Patent Grant
9543638
Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. ยง119(a), this application claims the benefit of earlier filing date and right of priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0113727, filed on Oct. 12, 2012, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a fixing bracket for an antenna cable and a portable terminal having the same, and more particularly, to a portable terminal which includes a conductive bracket clamping an antenna cable to improve grounding effects and assemblability.
Portable terminals represent devices that are portable by a user to perform wireless communication. Such a portable terminal includes an antenna.
The antenna is connected to a main board within the portable terminal to transmit a signal. Also, the antenna is fixed to a metal frame.
The metal frame provided within the portable terminal may be accurately molded by die casting. Thus, since the metal frame is not elastically deformed, relatively high accuracy is required when assembled.
Also, when a portion of the antenna cable is fixed to the metal frame, possibility in the occurrence of defects due to location deviation and product deviation is high.
Particularly, the portable terminal should be grounded to reduce signal noises. Here, when a separate member, e.g., a gasket tape is coupled to the outside of the antenna cable to ground the portable terminal, possibility in the occurrence of defects may be further increased. Thus, it may be difficult to ground the portable terminal.
Embodiments provide a portable terminal including a bracket that is capable of improving assemblability and grounding effects.
In one embodiment, a portable terminal includes: a metal frame including a cable accommodation part; an antenna cable accommodated into the cable accommodation part, the antenna cable including a conductive part; and a bracket clamping the antenna cable, the bracket being inserted into and coupled to the cable accommodation part, wherein the bracket is formed of a conductive material and in contact with the conductive part.
In another embodiment, a fixing bracket for clamping an antenna cable to fix the antenna cable to a metal frame of a portable terminal includes: a clamping part clamping the antenna cable; and a fixing part fixing the clamping part to the metal frame, wherein the fixing bracket is formed of a conductive material.
In further another embodiment, a portable terminal includes: a metal frame including a battery mounting part and a cable accommodation part; an antenna cable accommodated into the cable accommodation part, the antenna cable including a conductive part; and a bracket clamping the antenna cable, the bracket being inserted into and coupled to the cable accommodation part, wherein the bracket is formed of a conductive material and in contact with the conductive part, wherein the bracket includes: a clamping part clamping the antenna cable; and a fixing part fixing the clamping part to the cable accommodation part.
The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Hereinafter, a fixing bracket for an antenna cable and a portable terminal including the same according to an embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
In detail, the metal frame 10 may be a portion to which various components of the portable terminal are coupled. The metal frame 10 may be formed of a metal material. For example, a metal such as magnesium or aluminum may be die-casted to mold an accurate metal frame.
The cable accommodation part 11, a battery mounting part 12, and a fixing partition wall 13 are disposed on the metal frame 10. Hereinafter, detailed configurations of the battery mounting part 12, the fixing partition wall 13, and the cable accommodation part 11 are successively descried in detail.
The battery mounting part 12 is disposed on an approximately central portion of the metal frame 10. The battery mounting part 12 includes a battery mounting partition wall 12a partitioning an inner space. The battery mounting partition wall 12a protrudes outward from one surface of the frame 10. Also, four battery mounting partition walls 12a define an approximately rectangular plane shape. A battery (not shown) for supplying a power to the portable terminal is coupled to the battery mounting part 12.
The fixing partition wall 13 is disposed outside the battery mounting part 12. The fixing partition wall 13 protrudes from one surface (see a top surface in
The cable accommodation part 11 is disposed outside the battery mounting part 12. In more detail, the cable accommodation part 11 may be disposed between the battery mounting partition walls 12a and the fixing wall 13. In this case, one side of the cable accommodation part 11 may be partitioned by the battery mounting partition walls 12a, and the other side of the cable accommodation part 11 may be partitioned by the fixing partition wall 13. Thus, the cable accommodation part 11 may be defined as a space between the battery mounting partition walls 12a and the fixing wall 13. Thus, the cable accommodation part 11 may be disposed parallel to one battery mounting partition wall 12a.
An antenna cable 20 that will be described later is coupled to the cable accommodation part 11.
Referring to
The battery accommodation part 11, as shown in
The antenna cable 20 is accommodated into the cable accommodation part 11 in a state where the antenna cable 20 is coupled to a bracket 100 that will be described later.
The cable may be configured to transmit a signal between the antenna (not shown) and the main board (not shown). Also, a sheath of the cable 20 may be cut at a predetermined position thereof. Here, a conductive part 30 having an approximately cylindrical shape and formed of a conductive material is provided at the portion at which the sheath is cut.
Thus, in the cable 20, current may flow through a portion surrounded by the sheath. However, current may not flow through both ends of the cable 20 connected to the antenna and the main board and the portion on which the conductive part 30 is disposed. The bracket 00 is coupled to the outside of the conductive part 30.
A detailed configuration of the bracket 100 will be described in detail with reference to
The bracket 100 includes a clamping part 110 surrounding the conductive part 30 and a fixing part 120 fixing the clamping part 110 to the cable accommodation part 11.
The clamping part 110 includes a body 111, of which a portion of an upper portion is opened, having a cylindrical shape and a guard part inclinedly extending outward from an upper end of the body 111 in an upward and width direction.
An opening cut in a longitudinal direction of the body 111 is defined in the upper portion of the body 111. A rounded one surface of the body 111 laying cylindrical shape is opened to define the opening 113. If an external force is not applied, the opening 113 may have a length in a width direction less than that of the conductive part 30 in a width direction.
