Abstract:
A housing comprises a transparent exterior coating, a photoelectric conversion coating bonded with the exterior coating and a substrate molded on the photoelectric conversion coating. The photoelectric conversion coating has electrode contacts thereon. The photoelectric conversion coating is used to convert light energy to electrical energy. The disclosure also describes an electronic device using the housing and a method for making the housing there.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    1. Technical Field 
         [0002]    The present disclosure relates to housings, especially to a housing having photoelectric conversion property, an electronic device using the housing, and a method for making the housing. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    Advances are being made to conserve energy by using solar energy to charge batteries in electronic products. However, the use of solar cells, even when very small, limit how much the electronic product can be reduced in size and weight. Commonly, solar chargers are separately employed to charge the products which adds to cost and is inconvenient. 
         [0005]    Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0006]    Many aspects of the housing can be better understood with reference to the following figures. The components in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the housing. Moreover, in the drawings like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
           [0007]      FIG. 1  is a cross-sectional view of an exemplary embodiment of a housing; 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of an electronic device using the housing shown in  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0009]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , in an exemplary embodiment, a housing  10  includes an exterior coating  11 , a connecting coating  12  bonded with the exterior coating  11 , a photoelectric conversion coating  13  bonded with the connecting coating  12 , a protective coating  15  bonded with the photoelectric conversion coating  13 , and a substrate  17  bonded with the protective coating  15 . The coatings  11 - 15  are applied sequentially to the interior of a mold and are then transferred to the substrate  17  in a molding process to form the housing  10 . 
         [0010]    The exterior coating  11  is a transparent plastic coating having a thickness of about 0.175 mm. The exterior coating  11  may undergo a surface treatment to make its surface smoother once the housing  10  is molded. 
         [0011]    The connecting coating  12  may be formed on one surface of the exterior coating  11  by daubing glue. The connecting coating  12  can enhance the bonding between the exterior coating  11  and the photoelectric conversion coating  13 . 
         [0012]    The photoelectric conversion coating  13  may be a semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer having a thickness of about 0.15-0.25 mm. The photoelectric conversion coating  13  has electrode contacts  131  thereon. The electrode contacts  131  are disposed on the opposite sides of the photoelectric conversion coating  13  by printing conductive silver slurry or conductive aluminum slurry. The photoelectric conversion coating  13  can absorb light energy. The light energy energizes and frees electrons of the semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer. The free electrons gather to one side of the semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer to produce a potential difference. When the electrode contacts  131  are electrically connected to a circuit of an electronic device, an electrical current will be generated due to the potential difference, as a result, electric energy is supplied to the electronic device. 
         [0013]    The protective coating  15  may be an adhesive coating formed on the exposed surface of the photoelectric conversion coating  13  by spraying. The main material contained in the adhesive may be synthetic resin. The thickness of the protective coating  15  is about 0.02-0.03 mm. 
         [0014]    The substrate  17  may be a plastic coating molded on the protective coating  15 . The plastic of molding the substrate  17  may be selected from a group consisting of polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). 
         [0015]    Referring to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , in an exemplary embodiment, an electronic device  20  includes a main body  21  and a housing  10  fixed to the maim body  21 . The main body  21  includes a mainboard  211  and a storage battery  213 . The mainboard  211  is integrated with a power supply controller unit  215 . The storage battery  213  can supply power to the electronic device  20 . The housing  10  includes an exterior coating  11 , a connecting coating  12  bonded with the exterior coating  11 , a photoelectric conversion coating  13  bonded with the connecting coating  12 , a protective coating  15  bonded with the photoelectric conversion coating  13  and a substrate  17  bonded with the protective coating  15 . The coatings  11 - 15  are applied sequentially to the interior of a mould and are then transferred to the substrate  17  in a molding process to form the housing  10 . The photoelectric conversion coating  13  may be a semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer. The photoelectric conversion coating  13  has electrode contacts  131  thereon. The electrode contacts  131  can be electrically connected with the power supply controller unit  215  of the mainboard  211 . The photoelectric conversion coating  13  absorbs light energy. The light energy energizes and frees electrons of the semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer. The free electrons gather to one side of the semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer to produce a potential difference. When the electrode contacts  131  are electrically connected to the power supply controller unit  215 , an electrical current will be generated in the electronic device  20  due to the potential difference, as a result, electrical energy is generated to store up in the storage battery  213  to supply power to the electronic device  20 . 
         [0016]    The exemplary electronic device  20  may be a mobile phone, a PDA, a camera, a MP3 or MP4 player. 
         [0017]    A method for making the housing  10 , in the exemplary embodiment, may comprise: molding a transparent exterior coating; manufacturing a photoelectric conversion coating and bonding it with the exterior coating; providing electrode contacts on the photoelectric conversion coating; and molding a substrate onto the photoelectric conversion coating. 
         [0018]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , an exterior coating  11  is molded. The material of molding the exterior coating  11  is selected from a group consisting of polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The exterior coating  11  may undergo a surface treatment for smoothening its surface smoother after the housing  10  is made. 
         [0019]    A connecting coating  12  is formed on one surface of the exterior coating  11  by daubing glue. 
         [0020]    A photoelectric conversion coating  13  is manufactured. The photoelectric conversion coating  13  may be a semiconductor polycrystalline silicon wafer made by a normal method for making silicon wafers. The area of each surface of the photoelectric conversion coating  13  and the area of each surface of the exterior coating  11  may be the same. 
         [0021]    Electrode contacts  131  are defined on the photoelectric conversion coating  13 . The electrode contacts  131  may be disposed on the opposite sides of the photoelectric conversion coating  13 . The electrode contacts  131  may be formed by printing conductive silver slurry or conductive aluminum slurry. After the electrode contacts  131  are formed, the photoelectric conversion coating  13  is bonded to the connecting coating  12  at a temperature of about 90-100° C. 
         [0022]    A protective coating  15  is formed on the exposed surface of the photoelectric conversion coating  13 . The protective coating  15  may be an adhesive coating formed by spraying. The main material contained in the adhesive may be synthetic resin. 
         [0023]    The coatings  11 - 15  are then applied to the interior of a mould and the substrate  17  is molded onto the protective coating  15  to form the housing  10 . The plastic of molding the substrate  17  may be selected from a group consisting of polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). 
         [0024]    It should be understood, the connecting coating  12  is not necessary. The photoelectric conversion coating  13  can be directly formed on the surface of the exterior coating  11  by a hot pressing process. 
         [0025]    It should be understood, the protective coating  15  is not necessary. The substrate  17  can be directly molded on the photoelectric conversion coating  13 . 
         [0026]    The exemplary electronic device  20  has a photoelectric conversion coating  13  which is small in size and is easy to be tightly bonded with the connecting coating  12  and the protective coating  15  to convert the light energy to electrical energy to supply power to the electronic device  20  more efficiently. 
         [0027]    It should be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present embodiments have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of functions of the embodiments, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail within the principles of the disclosure to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.