Rotatable docking station for an electronic device

Abstract

The problems identified above are in large part addressed by an docking assembly including an electronic device, a base piece, and a rotating piece. The base piece is electrically connected to at least one peripheral device. The rotating piece is intermediate between the electronic device and the base piece. The rotating piece enables rotational movement of the electronic device with respect to the base piece while maintaining electrical contact between one or more signal carriers of the electronic device and corresponding signal carriers of one or more peripheral devices. The assembly may include a set of conductive bearings at an upper surface of the base piece. In this embodiment, each conductive bearing is in electrical contact with a corresponding signal carrier in the base piece. The rotating piece may include an annular conductive element at a lower surface of the rotating piece. The conductive element is in contact with a corresponding bearing element. The base piece may include a set of conductive axial elements that provide a connection between the conductive bearing at a first end and a corresponding signal carrier in the base piece at a second end. The base piece signal carrier may be connected to a corresponding axial element through an intermediate base piece conductive element. The conductive bearing may comprise a material selected from the metals including aluminum, copper, and gold. In one embodiment, a lower surface of the rotating piece includes at least one annular tongue protrusion and an upper surface of the base piece includes at least one annular groove corresponding to each of the tongue protrusions. The tongue protrusions of the rotating piece are seated within corresponding grooves of the base piece thereby preventing translational movement between the rotating piece and the base piece when the rotating piece is rotated with respect to the base piece.