TWI513396B - Electronic apparatus and shielding case of mobile device - Google Patents

Description

Protective case for electronic device and mobile device

The present invention relates to a protective structure, and more particularly to a detachable protective casing for use with a mobile device.

Nowadays, portable consumer electronic products are becoming more and more popular, especially mobile devices such as smart phones, tablet computers, and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) have become portable accessories for modern people. At present, mobile devices often have diverse functions (such as browsing the web, multimedia playback, mobile communication, 3D graphics, games, etc.), which require a lot of fast calculations, and the technology of mobile processors is also becoming more and more popular, and has gradually approached the general fixed electronic The processing speed of the device.

With the demand for processing speed, battery life and heat dissipation capability have become a critical issue in the design of mobile devices. Due to the limited space on a small and thin mobile device, it is difficult to set up a large-area battery module, so it is necessary to charge or carry an extra battery for replacement. In addition, mobile devices under high-speed computing often generate a large amount of thermal energy, concentrated in the vicinity of high-energy/heating components (such as central processing units, graphics chips, or power management chips), causing the user to feel the palm when holding the mobile device. To the hot and not Feel the sense.

One aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a protective casing that is detachably coupled to an outer surface of a mobile device that includes an outer protective layer, a thermally conductive layer, and a layer of thermoelectric material. A thermally conductive layer is bonded to the outer surface of the mobile device. The layer of thermoelectric material has a first side adjacent the thermally conductive layer and a second side adjacent the outer protective layer, and the layer of thermoelectric material generates a current according to a temperature difference between the first side and the second side.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide an electronic device including a mobile device and a protective case. The mobile device includes an outer surface with contacts on the outer surface. The protective case is detachably coupled to an outer surface of the mobile device, and the protective case includes an outer protective layer, a thermally conductive layer, and a layer of thermoelectric material. A thermally conductive layer is bonded to the outer surface of the mobile device. The layer of thermoelectric material has a first side adjacent to the thermally conductive layer and a second side adjacent the outer protective layer, and the layer of thermoelectric material generates a current according to a temperature difference between the first side and the second side. Wherein the protective shell is coupled to the outer surface of the mobile device, the layer of thermoelectric material is coupled to the contact, and the mobile device receives the current via the contact.

As described above, the protective case proposed in one embodiment of the present disclosure has the function of protecting the mobile device, and through the layer of thermoelectric material in the protective case, the waste heat generated by the mobile device can be recovered and the current is returned to the mobile device. On the other hand, through the heat conducting layer in the protective case, the heat energy dissipated to the outer surface of the mobile device can be uniformly dispersed to different positions of the heat conducting layer, thereby improving the discomfort of the user when holding.

In order to make the embodiment of the present case more obvious and easy to understand, the attached symbols are as follows:

10, 11‧‧‧ electronic devices

100‧‧‧protective shell

120‧‧‧Thermal material layer

121‧‧‧ first side

122‧‧‧ second side

140‧‧‧ outer protective layer

160‧‧‧thermal layer

180‧‧‧ circuits

200,300‧‧‧ mobile devices

240‧‧‧Power Module

260‧‧‧Processing unit

280‧‧‧ display unit

201,301,202‧‧‧ outer surface

220,320‧‧‧Contacts

221,222,321,322‧‧‧Charging contacts

V1‧‧‧ first potential

V2‧‧‧second potential

Vfb‧‧‧ feedback voltage

A-A‧‧‧ hatching

In order to make the present invention more obvious and understandable, the description of the drawings is as follows: FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the electronic device of FIG. 1A in another FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the protective case along the section line AA in the embodiment of FIG. 1A; and FIG. 3 is a view showing the protective case and its corresponding action in the electronic device in the embodiment of FIG. 1A. Schematic diagram of the device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a protective case and another mobile device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the following, a plurality of embodiments of the present invention will be disclosed in the drawings, and for the sake of clarity, a number of practical details will be described in the following description. However, it should be understood that these practical details are not applied to limit the case. That is to say, in some implementations of this case, these practical details are not necessary. In addition, some of the conventional structures and elements are shown in the drawings in a simplified schematic manner in order to simplify the drawings.

