TW202036621A - Keyboard and keyswitch thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A keyboard includes an upper board, keyswitches, and a lower board slidably disposed under the upper board. The keyswitch is disposed on the upper board and includes a cap, a first support member slidably connected to the upper board and pivoted to the cap, a second support member movably connected to the cap and the upper board and pivoted to the first support member, a magnet disposed on the lower board and a magnetic board disposed on the first support member and having a magnetic sheet opposite to the magnet. When the cap is released, a magnetic force between the magnet and the magnetic sheet slides the magnetic sheet to be attached to the magnet for moving the cap back to its original position. When the cap is not pressed and the lower board slides to a containing position, the magnet pushes the magnetic sheet for moving the cap downward.

Description

Keyboard and its keys

The present invention relates to a keyboard and its keys, in particular to a keyboard and its keys which use a magnet on the lower base plate which can slide relative to the upper base plate to push the magnetic sheet on the support member of the key to drive the keycap down to the folded height.

In terms of current notebook computer usage habits, the keyboard is one of the indispensable input devices for inputting text, symbols or numbers. Recently, due to the trend of thinner notebook computers, keyboards used in notebook computers have also been thinned.

The traditional keyboard adopts a pressing design in which the assembly structure of the scissor foot support device and the elastic body is arranged between the key cap and the bottom plate. By this, when the key cap is pressed by the user, the elastic body provides elastic restoring force to the key cap. The driving keycap returns to the position before pressing with the action of the scissor foot supporting device. However, since the scissor leg support cross pivotal design adopted by the scissor leg support device described above will cause the keys to require a larger height space, when the upper cover of the notebook computer is folded with the lower case, it is necessary to avoid placing it underneath. The keycaps on the shell damage the display screen installed on the upper cover. There is often a gap between the upper cover and the lower shell to accommodate the keycaps. This will limit the size of the notebook computer, which is not conducive to the notebook computer. The thin design.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a lower base plate is usually additionally arranged under the upper base plate of the keyboard. The lower base plate can slide horizontally with respect to the upper base plate and a hook is formed at the position of the scissor foot support corresponding to each button. When sliding to the folded position relative to the upper bottom plate, each hook will push the scissor foot support of the corresponding button to pivot downward, so that the key cap can overcome the elastic restoring force of the elastic body and sink to avoid the above-mentioned injury. The problem with the display screen has occurred, but since the number of keys on the keyboard is at least nearly a hundred, therefore, the hooks on the bottom board to push down each keycap on the keyboard will require considerable thrust, so how The design of a labor-saving lower plate driving mechanism is the main subject of the keyboard in the design of controlling the lifting of the keycap.

Therefore, one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a keyboard and its keys which can be slid relative to the upper base plate and the magnet on the lower base plate to push the magnetic sheet on the key support member to drive the keycap down to the folded height. The above problem.

According to one embodiment, the keyboard of the present invention includes an upper bottom plate, a bottom bottom plate, and a plurality of keys. The lower bottom plate is slidably disposed under the upper bottom plate to slide between a folded position and an unfolded position relative to the upper bottom plate. A plurality of keys are arranged on the upper base plate, and at least one of the plurality of keys includes a key cap, a first support, a second support, a magnetic plate, and a magnet. The first support has a sliding shaft part and a pivot part, the sliding shaft part is slidably connected to the upper bottom plate, and the pivot part is rotatably connected to the key cap. The second support is movably connected to the keycap and the upper bottom plate and is pivotally connected to the first support, so that the keycap pivots with the cross of the first support and the second support Move up and down relative to the upper bottom plate. The magnetic plate is arranged on the first support and a magnetic sheet is formed at a position corresponding to the sliding shaft portion. The magnet is arranged on the lower bottom plate and is opposite to the magnetic sheet. When the keycap is pressed by an external force, the magnetic sheet slides on the upper base plate along with the downward pivoting of the first support member to separate from the magnet. When the external force is released, a side magnetic attraction force between the magnet and the magnetic sheet drives the magnetic sheet to slide on the upper base plate to a position where the magnet is attracted, so that the first support member pivots upward to drive The keycap returns. When the key cap is not pressed and the lower base plate slides from the unfolded position to the folded position relative to the upper base plate, the magnet pushes the magnetic sheet to slide relative to the upper base plate, so that the first support member moves toward The keycap is pivoted downward to drive the keycap down to a folding height.

