Patent ID: 7399098

Claim:
An illumination apparatus for an operating section, comprising: an operation part located on a panel of electronic equipment, an operation knob attached to the operation part so that light from a built-in light emission source illuminates a rear surface of the operation knob, a concave portion opposite an opening in the operation knob of the panel, a light guiding piece located in concave portion to diffusively, transmit the light from the light emission source to illuminate an outer periphery of the rear surface of the operation knob, the light guiding piece comprising a light receiving surface that receives the light from the light emission source and an emission surface that irradiates as front of the light guiding piece with the light from the outer periphery of the rear surface of the operation knob, and a first reflection surface and a second reflection surface that reflect the light outward from the light receiving surface, wherein the light emission source is located above a bearing section of the operation knob, an inner peripheral section of the light guiding piece is thicker than an outer peripheral section, a thicker part of the inner peripheral section is located inside the operation knob, the outer peripheral section is located around an outer periphery of the operation knob, an outer periphery of the outer peripheral section protrudes outward from the outer periphery of the operation knob, a first reflection surface is on a rear surface of the outer peripheral section of the light guiding piece to reflect the light from the light receiving surface radially outward of the light guiding piece, and the second reflection surface is on the rear surface of the outer peripheral section of the light guiding piece to reflect the light reflected by the first reflection surface toward the emission surface.