Patent Application
20240405794
This invention relates generally to portable electronic devices, and more particularly, to portable electronic devices such as handheld electronic devices.
Handheld electronic devices and other portable electronic devices are becoming increasingly popular. Examples of handheld devices include handheld computers, cellular telephones, media players, and hybrid devices that include the functionality of multiple devices of this type. Popular portable electronic devices that are somewhat larger than traditional handheld electronic devices include laptop computers and tablet computers.
To satisfy consumer demand for small form factor devices such as handheld electronic devices, manufacturers are continually striving to reduce the size of components that are used in these devices while providing enhanced functionality. Significant enhancements may be difficult to implement, however, particularly in devices in which numerous components are used.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved handheld electronic devices.
A portable electronic device such as a handheld electronic device is provided. The device may be formed from a tilt assembly and a housing assembly. During manufacturing, the tilt assembly may be inserted into the housing assembly.
The tilt assembly may include a frame. The frame may have a plastic frame member that is overmolded on top of metal frame struts. A planar mid-plate member may be connected to the frame to provide additional rigidity. Retention clips may be connected to one end of the frame. Threads in the retention clips may receive screws that may be used in securing the tilt assembly to the housing assembly.
Components such as a display unit, touch sensor, and cover glass may be mounted within the frame.
The housing assembly may include a plastic housing member, a bezel connected to the plastic housing member, and electrical components mounted within the plastic housing such as printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, etc.
Engagement members may be connected to the tilt assembly and housing assembly. During assembly, the engagement members may nondestructively engage one another to hold the tilt assembly within the housing assembly. In this configuration, the top surface of the cover glass may lie flush with the bezel on the housing assembly. The bezel may surround the cover glass. The frame may have a protrusion that surrounds the cover glass. The protrusion and other portions of the frame may form a shelf that supports the cover glass. To protect the cover glass from scratches due to contact with the bezel, an elastomeric gasket may be interposed between the bezel and the cover glass. The gasket may be formed over the protrusion.
One or both of the engagement members may be flexible enough to allow the tilt assembly and the housing assembly to be taken apart without damaging the engagement members. This allows the portable electronic device to be disassembled for rework or repair operations.
The engagement members may include metal clips and metal springs. The metal clips may be welded to the frame struts. The metal springs may be welded to the bezel. The metal clips may have elongated planar members with cut-out portions. The cut-out portions may define holes and may be formed by bending planar portions of the elongated planar members so that they are angled inwardly. The bent planar portions of the clips form shelf-like members adjacent to the holes. The springs may have spring prongs that flex during assembly. Following assembly operations, the prongs protrude into the holes and hold the tilt assembly to the housing assembly. The prongs may have curved portions that bear against the planar shelf portions of the clips that are formed by the bent planar portions of the elongated members. The use of curves and the bent planar portions in the spring prongs and clip structures may help reduce harshness when inserting and removing the tilt assembly into the housing assembly and can improve mechanical tolerances.
Assembly instructions may be included within the housing. For example, laser etching techniques may be used to imprint instructions onto a metal can within the housing. Numbers or other assembly order indicators may be formed next to parts of the device. For example, a number may be placed next to each electrical connection that is to be formed. The electrical connections that are formed may include, zero-insertion-force connections, board-to-board connections, and coaxial cable connections. The instructions may refer to the assembly order indicators.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
The present invention relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to portable electronic devices such as handheld electronic devices.
The electronic devices may be portable electronic devices such as laptop computers or small portable computers of the type that are sometimes referred to as ultraportables. Portable electronic devices may also be somewhat smaller devices. Examples of smaller portable electronic devices include wrist-watch devices, pendant devices, headphone and earpiece devices, and other wearable and miniature devices. With one suitable arrangement, the portable electronic devices may be wireless electronic devices.
