Electrical connectors – Preformed panel circuit arrangement – e.g. – pcb – icm – dip,... – With provision to conduct electricity from panel circuit to...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-22
2003-07-22
Feild, Lynn D. (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
Preformed panel circuit arrangement, e.g., pcb, icm, dip,...
With provision to conduct electricity from panel circuit to...
C361S689000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06595786
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority from Japanese patent application number 2000-106280, filed Apr. 7, 2000, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an electrical connecting structure of a mounted part that is applied to a computer apparatus and electronic equipment, and in particular, to an electrical connecting structure of a mounted part by which connector connection is completed by just mounting the mounted part in a part-receiving part when a connector provided in a mounted part side is electrically connected to a connector provided in a part-receiving part side, and a computer apparatus and electronic equipment that have the electrical connecting structure of the mounted part.
BACKGROUND ART
Generally speaking, electronic equipment uses connectors for electrically connecting a circuit board, an electronic part, an electronic device, or the like. Major part of electronic equipment is manually connected with connectors at the time of assembling the electronic equipment.
For example, in a notebook type personal computer (hereinafter, a notebook PC)
100
shown in
FIG. 10
, connector connection is performed with such manual operation when a keyboard unit
102
is mounted in a PC body
104
of the notebook PC
100
.
It is necessary to mount the keyboard unit
102
in a part-mounted section
106
of the PC body
104
without play and a gap because of functional and appearance specifications or the like. Therefore, an outer periphery
102
A of the keyboard unit
102
and a part-mounted section
106
are produced so as to accurately fit with each other.
In addition, a connector (a male connector)
114
is a companion of a connector (a female connector)
112
attached on a mother board
110
in the PC body
104
. Furthermore, this connector
114
is attached in an end section of a flexible printed circuit cable (hereinafter, an FPC cable)
108
extending from an approximate center of a rear end section of the keyboard unit
102
. Therefore, the keyboard unit
102
is electrically connected to a system unit (PC body
104
) through the connector
114
connected to this FPC cable
108
and the connector
112
.
Here, issues at the time of attaching a connector to a keyboard unit will be described.
The simplest method for attaching the connector is to directly attach and fix the connector to an installation side (reference symbol
102
B in
FIG. 10
) of the keyboard unit. Thus, the connector in the keyboard unit side is located at a position facing the connector in the mother board side with the keyboard unit being mounted in the PC body, and is fixed with adjusting height (direction of thickness in the PC body) so as to obtain proper insertion depth. Owing to such a form, it becomes possible to mount the keyboard unit and simultaneously connect connectors with each other.
For example, Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 4-66628 and Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 7-99553 disclose such a structure that a connector is attached to an installation side of a keyboard unit.
In this art, it is proposed that a key-top section corresponding to the structure of an upper section of a keyboard is detachable from a keyboard body. Therefore, in each invention, a connector for connection to the keyboard body is directly attached and fixed to the installation side of the key-top section. It is said that, owing to this, it becomes possible to easily correspond to changes of key size and key arrangement by just changing the key-top section. Alternatively, it is said that it becomes convenient to change the key-top section.
Nevertheless, usually, the key-top section is mounted with any alignment with a keyboard body in some degree. For example, in case of a notebook PC, a key-top section is aligned with an outer periphery of a keyboard unit being fitted with a part-mounted section of the PC body.
For this reason, it is impossible to relatively move the keyboard unit
102
to the PC body within a plane of the installation side and to perform fine adjustment of a mounted position. Therefore, so as to adopt such structure that a connector is directly fixed to the keyboard unit, it is necessary to attach connectors with high precision by suppressing misalignment, arising between both connectors, as small as possible.
This is because there is a problem that a connector and/or a board are damaged due to applying an excessive force to the connector at the time of mounting the keyboard unit if the connector is largely misaligned. Hence, there is a high possibility of leading to a continuity failure due to stress concentration and a cracking in a lead section and/or lands (an electrode section) in a board side, which are soldered by reflow soldering, because such a state that enforced alignment is kept also after connection of the connectors. These are common to a DIP type connector or the like as well as a surface-mounted connector.
Nevertheless, in actual mass production, connector positions in a keyboard unit side and a mother board side naturally fluctuate due to manufacturing accuracy and a number of parts, an actual mounting method, an implementation method, or the like. Therefore, it is difficult to suppress an amount of misalignment of the connector within an allowance for clearing the above-described problems with adding manufacturing quality (dimensional tolerance) of components constituting the keyboard unit and PC body. Even if this is realized, this PC will be expensive, and hence the cost effectiveness of the PC will be drastically lowered. Therefore, it is inconvenient just to merely fixedly attach the connector.
Then, in a conventional example shown in
FIG. 10
, the FPC cable
108
, where an electric circuit is formed on a thin-plate-like flexible substrate, is provided in the keyboard unit
102
. Therefore, it is possible to move the connector
114
by attaching the connector
114
in an end section of this cable, and hence the above-described problems can be solved.
In order to mount this keyboard unit
102
in the PC body
104
, first, with orienting and holding the keyboard unit
102
in a direction shown in
FIG. 11
with one hand, the connector
114
located in the end section of the cable is inserted into and connected to the connector
112
in the mother board
110
(FIG.
12
).
After connection of the connectors, the FPC cable
108
is lowered below the keyboard unit
102
and treated so as not to be pinched, and an end section of the keyboard unit
102
is fitted into a receiving section
116
in the PC body
104
. Furthermore, the keyboard unit
102
is temporarily fixed by a side section of the keyboard unit
102
being latched with latches
118
that are convexly provided in the part-mounted section
106
and can protrude and recess.
Mounting is completed by fixing the keyboard unit
102
on supports
120
, which are stood on an installation side
102
B of the keyboard unit
102
, lest the keyboard unit
102
should be detached by fastening screws
122
from the bottom face (installation face) of the PC main body
104
(FIG.
13
).
In this manner, when the keyboard unit
102
is mounted in the PC body
104
, the connector
114
, becoming movable through the FPC cable
108
, is first connected, and then the keyboard unit
102
is mounted. Therefore, an excessive force never acts on the connectors
112
and
114
, and the mother board
110
when the keyboard unit
102
is mounted. In addition, stress is not applied to the connectors
112
and
114
, and FPC cable
108
also after connection.
Nevertheless, in such a conventional electrical connecting structure described above, the connector
112
in a system side that is mounted on the mother board
110
is located with entering inside the PC body
104
, and is hidden by the keyboard unit
102
positioned on this side when being connected to the connector
114
(operation shown in FIGS.
11
and
12
). Therefore, it is difficult to align the connectors. If the connector
112
is forcibly pushed in a sta
Horiuchi Mitsuo
Yonemochi Kenshin
Feild Lynn D.
Heslin Rothenberg Farley & & Mesiti P.C.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Le Thanh-Tam
Schiller, Esq. Blanche E.
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