Minebea Company, Limited

Nokia Corporation

Nissha Printing Co., Ltd.

Mineba Co., Ltd.

Satoshi Kawashima

Akihisa Nishioka

Motoji Egawa

Katsuji Ishigami

Toshiaki Asakawa

Toru Kunimochi

Kazutoshi Takayanagi

Hitoshi Mizutani

Kazuhiro Nishikawa

Takao Hashimoto

Makoto Furuta

Toshisada Takeda

Tomotaka Horikawa

Takayuki Takagi

Shinji Kawai

Yohei Ishii

Masahito Totsuka

Yoshitaka Chousa

Shun Kurebayashi

Junji Yuasa

Hiroshi Takeshita

A planar illumination device includes a light source unit, including a substantially planar emitting surface, configured to emit light to illuminate a substantially planar object, and a frame, formed in a frame shape enclosing the light source unit, disposed on an outer circumferential side of the light source unit, configured to hold the light source unit. The frame includes a reflecting part configured to reflect the light, and an absorbing part, formed integral with at least a part of an outer circumferential surface of the reflecting part, configured to absorb the light. The reflecting part and the absorbing part include joint interface therebetween that is inclined to a direction vertical to the emitting surface.

Planar illumination device and method of producing same

A spread illuminating apparatus includes: a light guide plate including a plurality of protrusions disposed along a side surface thereof such that a plurality of interspaces are formed with each interspace being located between two adjacent protrusions; and a plurality of LEDs which include first row LEDs and second row LEDs disposed in two rows respectively at the interspaces and the protrusions. The distal portion of the protrusion has, at its top end surface, a width which is larger than the width of an opening area of the recess of a lamp house and also smaller than the overall width of the lamp house. The first and second row LEDs adjacent to each other are disposed such that respective lamp houses of two adjacent LEDs partly overlap with each other when viewed from the light emission direction.

Spread illuminating apparatus

A keyboard apparatus. The apparatus has a housing including a plurality of key pads, including at least twenty six key pads spatially disposed within the housing. Each of the key pads is depressible upon touch by a user. An optically transparent circuit board is coupled to a backside of each of the key pads. The apparatus has a light guide characterized by a planar optically transparent material having a surface region, a width, a length, and a backside region, and a thickness provided between the surface region and the backside region. The apparatus has a plurality of patterns disposed on the surface region and optically coupled respectively to each of the twenty six key members. In a specific embodiment, the apparatus has a light emitting diode provided within a center region of the surface region to emit electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic radiation propagates from the light emitting diode through a portion of the thickness of the light guide to one or more of the plurality of patterns to direct one or more portions of the electromagnetic radiation to respective key pads for lighting the respective key pads.

Backlighted keyboard and method using patterned light guide

A spread illuminating apparatus includes a light source, a light conductor plate having the light source at a side surface thereof, and a frame to house the light conductor plate, wherein the frame is basically composed of a metal core member and a resin body member which has an enclosed structure and which has recesses at outer surfaces of the enclosed structure.

A spread illuminating apparatus includes: at least one light source; a light conductive plate which has the at least one light source disposed at one end surface thereof, and which allows light emitted from the at least one light source and introduced therein to exit out therefrom through both major surfaces thereof toward first and second liquid crystal display elements disposed respectively over the both major surfaces of the light conductive plate, wherein the second liquid crystal display element has a smaller display screen size than the first liquid crystal display element; and a reflecting means which is disposed at the other major surface of the light conductive plate so as to cover at least areas not covered by the second liquid crystal display element, and which reflects light toward the first liquid crystal display element.

Spread illuminating apparatus to illuminate two liquid crystal display panels different in screen size

In a touch panel assembly, the thickness of a touch panel is successfully reduced by using a touch panelprovided with no reinforcement member. A housing framethat supports the components of a front light unitin an integral manner is provided with a touch panel positioning mechanism, and the touch panelis fixed to the positioning mechanism, whereby the absence of a reinforcement member is duly compensated for, thus ensuring the strength of the touch panel. Deformation of the touch panelthat occurs when the touch panelis pressed for operation can be attenuated by a transparent buffer memberdisposed between the touch paneland a light conductor plate. Therefore, the touch paneldeformed is prohibited from contacting and damaging the light conductor plate, thus preventing the light conductor platefrom deteriorating in its functional performance. Consequently, reduction in dimension and reduction of the number of components can be achieved without deteriorating the functional performance of the touch panel assembly.

Touch panel assembly

In a spread illuminating apparatus comprising a spot-like light source, and a light conductive plate, the light conductive plate is shaped into a pentagon which has two sides thereof substantially parallel to each other. The pentagon includes, as a part thereof, a triangle having its base defined by an imaginary line connecting respective straightly opposing ends of the two parallel sides, and the spot-like light source is disposed at a side of the pentagon constituting one of two hypotenuses of the triangle.

Spread illuminating apparatus with light conductive plate having polygonal configuration

A housing frame includes a recess, a flat seat portion and a frame-shaped seat portion which are positioning units for a spot-like light source, a light conductive bar and a light conductive plate, respectively. The required assembly accuracy can be reliably obtained by fitting the light source, the light conductive bar and the light conductive plate to the predetermined positioning units of the housing frame. A recess and a flat seat portion have a thickness Dsmaller than the thickness Dof a frame forming the positioning unit for the light conductive plate, and the housing frame forms a cavity, an opening of which is directed upward, and in order to obtain the required strength a reinforcing frame is provided. By reducing the thickness of the reinforcing frame, the light conductive plate can be disposed close to a display surface of any electronic product in incorporating the spread illuminating apparatus into any the electronic product.

Spread illuminating apparatus of side-light type

In a spread illuminating apparatus comprising a light conductive plate, and at least one spot-like light source disposed close to a light entrance surface thereof, the light conductive plate has, on its light exit surface, a light scattering means comprising a plurality of mechanisms which are each formed so as to extend in a direction perpendicular to the light entrance surface, and which are adapted to scatter the light emitted from the at least one spot-like light source with respect to the direction parallel to the light entrance surface. The mechanisms of the light scattering means each consist of either paired slanting surfaces, a ridge with its surface arced in cross section, or a ridge multifaceted forming a polygonal cross section. The surfaces of the mechanisms may be roughened with a plurality of grooves, thereby achieving a further uniform illumination.

Spread illuminating apparatus with light scattering means

There is provided a spread illuminating apparatus to ensure excellent light conductivity. A cover is integrally provided over a transparent substrate sandwiching a fluid (cushioning material) of a gel, liquid, or gaseous substance. With this structure, dust generated in assembly process is prohibited from getting on the transparent substrate, and even when other members or an assembly machine hit and bend the cover during the assembly process, the bending is absorbed by the fluid, and a light reflection pattern formed on the transparent substrate is protected against damages, whereby excellent light conductivity can be maintained.

Spread illuminating apparatus with cover provided over transparent substrate

A touch panel has a reduced whole thickness when attached to a display device, increases the accuracy of the positional information, and improves the display quality and durability inexpensively. One of a pair of resistive layers facing each other across insulating dot spacers is laid on a light-transmissible flat plate formed of a PET film rather than a glass plate, and a light conductive plate of a front light unit is integrated with an outer surface of the light-transmissible flat plate. An AR film having a transparent gel layer is disposed between the PET film and the light conductive plate. The transparent gel layer is of a gel material such as silicone rubber and is applied integrally on the AR film, which is formed such that anti-reflection treatment is applied on a surface of a base material of a FET film.

Growing community of inventors

Iwata-gun, Japan

Satoshi Kawashima