As mobile devices are designed to be thin and highly portable, the internal components of the mobile device are typically extremely delicate and easily damaged by external impact. Therefore, users often further protect the outside of the mobile device. The shell is used to achieve the effect of protecting the mobile device. In addition, the protective case can also prevent the surface of the mobile device from being scratched or damaged, and can have a variety of personalized designs (such as having different patterns, colors or shapes), so that the protective case is gradually becoming a mobile device. One of the important accessories.

Please refer to FIG. 1A, which illustrates a schematic diagram of an electronic device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A, the electronic device 10 includes a schematic view of the protective case 100 and its corresponding mobile device 200. The protective case 100 is removably coupled to the outer surface 201 of the mobile device 200. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1A, the outer surface 201 is the back surface of the mobile device 200. Referring to FIG. 1B together, the electronic device 10 in FIG. 1A is schematically viewed from another perspective. The outer surface 202 on the other side of the mobile device 200 is a front surface as shown in FIG. 1B. In this example, the outer surface 202 is provided with a display unit 280.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the protective case 100 is shaped to fit the outer surface 201 of the mobile device 200, and the shape of the protective case 100 is symmetric and complementary to the outer surface 201 of the mobile device 200. The inner side of the protective casing 100 forms an accommodating space (as shown in FIG. 1B ) for accommodating the mobile device 200 . The protective casing 100 is sleeved on the outer surface 201 , and the outer surface 201 of the protective casing 100 faces and the display unit The outer surface 202 provided by 280 faces in the opposite direction.

When the user sets the protective case 100 on the outer surface 201 of the mobile device 200, the protective case 100 can be tightly coupled to the mobile device 200 through a specific engaging structure. For example, the opening of the accommodating space of the protective casing 100 may be slightly narrowed, so that the housing of the mobile device 200 is clamped in the accommodating space of the protective casing 100, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. In Many other means (with snap fit, screw lock or other equivalent means) can be used in conjunction with the mobile device 200 and the protective casing 100, which are well known to those skilled in the art and will not be further described herein.

It should be particularly noted that the protective case 100 in this embodiment is an additional protective cover that is independent of the housing of the mobile device 200 itself, and is detachable by the mobile device 200 and can be conveniently replaced. The protective case 100 itself has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture in large quantities. When the protective case 100 is damaged, the user can conveniently purchase a new protective case 100 and mount it to the mobile device 200.

Please refer to FIG. 1A and FIG. 2 together. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the protective case 100 in the embodiment of FIG. 1A. As shown, the protective case 100 includes an outer protective layer 140, a thermoelectric material layer 120, and a heat conductive layer 160. The outer protective layer 140 is disposed on the outermost side (ie, away from one side of the mobile device 200), and the heat conductive layer 160 is disposed on the innermost side (ie, adjacent to one side of the mobile device 200). In the disclosure, the thermoelectric material layer 120 is used to recover the waste heat generated by the mobile device 200 and is fed back to the mobile device 200 to improve the battery life of the mobile device 200. The detailed description is described in the following paragraphs.

The outer protective layer 140 serves to buffer external stress and protect the mobile device 200. When the mobile device 200 incorporating the protective case 100 is dropped or impacted by an external force, the outer protective layer 140 is a surface that first collides or comes into contact with the outside. In an embodiment, the outer protective layer 140 may be a plastic layer having a certain elasticity, and the outer protective layer 140 is elasticized to buffer external stress. In addition, the outer protective layer 140 can also be a layer of heat insulating material, so that when the user holds the outer protective layer 140, the thermal energy generated by the mobile device 200 is not directly felt. To enhance the user's operational feel.

The thermally conductive layer 160 is bonded to the outer surface 201 of the mobile device 200. In this embodiment, the heat conductive layer 160 may be a metal material layer for uniformly dispersing the thermal energy of the mobile device 200 to the outer surface 201 to different positions of the heat conductive layer 160. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the thermally conductive layer 160 conducts the thermal energy of the outer surface 201 horizontally and is dispersed to different horizontal positions. The heat conductive layer 160 may be made of magnesium, aluminum, other highly thermally conductive metal materials or alloys of the above materials.

As a result, the highly concentrated waste heat generated in the vicinity of the heat generating component (such as the central processing unit, the drawing chip, or the power management chip, etc.) in the mobile device 200 can be evenly dispersed to different positions by the heat conducting layer 160. In this way, when the user holds the protective case 100, it does not feel that the temperature of a certain block of the protective case 100 is particularly high, thereby improving the user's operating feeling.

