The disclosure relates to a keyboard. Particularly, the disclosure relates to an illuminated keyboard.
A keyboard is taken as a common physical input interface and is standard equipment of a notebook computer. With constantly increased demands for operating experience from users, an illuminated keyboard has thus been proposed to satisfy the users in the visual sensory experience. However, light emitted by a backlight module is likely to be emitted from an opening or an assembly gap of a keyboard mechanism, thereby resulting in light leakage and affecting the operating experience during the usage. Moreover, how to achieve assembly reliability and mechanism integration of the illuminated keyboard while meeting design requirements for thinning and light-weighting has been an issue that receives attention of relevant manufacturers.
The disclosure provides a keyboard, which not only helps to improve light leakage or uneven luminous efficacy, but also helps to improve assembly reliability and mechanism integration.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a keyboard includes a backlight module, a base plate disposed on the backlight module, a membrane circuit disposed on the base plate, and a plurality of keycaps disposed on the membrane circuit. The backlight module includes a light source and a reflective layer. The light source and a corresponding circuitry are arranged on the reflective layer, and a circuitry connecting portion extends from the reflective layer. The base plate has a positioning portion with an aperture, and a portion of the reflective layer contacts the base plate or the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the backlight module further includes a shielding layer covering the light source, the shielding layer is provided with a light transmissive portion, and the portion of the reflective layer is exposed by the shielding layer at a position corresponding to the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the light transmissive portion of the shielding layer is optically connected to light transmissive portions of the base plate and the membrane circuit.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the backlight module further includes a light guide layer disposed between the base plate and the reflective layer, and the positioning portion is disposed corresponding to a through-hole of the light guide layer.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the backlight module further includes a shielding layer disposed between the light guide layer and the base plate. A part of the positioning portion of the base plate protrudes toward the membrane circuit, the reflective layer has an extension portion extending to the through-hole of the light guide layer to attached to the shielding layer.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the extension portion further extends through the shielding layer to be in contact with the positioning portion, and the positioning portion passes through the extension portion and the shielding layer.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the shielding layer has a shielding extension portion protruding toward the membrane circuit, the shielding extension portion is in contact with the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a part of the positioning portion protrudes toward the membrane circuit, and the positioning portion has a recess corresponding to the through-hole of the light guide layer.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the backlight module further includes a shielding layer disposed between the light guide layer and the base plate. The reflective layer has an extension portion extending to the through-hole of the light guide layer, and the extension portion covers a portion of the through-hole of the light guide layer and is attached to the shielding layer.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the extension portion further extends beyond the through-hole of the light guide layer and passes through the shielding layer to extend to the recess of the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the shielding layer has a shielding extension portion protruding toward the membrane circuit, and the shielding extension portion extends to the recess of the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the extension portion of the reflective layer protruding from the through-hole is exposed by an opening of the shielding layer.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a base portion of the positioning portion protrudes toward the reflective layer, and the portion of the reflective layer contacts the base portion.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the keyboard further includes a fixing member disposed at a position corresponding to the aperture, and the fixing member is engaged with a frame between two adjacent keycaps.
In the keyboard according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the portion of the reflective layer does not extend to the aperture.
According to another embodiment of the disclosure, a keyboard includes a backlight module, a base plate disposed on the backlight module, a membrane circuit disposed on the base plate, and a plurality of keycaps disposed on the membrane circuit. The backlight module includes a light source, a reflective layer, and a shielding layer. The light source is electrically connected to a circuitry arranged on the reflective layer or the shielding layer. The base plate has a positioning portion, and a portion of the membrane circuit has a non-uniform thickness corresponding to the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to another embodiment of the disclosure, a connecting portion electrically connected to the light source extends from the corresponding reflective layer or shielding layer.
In the keyboard according to another embodiment of the disclosure, a portion of the reflective layer or of the shielding layer where the light source is arranged contacts the base plate or the positioning portion.
In the keyboard according to another embodiment of the disclosure, the light source is arranged optically corresponding to a light transmissive portion of the shielding layer.
In the keyboard according to another embodiment of the disclosure, the membrane circuit has a first portion corresponding to a position between two adjacent keycaps and a second portion adjacent to the first portion covered by one of the keycaps, and a thickness of the first portion is less than a thickness of the second portion.
In the keyboard according to another embodiment of the disclosure, the portion of the membrane circuit is provided with an opening facing the positioning portion.