The wireless electronic devices may be, for example, handheld wireless devices such as cellular telephones, media players with wireless communications capabilities, handheld computers (also sometimes called personal digital assistants), remote controllers, global positioning system (GPS) devices, and handheld gaming devices. The wireless electronic devices may also be hybrid devices that combine the functionality of multiple conventional devices. Examples of hybrid portable electronic devices include a cellular telephone that includes media player functionality, a gaming device that includes a wireless communications capability, a cellular telephone that includes game and email functions, and a portable device that receives email, supports mobile telephone calls, has music player functionality and supports web browsing. These are merely illustrative examples.
An illustrative portable electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Device 10 may have housing 12. Antennas for handling wireless communications may be housed within housing 12 (as an example).
Housing 12, which is sometimes referred to as a case, may be formed of any suitable materials including, plastic, glass, ceramics, metal, or other suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. In some situations, housing 12 or portions of housing 12 may be formed from a dielectric or other low-conductivity material, so that the operation of conductive antenna elements that are located in proximity to housing 12 is not disrupted. Housing 12 or portions of housing 12 may also be formed from conductive materials such as metal. An advantage of forming housing 12 from a dielectric material such as plastic is that this may help to reduce the overall weight of device 10 and may avoid potential interference with wireless operations.
In scenarios in which housing 12 is formed from metal elements, one or more of the metal elements may be used as part of the antennas in device 10. For example, metal portions of housing 12 may be shorted to an internal ground plane in device 10 to create a larger ground plane element for that device 10.
Housing 12 may have a bezel 14. The bezel 14 may be formed from a conductive material or other suitable material. Bezel 14 may serve to hold a display or other device with a planar surface in place on device 10 and/or may serve to form an esthetically pleasing trim around the edge of device 10. As shown in
Display 16 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, or any other suitable display. The outermost surface of display 16 may be formed from one or more plastic or glass layers. If desired, touch screen functionality may be integrated into display 16 or may be provided using a separate touch pad device. An advantage of integrating a touch screen into display 16 to make display 16 touch sensitive is that this type of arrangement can save space and reduce visual clutter.
Display screen 16 (e.g., a touch screen) is merely one example of an input-output device that may be used with electronic device 10. If desired, electronic device 10 may have other input-output devices. For example, electronic device 10 may have user input control devices such as button 19, and input-output components such as port 20 and one or more input-output jacks (e.g., for audio and/or video). Button 19 may be, for example, a menu button. Port 20 may contain a 30-pin data connector (as an example). Openings 22 and 24 may, if desired, form speaker and microphone ports. Speaker port 22 may be used when operating device 10 in speakerphone mode. Opening 23 may also form a speaker port. For example, speaker port 23 may serve as a telephone receiver that is placed adjacent to a user's ear during operation. In the example of
A user of electronic device 10 may supply input commands using user input interface devices such as button 19 and touch screen 16. Suitable user input interface devices for electronic device 10 include buttons (e.g., alphanumeric keys, power on-off, power-on, power-off, and other specialized buttons, etc.), a touch pad, pointing stick, or other cursor control device, a microphone for supplying voice commands, or any other suitable interface for controlling device 10. Although shown schematically as being formed on the top face of electronic device 10 in the example of
Electronic device 10 may have ports such as port 20. Port 20, which may sometimes be referred to as a dock connector, 30-pin data port connector, input-output port, or bus connector, may be used as an input-output port (e.g., when connecting device 10 to a mating dock connected to a computer or other electronic device). Port 20 may contain pins for receiving data and power signals. Device 10 may also have audio and video jacks that allow device 10 to interface with external components. Typical ports include power jacks to recharge a battery within device 10 or to operate device 10 from a direct current (DC) power supply, data ports to exchange data with external components such as a personal computer or peripheral, audio-visual jacks to drive headphones, a monitor, or other external audio-video equipment, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card port to authorize cellular telephone service, a memory card slot, etc. The functions of some or all of these devices and the internal circuitry of electronic device 10 can be controlled using input interface devices such as touch screen display 16.
Components such as display 16 and other user input interface devices may cover most of the available surface area on the front face of device 10 (as shown in the example of
Examples of locations in which antenna structures may be located in device 10 include region 18 and region 21. These are merely illustrative examples. Any suitable portion of device 10 may be used to house antenna structures for device 10 if desired.
