KR100623325B1 - Backlight-Elastic Keypad Plate for The personal Information Terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a keypad which is an input device of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone, and more particularly, all characters displayed by the keypad which is an input device of the mobile terminal including a mobile phone by fully utilizing the light of a light source inside the mobile terminal. And a backlight plate and an elastic plate which show uniform brightness in a dark environment and make the brightness within one letter and symbol uniform and at the same time return to the original position when a key on the keypad is pressed. Furthermore, by applying the present invention, it is possible to obtain the effect of reducing the manufacturing cost and power consumption of the portable terminal by reducing the number of optical elements installed in the portable terminal.

Mobile phone, handheld terminal, keypad, backlit board, optical well

Description

Backlight-Elastic Keypad Plate for The personal information terminal}

1 is a plan view illustrating terminals of a keypad of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone.

2 is a plan view of the character keys constituting the keypad of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone of the prior art, and a brightness graph at night or in a dark place of the character pattern designed on the character keys.

3 is an optical well structure of a surface of a backlight elastic plate of a keypad of a portable terminal including the cellular phone of the present invention and a backlight elastic plate below the character key.

The present invention relates to a keypad 11 which is an input device of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone, and more particularly, a keypad, which is an input device of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone, is displayed by fully utilizing the light of a light source inside the mobile terminal. All character patterns and symbol patterns (hereafter referred to as character patterns) maintain uniform brightness in a dark environment, and uniform brightness within a single character pattern, and at the same time return to the original position when a key on the keypad is pressed. It relates to a backlight plate and an elastic plate (hereinafter referred to as a backlight elastic plate). Furthermore, by applying the present invention, it is possible to obtain the effect of reducing the manufacturing cost and power consumption of the portable terminal by reducing the number of optical elements installed in the portable terminal.

The technical field to which the present invention belongs and the prior art of the field of FIG. And FIG. 2 which summarizes the plane and cross section of one key (number 1) of the keypad of FIG.

According to Korean Patent Application No. 10-1998-0030060, the LED driving device of a keypad is driven simultaneously under a predetermined control to provide a backlight to the keypad, and the LEDs for backlight forming an array, and 1 for each key. It is composed of a light emitting diode for key selection display that indicates whether or not the corresponding key is input by operating independently.

According to this, in order to use one keypad 11 to meet its purpose, as many as about 20 light emitting diodes (LEDs, light emission diodes) are required for a portable terminal including a mobile phone. This has a disadvantage in that the manufacturing cost of the portable device is increased by using a plurality of LEDs, which are expensive optical elements, and the power consumption is increased in terms of use. Although the LED and the optical device do not have a 1: 1 correspondence, the use of the LED, which is a large number of optical devices, is to reduce the transmittance of the backlight elastic plate itself constituting the keypad and to accumulate light in the structure of the backlight elastic plate. The reason is that a large amount of light is lost by the discontinuous light guide portion or the discontinuous uneven portion (hereinafter referred to as the discontinuous light guide portion). Silicon rubber or urethane, which is usually used as a backlit elastic plate, is an opaque material that does not transmit when light is irradiated and absorbs and disperses the light. Therefore, the user can see characters at a uniform brightness at night or in a dark place. In order to cycle, you need LEDs with a certain number of optical elements.

In addition, Korean Patent Application No. 10-1997-0073783 has a slight difference from FIG. 2, but according to the concept of configuration, a key or keytop 21 is installed at the top of the keypad 11, and the key or keytop 21 is provided. It is known that the keypad 11 is composed of an elastic plate 27 to be adhered to the top and the projection 26 is installed at the bottom.