In summary, when the lower base plate slides to the folded position relative to the upper base plate, the keys can be in a state where the keycap height is lowered to further reduce the overall height, which is beneficial to the thin design of portable electronic devices and effectively solves the previous problem. The keycaps mentioned in the technology hurt the display screen. In addition, since the key provided by the present invention adopts the design of magnetic force driving key reset, the configuration of the elastic body is omitted, and the design of the present invention uses the magnet to directly push the magnetic sheet on the first support member. Without overcoming the elastic restoring force of the elastic body, the keycap is driven to be lowered and folded. Therefore, the present invention can drive the keycap down to the folded height with less effort, so as to achieve the effect of labor saving and effectively solve the problem mentioned in the prior art. Drive the bottom plate to control each keycap on the keyboard to overcome the elastic restoring force of the elastic body to reduce the problem of excessive thrust required when closing.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention can be further understood from the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a three-dimensional view of the keyboard 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 1, the keyboard 10 includes an upper base plate 12, a lower base plate 14, and a plurality of buttons 16. The lower base plate 14 is slidably arranged under the upper base plate 12, and the buttons 16 are arranged on the upper base plate 12 for use Press it to execute the function that the user wants to input. The keyboard 10 is preferably a keyboard generally used in personal computers, but it is not limited to this. For example, the keyboard 10 can also be used in portable electronic devices that generally have an opening and closing mechanism composed of an upper cover and a lower casing. On (e.g. laptop or foldable keyboard). In practical applications, the keyboard 10 can use a common motor-driven connecting rod to drive the lower base plate 14 to move horizontally relative to the upper base plate 12 (but not limited to this, it can also be manually pushed and pulled. 12 Horizontal movement design). For example, the keyboard 10 can use a motor-driven linkage mechanism to make the lower base plate 14 move relatively horizontally as the upper cover of the portable electronic device is opened and closed relative to the lower casing. As for the motor and The structural design and operating principle of the linkage mechanism are common in the prior art, so it will not be repeated here. In order to simplify the description, the following is a description of one of the buttons 16 with a keycap folding design. As for the structural design of the other buttons 16 with the same design, it can be deduced from the following description and will not be repeated here.

Please refer to Figures 2, 3 and 4. Figure 2 is an enlarged schematic view of the button 16 in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a cross-sectional schematic view of the button 16 in Figure 1 along the AA section line, and Figure 4 is The cross-sectional schematic diagram of the key 16 when the key cap 18 is pressed in FIG. 3, wherein in order to clearly show the internal structure of the key 16, the illustration of the key cap 18 is omitted in FIG. The button 16 of the present invention adopts the design of magnetic drive button reset. As shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4, the button 16 includes a keycap 18, a first support 20, a second support 22, and a magnetic The plate 24, and the magnet 26. The first support 20 has a sliding shaft portion 28 and a pivot portion 30. The sliding shaft portion 28 is slidably connected to the upper bottom plate 12, the pivot portion 30 is rotatably connected to the key cap 18, and the second support 22 is It is movably connected to the key cap 18 and the upper base plate 12 and is pivotally connected to the first support member 20 so that the key cap 18 can pivot relative to the upper base plate along with the cross pivoting of the first support member 20 and the second support member 22 12 Move up and down. The magnetic plate 24 is arranged on the first support 20 and a magnetic sheet 32 is formed at a position corresponding to the sliding shaft portion 28. The magnet 26 is arranged on the lower bottom plate 14 and is opposite to the magnetic sheet 32. In this embodiment, The magnetic plate 24 may preferably be made of metal material and formed on the first support 20 by insert molding, so as to produce the effect of the lateral magnetic attraction magnet 26.

As for the trigger design of the button 16, please refer to Figure 3, Figure 4, and Figure 5. Figure 5 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the first support 20 in Figure 2 from another perspective, as shown in Figure 3, As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the first support 20 has trigger bumps 34, the keyboard 10 further includes a circuit board 36, the circuit board 36 (such as a membrane circuit board (membrane), but not limited to) is arranged There is a switch 38 (such as a membrane switch or other trigger switch) on the upper base plate 12 and corresponding to the position of the trigger bump 34, so that when the keycap 18 moves from the unpressed position as shown in FIG. 3 When pressed to the pressing position shown in Figure 4 to make the first support 20 and the second support 22 relatively pivot, the trigger bump 34 presses the trigger switch 38, so that the keyboard 10 can execute the user accordingly The function you want to enter.