In this embodiment, the thermoelectric material layer 120 is disposed between the outer protective layer 140 and the heat conductive layer 160. The layer of thermoelectric material 120 has a first side 121 adjacent the thermally conductive layer 160 and a second side 122 adjacent the outer protective layer 140. Due to the nature of the thermoelectric material itself, when there is a temperature difference between the first side 121 and the second side 122 of the layer of thermoelectric material 120, the thermoelectric material will form a phase between the first side 121 and the second side 122. Corresponding to the thermoelectric conversion voltage difference, the voltage difference formed by the thermoelectric material layer 120 is used to generate a current and is sent back to the mobile device 200.

In a practical application, since the first side 121 of the thermoelectric material layer 120 is adjacent to the heat conducting layer 160 and is closer to the mobile device 200 (ie, the heat source is located), when the mobile device 200 is in operation, the temperature of the first side 121 of the thermoelectric material layer 120 is usually Higher; at the same time, the second side of the layer of thermoelectric material 120 122 abuts the outer protective layer 140, and the temperature of the second side 122 of the layer of thermoelectric material 120 is closer to the ambient temperature at that time. A first potential V1 is formed on the first side 121 of the thermoelectric material layer 120, and a second potential V2 is formed on the second side 122. In this way, the thermoelectric material layer 120 forms a corresponding thermoelectric conversion voltage difference Vg (not shown) according to the temperature difference between the first side surface 121 and the second side surface 122, wherein Vg=|V2-V1|, the thermoelectric conversion The voltage difference is used to form a current back to the mobile device 200.

It should be noted that the setting range of the thermoelectric material layer 120 shown in FIG. 1A is merely an illustrative description. In practical applications, the range of the thermoelectric material layer 120 may cover the entire protective casing 100 or selectively cover the mobile device 200. The corresponding position of the main heating element is not limited to the range shown in Fig. 1A.

As shown in FIGS. 1A and 2, the outer surface 201 of the mobile device 200 is provided with a contact 220. In this embodiment, the contacts 220 are a plurality of metal contacts on the outer surface 201, and the metal contacts of the contacts 220 can be used for charging/discharging, file transmission, status signal confirmation, and the like, respectively. The contact 220 includes a charging contact 221 of a positive voltage level (such as V+) and a charging contact 222 of a negative voltage level (such as V-).

In this embodiment, the protective case 100 may further include a circuit 180 coupled to the contact 220 and the thermoelectric material layer 120. The circuit 180 can include a power signal adjusting component (not shown) such as a boosting circuit, a voltage stabilizing circuit, and a filtering circuit. The circuit 180 is configured to take out the current I _FB formed by the thermoelectric conversion voltage difference on both sides of the thermoelectric material layer 120, and process the thermoelectric conversion voltage difference to form a current I _FB to the charging contact 221 and the charging contact of the contact 220. 222.

However, the present disclosure is not limited to the case where the protective case 100 includes the circuit 180. In practical applications, the current I _FB induced by the thermoelectric material layer 120 (by the thermoelectric conversion voltage difference between the two sides) can also be directly fed back through the connection line. The charging contact 221 to the contact 220 and the charging contact 222 are utilized by the charging circuit in the mobile device 200 for correlation processing. As a result, the manufacturing and design cost of the circuit 180 disposed in the protective case 100 can be saved.

Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a functional block diagram of the mobile device 200 according to the embodiment of FIG. 1A. As shown in FIG. 3, the mobile device 200 in FIG. 1A may include a power module 240, a processing unit 260, and a display unit 280. The power module 240 is coupled to the processing unit 260, the display unit 280, and the contact 220. The power module 240 provides power to the processing unit 260 and the display unit 280. The display unit 280 is configured to display a display screen generated by the processing unit 260.

Referring to the embodiments of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 , the thermoelectric material layer 120 is coupled to the power module 240 via the contact 220 via the circuit 180 (or the thermoelectric material layer 120 in another embodiment may also be directly connected through the circuit 180 ) The point 220 is coupled to the power module 240). As shown in FIG. 3, the thermoelectric material layer 120 charges the power module 240 by using the generated current I _FB . The power module 240 can include a battery, a rechargeable battery, or various electrical storage components.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1A, the contact 220 of the mobile device 200 is disposed on the back of the mobile device 200, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. Please refer to FIG. 4, which is implemented according to one of the embodiments. A schematic diagram of an electronic device 11 in an example. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the electronic device 11 The protective case 100 and another mobile device 300 described in the previous embodiments are included. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the contacts 320 of the mobile device 300 are metal pins disposed on the side borders of the outer surface 301. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the circuit 180 (or both sides of the thermoelectric material layer 120) in the protective case 100 can be connected to the contact 320 of the mobile device 300 through the connection line 182 (such as the charging contact 321 and the charging connection). Point 322).

