JP2005302061A - Electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic apparatus such as a personal computer easy to use as a mobile terminal, in relation to an electronic apparatus such as an information processor. <P>SOLUTION: This electronic apparatus includes: a communication circuit for carrying out transmission or reception by radio transmission; an electronic circuit for realizing a function different from a function provided by the communication circuit; and an instruction means operable from the outside of the apparatus for instructing stop of the communication circuit. The electronic apparatus is characterized by stopping transmission or reception by radio transmission according to the instruction from the instruction means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention generally relates to an electronic apparatus such as an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic apparatus (portable information apparatus) such as a personal computer suitable for use as a mobile (movable) terminal.

  In recent years, personal computers intended for personal use have become widespread. Recently, by connecting a personal computer to the Internet via a public line and a commercial provider (line connection provider), information retrieval and electronic mail exchange can be easily performed.

  On the other hand, along with the practical use of display displays (for example, liquid crystal displays) suitable for high-density integration and thinning of electronic circuits, a large number of personal computers suitable for laptops, notebooks, and other portable devices are on the market. Have been supplied. A portable personal computer can be used as a so-called mobile terminal by connecting to a public line by wireless communication such as a cellular phone and PHS.

  When a portable personal computer is connected to a public line by a mobile phone, for example, it is necessary to operate the mobile phone after connecting the personal computer and the mobile phone in a wired manner according to a predetermined specification. There is a problem that is complicated.

  In addition, when using mobile terminals in airplanes or hospitals where radiation of high frequency electromagnetic waves should be reduced as much as possible, it may be necessary to turn off only the wireless communication function and keep other functions alive. is there.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device such as a personal computer that can be easily used as a mobile terminal.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can easily turn off only the function of wireless communication.

  Other objects of the present invention will become clear from the following description.

  According to the present invention, a communication circuit that performs wireless transmission or reception, an electronic circuit that realizes a function different from the function provided by the communication circuit, and means for instructing to stop the communication circuit, There is provided an electronic device comprising: an instruction unit operable from a wireless communication device, wherein wireless transmission or reception is stopped according to an instruction from the instruction unit.

  According to this configuration, only the wireless communication function can be easily turned off, and the object of the present invention is achieved.

  Preferably, the instruction means is a slide switch that can be operated from the outside of the electronic device, and the electronic device can be connected to a public line.

  Further, the wireless communication can be stopped, for example, by stopping an oscillator provided in the communication circuit, or by stopping power supply to the communication circuit.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device such as a personal computer that can be easily used as a mobile terminal.

  In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device that can easily turn off only the wireless communication function.

  Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 to 4 are perspective views showing an embodiment of an information processing apparatus as an electronic apparatus according to the present invention. This device can be a laptop, notebook or other portable personal computer.

  This apparatus has a main body housing 2 and a sub-housing 6 that can be opened and closed by a hinge portion 4 with respect to the main body housing 2. FIGS. 1 and 3 are perspective views of the device viewed from the front side with respect to the operation of the operator, and FIGS. 2 and 4 are perspective views of the device viewed from the back side with respect to the operation of the operator.

  1 and 2 show a state in which the sub-housing 6 is closed with respect to the main body housing 2, and FIGS. 3 and 4 show a state in which the sub-housing 6 is opened with respect to the main body housing 2.

  As well shown in FIG. 3, the main body housing 2 is provided with a keyboard unit 8 that is used for inputting data related to the operation, and the sub-housing 6 is used for a display related to the operation. A display unit 10 is provided.

  The display unit 10 includes, for example, an LCD (liquid crystal display) panel. A pair of locking portions (for example, holes) 12 are formed at the front end of the main body housing 2, and a pair of hooks 14 that engage with the locking portions 12 are provided at corresponding positions of the sub-housing 6. It has been.

  The hook 14 can be limitedly moved by a slider 16 provided on the side opposite to the hinge portion 4 of the sub-housing 6, whereby the sub-housing 6 can be locked in a closed state with respect to the main body housing 2. In addition, the slider 16 can cancel this state.

  FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the main part of the main body housing 2 as seen from the back side, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the main part. An antenna assembly 18 used for wireless communication for connecting the apparatus to a public line, for example, is attached to one end portion on the back side of the main body housing 2 with a screw 20. The antenna assembly 18 includes a substrate 22 and a dielectric antenna 24 mounted on the surface of the substrate 22.

  As well shown in FIG. 6, the antenna assembly 18 is connected to a high frequency module 30 accommodated in the main body housing 2 by a coaxial cable 26. Also accommodated in the main body housing 2 is a mother board 31 that provides an electronic circuit related to an operation using the keyboard unit 8 (see FIG. 3).