Through the above design, when the keycap 18 is pressed by an external force, the keycap 18 will drive the first support 20 and the second support 22 to pivot downward relatively. In this process, the magnetic sheet 32 will follow the first The sliding shaft portion 28 of the support 20 slides to separate from the magnet 26 (as shown in FIG. 4). Next, with the relative pivoting of the first support 20 and the second support 22, the keycap 18 of the button 16 can move downward from the unpressed position as shown in Figure 3 relative to the upper bottom plate 12 until it is used The keycap 18 is pressed to the pressing position as shown in Fig. 4, at this time, the switch 38 can be triggered by triggering the bump 34, so that the keyboard 10 can perform the function input by the user accordingly. On the other hand, since the magnet 26 will generate a lateral magnetic attraction between the magnet 26 and the magnetic sheet 32, when the external force is released and the keycap 18 is no longer pressed, the lateral magnetic attraction between the magnet 26 and the magnetic sheet 32 is sufficient. The magnetic attraction piece 32 can return to the position shown in Fig. 3 from the position shown in Fig. 4 to be attracted by the magnet 26 again, so that the key cap 18 is moved from the position shown in Fig. 3 upward as the first support 20 pivots upward. The pressed position shown in Fig. 4 automatically returns to the unpressed position shown in Fig. 3, so as to achieve the purpose of automatically returning the button 16 to its position.

The following is a detailed description of the keycap folding operation of the button 16, please refer to Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 6. Figure 6 shows the button 16 in Figure 3 when the keycap 18 is lowered to the folded height When the keycap 18 is not pressed and the lower base plate 14 slides from the unfolded position shown in Fig. 3 to the folded position shown in Fig. 6 relative to the upper base plate 12, the magnet 26 can be As the lower bottom plate 14 slides, the magnetic sheet 32 is pushed to slide relative to the upper bottom plate 12, so that the first supporting member 20 pivots downward to drive the keycap 18 to drop to the folded height as shown in FIG. On the other hand, when the lower bottom plate 14 is slid from the folded position shown in FIG. 6 back to the unfolded position shown in FIG. 4, the magnet 26 can be separated from the magnetic sheet 32 as the lower bottom plate 14 slides At this time, as described above, the lateral magnetic attraction between the magnet 26 and the magnetic sheet 32 can attract the magnetic sheet 32 from the position shown in Fig. 4 back to the position shown in Fig. 3 and is again attracted by the magnet 26 The key cap 18 is automatically returned to the unpressed position as shown in Fig. 3 so that the user can perform subsequent pressing input operations.

In this way, when the keyboard 10 is applied to a portable electronic device (such as a notebook computer) that generally has an opening and closing mechanism composed of an upper cover and a lower casing, the keyboard 10 can enable the lower base plate 14 to follow through the linkage mechanism. The upper cover of the portable electronic device is closed relative to the lower casing and slides from the unfolded position to the folded position relative to the upper base plate 12, so that the keycap 18 is lowered to the folded height as shown in FIG. 6, so as to reach the keyboard 10 The effect of reducing the height of the keycap as the portable electronic device is closed. In other words, when the lower base plate 14 slides to the folded position relative to the upper base plate 12, the key 16 can be in a state where the height of the keycap is lowered to further reduce The overall height is conducive to the thin design of the portable electronic device and effectively solves the key cap damage and display screen problems mentioned in the prior art. In addition, since the key provided by the present invention adopts the design of magnetic force driving key reset, the configuration of the elastic body is omitted, and the design of the present invention uses the magnet to directly push the magnetic sheet on the first support member. Without overcoming the elastic restoring force of the elastic body, the keycap is driven to be lowered and folded. Therefore, the present invention can drive the keycap down to the folded height with less effort, so as to achieve the effect of labor saving and effectively solve the problem mentioned in the prior art. Drive the bottom plate to control each keycap on the keyboard to overcome the elastic restoring force of the elastic body to reduce the problem of excessive thrust required when closing. The foregoing descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the scope of the patent application of the present invention shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

10: keyboard 12: Upper bottom plate 14: Lower bottom plate 16: button 18: keycap 20: The first support 22: second support 24: Magnetic plate 26: Magnet 28: Sliding shaft 30: Pivot 32: Magnetic sheet 34: trigger bump 36: circuit board 38: switch

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a keyboard according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 2 is an enlarged schematic diagram of the button in Figure 1. Figure 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the button in Figure 1 along the A-A section line. Figure 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the button of Figure 3 when the keycap is pressed. Figure 5 is a three-dimensional schematic view of the first support of Figure 2 from another perspective Figure 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the button of Figure 3 when the keycap is lowered to the folded height.

