JP2002091335A - Case for flexible board and liquid crystal display module - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the attachment and detachment of an FPC board 200 when housing the board 200 connected to a liquid crystal display panel 100 in recessed parts 304 and 306 on a surface located at the opposite side of a recessed part 302 for housing the liquid crystal display panel 100 in a case 300. SOLUTION: The case 300 is provided with the recessed parts 304 and 306 whose contact surface with the board surface of the FPC board 200 is a bottom surface 307, notched parts 308 having a shape larger than projecting parts 210 provided on the FPC board 200, and holding parts 310 which interposes the projecting parts 210 with the bottom surface 307 when the projecting parts 210 are inserted into the notched parts 310 and slid.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a case for a flexible substrate and a liquid crystal display module which can be easily attached to and detached from the substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, liquid crystal display panels having features such as light weight and low power consumption are widely used for display devices used in portable electronic devices such as mobile phones.
However, since the liquid crystal itself is a non-light-emitting element, a configuration in which a backlight unit is provided on the back surface of the liquid crystal display panel is usually used to ensure visibility in a dark place.

On the other hand, portable electronic devices are required to be thin in addition to light weight and low power consumption. Therefore, the entire liquid crystal display module including a backlight unit must be made thin. Therefore, a flexible substrate (Flexible Print) connected to the LCD panel
A configuration has been proposed in which electronic components required for an ed circuit board (hereinafter, simply referred to as an FPC board) are surface-mounted, and a portion extending from the liquid crystal display panel is bent 180 degrees and fixed to the back side of the backlight unit. ing. Here, as a technique for fixing the FPC board on the back side of the backlight unit, there is a configuration in which a hole provided on the FPC board is engaged with a mushroom-shaped pin provided on the back side of the backlight unit. Can be

[0004]

However, the FPC
Once the board is engaged with the mushroom-shaped pins,
There is a problem in that it is difficult to remove the head due to repearing, readjustment, and the like. In particular, for the base material of the FPC board,
Since a very thin polyimide film or the like is used, the FPC board is easily broken at the time of detachment.
Further, forming a mushroom-shaped pin on the back side of the backlight unit is considered to be an act against the reduction in thickness.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a case that can be easily attached to and detached from a flexible substrate, and a thin case in which a liquid crystal display panel and the like are accommodated in this case. It is another object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal display module which has been developed.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a case for fixing a flexible substrate, wherein the case has a bottom surface in contact with the substrate surface of the flexible substrate, A structure comprising: a notch having a shape larger than the protrusion provided on the flexible substrate; and a holding portion for holding the protrusion together with the bottom surface when the protrusion is inserted into the notch and slid. It is characterized by.

[0007] According to this configuration, by simply inserting the protrusion of the flexible substrate into the cutout provided in the case and then sliding, the protrusion is clamped and fixed between the clamping plate and the bottom surface. Therefore, it is easy to attach and detach the flexible substrate to and from the case.

Here, in the first invention, the bottom surface has a first concave portion having substantially the same width as the width of the non-projecting portion of the flexible substrate, and a substantially same width as the width including the projecting portion of the flexible substrate. Is a common bottom surface with the second concave portion having a width of. According to this configuration, since the flexible substrate slides in only one direction with respect to the case, the positioning is more reliable.

In the first invention, it is preferable that the bottom surface has a projection that engages with a hole provided in the flexible substrate when the projection is inserted into the notch and slides. According to this configuration, the engagement between the notch and the protruding portion ensures the positioning. Therefore, in the present invention, it is desirable that the engagement between the notch portion and the protruding portion is at two or more places.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a liquid crystal display panel, a flexible substrate having one end connected to the liquid crystal display panel, and a liquid crystal display panel having one surface. A case for fixing the other end of the flexible substrate in a bent state on the other surface located on the opposite side to the one surface, wherein the case is
On the other surface, a bottom surface that is in contact with the substrate surface of the flexible substrate, a cutout having a shape larger than a protrusion provided at the other end of the flexible substrate, and the protrusion is inserted into the cutout. And a clamping portion for clamping the protrusion together with the bottom surface when sliding. According to this configuration, the flexible substrate can be easily attached to and detached from the case, as in the first aspect.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of the liquid crystal display module according to the embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal display module includes a liquid crystal panel 100, an FPC board 200 having one end connected to the liquid crystal panel 100, and a light guide plate of a backlight unit (not shown) together with both of them. And a case 300 to be accommodated.