However, the conductive part 30 of the cable may be inserted into the clamping part 110 through the opening 113 or separated outward from the clamping part 110. The clamping part 110 may be elastically deformable in the width direction and then extended or contracted. Thus, in this case, the opening 113 may be changed in width.
Here, the antenna cable 20 illustrated in
The guide part 112 is disposed on an upper end of the body 111 having the opening 113 to guide the insertion of the conductive part 30. As described above, the guide part 112 may extend upward and outward from the opening 113. Here, the guide part 112 may have a curved surface that is bent outward.
Also, a connection portion between the body 111 and the guide part 112 may be rounded.
The guide part 112 extends from both ends of the opening in the longitudinal direction of the opening 113 and the body 111.
Thus, as shown in
The body 111 and the guide part 112 may be integrated with each other.
The fixing part 120 includes an elastically deformable protrusion 121 protruding outward from the clamping part 110 and a cutoff part 122 extending along a portion of an edge of the protrusion 121. The protrusion 121 may be provided in a pair in the width direction.
In the configuration of the protrusion 121, the protrusion 121 includes a first extension part 121a inclinedly extending upward from the clamping part 110 and a second extension part 121b bent inward from an end of the first extension part 121a at a predetermined angle to extend.
Each of the first and second extension parts 121a and 121b may have a rounded surface. That is, the second extension part 121b may have a shape bent upward and inward from the end of the first extension part 121a.
Thus, as shown in a dotted line in
In this process, the protrusion 121 presses the side surface of the cable accommodation part 11 by an elastic force that returns to its original position in the bracket 100 inserted into the cable accommodation part 11. Thus, the bracket 100 may be firmly fixed to the inside of the cable accommodation part 11 without using a separate adhesive.
The clamping part 110 and the fixing part 120 may be integrated with each other to constitute the bracket 100. Thus, the bracket 100 may be formed of a conductive metallic material having elasticity.
Therefore, since the conductive part 30, the bracket 100, and the metal frame 10 are maintained in the firmly contact state, a grounding effect may be improved.
The above-described bracket 100 may be provided in at least one. The number of brackets 100 may be adequately selected as necessary according to the installed position and number of bracket 100 within the metal frame.
That is, the bracket 100 may be provided in plurality. When the bracket 100 is provided in plurality, the conductive part 30 of the cable 20 may also be provided in plurality to correspond to the number of brackets 100. In this case, if it is difficult to achieve the ground effect by one bracket 100, the ground effect may be achieved by the other bracket 100 and the conductive part 30.
Hereinafter, a process of assembling the antenna cable 20 by using the bracket 100 having the above-described structure will be described.
First, the bracket 100 is inserted into and then coupled to the conductive part 30 of the antenna cable 20.
In this process, since the conductive part 30 has a diameter greater than a width of the opening 113, when the conductive part 30 is inserted into the body 111 of the bracket 100 through the opening 113, the guide part 112 may be pressed to further extend the opening 113. Thus, the conductive part 30 may be inserted into the body 111 through the further extended opening 113.
Since the guide part 112 is provided, even though the conductive part 30 is not disposed at an accurately right center of the opening 113, if the conductive part 30 is pressed, the conductive part 30 may be slid along the guide 112. Thus, since the conductive part 30 is inserted through the opening 113, the assembling process may be easy.
After the cable 20 is inserted into the bracket 100, the bracket 100 is inserted into the cable accommodation part 11 of the metal frame 10.
A distance between the two protrusions 121 protruding from both side surfaces of the bracket 100 may be greater than that between both side surfaces 11a of the cable accommodation part 11. Thus, when the bracket 100 is pressed toward the bottom surface 11b of the cable accommodation part 11, the protrusion 121 disposed at the dotted point of
Here, since the protrusion 121 presses both side surface 11a of the cable accommodation part 11 by the elastically restoring force that returns to its original shape as shown in the dotted line of
Also, since the conductive part 30, the bracket 100, and the metal frame 10 are conductively connected to each other by the above-described coupling, the grounding effect may be improved to reduce noises generated when the signal is transmitted.
Also, since the cutoff part 122 is disposed in the edge of the protrusion 121, the protrusion 121 may be smoothly contracted. If the cutoff part 122 is not provided, when the protrusion 121 is contracted from the position of the dotted line to the position of the solid line in
Also, as described above, the bracket 100 may be inserted first into the conductive part 30 of the antenna cable 20, and then the antenna cable 20 may be coupled to the cable accommodation part 11 of the metal frame 10. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described order. For example, the bracket 100 may be coupled first to the cable accommodation part 11, and then the antenna cable 20 may be inserted into and coupled to the bracket 100.
In the portable terminal according to the embodiment, since the antenna cable is coupled to the metal frame by the bracket, the assemblability may be improved, and defect rate due to the assembling deviation and product deviation may be reduced.
Also, since the grounding effect is improved by the bracket, the noises generated in the signal transmission process may be reduced.
Although embodiments have been described with reference to a number of illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles of this disclosure. More particularly, various variations and modifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subject combination arrangement within the scope of the disclosure, the drawings and the appended claims. In addition to variations and modifications in the component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also be apparent to those skilled in the art.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2012-0113727 | Oct 2012 | KR | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6899305 | Korczak | May 2005 | B2 |
| 20060038727 | Ikeda | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20140104118 A1 | Apr 2014 | US |
