) and knowing the latitude and longitude of the place where the mobile phone's radio waves are transmitted, the location where the operator of the mobile phone is on the mobile phone display screen It is possible to display a nearby map.
In the map as described above, if the operator of the mobile phone does not know the direction (direction) that he / she is currently facing, he / she does not know his / her intended direction, but the direction sensor 19 accurately detects the geomagnetism. If the map is displayed with north facing up, the direction (direction) that you are currently facing is displayed on the map with an arrow, etc., or the direction that the map is currently facing (direction) If it is displayed with the up, the north direction (direction) can be displayed on the map with an arrow or the like, so you can go to the destination by relying on the map.
[0029]
Further, the inner rigid plating has a shielding effect for preventing electromagnetic waves from the internal parts.
[0030]
In addition, the said embodiment is only an example and can be changed suitably.
For example, the cellular phone 10 has been described as an example of the electronic device. However, the electronic device is not limited to the cellular phone as long as it is an electronic device using a plastic device case, and any kind of PHS, portable communication terminal, PC, etc. It may be a thing.
[0031]
Further, in the present embodiment, the electroless copper plating layer 11b, the electrolytic copper plating layer 11c, and the electrolytic phosphorus-nickel plating layer 11d are applied to the plastic core 11a of both the upper case 11 and the lower case 12. Either one may be sufficient. When the above-described plating is applied to only one of the upper case 11 and the lower case 12, it is preferable to apply the plating to the one having more holes. That is, in the configuration example shown in FIG. In this case, the orientation sensor 19 is preferably provided on the side of the substrate 15 that is covered with the lower case 12 that is not plated.
[0032]
In the present embodiment, the method of applying the rigid plating to both surfaces of the plastic core has been described. However, one surface may be used. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, if only the inner surface is plated with metal and the surface exposed to the outside is not plated, a resist is applied to the plastic surface with a coating technique and then electroplating is performed. Then, if the resist is removed, metal plating can be applied to the inner surface without attaching metal plating to the surface portion. In this case, the rigidity is inferior to the case where metal plating is performed on both surfaces, but the drawback of coating on the metal plating being limited in paint selection can be covered.
[0033]
Similarly, a method may be used in which only the surface portion of the device case 13 is subjected to metal plating, and the inner back surface is not subjected to metal plating. In this case, it is possible to prevent a circuit component such as the electronic component 14 housed in the device case 13 from coming into contact with the device case 13 and causing a short circuit.
[0034]
【The invention's effect】
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the metal plating layer applied to the plastic core of the device case includes an element whose nickel content is between 83% and 90% and suppresses nickel band magnetization. By reducing the thickness of the metal plating layer to 10 μm or less, the band magnetization of the device case itself is suppressed , and by increasing the thickness of the metal plating layer to 5 μm or more, the rigidity of the device case is improved. Therefore, it is possible to provide a device case that is light and resistant to impact without adversely affecting geomagnetic detection by the direction sensor .
[0035]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the same effect as that of the first aspect of the invention can be obtained. In particular, since the phosphor contains at least 2%, the device case of the metal plating layer It is possible to suppress the band magnetization of the device case due to nickel while maintaining rigidity.
[0036]
According to the invention described in claim 3 , since the copper plating layer, which is a nonmagnetic metal, is provided under the nickel-based nonmagnetic metal plating layer, the rigidity of the device case can be further improved. It becomes.
[0037]
According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the electronic component is housed in the device case provided with the nonmagnetic metal plating layer, the direction sensor as one of the electronic components is affected by the metal plating layer. that it is possible to detect the geomagnetic rather than to receive, it is possible to provide a capable of providing electronic equipment information of the direction that he faces the user.
[0038]
According to the fifth aspect of the invention, it of course is obtained the same effect as the invention described in claim 4 is, in particular, the electronic device, since a portable device, according to claim 4 Electronic devices can be carried and used. In addition, since the device case of the electronic device has rigidity, it is not easily broken by an impact such as dropping while being carried.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of a mobile phone 10 according to the present invention.
2 is a cross-sectional view of an upper case 11 of the device case 13 of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the device case of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 Mobile phone (electronic equipment)
11 Upper case 11a Core 11d Electrolytic phosphorus-nickel layer 12 Lower case 13 Equipment case 14 Electronic component 15 Substrate (electronic component)
19 Direction sensor (electronic parts)

Claims (5)

An apparatus case for housing a plurality of electronic components including an orientation sensor that detects orientation information by detecting geomagnetism, and has a nickel component content of 83% to 90% on at least one side of the inner and outer surfaces of a plastic core. %, And a nonmagnetic metal plating layer containing an element that suppresses nickel band magnetization is applied to a thickness of 5 μm to 10 μm.   The device case according to claim 1, wherein the element that suppresses the band magnetization of nickel is phosphorus, and contains at least 2% of the phosphorus. The device case according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a copper plating layer is provided under the nonmagnetic metal plating layer. A device case according to any one of claims 1 to 3, and a plurality of electronic components that are housed in the device case and include a direction sensor that detects direction magnetism and obtains direction information. Electronic equipment. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein the electronic device is a portable device.

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