A schematic diagram of an embodiment of an illustrative portable electronic device such as a handheld electronic device is shown in
As shown in
Processing circuitry 36 may be used to control the operation of device 10. Processing circuitry 36 may be based on a processor such as a microprocessor and other suitable integrated circuits. With one suitable arrangement, processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 are used to run software on device 10, such as internet browsing applications, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, email applications, media playback applications, operating system functions, etc. Processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 may be used in implementing suitable communications protocols. Communications protocols that may be implemented using processing circuitry 36 and storage 34 include internet protocols, wireless local area network protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocols—sometimes referred to as Wi-Fi®), protocols for other short-range wireless communications links such as the Bluetooth® protocol, protocols for handling 3G communications services (e.g., using wide band code division multiple access techniques), 2G cellular telephone communications protocols, etc.
To minimize power consumption, processing circuitry 36 may include power management circuitry to implement power management functions. During operation, the power management circuitry or other processing circuitry 36 may be used to adjust power supply voltages that are provided to portions of the circuitry on device 10. For example, higher direct-current (DC) power supply voltages may be supplied to active circuits and lower DC power supply voltages may be supplied to circuits that are less active or that are inactive.
Input-output devices 38 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to external devices. Display screen 16, button 19, microphone port 24, speaker port 22, and dock connector port 20 are examples of input-output devices 38.
Input-output devices 38 can include user input-output devices 40 such as buttons, touch screens, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touch pads, key pads, keyboards, microphones, cameras, etc. A user can control the operation of device 10 by supplying commands through user input devices 40. Display and audio devices 42 may include liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens or other screens, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and other components that present visual information and status data. Display and audio devices 42 may also include audio equipment such as speakers and other devices for creating sound. Display and audio devices 42 may contain audio-video interface equipment such as jacks and other connectors for external headphones and monitors.
Wireless communications devices 44 may include communications circuitry such as radio-frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry formed from one or more integrated circuits, power amplifier circuitry, passive RF components, antennas, and other circuitry for handling RF wireless signals. Wireless signals can also be sent using light (e.g., using infrared communications).
Device 10 can communicate with external devices such as accessories 46, computing equipment 48, and wireless network 49 as shown by paths 50 and 51. Paths 50 may include wired and wireless paths. Path 51 may be a wireless path. Accessories 46 may include headphones (e.g., a wireless cellular headset or audio headphones) and audio-video equipment (e.g., wireless speakers, a game controller, or other equipment that receives and plays audio and video content), a peripheral such as a wireless printer or camera, etc.
Computing equipment 48 may be any suitable computer. With one suitable arrangement, computing equipment 48 is a computer that has an associated wireless access point (router) or an internal or external wireless card that establishes a wireless connection with device 10. The computer may be a server (e.g., an internet server), a local area network computer with or without internet access, a user's own personal computer, a peer device (e.g., another portable electronic device 10), or any other suitable computing equipment.
Wireless network 49 may include any suitable network equipment, such as cellular telephone base stations, cellular towers, wireless data networks, computers associated with wireless networks, etc. For example, wireless network 49 may include network management equipment that monitors the wireless signal strength of the wireless handsets (cellular telephones, handheld computing devices, etc.) that are in communication with network 49.
The antenna structures and wireless communications devices of device 10 may support communications over any suitable wireless communications bands. For example, wireless communications devices 44 may be used to cover communications frequency bands such as cellular telephone voice and data bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz (as examples). Devices 44 may also be used to handle the Wi-Fi® (IEEE 802.11) bands at 2.4 GHZ and 5.0 GHz (also sometimes referred to as wireless local area network or WLAN bands), the Bluetooth® band at 2.4 GHZ, and the global positioning system (GPS) band at 1575 MHz.