  FIGS. 7A and 8A are plan views of the antenna assembly 18 viewed from the dielectric antenna 24 side and the opposite side, respectively, and FIGS. 7B and 8B are views. 3 is a plan view of the substrate 22 as viewed from the dielectric antenna 24 side and the opposite side. FIG.

  The substrate 22 has a first surface 22A and a second surface 22B, and the second surface 22B faces the main body housing 2. A dielectric antenna 24 and a coaxial connector 34 are fixed on the first surface 22A and the second surface 22B by surface mounting, respectively. A coaxial cable 26 (see FIG. 5) is connected to the coaxial connector 34.

  As well shown in FIG. 7A, the dielectric antenna 24 includes a dielectric chip 35, and first and second conductor patterns having a predetermined shape formed on the surface of the dielectric chip 35. 36 and 38.

  The first conductor pattern 36 is soldered to a power supply pattern 44 formed on the first surface 22A of the substrate 22 at one location, and the second conductor pattern 38 is also grounded on the first surface 22A. Soldered to the pattern 40 at four locations.

  As well shown in FIG. 8A, the coaxial connector 34 has a signal terminal 46 and a ground terminal 48 provided so as to surround the signal terminal 46. The signal terminal 46 is soldered to the power supply pattern 52 formed on the second surface 22B of the substrate 22 at one location, and the ground terminal 48 is soldered to the ground pattern 50 that is also formed on the second surface 22B at two locations. Attached. The coaxial connector 34 is located approximately at the center of the substrate 22.

  The power supply patterns 44 and 52 are connected by vias 54 that penetrate the substrate 22, and the ground patterns 40 and 50 are connected by a plurality of vias 56 that also penetrate the substrate 22. Therefore, the dielectric antenna 24 can be connected to the high frequency module 30 by the coaxial cable 26 connected to the coaxial connector 34.

  Further, by forming the main body housing 2 from a conductor such as a metal (for example, an alloy containing magnesium as a main component), the substrate 22 is simply pressed onto the main body housing 2 with the screws 20 as shown in FIG. The second conductor pattern 38 of the dielectric antenna 24 can be connected to the main body housing 2.

  In this embodiment, in order to improve the adhesion between the second conductor pattern 38 and the main body housing 2, seven vias 55 are provided around the through hole 57 of the screw 20 of the substrate 22, and all of these vias 55 or A part (for example, every other piece) of solder is raised so that the electrical connection when the board 22 is pressed onto the main body housing 2 with the screw 20 is improved.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the substrate 22 is attached to a thin or hollow seat 69 formed at the back end of the main body housing 2, and the seat 69 has a notch for passing a coaxial cable. 71 is formed.

  After the antenna assembly 18 is attached, a cap 28 that covers the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the main body housing 2 in order to protect the antenna assembly 18 and improve its appearance. The cap 28 is produced by, for example, plastic molding that does not contain metal in order to suppress the influence on the antenna gain.

  In this embodiment, the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the main body housing 2, compared with the case where the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the sub-housing 6 that can be easily displaced, and the antenna characteristics can be stabilized. This is because the coaxial cable 26 can be sufficiently shortened to prevent an increase in loss.

  Moreover, the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the back side of the main body housing 2 to prevent the antenna characteristics from becoming unstable due to the operator, and to prevent the electromagnetic wave radiated from the antenna from affecting the human body. This is to minimize it.

  For example, when the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the front surface or the side surface of the main body housing 2, the antenna characteristics may vary depending on the movement of the operator. Furthermore, the reason why the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the end portion on the back side of the main body housing 2 is that the antenna characteristics are improved as compared with the case where it is attached to the center portion on the back side.

  It has been confirmed by experiments that the electric field induced in the main body housing 2 by the dielectric antenna 24 cancels out when the antenna is attached to the center portion, and the antenna characteristics deteriorate.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 7A and 8A, the substrate 22 is interposed between the dielectric antenna 24 and the coaxial connector 34. This is to prevent fluctuations in the relative positional relationship of the cables 26 from directly affecting the antenna characteristics.

  Since the coaxial cable 26 can be easily rotationally displaced with respect to the coaxial connector 34, when the dielectric antenna 24 and the coaxial connector 34 are provided on the same side with respect to the substrate 22, the dielectric antenna 24 and There is a possibility that various electromagnetic characteristics such as impedance characteristics between the main housings 2 may change.

  In the present embodiment, since the substrate 22 has the ground patterns 40 and 50 between the dielectric antenna 24 and the coaxial connector 34, stable wireless communication is performed without fear of such fluctuations in antenna characteristics. Can do.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the high frequency module 30. The high-frequency module 30 is provided to provide a function of a mobile phone or PHS in order to connect the device to a public line, for example.

