KEYBOARD DEVICE

• US 20090261991A1
• Filed: 10/06/2008
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Primax Electronics Limited
• Original Assignee: Primax Electronics Limited
• Inventors: Su, Chih-Wen, Su, Chun-Nan, Yang, Yuan-Lan, Su, Chien-Ming, Lai, Chin-Lung
• Granted Patent: US 8,154,429 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 341/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0213 Arrangements providing an integrated pointing device in a keyboard, e.g. trackball, mini-joystick for pointing devices integrated in a laptop computer G06F1/169; joysticks G05G9/047; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0219 Special purpose keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 13/705 characterised by construction, mounting or arrangement of operating parts, e.g. push-buttons or keys
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 13/7057 characterised by the arrangement of operating parts in relation to each other, e.g. pre-assembled groups of keys
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2225/03 Different type of switches

Abstract

The present invention relates to a keyboard device. The keyboard device includes a base, a main circuit board, a base cover, a touching membrane switch, a touching thin plate, an upper cover and a plurality of keys. The touching membrane switch is activated to implement a predefined hot key function so as to reduce fabricating cost.

Claims

1. A keyboard device for use with a computer system, said keyboard device comprising:

a base;

a main circuit board mounted on said base for controlling operations of said keyboard device;

a base cover for sheltering said base and having an indentation therein;

a touching membrane switch received in said indentation and electrically connected to said main circuit board, said touching membrane switch comprising;

an upper printed wiring board having a first trace pattern with a plurality of upper contact terminals;

a lower printed wiring board having a second trace pattern with a plurality of lower contact terminals; and

a partition plate sandwiched between said upper printed wiring board and said lower printed wiring board and having a plurality of apertures corresponding to said upper contact terminals and said lower contact terminals;

a touching thin plate disposed on said touching membrane switch and having multiple icons thereon, wherein said touching membrane switch is electrically conducted when one of said icons is touched;

an upper cover having an opening for exposing said touching thin plate; and

a plurality of keys protruded through said upper cover.

2. The keyboard device according to claim 1 wherein said touching thin plate is touched to control a predefined function of adjusting sound volume, vertically scrolling a frame, horizontally scrolling a frame, zooming in/out a frame, opening e-mail, opening a multimedia playback program or opening a Word text file.

3. The keyboard device according to claim 1 wherein said touching thin plate is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).