Device 10 can cover these communications bands and/or other suitable communications bands with proper configuration of the antenna structures in wireless communications circuitry 44. Any suitable antenna structures may be used in device 10. For example, device 10 may have one antenna or may have multiple antennas. The antennas in device 10 may each be used to cover a single communications band or each antenna may cover multiple communications bands. If desired, one or more antennas may cover a single band while one or more additional antennas are each used to cover multiple bands. As an example, a pentaband cellular telephone antenna may be provided at one end of device 10 (e.g., in region 18) to handle 2G and 3G voice and data signals and a dual band antenna may be provided at another end of device 10 (e.g., in region 21) to handle GPS and 2.4 GHz signals. The pentaband antenna may be used to cover wireless bands at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz (as an example). The dual band antenna 63 may be used to handle 1575 MHz signals for GPS operations and 2.4 GHz signals (for Bluetooth® and IEEE 802.11 operations). These are merely illustrative arrangements. Any suitable antenna structures may be used in device 10 if desired.
To facilitate manufacturing operations, device 10 may be formed from two intermediate assemblies, representing upper and lower portions of device 10. The upper or top portion of device 10 is sometimes referred to as a tilt assembly. The lower or bottom portion of device 10 is sometimes referred to as a housing assembly.
The tilt and housing assemblies are each formed from a number of smaller components. For example, the tilt assembly may be formed from components such as display 16 and an associated touch sensor. The housing assembly may include a plastic housing portion 12 and printed circuit boards. Integrated circuits and other components may be mounted on the printed circuit boards.
During initial manufacturing operations, the tilt assembly is formed from its constituent parts and the housing assembly is formed from its constituent parts. Because essentially all components in device 10 make up part of these two assemblies, the finished assemblies represent a nearly complete version of device 10. The finished assemblies may, if desired, be tested. If testing reveals a defect, repairs may be made or defective assemblies may be discarded. During a final set of manufacturing operations, the tilt assembly is inserted into the housing assembly. With one suitable arrangement, one end of the tilt assembly is inserted into the housing assembly. The tilt assembly is then rotated (“tilted”) into place so that the upper surface of the tilt assembly lies flush with the upper edges of the housing assembly.
As the tilt assembly is rotated into place within the housing assembly, clips on the tilt assembly engage springs on the housing assembly. The clips and springs form a detent that helps to align the tilt assembly properly with the housing assembly. Should rework or repair be necessary, the insertion process can be reversed by rotating the tilt assembly up and away from the housing assembly. During rotation of the tilt assembly relative to the housing assembly, the springs flex to accommodate movement. When the tilt assembly is located within the housing assembly, the springs press into holes in the clips to prevent relative movement between the tilt and housing assemblies. Rework and repair operations need not be destructive to the springs, clips, and other components in the device. This helps to prevent waste and complications that might otherwise interfere with the manufacturing of device 10.
If desired, screws or other fasteners may be used to help secure the tilt assembly to the housing assembly. The screws may be inserted into the lower end of device 10. With one suitable arrangement, the screws are inserted in an unobtrusive portion of the end of device 10 so that they are not noticeable following final assembly operations. Prior to rework or repair operations, the screws can be removed from device 10.
An exploded perspective view showing illustrative components of device 10 is shown in
Tilt assembly 60 (shown in its unassembled state in
Housing assembly 70 (shown in its unassembled state in
As shown in
Bezel 14 may be mounted to housing 12. Following final assembly, bezel 14 may surround the display of device 10 and may, if desired, help secure the display onto device 10. Bezel 14 may also serve as a cosmetic trim member that provides an attractive finished appearance to device 10.
Housing assembly 70 may include battery 74. Battery 74 may be, for example, a lithium polymer battery having a capacity of about 1300 mA-hours. Battery 74 may have spring contacts that allow battery 74 to be serviced.
Housing assembly 70 may also include one or more printed circuit boards such as printed circuit board 72. Components may be mounted to printed circuit boards such as microphone 76 for microphone port 24, speaker 78 for speaker port 22, and dock connector 20, integrated circuits, a camera, ear speaker, audio jack, buttons, SIM card slot, etc.