The liquid crystal panel 100 has a structure in which a pair of substrates 110 and 120 made of glass, plastic, or the like are bonded to each other. Specifically, the liquid crystal panel 100 includes, for example, a substrate 110 on which a plurality of strip-shaped segment electrodes are formed, and a substrate 1 on which a plurality of strip-shaped common electrodes are formed in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the segment electrodes are formed.
20 are bonded so as to keep a certain gap, and the liquid crystal is sandwiched in this gap.
On each of the opposing surfaces of both substrates, an alignment film that has been rubbed so that the major axis direction of the liquid crystal molecules is continuously twisted between the two substrates is provided. Although corresponding polarizers are provided, they are not directly related to the present invention, and therefore, details thereof are omitted in the drawings.

Now, the substrate 1 constituting the liquid crystal panel 100 will be described.
In the portion 20, which extends from the substrate 110, connection terminals for driving the above-described segment electrodes, common electrodes, and the like are provided. The connection terminal is electrically connected to a conductive pattern at one end 202 of the substantially rectangular FPC board 200 via, for example, an anisotropic conductive film. On the other hand, at the other end 204 of the FPC board 200, two holes 220 are provided, and earlobe-shaped protrusions 210 are provided on both sides.

Electronic components such as an IC chip for driving the liquid crystal panel 100 are surface-mounted on the FPC board 200, and further, connection terminals for connecting to an external circuit are provided. Neither of these cases is directly related to the present case, and will not be illustrated. For convenience of explanation, the FPC board 200, the width of the portion projecting portions 210 are not provided is represented as W _1, it will be referred to the width of the portion including the projecting portion 210 and W _3.

The case 300 is made of plastic, and has a concave portion 302 for accommodating the liquid crystal panel 100 on the rear side in the figure and concave portions 304 and 306 for accommodating the FPC board 200 on the front side in the figure. It is. That is, FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the liquid crystal display module with the display surface facing down.

The concave portion 304 has a width W ₂ slightly larger than the width W ₁ of the FPC board 200, and the concave portion 30 provided on the inner side of the concave portion 304 (side B in the figure).
6 is the same depth as the concave portion 304,
00 than the width W ₃ in a width W ₄ of the extent slightly wider. Further, on both sides of the concave portion 306, wing-like holding plates 310 are provided, respectively, so that the FPC board 2
Notch 30 slightly larger than protrusion 210 at 00
8 are formed. Further, on the B side of the concave portion 306,
A columnar projection 320 that engages with the hole 220 in the FPC board 200 is provided.

Next, in such a configuration, case 3
The procedure for housing the liquid crystal panel 100 and the FPC board 200 at 00 will be described.

First, the liquid crystal panel 100 is accommodated in the concave portion 302 of the case 300 with the substrate 110 serving as a display surface facing downward and the one end portion 122 facing forward (A side in the figure). Therefore, at this stage, the FPC board 200
Has a shape extending from the concave portion 302 of the storage case 300 to the A side. Actually, the light emitting elements and the acrylic light guide plate which constitute the backlight unit are housed in the housing case 300.
After being accommodated in the concave portion 302, the liquid crystal panel 100 is fixed to the light guide plate by a double-sided adhesive tape having an opening corresponding to a display area. Will be omitted.

Subsequently, the F extending from the concave portion 302 to the A side
After the PC board 200 is folded at approximately 180 degrees at the bent portion 206 and the protruding portion 210 is inserted into the cutout portion 308, the FPC board 200 is slid to the B side, and the two holes 220 are respectively engaged with the protrusions 320. Combine.