Based on the foregoing, in the keyboard according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the base plate has the positioning portion for the fixing member to be fixed, to improve assembly reliability and mechanism integration of the keyboard while meeting design requirements for thinning and light-weighting. In addition, the positioning portion of the base plate is disposed corresponding to the through-hole of the light guide layer, and the shielding layer and the reflective layer are in contact with each other in the through-hole of the light guide layer, to block the transmission path of light emitted from the through-hole of the light guide layer to the positioning portion of the base plate, prevent light from being emitted from the gap between the fixing member and the backlight module, and thereby improve light leakage or uneven luminous efficacy.
To make the aforementioned more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numerals are used in the drawings and description to denote the same or similar parts.
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In this embodiment, the light guide layer 113 has a through-hole 113a. The shielding layer 114 and the reflective layer 112 are in contact with each other in the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113. The base plate 120 is disposed on the shielding layer 114. The membrane circuit 130 is disposed on the base plate 120. The base plate 120 has a positioning portion 121 disposed corresponding to the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113. The positioning portion 121 protrudes toward the reflective layer 112. In an embodiment, a fixing member 150 (e.g., a screw, a heat stake, or a buckle) may be fixed in the positioning portion 121 to assemble the keyboard 100 to a notebook computer or other electronic device, to improve assembly reliability and mechanism integration of the keyboard 100 while meeting design requirements for thinning and light-weighting. In addition, the membrane circuit 130 has an opening 131 facing the positioning portion 121 to accommodate at least a part of the positioning portion 121 and the end of the assembled fixing member 150, thereby meeting design requirements for thinning and light-weighting. In an embodiment, the opening 131 may be a blind hole to block the line of sight of a user from directly seeing the positioning portion 121 below the membrane circuit 130 from the outside of the key structures 140. For example, the membrane circuit 130 includes a multi-layer structure (not shown), for example, an upper circuit layer, a spacer layer, and a lower circuit layer, stacked in an extension direction from the keycap 141 to the base plate 120. The spacer layer and the lower circuit layer at locations corresponding to the opening 131 have through-holes to prevent the positioning portion 121 from interfering with the membrane circuit 130 and damaging the circuit structure therein.
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In this embodiment, the positioning portion 121 extends to the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113 and is in contact with the reflective layer 112. Specifically, the positioning portion 121 includes a base portion 121a and a fixing portion 121b engaged with the base portion 121a. The base portion 121a is in contact with the reflective layer 112. The fixing portion 121b penetrates the reflective layer 112. The base portion 121a is, for example, a recess portion that is formed by stamping the material of the base plate 120 and extends toward a side away from the keycap 141. The fixing portion 121b may be a screw boss, and is aligned with the opening 131 of the membrane circuit 130 for the fixing member 150 to be fixed therein. More specifically, the shielding layer 114 has an opening 114b partially overlapping the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113. The reflective layer 112 has an opening 112a partially overlapping the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113 and with the opening 114b of the shielding layer 114. The opening 114b of the shielding layer 114 falls within the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113. The reflective layer 112 is partially exposed from the opening 114b of the shielding layer 114. The base portion 121a extends to the opening 114b of the shielding layer 114 to be in contact with the reflective layer 112. In addition, the fixing portion 121b passes through the opening 112a of the reflective layer 112. Since the positioning portion 121 protrudes toward the reflective layer 112, and a recess 1201 corresponding to the through-hole 113a of the light guide layer 113 is present at the junction between the body and the positioning portion 121 of the base plate 120, the reflective layer 112 covering the base portion 121a can further prevent light leakage caused by light leaked from the glued part between the shielding layer 114 and the reflective layer 112 being reflected by the recess 1201 and emitted from the gap between the base portion 121a and the backlight module 110.
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In summary of the foregoing, in the keyboard according to the embodiments of the disclosure, the base plate has the positioning portion for the fixing member to be fixed, to improve assembly reliability and mechanism integration of the keyboard while meeting design requirements for thinning and light-weighting. In addition, the positioning portion of the base plate is disposed corresponding to the through-hole of the light guide layer, and the shielding layer and the reflective layer are in contact with each other in the through-hole of the light guide layer, to block the transmission path of light emitted from the through-hole of the light guide layer to the positioning portion of the base plate, prevent light from being emitted from the gap between the fixing member and the backlight module, and thereby improve light leakage or uneven luminous efficacy.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure covers modifications and variations provided that they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
This application is a continuation application of and claims the priority benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/325,135, filed on May 30, 2023. The prior U.S. application Ser. No. 18/325,135 is a divisional application of and claims the priority benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/694,700, filed on Mar. 15, 2022, which claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 63/160,957, filed on Mar. 15, 2021. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63160957 | Mar 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17694700 | Mar 2022 | US |
Child | 18325135 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 18325135 | May 2023 | US |
Child | 18610296 | US |