A top view of an illustrative device 10 is shown in
An interior bottom view of device 10 is shown in
Vibrator 92 may be used to vibrate device 10. Device 10 may be vibrated at any suitable time. For example, device 10 may be vibrated to alert a user to the presence of an incoming telephone call, an incoming email message, a calendar reminder, a clock alarm, etc.
Battery 74 may be a removable battery that is installed in the interior of device 10 adjacent to dock connector 20, microphone 76, and speaker 78.
A cross-sectional side view of device 10 is shown in
An illustrative process for assembling device 10 from tilt assembly 60 and housing assembly 70 is shown in
As shown in
Tilt assembly 60 may have clips such as clips 112 and housing assembly 70 may have matching springs 114. When tilt assembly 60 is rotated into place within housing assembly 70, the springs and clips mate with each other to hold tilt assembly 60 in place within housing assembly 70.
Tilt assembly 60 may have one or more retention clips such as retention clips 116. Retention clips 116 may have threaded holes that mate with screws 108. After tilt assembly has been inserted into housing assembly, screws 108 may be screwed into retention clips 116 through holes 110 in housing assembly 70. This helps to firmly secure tilt assembly 60 to housing assembly 70. Should rework or repair be desired, screws 108 may be removed from retention clips 116 and tilt assembly 60 may be released from housing assembly 70. During the removal of tilt assembly 60 from housing assembly 70, springs 114 may flex relative to clips 112 without permanently deforming. Because no damage is done to tilt assembly 60 or housing assembly 70 in this type of scenario, nondestructive rework and repair operations are possible.
A cross-sectional side view of device 10 that shows how screws 108 may pass through bezel 14 is shown in
When screw 108 is tightened, bezel 14 and retention clip 116 are pulled towards each other. Bezel 14 is pulled in direction 154 and retention clip 116 is pulled in direction 160, so that inner bezel surface 156 of bezel 14 and outer retention clip surface 158 bear against each other. This helps to hold device 10 together and prevents unintentional removal of the tilt assembly from the housing assembly.
Retention clip 116 may be attached to frame 68 using any suitable technique (e.g., fasteners, adhesive, etc.). With one particularly suitable arrangement, which is illustrated in
Frame 68 may have lip-shaped protrusions such as protrusions 148. Protrusions 148 may help form a shelf for cover glass 62. In particular, protrusions 148 may form a shelf with inner surfaces 150 that hold outer edges 152 of cover 62.
A gasket such as gasket 146 may be interposed between bezel 14 and the display of device 10. In particular, gasket 146 may be used to prevent cover glass 62 from directly bearing against bezel 14. This may help to prevent rubbing between bezel 14 and cover glass 62, thereby preventing chips or scratches from forming in cover glass 62. Gasket 146 may be formed of thermoplastic urethane (TPU), silicone, polyester film, or other soft plastic (as an example). Gasket 146 may have any suitable cross-sectional shape. For example, gasket 146 may have a circular cross section, gasket 146 may have a rectangular cross-section, etc. Gasket 146 may help to seal the surface of the display portion of device 10 to prevent debris from entering device 10. Gasket 146 may also help to center the display within bezel 14 and may help to hide potentially unsightly portions of the display from view. The cover glass portion of display 16 may have one or more holes or cut-away portions. For example, glass 62 may have a hole that accommodates button 19 (
At tilt assembly end 100, frame 68 may have one or more protrusions such as protrusion 136. These protrusions, which are sometimes referred to as teeth, tabs, or fingers, are used to hold end 100 of the tilt assembly into place within the housing assembly. As shown in
A perspective view of tilt assembly 60 is shown in
Frame 68 may be formed of a single material (e.g., plastic or metal) or, more preferably, multiple materials. In embodiments in which frame 68 is formed from multiple materials, the weight of frame 68 may be minimized while providing sufficient structural strength where most beneficial. As shown in
Plastic frame member 166 may form a shelf that supports cover glass 62. The shelf may be formed by inner surface 150 of frame member protrusion 148 and upper peripheral frame member surface 176. An advantage of using a shelf that is formed of relatively soft materials is that this helps prevent the shelf from damaging cover glass 62. If desired, portions of gasket 146 such as gasket portion 178 of
A perspective view of an interior portion of housing assembly 70 is shown in
If, for example, bezel 14 is formed from stainless steel, springs 114 may also be formed from stainless steel. The same principle applies to clips 112 and frame struts 168. The use of the same material for clips 112 and struts 168 (e.g., stainless steel) may allow clips 112 to be satisfactorily welded to struts 168. An example of a stainless steel that may provide suitable strength for use in components such as frame struts 168 and bezel 14 is 304 stainless (e.g., ¾ hard 304 stainless). In this type of situation, it may be desirable to form clips 112 and springs 114 from 304 stainless, so that clips 112 may be readily welded to frame struts 168 and so that springs 114 may be readily welded to bezel 14. The use of ¾ hard heat-treated stainless steel allows these parts to be relatively strong while being bendable when sufficiently thin. In an illustrative configuration, frame struts 168 may be about 0.4 mm thick and clips 112 and springs 114 may be about 0.2 mm thick (as an example).
