The present invention relates to actuator members for electronic instruments or devices, especially keys and keypads for data processing or telecommunications devices, and provides a navigator type actuator member and a device with a keypad including at least one such member.
Such devices belong in particular to the following group: {fixed or mobile telephone; smart phone; personal digital assistant; desktop, portable or pocket computer; remote controller}.
At present most multifunction key or navigation key actuator members take the form a pre-assembled sub-assembly mounted on an electronic circuit card 109xe2x80x2 underlying the keys 102xe2x80x2 of the keypad 109 of the device to ensure secure interconnection and cooperation of the button 102 and the detector active component 103 (see FIGS. 1 and 2).
This has two major drawbacks: the visible parts of the members of all keypads are the same color, which sometimes does not match the other keys and/or the body of the keypad, and the button 102 is not centered or aligned optimally and reliably with the corresponding opening in the housing or envelope of the keypad and does not provide a sealed closure of the opening.
In an attempt to alleviate these drawbacks, it has been proposed to mount the button 102 and active component subassembly 103 in the housing of the keypad 109 and to connect the active component 103 by springs 110 to the electronic circuit card 109xe2x80x2 under the keys 102xe2x80x2 (see FIGS. 3 and 4).
In this case, it is possible to select the color of the button so that it matches that or those of the housing and the other keys, the subassembly and the other keys being assembled with the housing of the keypad during the same fabrication step. Also, the only possibility of misalignment is between the subassembly and the card, and therefore invisible to the user.
However, it is difficult or even impossible to choose a button the same color as the other keys, since the buttons and the keys are not generally produced by the same manufacturer.
What is more, this solution leads to a special and irksome operation of preassembling the subassembly and necessitates special physical connections between the housing of the keypad and the electronic circuit card.
One object of the present invention is to alleviate the aforementioned drawbacks by proposing an actuator member of the type previously cited whose button and active component can be manufactured separately, necessitate no subsequent physical assembly, and are not connected by any physical connection, all this being achieved with guaranteed high reliability of operation and total discrimination between the various commands that can be given by means of said member.
To this end, the present invention provides an actuator member of the multifunction key type, in particular of the navigation key type, consisting of a rigid button mounted with limited mobility in translation and in rotation, and a separate detector component having a plurality of active sites, for example pressure-sensitive sites, said button having on its underside formations each intended to come into contact with a respective one of said active sites of said component as a function of the location, intensity and/or direction of pressure exerted by a user on the button, the member including three active sites which are disposed at the corners of a triangle and wherein a non-active bearing site disposed between a first two of said active sites, alone or in conjunction with the third site, authorizes tilting of said button by pivoting on said non-active site toward one of said first two active sites situated on respective sides thereof until the corresponding formation comes into contact with one of said active sites to activate it, for example by compressing it or depressing it.