Keyboard Substrate Groove for Long-Key Corner Press Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing keyboard designs often result in invalid inputs when the corner end of a key with a large length, such as a spacebar or shift key, is pressed, leading to reduced input efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The proposed keyboard design includes a substrate with a groove for the second key, which has a greater length than the first keys, allowing the second key to extend into the groove when pressed. The groove depth is designed to be greater than the maximum deformation deflection of the second key, ensuring that the first electrical contact remains in conduction before the key fully touches the substrate.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If the key length is increased to provide larger functional keys (spacebar, shift key), then the key coverage and functionality are improved, but the key becomes prone to deformation when pressed at corner ends, causing invalid inputs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a vertical groove dimension into the substrate structure. The groove provides additional vertical space that allows the key to deform downward without contacting the substrate prematurely. This dimensional addition resolves the contradiction by accommodating key deformation while maintaining electrical contact reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove is pre-formed in the substrate at the position where the key will be pressed. This preliminary structural preparation ensures that when the key is pressed at its corner end, it has predetermined space to deform into the groove before reaching the substrate, preventing invalid inputs caused by premature substrate contact.
2Ease of operation
If the key is pressed at the corner end, then the input operation can be performed, but the key deforms and may contact the substrate before electrical contact is established, causing invalid input
Solution Approach 1:
By adding the vertical groove dimension, the patent creates a deformation path for the key when pressed at the corner. The groove depth is specifically designed to be greater than the maximum deformation deflection of the key, ensuring the key can complete its deformation while maintaining electrical contact, thus preserving input validity during corner pressing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove acts as an intermediary space between the key and the substrate. It provides a buffer zone that allows the key to deform and establish electrical contact with the substrate through the groove, rather than contacting the substrate directly from above. This intermediary structure ensures reliable input registration even when the key is pressed at its corner end.
3Reliability
If the groove depth is increased to accommodate key deformation, then the key can deform without contacting the substrate, but the overall keyboard structure height increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the groove depth parameter to be greater than the maximum deformation deflection of the key but not excessively deep. This parameter optimization ensures that the groove is just deep enough to accommodate the key's corner deformation while maintaining electrical contact reliability, without unnecessarily increasing the overall keyboard structure height.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design effectively prevents invalid inputs by maintaining electrical contact between the first and second electrical contacts, even when the corner end of the second key is bent and deformed under pressure, thus enhancing input efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
Each key is retractably arranged on a substrate of the keyboard by an elastic member
Implementation Method 2
a depth of the groove is greater than or equal to a maximum deformation deflection of the second key, so that even if a corner end of the second key is bent and deformed under a pressure
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of this application provide a keyboard and an electronic device. According to the keyboard provided in the embodiments of this application, a distance between a second key and a substrate is increased by providing a groove for mounting the second key in the substrate. In addition, in a case that distances between first electrical contacts of keys and corresponding second electrical contacts are consistent, a depth of the groove is designed to be greater than a maximum deformation deflection of the second key, so that even if a corner end of the second key is bent and deformed under a pressure, a minimum distance between the second key and the substrate can still be greater than the distance between the first electrical contact of the second key and the corresponding second electrical contact.