Springs such as spring 114 of
If desired, springs 114 (i.e., spring members such as spring member 180) may be used to form a support structure to which components in device 10 may be mounted. An arrangement of this type is shown in
Spring prongs 182 may flex during assembly. Following assembly, some or all of spring prongs 182 may engage clips 112 on tilt assembly 60. As shown in
With one suitable embodiment of tilt assembly 60, there is a member such as member 198 that forms a clip on each side of tilt assembly 60. The perspective view of
A lateral cross-sectional view of an illustrative device 10 is shown in
As described in connection with
Springs 114 may be welded or otherwise mounted to bezel 14. When the tilt assembly is mounted in the housing assembly as shown in
A cross-sectional view of spring 114 and clip 112 is shown in
The flexibility of spring prongs 182, the optional flexibility of planar member 194, and the angled orientation of planar member 194 makes the engagement arrangement formed by springs 114 and clips 112 tolerant to manufacturing deviations. For example, consider the situation in which manufacturing deviations cause spring prong 182 to be positioned where indicated by dashed outline 214 in
If desired, alternative spring and clip arrangements may be used. An example of an alternative spring and clip configuration is shown in
As shown in
Moreover, as the example of
As described in connection with
When assembling device 10, it is generally necessary to make electrical connections between components such as the components on tilt assembly 60 and housing assembly 70. For example, electrical connections may be made between the circuitry associated with the printed circuit board structures of housing assembly 70 and the display unit and sensor in display 16. Electrical connections may also be made between the printed circuit board circuitry and components such as the receiver speaker of port 23, microphone 76, speaker 78, and a proximity sensor (e.g., a sensor that detects the presence of a human body in close proximity to device 10). Such electrical connections may be made using a flexible circuit structure formed from a pattern of conductive traces on a flexible printed circuit substrate such as a polyimide-based substrate (sometimes referred to as a “flex circuit”). Electrical connections should generally also be made for buttons such as volume up and down buttons, ringer on/off buttons, hold buttons, etc. Antennas in regions 18 and 21 may also be electrically connected to circuitry on the printed circuit board structures of housing assembly 70.
Different electrical connections use different types of electrical connectors. For example, radio-frequency signals that are conveyed to and from the antennas in device 10 may be carried over transmission lines such as coaxial cable transmission lines (i.e., micro-coax). Connections in this type of radio-frequency transmission line path may therefore involve micro-coax connectors. As another example, when two printed circuit boards are joined, it may be desirable to use so-called board-to-board connectors. Flex circuits can be connected using connectors such as zero-insertion-force (ZIF) connectors. Still other connectors may be used in other contexts.
The need to make numerous electrical connections of one or more types may make assembly challenging for unskilled workers. Device 10 may therefore use a numbering system in which the connections that are to be made are numbered. The numbering system that is used may, for example, number the connections that are to be made in a preferred or required order of assembly. Instructions may be included in the interior of the device. For example, instructions may be laser-etched into a metal surface such as an electromagnetic shielding “can” that covers one or more integrated circuits on the printed circuit board structures of housing assembly 70.