Referring to FIG. 2, the projections 26 are generally in one-to-one contact with the metal dome switch 28 on the printed circuit board 29 positioned below the user. In order for the metal dome switch to operate correctly when pressed, the protrusion is positioned at the center of the key or the key top 21, and the center of the protrusion 26 coincides with the center of the metal dome 28 switch. I'm making it. When looking at the character patterns 22, 23, 24, 25 of the keypad 11 at night or in a dark place, the light source is mainly an LED which is an optical element at a certain place inside the keypad 11, and comes from the LED which is the optical element. Light is transmitted along the backlight elastic plate 27 to the key top 21 to pass through the character patterns 22, 23, 24, and 25, and the user uses the light (a), (b) and (c). Will be recognized. At this time, the light coming from the LED which is the optical element has a light guide portion (hereinafter discontinuous light portion, 26c, 26d) is bent discontinuously the backlight elastic plate 27 which is a passage of light before reaching the key top 21 and As a result, a large amount of light accumulates in the discontinuous light portion, which results in the loss of the light to the required portion. Accordingly, the light of the LED is not evenly transmitted to the front of the keypad, which causes the problem that the brightness of the characters are different from the entire keypad. Further, a round circle projection trajectory 261 formed by the wall surfaces 26a and 26b of the projection 26 formed under the backlight elastic plate 27 is in the character patterns 22, 23, 24 and 25. It is seen through the character pattern 24 overlapping the projection trace 261, which becomes light ((b)) that the user does not want. Furthermore, there is a lot of light that accumulates and collects on the projection wall so that it can be clearly distinguished, and it tends to be tiring for the user's sense of sight to see the characters formed on the keys. The larger the area of the 24 and 25 itself is, the more the projection trace 261 is visible, which is more inconvenient for the user.

As described above, the conventional technology has a disadvantage in that a large quantity of LEDs, which are optical elements, consumes a lot of power and a large manufacturing cost of the portable terminal. The projection traces 261 are formed through the character patterns 22, 23, 24, and 25. There was a visible problem. In addition, there is a problem that a large amount of light is accumulated in the discontinuous light guide parts 26c and 26d before the light goes up to the protrusion 26, and thus the light is not transmitted to the necessary portion and is lost. Moreover, even when the quantity of LEDs, which are optical elements, is used as described above, when the character patterns (22, 23, 24, 25) seen on the front of the keypad are seen in a dark environment, all the character patterns cannot be seen with uniform brightness. there was.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal keypad including a cellular phone which improves the above-mentioned problem.

In order to achieve the above object, the device of the present invention has a letter pattern coupled to one surface and a projection provided on a surface different from the one surface, wherein the surface is inclined as it moves from the surface formed by the backlight elastic plate to the center of the projection. It is characterized by having a discontinuous light scattering / reflecting point or a light scattering / reflecting line (hereinafter light pattern) in the inclined surface.

Another apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is characterized in that the range of the area formed by the inclined surface is formed to include the range of the area occupied by the character pattern.

Another apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is a discontinuous light is provided in the inclined surface even in a region not included as described above, if the area of the inclined surface does not include the area of the character pattern occupied as described above. It is characterized by having a pattern.

Another apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object, in the surface structure of the backlight elastic plate, to make the irregularities of the vertical direction in the portion other than the projection including the projection with respect to the plane formed by the backlight elastic plate. When it is characterized in that it has a plane and the continuous surface.

Another apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is characterized in that in the surface structure of the backlight elastic plate, light scattering and light reflection is preferably prevented other than the inclined surface formed under the letter pattern.

Another apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is to provide the efficiency of light by selectively providing the optical well by installing the discontinuous light pattern on the inclined surface and the periphery in the necessary portion of the surface structure of the backlight elastic plate It is characterized in that raised.

Another apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is characterized in that the optical pattern is selectively configured in accordance with the incident direction and the exit direction of light in the cross section in the backlight elastic plate in a triangle, circle, square or rhombus. do.

3, attached to a preferred embodiment according to the present invention. It will be described in detail with reference to. It should be noted that in the following description, only parts necessary for understanding the operation according to the present invention will be described, and descriptions of other parts will be omitted so as not to deviate from the gist of the present invention.

The present invention is constructed from the structure of the projections 26 and the projections 26i and 26j of Fig. 2B and the concave-convex portions 26c and 26d in the vertical direction with respect to the plane of the backlight elastic plate as in the embodiment of Figs. 3A and 3B. It can be described as an improvement.

The light emitted from the LED, the optical element of the keypad, should be utilized to the maximum where necessary, and the loss of unnecessary parts should be minimized. This is essential to achieve even power consumption due to the LEDs and even brightness across the front of the keypad, as described above.

