Tactile Crown Switch Assembly With Flexible PCB Contacts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing input devices for electronic devices, such as buttons or switches, often limit user input to a single type and face challenges in maintaining electrical connections during movement, especially in compact designs where incorporating sensors or power transfer is difficult.
Innovation Solution
A tactile switch assembly that includes a rotatable and translatable input member, a coupling, and an electrical contact, which maintains electrical communication during translation and rotation, allowing for multiple types of user inputs while preventing shear forces from damaging the switch.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a button or switch is made movable or rotatable to enable multiple input types, then the functionality and input types are improved, but maintaining electrical connection becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible printed circuit board (FPC) instead of rigid wiring to connect the movable input member to the circuit board. The FPC can dynamically bend and flex as the input member moves or rotates, maintaining electrical connection throughout the range of motion. This dynamic flexibility resolves the contradiction between movement capability and electrical connection reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a flexible printed circuit board (thin film structure) to maintain electrical connection during movement. The FPC's flexible nature allows it to accommodate the motion of the input member without breaking the electrical circuit, thus preserving reliability while enabling versatility.
2Volume of moving object
If the number of input buttons is reduced to accommodate smaller device size, then the device compactness is improved, but the functionality and number of input types may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs a single input member that can perform multiple functions: pressing operation, rotational operation, and sliding operation. By making one component multi-functional, the device achieves diverse input capabilities without needing multiple separate buttons, thus maintaining compact size while preserving versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the input member by allowing it to move in multiple directions (vertical pressing, rotational movement, horizontal sliding) and by varying the degree of movement. This enables a single component to provide multiple distinct input types, resolving the contradiction between device compactness and functional versatility.
3Measurement precision
If sensors or electronic elements are incorporated into movable buttons, then the sensing capability is improved, but the electrical connection and data transfer become difficult due to movement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a flexible printed circuit board to connect sensors and electronic elements in the movable input member to the main circuit board. The FPC's flexibility ensures continuous electrical connection and reliable data transfer even when the input member moves or rotates, resolving the contradiction between sensing capability and data transfer reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic watch may include a tactile switch and/or one or more sensors for detecting rotational and translational inputs. The watch may include a display configured to produce graphical outputs that may change in response to rotational inputs, translational inputs, and/or touch inputs received at the display. The watch include a crown positioned along an exterior of the watch enclosure and a shaft coupled to the crown and extending into the enclosure. The tactile switch and/or the one or more sensors may be used to detect rotational and/or translational inputs provided at the crown.