A top view of an illustrative coaxial cable connector is shown in
An example of a board-to-board connector is presented in connection with
A top view of board-to-board connector 242, which presents an illustrative layout for pins such as pints 246 and 248 is shown in
Board-to-board connectors such as connector 242 of
Flex circuits may be used to form connections between different parts of device 10. Flex circuits have advantages over conventional parallel bus wires such as reduced size and weight. Flex circuits may also be less expensive to manufacture in large quantities than other types of interconnects and provide geometric flexibility when designing and assembly complex structures. In a typical arrangement, a flex circuit might be attached at one end to a series of components (e.g., dock connector 20, acoustic components, sensors, etc.). At the other end, the flex circuit may need to be connected to circuitry on a printed circuit board. This type of connection may be formed using a socket-type connector that is configured to receive a flex circuit (sometimes referred to as a zero-insertion-force or ZIF connector).
A top view of an illustrative flex circuit 262 and zero-insertion force flex circuit connector 264 is shown in
The connector types shown in
Particularly in assembly environments in which there are numerous connections that need to be made, assembly operations may be challenging for unskilled workers who are unfamiliar with the assembly process. Device 10 may therefore include a set of numbers to help guide workers during the assembly process. An example of this type of arrangement is shown in
Regions such as regions 286 and 288 may include exposed circuit boards, one or more discrete components, flex circuits, or other suitable electrical components.
The components of device 10 may be interconnected by communications paths. The communications paths may be, for example, transmission line paths such as coaxial cable paths, flex circuits, board-to-board paths supported by printed circuit board traces, etc., as described in connection with
As shown in
To assist workers in deciphering the assembly/disassembly order indicators and/or to provide other suitable guidance for the workers, device 10 may include instructions such as instructions 294. Instructions 294 may be laser-etched on the metal surface of cans such as can 280, may be printed on can 280 or other suitable surface of the components of device 10, may be printed on a label that is affixed within device 10, may be inscribed on an interior portion of case 12, or may be otherwise formed on device 10. Assembly and disassembly instructions (e.g., instructions referring to the assembly order) may also be included in software and displayed using display 16, although this type of arrangement will generally only be practical if device 10 is at least partly operational).
Instructions 294 may be written instructions that include, for example, explanatory text (e.g., in English, Chinese, or other suitable language). Instructions 294 may also be partly or completely formed from symbolic instructions (e.g., a diagram showing how parts should be connected, a list of corresponding assembly order indicators, etc.). Instructions 294 may, if desired, include information on the proper use of device 10, legal notices, etc.
The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/305,360, filed Apr. 23, 2023, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/897,003, filed Aug. 26, 2022, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,683,063, which is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 17/174,158, filed Feb. 11, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,438,024, which is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 16/718,627, filed Dec. 18, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,944,443, which is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 15/098,742, filed Apr. 14, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,594,351, which is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 13/525,725, filed Jun. 18, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,344,539, which is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 13/084,490, filed Apr. 11, 2011, which is a division of patent application Ser. No. 12/119,986, filed May 13, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,933,123, which claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 61/044,445, filed Apr. 11, 2008, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61044445 | Apr 2008 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12119986 | May 2008 | US |
| Child | 13084490 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 18305360 | Apr 2023 | US |
| Child | 18807031 | US | |
| Parent | 17897003 | Aug 2022 | US |
| Child | 18305360 | US | |
| Parent | 17174158 | Feb 2021 | US |
| Child | 17897003 | US | |
| Parent | 16718627 | Dec 2019 | US |
| Child | 17174158 | US | |
| Parent | 15098742 | Apr 2016 | US |
| Child | 16718627 | US | |
| Parent | 13525725 | Jun 2012 | US |
| Child | 15098742 | US | |
| Parent | 13084490 | Apr 2011 | US |
| Child | 13525725 | US |