It is well known that the portion requiring the light is the projections 26i and 26j including the projections 26. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain uniform brightness within the character patterns 22, 23, 24, and 25 of the character key 21 while collecting light. Accordingly, the present invention has been improved by making optical wells as shown in B, C, D, E of Figure 3A. As it moves toward the center of the projection, the inclined surface is provided, and more preferably, the discontinuous light pattern is provided in the inclined surface. The well shape formed by the inclined surface centered on the center of the projection is an optically bright structure. Further, light is accumulated in an optical well made by providing discontinuous light patterns such as C and D on the inclined surface, and the accumulated light is emitted toward the character key 21. In addition, a triangle (C) and a circle (E) may be adjusted to adjust the density of the light pattern, or to adjust the cross-section of the light pattern to form irregularities in the direction perpendicular to the inclined surfaces or the projections 26i and 26j in accordance with the incident direction and the exit direction of light. , Squares (not shown), diamonds (not shown), or the like, or combinations thereof. In addition, the depth of the concavities and convexities in the inclined surface or the projections 26i and 26j is also different so as to maximize the utilization efficiency of light coming from the side direction. In addition, the cross section and depth of the unevenness applied to the other key adjacent to the letter key 21 may also be different from each other among the letter keys, thereby maximizing light utilization efficiency. The light pattern is formed over the protrusions 26i and 26i including the protrusions 26, and preferably light is emitted to all of the character patterns 22, 23, 24, and 25 formed on the character keys 21. It is good to be able to. Therefore, it is preferable that the area occupied by the optical pattern is at least larger than the area of the character patterns 22, 23, 24, and 25. In addition, the role of the irregularities utilized as the light pattern is to emit light to the character key 21 by scattering or reflecting light, so that parts other than the inclined surface or the projections are processed at the glass surface level, If the inclined surface or the projections of Figs. 3A-B and D are roughened surfaces, the desired bar can be achieved. That is, in order to scatter / reflect light from the inclined surfaces or protrusions of FIGS. 3A-B and D, the cross-sectional depth of the light pattern in the backlight elastic plate has a surface roughness of at least several um.

3B illustrates a surface structure of a backlit elastic plate for minimizing the loss of light in a portion where light emitted from an LED, an optical element of a keypad, is unnecessary. That is, the conventional structure of Fig. 3B-A is improved to Fig. 3B-B, C and the like so that light is not accumulated. Light has a straightness, so when the straightness is disturbed, the light passes through or collects there. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 3B-B and C, if the continuous surface is provided to have a structure capable of maintaining straightness as much as possible, the light is transmitted to the protrusion part including the protrusion desired by the present invention. 3B-B and C shown are preferably applied to both sides of the backlight elastic plate, thereby minimizing the loss of light from the LED. In order to combine all of the above techniques, a more dramatic effect can be seen when using a material having improved transmittance than the conventional backlight elastic plate.

Meanwhile, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the scope of the following claims, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

The present invention as described above relates to a keypad 11 that is an input device of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone, and more particularly, to an input device of a mobile terminal including a mobile phone by fully utilizing the light of a light source inside the mobile terminal. All character patterns and symbol patterns (hereafter referred to as character patterns) displayed by the in-keypad maintain a uniform brightness in a dark environment, and provide a backlit elastic plate which makes the brightness even in one character pattern uniform. By applying the present invention, an effect of reducing the manufacturing cost and power consumption of the portable terminal is obtained by reducing the number of optical elements installed in the portable terminal.

Claims (8)

In a backlight elastic plate having a letter pattern coupled to one surface and provided with projections and projections on the other surface, the projection pattern has an inclined surface as it moves from the surface formed by the projection to the center of the projection and has light on at least one of the inclined surface or the projection. A keypad having a pattern. The keypad according to claim 1, wherein the area of the inclined surface is formed to include the area of the letter pattern. The keypad of claim 1, wherein a sum of an area formed by the inclined surface and an area formed by the protrusion includes a range of an area occupied by the character pattern. delete delete delete delete In a backlight elastic plate having a letter pattern coupled to one surface and provided with protrusions and protrusions on the other surface of the one surface, vertical unevenness is formed in a portion other than the protrusions and protrusions with respect to the plane formed by the backlight elastic plate. A keypad characterized in that it has a continuous surface.

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