Keyboard PCB, also known as the keyboard printed circuit board, is the core component of the keyboard, the performance and stability of the keyboard plays a crucial role. In the keyboard, PCB is responsible for connecting and transmitting key signals and communicating with the computer through the USB interface. When we press a key on the keyboard, the contact inside the key will turn on the corresponding circuit on the PCB. This circuit will transmit the signal to the main control chip, and then the main control chip recognizes the location of the key and the signal, and sends it to the computer through USB or Bluetooth, etc. to finally complete our input operation.
Keyboard circuit board is the core component of the keyboard, taking on the function of key switch and signal transmission. Its production process mainly includes the following steps:
Obtaining raw materials: mainly including copper foil, substrate, electronic components, etc.
Design the circuit: according to the product requirements, use professional software to design the circuit diagram.
Making circuit boards: placing copper foil on the substrate, forming the required circuit graphics through exposure, development and other processes.
Etching: Utilize chemicals to etch away the unwanted copper foil to form a complete circuit.
Gong board and drilling: Precision processing of circuit boards for mounting pcb components.
Mounting and Soldering of Electronic Components: Mount the electronic components on the PCB and make them fixed by soldering.
Functionality testing: testing of the finished product to ensure that it functions properly.
The impact of pcb board on the quality of the keyboard is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Signal transmission performance: circuit board material, wiring design and manufacturing process will affect the accuracy and stability of signal transmission. High-quality pcb board can ensure that the key signals are transmitted quickly and accurately to the computer host,reducing delays and misoperation.
Function realization ability: various functions of the keyboard, such as multimedia control,macro programming, etc.,need to be realized through the circuitry on the pcb board. A feature-rich keyboard needs to be supported by a well-designed and functional pcb substrate.
Stability and reliability: The stability and reliability of the pcb board directly affects the life and performance of the keyboard circuit board.A quality printed circuit board can maintain stable operation in harsh environments and reduce the occurrence of malfunction and damage.
Classification of keyboard
According to the working principle:
- Mechanical keyboard (Mechanical) using a similar metal contact switch, the working principle is to make the contact conduction or disconnection, with a simple process, noise, easy to maintain, typing a strong sense of rhythm, long-term use of the feel will not change and so on.
- Plastic membrane type keyboard inside a total of four layers, to achieve no mechanical wear and tear. It is characterized by low price, low noise and low cost, but the feel will change after long-term use due to material problems. It has occupied the majority of the market share.
- Conductive Rubber keyboard (Conductive Rubber) contact structure is connected through the conductive rubber. There is a layer of raised conductive rubber inside the keyboard, each key corresponds to a raised, when pressed, the following contacts connected. This type of keyboard is the market from the mechanical keyboard to the membrane keyboard transition products.
- No contact electrostatic capacitive keyboard (Capacitives) use similar capacitive switch principle, by changing the distance between the electrodes when pressing the key to change the capacitance caused by the change in capacity to drive the encoder. Characterized by no wear and tear and better sealing.
According to the text input points: according to the text input at the same time the number of keys can be divided into single-key input keyboard, two-key input keyboard and multi-key input keyboard, we commonly used keyboard belongs to the single-key input keyboard, steno machine keyboard belongs to the multiple-key input keyboard, the latest appearance of the four sections of the input method keyboard belongs to the two-key input keyboard.
According to the conventional points: conventional keyboards have mechanical keys and capacitive keys of two kinds. In the industrial computer keyboard there is also a light touch membrane keys of the keyboard. Mechanical keyboard is the earliest adopted structure, generally similar to the principle of contact switching to make the contacts conductive or disconnect, with a simple process, easy maintenance, general feel, noise, easy to wear characteristics, most of the cheap mechanical keyboard using a copper spring as elasticity material, the copper is easy to fold and easy to lose the elasticity of the use of a long period of time the failure rate rises, capacitive keyboard. It is based on the capacitive switch keyboard, the principle is to change the distance between the electrodes through the key to produce changes in capacitance, the temporary formation of oscillating pulses allow the passage of the conditions. Theoretically, this switch is non-contact non-contact, the wear rate is extremely small or even negligible, and there is no hidden danger of poor contact, with low noise, easy to control the feel, you can create a high-quality keyboard, but the process is more complex than the mechanical structure. There is also a keyboard for industrial control machines in order to completely seal the use of light touch membrane keys, only for special occasions.
According to the shape: the shape of the keyboard is divided into standard keyboard and ergonomic keyboard.
Ergonomic keyboard is in the standard keyboard will be specified in the fingering of the left-hand key area and the right-hand key area of the two plates left and right apart, and form a certain angle, so that the operator does not have to consciously clamp the arms, to maintain a more natural form, this design of the keyboard was named by Microsoft as a natural keyboard (Natural Keyboard), for the habit of blind-typing users can effectively reduce the left and right hand This design is named Natural Keyboard by Microsoft, which can effectively reduce the mis-strike rate of left and right hand keys such as “G” and “H” for users who are accustomed to blind typing. Some ergonomic keyboards also intend to increase the area of commonly used keys such as the space bar and enter key, and increase the hand guards in the lower part of the keyboard to give support to the previous hanging wrists to reduce fatigue due to prolonged hanging wrists. These can be considered as humanized design.
Membrane type:
Consisting of three layers of conductive film (the upper and lower layers have circuits, and the center is an insulating layer). This is the key to this keyboard to do the trigger action, but there are other kinds of conductive film, some are using rubber caps, some are using mechanical modules, rubber caps are generally seen on the market can be said so.
Membrane keyboard with low cost, simple process and feel good and other advantages of the vast majority of the market, our daily life in the use of the keyboard are basically are membrane keyboard, membrane keyboard structure is very simple, in addition to the keyboard we can directly contact the upper and lower cover, keycaps, you can see the keys below the silicone cap, film circuit and circuit board.
Luminous: Luminous keyboards are becoming more and more popular. Backlit keyboards on the market are roughly divided into two types, one type of LED light-emitting diode as a backlight, the other type of electro-optical plate as a backlight.
The former LED backlit keyboard is divided into single-color LED luminous keyboard and color-changing LED luminous keyboard, LED keyboard and electric light board keyboard compared to the LED because it is relatively simple, so it is usually cheaper, but because of the existence of a relatively large difference in the brightness of each LED, so it is difficult to ensure that the uniformity of the backlighting, coupled with a LED keyboard is made up of many LED light-emitting diodes, so its s power consumption is also relatively large.
Photoelectric plate luminous keyboard on the market is relatively small, mainly due to its use of high price photoelectric plate, so the high-end backlit keyboard or military luminous keyboard are produced with this type. Advantage is that it is very uniform brightness, very low power consumption, long life, stable quality, and photoelectric plate is only 0.5mm or so, but also can be folded, photoelectric plate size can also be cut arbitrarily, the disadvantage is the price is high, can not change the color.
Keyboards, as an indispensable tool in our daily work and life, have evolved into a wide variety of types, each of which fulfills our needs in its own unique way. From the sophisticated design of keyboard PCB to the wide range of applications of various types of keyboards, the power of technological development is reflected.
