Thermally fused spacers
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorLuis C. Armendariz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Example implementations relate to thermally fused spacers. In one example, keyboard membranes including thermally fused spacers include a first circuit including a first conductive trace and a first key contact of the keyboard membrane, where the first conductive trace is coupled to the first key contact, a second circuit including a second conductive trace and a second key contact of the keyboard membrane, where the second conductive trace is coupled to the second key contact, and wherein the second key contact is to couple to the first key contact, and a spacer formed of a layer of thermoplastic material, a first thermoplastic film, and a second thermoplastic film, where the spacer is fused via the first thermoplastic film to the first circuit and via the second thermoplastic film to the second circuit.
Claims15
A keyboard membrane, comprising:
- a first circuit including a first conductive trace and a first key contact of the keyboard membrane, wherein the first conductive trace is coupled to the first key contact;
- a second circuit including a second conductive trace and a second key contact of the keyboard membrane, wherein the second conductive trace is coupled to the second key contact, and wherein the second key contact is to couple to the first key contact;
- and
- a spacer formed of a layer of thermoplastic material, a first thermoplastic film, and a second thermoplastic film, wherein the spacer is fused via the first thermoplastic film to the first circuit and via the second thermoplastic film to the second circuit.
A keyboard membrane, comprising:
- a first circuit including a first face, a first conductive trace, and a first key contact;
- a spacer formed of a layer of thermoplastic material, a first thermoplastic film, and a second thermoplastic film, wherein the spacer is directly fused via the first thermoplastic film to the first face of the first circuit to seal the first conductive trace;
- and
- a second circuit including a second face, a second conductive trace, and a second key contact, wherein the spacer is directly fused via the second thermoplastic film to the second face of the second circuit to seal the second conductive trace.
A method of manufacture of a keyboard membrane, comprising:
- providing a first circuit including a first conductive trace and a first key contact of the keyboard membrane, wherein the first conductive trace is coupled to the key contact;
- providing a second circuit including a second conductive trace and a second key contact of the keyboard membrane, wherein the second conductive trace is coupled to the second key contact;
- disposing a first thermoplastic film on a first face of a layer of thermoplastic material;
- disposing a second thermoplastic film on a second face of the layer of thermoplastic material to form a spacer;
- and
- causing the first thermoplastic film and the second thermoplastic film to a reach a temperature above respective glass transition temperatures of the first thermoplastic film and the second thermoplastic film to fuse the spacer to the first circuit and the second circuit when the spacer is adjacent to the first circuit and the second circuit to form the keyboard membrane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.