  The high frequency module 30 has a high frequency circuit 58 connected to the dielectric antenna 24 by the coaxial cable 26. The high frequency circuit 58 is connected to a baseband circuit 60 for transmitting and receiving data and the like. The baseband circuit 60 is connected to a PCI connector (or mini PCI connector) 64 via a logic conversion circuit 62 by a bidirectional bus. It is connected to the.

  The PCI connector 64 has a plurality of terminals assigned for interfacing between the high-frequency circuit module 30 and the mother board 31. A transmission / reception stop control signal is supplied from the mother board 31 to the high-frequency circuit 58 through the stop control line SCL using at least one of the terminals. Reference numeral 66 represents a power supply circuit that supplies power to each circuit via the PCI connector 64.

  For example, when this device is used in an airplane or hospital where radiation of high-frequency electromagnetic waves should be minimized, there are cases in which only the wireless communication function is turned off and other functions are to be utilized. Therefore, in this embodiment, the high-frequency circuit 58 is temporarily turned off using the stop control line SCL to satisfy such a requirement.

  The high-frequency circuit 58 can be temporarily turned on / off by turning on / off a power source supplied to the high-frequency circuit 58 or an oscillator (for example, a VCO) (not shown) built in the high-frequency circuit 58.

  In particular, in this embodiment, a transmission / reception stop control signal is generated by a slide switch 68 (see, for example, FIG. 1) provided on the sub housing 6 toward the outside thereof. The slide switch 68 is provided in the vicinity of the slider 16 for mechanical locking described above. By generating a transmission / reception stop control signal by such a slide switch 68, it is very easy to temporarily turn off only the wireless communication function.

  When this device is used by connecting to a public line, it is required that the electric field strength related to the public line is sufficiently strong. Therefore, in this embodiment, a circuit for detecting the electric field strength at the place where the apparatus is placed and a display element for displaying the detected electric field strength are provided.

  As the display element, an LED (light emitting diode) whose lighting brightness or blinking frequency or interval changes in accordance with the detected intensity of the electric field intensity can be used. This LED can also be incorporated in the slide switch 68.

  In this case, the slide switch 68 has a transparent or translucent movable part, and the LED emits visible light through the movable part. Thereby, it can be easily known whether or not this apparatus can be stably connected to the public line.

  FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of this apparatus as viewed from the lower back side. A battery pack 67 containing a battery is detachably provided on the front side of the main body housing 2. A recess 2B is formed in the lower surface of the main body housing 2, and a hard disk drive 70 as a storage device of a personal computer is accommodated in the recess 2B.

  The hard disk drive 70 is housed in the recess 2B in a state of being wrapped in a damper 76, and a lid 72 is attached to the main body housing 2 so as to cover it. The hard disk drive 70 is connected to the mother board 30 in the main body housing 2 by a flexible printed wiring board (FPC) 74 interposed between the hard disk drive 70 and the damper 76, that is, between the hard disk drive 70 and the lid 72. The lid 72 can be attached to and detached from the main body housing 2 with screws, but one end of the lid may be attached to the main body housing 2 so as to be opened and closed.

  FIG. 11 is a side view showing the relationship between the hard disk drive 70 and the FPC 74 shown in FIG. 10, and an enlarged part thereof is shown by an arrow. One end of the FPC 74 in the longitudinal direction is connected to the connector 78, and the other end is connected to the mother board 30 (see FIG. 6).

  The connector 78 removably connects the FPC 74 to the side surface of the hard disk drive 70. Particularly in this embodiment, the FPC 74 is introduced from the side opposite to the lid 72 (positioned upward in FIG. 11) with respect to the connector 78. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the connector 78 from undesirably falling off the hard disk drive 70 by attaching / detaching or opening / closing the lid 72.

  Conventionally, in general, when an FPC is interposed between a hard disk drive and a lid, it seems that the FPC is introduced from the lid side with respect to the connector. In this case, the elastic force of the extra length of the FPC acts in the direction of removing the connector from the hard disk drive by closing the lid with respect to the main body housing, and the connector is detached from the hard disk drive after the manufacture or modification of the device is completed. There was a possibility.

  On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the FPC 74 is introduced from the side opposite to the lid 72 with respect to the connector 78, the elastic force of the extra length portion of the FPC 74 is caused by the operation of closing the lid 72 with respect to the main body housing. It acts in the direction of pressing the connector 78 against the hard disk drive 70.

  Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to prevent the connector 78 from being detached from the hard disk drive 70 after the manufacture or modification of the device is completed.

  The reason why the hard disk drive 70 is replaceable with respect to the main body housing 2 in this way is to be able to easily cope with an improvement related to an increase in the storage capacity of the hard disk drive.