12: Upper bottom plate

14: Lower bottom plate

16: button

18: keycap

20: The first support

22: second support

24: Magnetic plate

26: Magnet

28: Sliding shaft

30: Pivot

32: Magnetic sheet

34: trigger bump

36: circuit board

38: switch

Claims (6)

A keyboard including: An upper bottom plate; A lower bottom plate, which is slidably disposed under the upper bottom plate so as to slide between a folded position and an unfolded position relative to the upper bottom plate; and A plurality of buttons are arranged on the upper base plate, and at least one of the plurality of buttons includes: One key cap A first support member having a sliding shaft portion and a pivot portion, the sliding shaft portion is slidably connected to the upper bottom plate, and the pivot portion is rotatably connected to the keycap; A second support member movably connected to the keycap and the upper bottom plate and pivotally connected to the first support member so that the keycap follows the crossing of the first support member and the second support member Pivoting moves up and down relative to the upper bottom plate; A magnetic plate, which is arranged on the first support and forms a magnetic sheet corresponding to the sliding shaft portion; and A magnet arranged on the lower base plate and opposite to the magnetic sheet; Wherein, when the keycap is pressed by an external force, the magnetic sheet slides on the upper base plate following the downward pivoting of the first support member to separate from the magnet; When the external force is released, a side magnetic attraction force between the magnet and the magnetic sheet drives the magnetic sheet to slide on the upper base plate to a position where the magnet is attracted, so that the first support member pivots upward to drive The keycap returns; When the key cap is not pressed and the lower base plate slides from the unfolded position to the folded position relative to the upper base plate, the magnet pushes the magnetic sheet to slide relative to the upper base plate, so that the first support member moves toward The keycap is pivoted downward to drive the keycap down to a folding height. The keyboard according to claim 1, wherein the first supporting member has a trigger bump, the keyboard further includes a circuit board, the circuit board is disposed on the upper base plate and has a switch at a position corresponding to the trigger bump When the keycap is pressed by the external force to make the first support and the second support relatively pivot, the triggering protrusion triggers the switch. The keyboard according to claim 1, wherein the magnetic plate is formed on the first support by insert molding. A button that includes: One key cap An upper bottom plate; A first support member having a sliding shaft portion and a pivot portion, the sliding shaft portion is slidably connected to the upper bottom plate, and the pivot portion is rotatably connected to the keycap; A second support member movably connected to the keycap and the upper bottom plate and pivotally connected to the first support member so that the keycap follows the crossing of the first support member and the second support member Pivoting moves up and down relative to the upper bottom plate; A lower bottom plate, which is slidably disposed under the upper bottom plate to slide between a folded position and an unfolded position relative to the upper bottom plate; A magnetic plate, which is arranged on the first support and forms a magnetic sheet corresponding to the sliding shaft portion; and A magnet arranged on the lower base plate and opposite to the magnetic sheet; Wherein, when the keycap is pressed by an external force, the magnetic sheet slides on the upper base plate following the downward pivoting of the first support member to separate from the magnet; When the external force is released, a side magnetic attraction force between the magnet and the magnetic sheet drives the magnetic sheet to slide on the upper base plate to a position where the magnet is attracted, so that the first support member pivots upward to drive The keycap returns; When the key cap is not pressed and the lower base plate slides from the unfolded position to the folded position relative to the upper base plate, the magnet pushes the magnetic sheet to slide relative to the upper base plate, so that the first support member moves toward The keycap is pivoted downward to drive the keycap down to a folding height. The button according to claim 4, wherein the first supporting member has a trigger bump, the button further includes a circuit board, the circuit board is disposed on the upper base plate and has a switch corresponding to the trigger bump When the keycap is pressed by the external force to make the first support and the second support relatively pivot, the triggering protrusion triggers the switch. The button according to claim 4, wherein the magnetic plate is formed on the first support by embedding.

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