The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 06, 2004
Filed:
May. 10, 2002
James H. McGrath, Jr., Aloha, OR (US);
David F. Hiltner, Beaverton, OR (US);
Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR (US);
Abstract
A rear-mount integrated rotary encoder comprises a mechanical portion and a printed circuit board portion. The mechanical portion of a rear mount integrated rotary encoder comprises a housing including a bushing for receiving one end of a rotatable shaft. The rotatable shaft passes through an open front portion of the housing and is mechanically connected to exposed rotatable circuit contacting members. The printed circuit board portion has an encoder contact pattern formed thereon. The printed circuit board has an area larger than the cross sectional area of the housing. The encoder contact pattern surrounds (or is at least concentric with respect to) an aperture in the circuit board. The rotatable shaft of the rotary encoder is passed through the aperture such that the rotatable circuit contacting members contact the encoder contact pattern on the circuit board. An elastomeric button is mounted on the front surface of the circuit board and surrounds the shaft of the rotary encoder to provide a spring-like action. The rotatable shaft is keyed to allow movement orthogonal to the plane of the circuit board while preventing rotation of the knob with respect to the rotatable shaft. When the knob is pressed, the elastomeric button is compressed and a pair of switch contacts, mounted below the elastomeric button, contact each other. In one embodiment, the housing includes projections, substantially orthogonal to the circuit board, for engaging a feature of the circuit board for securing the integrated encoder in an assembled state. In another embodiment of the invention, the housing is attached to the circuit board by means of an adhesive applied to the front surface of the housing. A further feature of the subject rear-mount integrated rotary encoder including a pushbutton switch is that it is substantially cylindrical in shape to reduce the required spacing between adjacent encoders.