Patent Application
20140174899
The present invention relates to a keyboard equipped with illuminated keycaps and particularly to a keyboard including a plurality of lighting units respectively corresponding to an individual keycap to generate illumination thereof.
Computers almost have become necessities in people's life nowadays. Keyboards are indispensible input equipment in computers. To allow the computers to be used in varying environments, many types of illuminated keyboards have been developed on the market, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,648,530, 7,589,292, 7,531,764 and 6,860,612. They all disclose a keyboard equipped with a light emitting module to provide illumination in dim or dark environment. In order to make illumination uniform, the light emitting module in the keyboard usually includes a light guide plate to transmit light emitted from the light emitting element. However, the prevailing trend of the computer at present pursues compact, the presence of the light guide plate increases total thickness of the keyboard and makes slim and lightweight of the keyboard not possible. Moreover, this kind of keyboard also requires complicated alignment during assembly that makes fabrication process more complex.
In view of the aforesaid problems, Applicant has proposed another type of illuminated keyboard in R.O.C. publication No. 201115609 in which a light emitting strip is provided in a movable space. The light emitting strip has an opaque zone and a transparent zone through which light projects to keycaps. The light emitting strip is located locally in the movable space, hence the space occupied by the conventional light emitting plate can be saved. As a result, the keyboard can be made thinner and the weight thereof is lighter. However, as illumination uniformity of the light emitted from the illuminated keyboard is determined by the light transmission characteristic of the light guide strip. In the event that the light transmission characteristic of the light guide strip is poorer, the keyboard cannot provide uniform illumination that some portions could be too bright or some portions could be too dark. To overcome the aforesaid problem, the light emission structure of the keyboard still has room for improvement.
The primary object of the present invention is to overcome the problem of the conventional illuminated keyboards of emitting light unevenly or too bright of the light to harsh user's eyes.
To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides a keyboard equipped with illuminated keycaps. It mainly comprises a keyboard portion and a plurality of lighting units. The keyboard portion includes a circuit board with a plurality of keyboard command portions, a plurality of keycaps respectively corresponding to the keyboard command portions and a plurality of elastic support members located between the circuit board and keycaps and depressed by the keycaps to trigger the keyboard command portions. The keycaps and elastic support members jointly form a light emitting zone. Each of the lighting units corresponds to one keycap and includes a light emitting chip located on the circuit board, a package layer covering the light emitting chip and a light mask layer locally disposed on the package layer to mask light from the light emitting chip towards the abutting keycap so that the light is confined to generate illumination, merely in the light emitting zone.
In one embodiment the circuit board further includes an upper film, a lower film and a middle film located between the upper film and lower film. More specifically, the lighting unit can be selectively located on the upper film, the lower film or the middle film. In the event that the lighting unit is located on the middle film, the upper film includes a plurality of first apertures respectively corresponding to the lighting units for holding the light emitting chips; in the event that the lighting unit is located on the lower film, the upper film includes the first apertures and the middle film includes a plurality of second apertures respectively corresponding to the lighting units and communicating with the first apertures for holding the lighting units.
In another embodiment the circuit board includes a reflective layer to confine the lighting units to project light merely to the light emitting zone.
In yet another embodiment the light mask layer is made of an opaque material or a reflective material; the package layer is formed in a circular or polygonal cross section in a vertical direction.
In yet another embodiment the elastic support members are made of a light transmission material.
In yet another embodiment each of the keycaps includes a transparent zone and an opaque zone.
In yet another embodiment the keyboard portion includes a plurality of driven mechanisms to respectively support the keycaps and depressed by the keycaps, and a support board to hold the driven mechanisms. More specifically, the circuit board is located above or below the support board which includes a plurality of openings respectively corresponding to the lighting units.
The keyboard equipped with illuminated keycaps according to the invention, compared with the conventional illuminated keyboards, has the following features:
1. Simpler structure. The keyboard of the invention does not have the light emitting plate or light emitting strip, hence the keyboard structure is simplified and can be made thinner, and the fabrication process also can be simplified.
2. Uniform illumination of the keyboard. In the keyboard of the invention, the lighting units correspond respectively to each of the keycaps, and the light mask layer confines light to merely project to the corresponding keycap, hence the keycaps are illuminated evenly without having some portions too bright or some portions too dark. On the other hand, the light mask layer also can make light projection concentrated without scattering excessively that might cause uneven illumination of the entire keyboard.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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As a conclusion, the keyboard equipped with illuminated keycaps of the present invention mainly includes a keyboard portion and a plurality of lighting units. The keyboard portion includes a circuit board with a plurality of keyboard command portions, a plurality of keycaps respectively corresponding to the keyboard command portions and a plurality of elastic support members located between the circuit board and keycaps and depressed by the keycaps to trigger the keyboard command portions. The keycaps and elastic support members form a light emitting zone therebetween. The lighting units correspond respectively to one keycap. Each of the lighting units includes a light emitting chip located on the circuit board, a package layer covering the light emitting chip and a light mask layer locally disposed on the package layer to mask light from the light emitting chip towards the abutting keycap such that the light is confined to generate illumination merely in the light emitting zone. The keyboard thus formed can overcome the problems of the conventional illuminated keyboards that cannot be made thinner and cannot provide uniform illumination due to the light guide plate or light guide strip. Fabrication process of the keyboard of the invention also is simplified and the keyboard structure is simpler.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, they are not the limitation of the invention, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.
