Abstract:
An exemplary electronic device with integrated circuit chips being on one circuit board and required connector circuits being on another, connectable, circuit board provides modularization and interchangeability for ease of adaptation in manufacture of electronic products utilizing the electronic device. In particular, the IC chips are mounted on a first circuit board, and the connector circuits are mounted on a second circuit board. The first circuit board is mountable to the second circuit board and is electrically connected to the second circuit board.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    1. Technical Field 
         [0002]    The disclosed embodiments relate to electronic devices, and particularly, to an electronic device with separated integrated circuit (IC) chips and connectors. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    Numerous electronic products and devices, such as televisions, include a plurality of IC chips and a plurality of connectors. Typically, the IC chips are a demodulator, an audio/video decoder, and the like; and the connectors are a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connector, a tuner having an input port for receiving television signals from television cables, an audio connector, a universal serial bus (USB) connector, and the like. In the United States, the television must use an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) demodulator, and a moving picture experts group-2 (MPEG-2) audio/video decoder. 
         [0005]    Television manufacturers usually mount the IC chips and the connectors on a same circuit board. That is, the ATSC demodulator, the MPEG-2 audio/video decoder, the USB connector, and the audio connector, etc., are mounted on a same circuit board. Therefore, when the television manufacturer manufactures other types of televisions, the whole circuit board must be reconfigured again. This is inconvenient, time-consuming, and costly. 
         [0006]    Therefore, there is room for improvement in the art. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    Many aspects of the present embodiments can be better understood with reference to the drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present embodiments. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the six views. 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is an exploded view showing an electronic device in accordance with a first embodiment. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is an assembled view of the electronic device in  FIG. 1 . 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is an exploded view showing an electronic device in accordance with a second embodiment. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is an exploded view showing an electronic device in accordance with a third embodiment. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  is an assembled view of the electronic device in  FIG. 4 . 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  is an exploded view showing an electronic device in accordance with a fourth embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0014]      FIG. 1  shows an electronic device  100  in accordance with a first embodiment. The electronic device  100  includes a first circuit board  10 , a second circuit board  40 , a plurality of integrated circuit (IC) chips, and a plurality of connectors. The electronic device  100  can be part of a television, for example. In other embodiments, there is only a single IC chip, and only a single connector. 
         [0015]    The IC chips are mounted on the first circuit board  10 . The IC chips include a processor  11 , a demodulator  13 , an audio/video decoder  15 , a wireless module  16 , a speaker IC chip  17 , an audio amplifier  18 , and a memory  19 . The demodulator  13  is an ATSC demodulator, for example. The audio/video decoder  15  is an MPEG-2 audio/video decoder, for example. The wireless module  16  is typically a wireless transceiver, which can be a Wireless Fidelity (WIFI) module or a radio communication module (e.g. a Bluetooth module or a ZigBee module), for example. In other embodiments, the IC chips include the demodulator  13  and the audio/video decoder  15  only. 
         [0016]    The connectors are mounted on the second circuit board  40 . The connectors include a recommended standard-232 (RS-232) connector  43 , a tuner  41  having an input port for receiving television broadcasting signals, an earphone connector  44 , a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connector  45 , a universal serial bus (USB) connector  46 , a local area network (LAN) connector  47 , a composite video blanking sync (CVBS) connector  48 , a video graphics array (VGA) connector  49 , a luminance and chrominance (YPbPr) connector  50 , a Sony/Philips digital interface (SPDIF) connector  52 , and an audio connector  53 . 
         [0017]    The first circuit board  10  is mounted to the second circuit board  40  and is electrically connected to the second circuit board  40 . 
         [0018]    In detail, the electronic device  100  further includes two first protrusions  20 ,  22  protruding from a main portion of the first circuit board  10 , and two primary female connectors  24 ,  25  mounted on the second circuit board  40 . The first protrusions  20 ,  22  can for example be card edge connectors, and in the illustrated embodiment are portions of the first circuit board  10 . The primary female connectors  24 ,  25  can for example be slot connectors. In such case, the slots of the primary female connectors  24 ,  25  are located at lateral sides thereof. A plurality of conductive terminals are disposed on each of the first protrusions  20 ,  22 . In the embodiment, each of the first protrusions  20 ,  22  with the plurality of conductive terminals is defined as a primary male connector. In other embodiments, only one of the first protrusions  20 ,  22  is provided, and only one of the primary female connectors  24 ,  25  is provided. 
         [0019]    The two first protrusions  20 ,  22  are engaged with the two primary female connectors  24 ,  25  respectively as follows. Firstly, the two first protrusions  20 ,  22  are oriented aslant and partially inserted into the two primary female connectors  24 ,  25  respectively. Then, the two first protrusions  20 ,  22  are horizontally and fully inserted into the two primary female connectors  24 ,  25  respectively, as shown in  FIG. 2 . After the engagement, the plurality of conductive terminals disposed on the first protrusion  20  are electrically connected to the primary female connector  24 , and the plurality of conductive terminals disposed on the first protrusion  22  are electrically connected to the primary female connector  25 . Thereby, the plurality of IC chips communicate with the plurality of connectors respectively. 
         [0020]    For example, the tuner  41  receives a plurality of television signals through a television cable, selects one of the television signals, and transmits the selected television signal (which is defined as a first signal) to the demodulator  13  through the primary female connector  24  and the first protrusion  20 . Then the demodulator  13  demodulates the selected television signal. 