  12 is a plan view of the main part of the main body housing 2 as viewed from the lower surface side, and FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the main body housing 2 taken along line XIII-XIII in FIG. This apparatus is intended to be used by being mounted on a substantially horizontal mounting surface 82, and a relatively large frictional force is provided between the lower surface 2 </ b> C of the main body housing 2 and the mounting surface 82. In order to prevent the device from slipping with respect to the mounting surface 82 and to prevent the vibration applied to the mounting surface 82 from being transmitted to the device, a plurality of elastic bodies such as rubber are used. A pad 80 is provided.

  As well shown in FIG. 13, the lower surface 2 </ b> C of the main body housing 2 includes an inclined surface IS that is inclined with respect to the mounting surface 82. This is because the operability is improved by tilting the entire apparatus with respect to the operator.

  In this embodiment, a pedestal portion 83 is formed in the portion of the inclined surface IS to which the pad 80 is attached so that the thickness of each pad 80 attached to the inclined surface IS is constant. More specifically, the thickness of the portion of the main body housing 2 corresponding to the pedestal 83 changes in the housing cross-sectional direction so that the pedestal 83 has a substantially horizontal pad mounting surface 84.

  According to this configuration, it is possible to use a plurality of pads 80 having substantially the same shape, which greatly contributes to cost reduction by reducing the types of parts of the device. Further, since the thickness of each pad 80 is constant, it is not necessary to consider the directionality of the pad 80 when attaching the pad 80 to the lower surface 2C of the main body housing 2, and the manufacturing workability of the apparatus is improved.

  In the embodiment described above, in order to maximize the capability of the antenna assembly 18, the antenna assembly 18 is attached to the main body housing 2 made of a conductor such as metal. However, the present invention is not intended to be limited to this.

  For example, the main body housing may be formed of an insulator such as plastic, a metal thin film may be formed on the surface thereof by ion plating or vapor deposition, and the ground of the antenna assembly may be adhered to the metal thin film.

  Alternatively, the ground of the antenna assembly may be brought into close contact with a metal fitting and the metal fitting may be connected to the metal thin film.

  The present invention includes the following supplementary notes.

(Supplementary note 1) a communication circuit for performing transmission or reception by radio;
An electronic circuit that realizes a function different from the function provided by the communication circuit;
Means for instructing to stop the communication circuit, comprising instruction means operable from outside the device;
An electronic apparatus characterized in that the wireless transmission or reception is stopped in response to an instruction from the instruction means.

  (Supplementary note 2) The electronic device according to Supplementary note 1, wherein the instruction means is a slide switch.

  (Supplementary note 3) The electronic device according to Supplementary note 1 or 2, wherein the wireless transmission or reception is stopped by stopping an oscillator provided in the communication circuit.

  (Supplementary note 4) The electronic device according to supplementary note 1 or 2, wherein the wireless transmission or reception is stopped by stopping power supply to the communication circuit.

  (Supplementary note 5) The electronic device according to any one of supplementary notes 1 to 4, wherein the electronic device can be connected to a public line.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view (No. 1) showing an embodiment of an information processing apparatus as an electronic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view (No. 2) showing an embodiment of an information processing apparatus as an electronic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view (No. 3) showing the embodiment of the information processing apparatus as the electronic apparatus according to the invention. FIG. 4 is a perspective view (No. 4) showing an embodiment of an information processing apparatus as an electronic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the main part of the main body housing. FIG. 6 is a plan view of the main part of the main body housing. 7A and 7B are plan views of the antenna assembly and the substrate as viewed from the dielectric antenna side, respectively. 8A and 8B are plan views of the antenna assembly and the substrate as viewed from the coaxial connector side, respectively. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the high-frequency module. FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of an information processing apparatus as an electronic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 11 is a side view showing the relationship between the hard disk drive and the FPC (flexible printed wiring board). FIG. 12 is a plan view of the main body housing as viewed from below. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the main body housing taken along line XIII-XIII shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

2 Main body housing 4 Hinge portion 6 Sub housing 8 Keyboard unit 10 Display unit 18 Antenna assembly 22 Substrate 24 Dielectric antenna 26 Coaxial cable 34 Coaxial connector 58 High frequency circuit 70 Hard disk drive

Claims (5)

A communication circuit that performs wireless transmission or reception; and
An electronic circuit that realizes a function different from the function provided by the communication circuit;
Means for instructing to stop the communication circuit, comprising instruction means operable from outside the device;
An electronic apparatus characterized in that the wireless transmission or reception is stopped in response to an instruction from the instruction means.   The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instruction unit is a slide switch.   The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission or reception is stopped by stopping an oscillator provided in the communication circuit.   The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission or reception is stopped by stopping power supply to the communication circuit.   5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device can be connected to a public line.

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