TOUCH PAD AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING THE SAME

• US 20140233062A1
• Filed: 04/28/2014
• Published: 08/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HP Printing Korea Co., Ltd. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: YOON, Woon-sang, KIM, Do-kyum
• Granted Patent: US 9,557,838 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0202 Constructional details or processes of manufacture of the input device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/023 Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as alphanumeric codes, operand codes or instruction codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960785 with illumination
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00392 Other manual input means, e.g. digitisers or writing tablets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/04 Scanning arrangements , i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versaH04N1/387 takes precedence

Abstract

A touch pad with a simple structure to enable an electronic device to be manufactured more slimly and with low manufacturing costs. The touch pad includes a cover having a plurality of function icons a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame including a plurality of light guide hollows, and a board, which is engaged with the cover frame and includes touch sensors and luminous elements to illuminate the function icons mounted thereon, the touch sensors and luminous elements being respectively mounted at positions on the board corresponding to the plurality of function icons.

Claims

1. A touch pad, comprising:

a cover comprising a plurality of function icons;

a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame comprising a plurality of light guide hollows; and

a board engaged with the cover frame and comprising touch sensors and light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted on the touch sensors and within the light guide hollows to illuminate the function icons mounted thereon, the touch sensors and LEDs being respectively mounted at positions on the board corresponding to the plurality of function icons,

wherein the touch sensors are disposed directly below the LEDs and the light guide hollows, respectively.

2. The touch pad as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover comprises a transparent polycarbonate sheet or an acryl sheet.

3. The touch pad as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover comprises:

a transparent polycarbonate sheet;

a function icon film printed on a rear surface of the polycarbonate sheet; and

a diffusion silk film printed on the function icon film, to diffuse light emitted from the LEDs.

4. The touch pad as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light guide hollows have a funnel shape in which a diameter of each of the light guide hollows increases from the a bottom portion to a top portion of each of the light guide hollows.

5. The touch pad as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a transparent double-sided adhesive tape to form a secure connection between the cover frame and the board and to prevent air from entering between the cover frame and the board.

6. The touch pad as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a double-sided adhesive tape to form a secure connection between the cover frame and the board and to prevent air from entering between the cover frame and the board, the double-sided adhesive tape comprising a plurality of holes formed at positions corresponding to the respective light guide hollows of the cover frame.

20. The touch pad as claimed in claim 1, wherein the LEDs are in direct contact with the touch sensors.

7. An electronic device, comprising:

a main body; and

an input device placed on one side of an upper surface or a side surface of the main body, comprising;

a touch pad, comprising;

a cover comprising a plurality of function icons;

a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame comprising a plurality of light guide hollows; and

a board engaged with the cover frame and comprising touch sensors and light emitting diodes (LEDs) to illuminate the function icons mounted thereon, the touch sensors being mounted at positions on the board corresponding to the plurality of function icons and the LEDs mounted on the touch sensors to align with respective center regions of the touch sensors and function icons,

wherein the touch sensors are disposed directly below the LEDs and the light guide hollows, respectively.

8. An electronic device, comprising:

a first body;

a second body pivotably mounted on the first body and capable of being opened and closed about the first body; and

a touch pad, as an input device, which is placed on one side of an upper surface of the second body, comprising

a cover comprising a plurality of function icons;

a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame comprising a plurality of light guide hollows; and

a board engaged with the cover frame and comprising touch sensors and light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted on the touch sensors and within the light guide hollows to illuminate the function icons mounted thereon, the touch sensors and LEDs being respectively mounted at positions on the board corresponding to the plurality of function icons,

wherein the touch sensors are disposed directly below the LEDs and the light guide hollows, respectively.

9. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

a first body housing a feeding unit, a developing unit and a fixing unit;

a second body pivotably mounted on the first body and capable of being opened and closed about the first body, the second body comprising an exposure unit and a scanning unit;

a cover unit mounted on the second body to cover the scanning unit; and

an input device placed on one side of an upper surface of the second body,

wherein the input device comprises a touch pad comprising;

a cover comprising a plurality of function icons;

a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame comprising a plurality of light guide hollows; and

a board engaged with the cover frame and comprising touch sensors and light emitting diodes (LEDs) to illuminate the function icons mounted thereon, the touch sensors being mounted at positions on the board corresponding to the plurality of function icons and the LEDs mounted on the touch sensors to align with respective center regions of the touch sensors and function icons,

wherein the touch sensors are disposed directly below the LEDs and the light guide hollows, respectively.

10. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the cover comprises a transparent polycarbonate sheet or an acryl sheet.

11. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the cover comprises:

a transparent polycarbonate sheet;

a function icon film printed on a rear surface of the polycarbonate sheet; and

a diffusion silk film printed on the function icon film to diffuse light emitted from the luminous elements.

12. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the light guide hollows have a funnel shape in which a diameter of each of the light hollows increases from a bottom portion of each of the light guide hollows to a top portion of each of the light guide hollows.

13. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, further comprising:

a transparent double-sided adhesive tape to form a secure connection between the cover frame and the board and to prevent air from entering between the cover frame and the board.

14. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 9, further comprising:

a double-sided adhesive tape to form a secure connection between the cover frame and the board and to prevent air from entering between the cover frame and the board, the double-sided adhesive tape comprising a plurality of holes formed at positions corresponding to the respective light guide hollows of the cover frame.

15. A touch pad, comprising:

a cover including a plurality of icons; and

a circuit board to connect to the cover, the circuit board comprising;

a plurality of capacitance-detection touch sensors corresponding to the plurality of icons;

a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted at center regions of the touch sensors to illuminate the icons; and

a cover frame mounted between the cover and the circuit board, the cover frame comprising;

a plurality of light guide hollows corresponding to the plurality of LEDs,

wherein the touch sensors are disposed directly below the LEDs and the light guide hollows, respectively.

16. The touch pad of claim 15, wherein the cover frame is securely fastened to the circuit board to prevent air bubbles from forming between the cover frame and the circuit board.

17. The touch pad of claim 15, wherein the cover comprises:

a diffusion silk film to diffuse light emitted from the plurality of LEDs.

21. The touch pad of claim 15, wherein the capacitance detection touch sensors comprise a matrix of first and second conductive lines disposed perpendicularly to one another on the circuit board, and which are insulated from each other by an insulating layer.

18. An image forming apparatus to perform various image forming operations, the image forming apparatus comprising:

a casing;

an image forming unit to form an electrostatic latent image on a printing medium;

a developing unit to apply toner to the printing medium to correspond to the electrostatic latent image;

a fixing unit to fix the toner onto the printing medium; and

an input unit coupled to the casing to input specific commands corresponding to the various image forming operations of the image forming apparatus, the input unit including a touch pad, comprising;

a cover comprising a plurality of icons,

a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame comprising a plurality of light guide hollows, and

a circuit board to connect to the cover, the circuit board comprising;

a plurality of pressure sensing touch sensors corresponding to the plurality of icons; and

a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted at center regions of the touch sensors to illuminate the icons,

wherein the touch sensors are disposed directly below the LEDs and the light guide hollows, respectively.

19. The image forming apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

a scanner to scan and save an image from a printing medium to a storage unit; and

a photo-copying unit to photo-copy an image onto a printing medium.

22. The image forming apparatus of claim 18, wherein the light guide hollows each include a deformable material to detect a pressure applied thereto.

23. The image forming apparatus of claim 22, wherein the deformable material is a polymeric foam.

24. The image forming apparatus of claim 18, wherein light from the LEDs is beamed into the deformable material to form an optical cavity, and the image forming apparatus includes a light intensity detector adjacent the optical cavity to detect an intensity of scattered and diffused light within the deformable material.