That is, the protective case 100 of the present disclosure can be applied to a mobile device having various contact designs (metal contacts on the back side, metal pins on the side borders, or other various similar contacts).

In summary, the protective case proposed in one embodiment of the present disclosure has the function of protecting the mobile device, and through the layer of thermoelectric material in the protective case, the waste heat generated by the mobile device can be recovered, and the converted voltage is returned to the action. Device. On the other hand, the heat transfer layer in the protective case can disperse the heat energy of the mobile device to the outer surface to be uniformly dispersed to different horizontal positions, so that the heat energy can be more uniformly dispersed to the outer surface of the protective shell, thereby improving the use. Discomfort when holding.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present case. Anyone skilled in the art can make various changes and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the case. Therefore, the scope of protection of this case is considered. The scope defined in the patent application is subject to change.

10‧‧‧Electronic devices

100‧‧‧protective shell

120‧‧‧Thermal material layer

180‧‧‧ circuits

200‧‧‧ mobile device

201‧‧‧ outer surface

220‧‧‧Contacts

221,222‧‧‧Charging contacts

A-A‧‧‧ hatching

Claims (14)

a protective casing detachably coupled to an outer surface of a mobile device, comprising: an outer protective layer; a heat conducting layer coupled to the outer surface of the mobile device; and a layer of thermoelectric material having the adjacent heat conducting layer And a first side and a second side adjacent to the outer protective layer, the thermoelectric material layer generates a current according to a temperature difference between the first side and the second side. The protective case of claim 1, wherein the heat conducting layer is a metal material layer for uniformly dispersing thermal energy of the mobile device to the outer surface to different positions of the heat conducting layer. The protective case according to claim 2, wherein the heat conductive layer is made of magnesium, aluminum, other high thermal conductive metal materials or an alloy of the above materials. The protective case of claim 1, wherein the outer surface of the mobile device is provided with a contact, the protective cover further comprising: a circuit coupled between the contact and the layer of thermoelectric material, the circuit is used for This current is transmitted to the contact. The protective shell of claim 1, wherein the outer protective layer is a plastic layer or a heat insulating material layer. The protective case of claim 1, wherein the protective case has a shape matching the outer surface of the mobile device, so that the protective case is tightly coupled to the mobile device, the outer protective layer is used to buffer external stress and protect the action Device. An electronic device comprising: a mobile device comprising an outer surface, the outer surface is provided with a joint; a protective shell detachably coupled to the outer surface of the mobile device, the protective shell comprising: an outer a protective layer; a thermally conductive layer coupled to the outer surface of the mobile device; and a layer of thermoelectric material having a first side adjacent to the thermally conductive layer and a second side adjacent to the outer protective layer, the thermoelectric material layer being a temperature difference between the first side and the second side generates a current; wherein when the protective shell is coupled to the outer surface of the mobile device, the layer of thermoelectric material is coupled to the contact, and the mobile device receives the contact via the contact This current. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the heat conducting layer is a metal material layer for uniformly dispersing thermal energy of the mobile device to the outer surface to different positions of the heat conducting layer. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the thermally conductive layer is made of magnesium, aluminum, other highly thermally conductive metallic materials or alloys of the foregoing. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the protective casing further comprises: a circuit coupled between the contact and the layer of thermoelectric material, the circuit for transmitting the current to the contact. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the outer protective layer is a plastic layer or a heat insulating material layer. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the protective casing is shaped to fit the outer surface of the mobile device such that the protective casing is tightly coupled to the mobile device, the outer protective layer is configured to buffer external stress and protect the action Device. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the mobile device further comprises a power module, a processing unit and a display unit, the power module is coupled to the processing unit, the display unit and the contact, the power module The group provides a power source to the processing unit and the display unit. When the thermoelectric material layer is coupled to the power module via the contact, the thermoelectric material layer charges the power module by using the generated current. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the outer surface faces the opposite side of the display unit.