As a result, the FPC board 200 is accommodated in the case 300 after being three-dimensionally positioned as shown in FIG. Specifically, the FPC board 20
0 is first positioned with respect to the bottom surface 307 of the recesses 304 and 306 by engagement of the hole 220 and the projection 320 at two places, and secondly, the protrusion 210 is
Since it is sandwiched between the zero holding plate 310 and the bottom portion 307, it is also positioned vertically in the figure. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the FPC board 200 can be fixed to the housing case 300 with a simple configuration without using an adhesive or soldering. Further, since the projection 320 provided on the case 300 is a simple columnar shape, the height in the vertical direction can be suppressed lower than the mushroom shape, and even when the defective product is repaired, etc. It is easy to detach the substrate 200 from the housing case 300.

In the embodiment, the FPC board 2
00 and the projection 320 of the housing case 300 are 2
Although a set is provided, three or more sets may be provided, or one set may be provided. However, if the holding of the protruding portion 210 by the holding plate 310 is strong, it is not necessary to provide the set.

Next, electronic equipment to which the liquid crystal display module according to the above-described embodiment is applied will be described. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a mobile phone as an example of the electronic apparatus. In the figure, a mobile phone 1300 includes a plurality of operation buttons 1302, an earpiece 1304, and a mouthpiece 1306.
In addition, the liquid crystal panel 100 described above is provided. The liquid crystal panel 100 is the case 3 shown in FIG.
3, the display surface faces downward, so that the case 300 (containing the backlight) is located on the back side of the liquid crystal panel 100 in FIG. 3.

In addition, as the electronic equipment, there are also a liquid crystal television, a notebook personal computer, a viewfinder type / monitor direct-view type video tape recorder,
Car navigation devices, pagers, electronic organizers, calculators,
Word processors, workstations, video phones,
Examples include a POS terminal, a digital still camera, and a device equipped with a touch panel. Needless to say, the liquid crystal display module according to the embodiment can be applied to these various electronic devices.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the FPC board can be fixed to the case with a simple structure.
In addition, the attachment and detachment are facilitated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a configuration of a liquid crystal display module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a configuration of a main part when an FPC board is fixed to a case.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a mobile phone as an example of an electronic apparatus to which the liquid crystal display module is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 liquid crystal panel 110, 120 substrate 200 FPC board 206 bending portion 210 projecting portion 220 hole 300 case 302, 304, 306 concave portion 308 cutout portion 310 holding plate

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H089 HA40 QA11 QA12 TA02 TA18 TA20 2H092 GA48 GA50 HA25 NA27 NA30 PA05 PA13 5E348 AA09 AA28 AA37 5G435 AA00 BB12 EE04 EE13 EE33 EE36 EE47 KK03

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A case for fixing a flexible substrate, a bottom surface in contact with a substrate surface of the flexible substrate, a notch having a shape larger than a projection provided on the flexible substrate, and the projection And a holding portion for holding the protruding portion together with the bottom surface when inserted and slid into the notch portion. 2. The bottom has a first concave portion having a width substantially equal to a width of a non-projecting portion of the flexible substrate, and a second concave portion having a width substantially equal to a width including a protruding portion of the flexible substrate. The case according to claim 1, wherein the case is a common bottom surface with the concave portion. 3. The bottom surface according to claim 1, wherein when the protrusion is inserted into the notch and slides, the bottom has a protrusion that engages with a hole provided in the flexible substrate. Flexible board case. 4. A liquid crystal display panel, a flexible substrate having one end connected to the liquid crystal display panel, and one of the liquid crystal display panels accommodated on one surface and the other positioned opposite to the one surface. A liquid crystal display module comprising: a case for fixing the other end of the flexible substrate in a state of being bent on a surface, wherein the case has, on the other surface, a bottom surface in contact with a substrate surface of the flexible substrate; A notch having a shape larger than a protrusion provided at the other end of the flexible substrate; and a holding portion for holding the protrusion together with the bottom surface when the protrusion is inserted into the notch and slid. A liquid crystal display module.