         [0021]    In contrast, the wireless module  16  receives an audio signal which is defined as a second signal. The audio amplifier  18  amplifies the audio signal, and transmits the amplified audio signal to the earphone connector  44  through the first protrusion  22  and the primary female connector  25 . Then the earphone connector  44  outputs the amplified audio signal to an earphone (not shown), and the earphone outputs the amplified audio signal as sound. 
         [0022]    Furthermore, the electronic device  100  also includes a first fixing element  92 , a second fixing element  94 , a second protrusion  54  and a third protrusion  56 . The second protrusion  54  and the third protrusion  56  protrude from a main portion of the second circuit board  40 . In the illustrated embodiment, the second and third protrusions  54 ,  56  are portions of the second circuit board  40 . A first fixing part  540  and a second fixing part  560  are disposed on the second protrusion  54  and the third protrusion  56 , respectively. The first circuit board  10  defines a first through hole  112  and a second through hole  122 . The first fixing element  92  partially passes through the first through hole  112  and is then fixed to the first fixing part  540 , and the second fixing element  94  partially passes through the second through hole  122  and is then fixed to the second fixing part  560 . In the embodiment, the first fixing element  92  and the second fixing element  94  are screws, and the second protrusion  54  is parallel to the third protrusion  56 . 
         [0023]      FIG. 3  shows an electronic device  200  in accordance with a second embodiment. The difference between the electronic device  200  of the second embodiment and the electronic device  100  of the first embodiment is that the electronic device  200  further includes a secondary male connector  58  and a secondary female connector  59 . The first circuit board  10  includes a first surface  12  and a second surface  14  at opposite sides thereof, and the second circuit board  40  includes a third surface  402 . The above-described seven IC chips  11 ,  13 ,  15 ,  16 ,  17 ,  18 ,  19  are mounted on the first surface  12 , and the secondary male connector  58  is mounted on the second surface  14 . The above-described eleven connectors  41 ,  43 ,  44 ,  45 ,  46 ,  47 ,  48 ,  49 ,  50 ,  52 ,  53  are mounted on the third surface  402 , and the secondary female connector  59  is also mounted on the third surface  402 . The secondary male connector  58  couples with the secondary female connector  59 , and thereby the first circuit board  10  can communicate with the second circuit board  40  through the secondary male connector  58  and the secondary female connector  59 . 
         [0024]      FIG. 4  shows an electronic device  300  in accordance with a third embodiment. The difference between the electronic device  300  of the third embodiment and the electronic device  100  of the first embodiment is that the electronic device  300  includes two first male connectors  60 ,  62  mounted on one side of the first circuit board  10 , and two first female connectors  64 ,  66  mounted on the second circuit board  40 . Slots of the two first female connectors  64 ,  66  are located at lateral sides of the first female connectors  64 ,  66 . Protrusions of the two first male connectors  60 ,  62  corresponding to the slots are oriented parallel to the first circuit board  10 . The two first male connectors  60 ,  62  are engaged with the two first female connectors  64 ,  66  respectively as follows: the two first male connectors  60 ,  62  are fully and horizontally inserted into the two first female connectors  64 ,  66  respectively, as shown in  FIG. 5 . Thereby, the first circuit board  10  can communicate with the second circuit board  40  through the two first male connectors  60 ,  62  and the two first female connectors  64 ,  66 . 
         [0025]      FIG. 6  shows an electronic device  400  in accordance with a fourth embodiment. The difference between the electronic device  400  of the fourth embodiment and the electronic device  100  of the first embodiment is that the electronic device  400  includes two second male connectors  70 ,  72  and two second female connectors  74 ,  76 . The first circuit board  10  includes the first surface  12  and the second surface  14  at opposite sides thereof. The above-described seven IC chips  11 ,  13 ,  15 ,  16 ,  17 ,  18 ,  19  are mounted on the first surface  12 , and the two second male connectors  70 ,  72  are mounted on the second surface  14 . The two second female connectors  74 ,  76  are mounted on the second circuit board  40 . Slots of the two second female connectors  74 ,  76  are located at top sides of the second female connectors  74 ,  76 . Protrusions of the two second male connectors  70 ,  72  corresponding to the slots are oriented perpendicular to the first circuit board  10 . The two second male connectors  70 ,  72  are coupled with two second female connectors  74 ,  76  respectively, as follows: the two second male connectors  70 ,  72  are fully and vertically inserted into the two second female connectors  74 ,  76  correspondingly. Thereby, the first circuit board  10  can communicate with the second circuit board  40  through the two second male connectors  70 ,  72  and the two second female connectors  74 ,  76 . 
         [0026]    In the above-described electronic devices  100 ,  200 ,  300 ,  400 , the group of seven IC chips  11 ,  13 ,  15 ,  16 ,  17 ,  18 ,  19  and the group of eleven connectors  41 ,  43 ,  44 ,  45 ,  46 ,  47 ,  48 ,  49 ,  50 ,  52 ,  53  are mounted on different circuit boards. Therefore when a manufacturer manufactures other types of televisions having different connectors, the first circuit board  10  including the ATSC demodulator and the MPEG-2 audio/video decoder can be utilized as is, without any need for reconfiguration. The manufacturer only needs to reconfigure the second circuit board  40 . This makes the manufacturing of the other types of televisions convenient, speedy, and cost-effective.