Portable telephone and method of manufacturing the same

• US 7,369,881 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2005
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Tsujimoto, Masakazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Anderson; Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Hai V
• Application Number:
  US11/058,248
• Publication Number:
  US 20050181843A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,175 Days
• Field of Search: 455/575.1, 455/347
• US Class Current: 455/575.1
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 13/702 with contacts carried by or formed from layers in a multilayer structure, e.g. membrane switches
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2209/082 transparent
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2217/028 on planes with different or alterable inclination, e.g. convex plane
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2219/04 Attachments; Connections
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2221/002 integral with membrane
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/22 Illumination; Arrangements for improving the visibility of characters on dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/236 including keys on side or rear faces

Abstract

A portable telephone includes a lower case and elastic sheet, an operation button portion component, and an operation button illuminating light source. Predetermined openings are formed in each of the lower case and elastic sheet to arrange a plurality of front surface operation buttons and plurality of side surface operation buttons such that the openings are in one-to-one correspondence with the operation buttons. The operation button portion component is arranged by bending along inner sides of front and side surfaces of the lower case and elastic sheet. The operation button portion component is obtained by fixing the respective operation buttons on an elastic sheet with a predetermined design. The operation button illuminating light source is arranged on a circuit board frame to be incorporated in the portable telephone and illuminates the front surface and side surface operation buttons. A method of manufacturing the portable telephone is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A portable telephone comprising:

a housing case in which predetermined openings are formed at a plurality of portions to arrange a plurality of front surface operation buttons and plurality of side surface operation buttons of the portable telephone such that the openings are in one-to-one correspondence with said operation buttons;

an operation button portion component which is arranged by bending along inner sides of front and side surfaces of said housing case and obtained by fixing said operation buttons on an elastic sheet with a predetermined design; and

an operation button illuminating light source which is arranged on a circuit board frame to be incorporated in the portable telephone and illuminates the plurality of front surface operation buttons and side surface operation buttons.

2. A telephone according to claim 1, wherein said elastic sheet of said operation button portion component is light-transmitting.

3. A telephone according to claim 1, wherein said operation button illuminating light source comprises operation button illuminating light sources in number necessary to illuminate said plurality of front surface operation buttons and side surface operation buttons through the elastic sheet of said operation button portion component.

4. A telephone according to claim 1, wherein said operation button illuminating light source is arranged at a position on said circuit board frame which is necessary to illuminate said plurality of front surface operation buttons and side surface operation buttons through said elastic sheet of said operation button portion component.

5. A telephone according to claim 1, wherein said elastic sheet of said operation button portion component comprises an integrated sheet obtained by adding a regional portion to arrange said side surface operation buttons to a regional portion to arrange said plurality of front surface operation buttons.

6. A portable telephone manufacturing method comprising the steps of:

forming, in a housing case of a portable telephone, predetermined openings at a plurality of portions to arrange a plurality of front surface operation buttons and plurality of side surface operation buttons such that the openings are in one-to-one correspondence with the operation buttons;

arranging an operation button portion component, obtained by fixing the operation buttons on an elastic sheet with a predetermined design, by bending along inner sides of front and side surfaces of the housing case;

arranging an operation button illuminating light source, which illuminates the plurality of front surface operation buttons and side surface operation buttons, on a circuit board frame to be incorporated in the portable telephone; and

building the circuit board frame provided with the operation button illuminating light source into the housing case in which the operation button component is arranged.