Telephonic communications – Terminal – Housing or housing component
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-03
2001-10-23
Chiang, Jack (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Terminal
Housing or housing component
C379S433050
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307934
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electromechanical connections, and more particularly to electromechanical connections with printed circuit boards in handheld telephone sets.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
The design of portable telephones has evolved along several different lines. This evolution can be characterized in part by a miniaturization of the components of the telephone, and therefore of the telephone itself. Other advances in, e.g. battery technologies, have allowed handheld telephones to be used longer without requiring recharging of the external battery.
In typical handheld telephones, an external battery is removably mounted to the telephone housing. With the development of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card technologies, it has become convenient to mount the SIM card in a recess in the telephone housing over which the external battery was then mounted. While providing a convenient location for installing and removing SIM cards, this solution is not without its drawbacks. The external battery can be dislodged, exposing the sensitive SIM card and its associated electrical connections to external contaminants such as dirt, dust, and moisture. Furthermore, the placement of the SIM card's receiving recess in the external battery recess requires complex, and therefore costly, printed circuit board (PCB) design in order to connect the SIM card and external battery to the PCB's electronic components. With the further advances of external adaptive devices, such as battery chargers and system connections, including external microphones and speakers, the design and layout of the PCB and its associated electromechanical connectors has become increasingly complicated, distributed, and costly to assemble.
Further improvements in battery technologies allow for handheld telephones to be supplied power by an internal battery, that is, a battery that is housed within the telephone's shells, and which is not readily removable for replacement. While the use of such internal batteries will lead to further improvements in telephone design, the elimination of the external battery and it's mounting recess in the telephone's housing creates a need for a protected location in or on the telephone for placement of a SIM card recess. Prior handheld telephone's have not provided a solution to this problem.
Prior handheld telephone designs have also suffered from deficiencies in their layout and design by not minimizing the number of components that must be assembled together to construct the telephone. Thus, prior devices have been unnecessarily expensive to assembly, requiring additional steps to solder and otherwise join the many subcomponents together. This also leads to increases in assembly time, and the possibility of greater rejection rates with higher numbers of assembly steps.
Examples of prior handheld telephones and electrical connectors include EP 840 396 A1, JP 4-043 725, GB 2 316 814, EP 827 360 A2, WO 98/13981 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,591, U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,903, EP 609 744 A1, EP 701 303 A2, WO 96/07221 A1, EP 828 320 A1, and CA 2 087 080 A, all of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Prior telephone handsets suffer from numerous deficiencies, including incompatibilities with emerging battery technologies, excessive numbers of subcomponents, and overly distributed component design.
The present invention addresses failings in the prior art by providing an integral multiconnector which integrates together several connectors for a telephone handset for connection to a PCB. According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, several electromechanical connector components of the handset are integrated into one part, a multiconnector. The multiconnector preferably contains connectors for a system connector, a SIM unit, a battery connector, a battery charger, and a microphone connector. The multiconnector can be mounted to a PCB by a push fitting or an automated soldering process, and can include a variety of types of connector elements, e.g., pogo pins, spring connectors, or the like. By providing all of these electromechanical components and connectors into a single, integral multiconnector, manufacturing can be simplified because fewer steps are required to assemble these several subcomponents with the PCB. The total number of subcomponents is therefore minimized, and the process of assembling a handset incorporating a multiconnector in accordance with the present invention can be further, or completely, automated. Additionally, by incorporating an electromechanical interface or connector for an internal battery into the multiconnector, emerging battery technologies can be readily used with the multiconnector when an internal battery alone is used to provide power to a mobile telephone handset.
Still other objects, features, and attendant advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description of embodiments constructed in accordance therewith, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4636591 (1987-01-01), Kuhfus et al.
patent: 4675903 (1987-06-01), Gulezian et al.
patent: 5190461 (1993-03-01), Oorui et al.
patent: 5812660 (1998-09-01), Suzuki et al.
patent: 5836790 (1998-11-01), Barnett
patent: 2 087 080 (1993-01-01), None
patent: 198 02 552 (1998-09-01), None
patent: 0 609 744 (1994-08-01), None
patent: 0 701 303 (1996-03-01), None
patent: 0 828 320 (1998-03-01), None
patent: 0 827 360 (1998-03-01), None
patent: 0 840 396 (1998-05-01), None
patent: 2 316 814 (1996-08-01), None
patent: 04-043725 (1992-02-01), None
patent: 05 343136 (1993-12-01), None
patent: 10 190803 (1998-07-01), None
patent: 96/07221 (1996-03-01), None
patent: 98/13981 (1998-04-01), None
Larsson Mats
Larsson Paul
Möster Erik
Olsson Mats
Portela Rafael
Burns Doane Swecker & Mathis L.L.P.
Chiang Jack
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
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