1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a keypad assembly and a fabricating method thereof, particularly to a portable electronic device with slimmer keypad assembly, and fabricating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the advancement of technology and the rising demand for conveniently in consumer electronic market, the major design requirements for portable electronic devices currently focus on slim size, lightweight and enhanced functions. In general, portable electronic devices, especially referring to hand-held electronic devices, are categorized into cell phones, electronic dictionaries and translators, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and hand-held gaming machines.
Take the cell phone for example. A cell phone mainly includes a main body, a display unit and a keypad assembly wherein, the main body comprises a data processing module and the display unit usually is a liquid crystal display module (LCM) disposed inside the main body. The display area of the display unit is disposed outside the main body and used for displaying images, pictures and words. In addition, a keypad assembly is usually disposed on the main body and serves as user interface for the portable electronic device.
The conventional way of fabricating keypad assembly, generally involves the injection molding process of a blank keypad base with thermoplastic material, such as plastic or rubber. Additionally, the blank keypad base is in the jet coating and laser etching process for desired appearance. Lastly, the blank keypad base is assembled with the main body, so that the keypad assembly can function as controller of the portable electronic device. In the current market, many portable electronic devices with a surface focusing on metallic texture have become popular. In consideration of overall consistent structure, the surfaces of the most keypad assemblies are designed with metallic texture. Hence, the surfaces of conventional blank keypad bases are usually jet-coated with metal paint, or pressed with metal plates in thermal pressing technology.
In view of the foregoing, the injection molding process of making the blank keypad bases requires expensive equipment investment; however, the thickness of a portable electronic device as a whole cannot be effectively trimmed down because a metal plate is required to be fitting jointly in the keypad base. In addition, pressing the jointed metal plate onto the keypad assembly can easily destroy the integrity of the jointed metal plate. Therefore, the production cost is unable to be scaled down and the production yield of the product cannot be effectively increased