Optical fibers light up flat switches in tight spaces

As electronics continue to shrink, the space available for a display gets smaller and flatter. Add into that ultra-thin geometry the need for backlit buttons and you have the challenge of choe-horning an LED into a tight space. I just came across a clever solution: Lumitex’s UniGlow fiber optic panels routing the light to the button through optical fibers which fan out to fit into a low-profile light channel while they turn and bend at the same time. The switches can range from circles to completely irregular shapes.

The panels can backlight up to a 4” x 6” area with one LED light source with brightness as high as 75 Ft-L: Power consumption is 2-4 VDC, 5-30 mA for a single-LED backlight. Because the panels are a thin 0.013”, they don’t interfere with the tactile feel of the switch.

Cost for the panels ranges from $0.70 for a panel with a 0.40” x 4” viewing area and no LED in quantities of 100,000, to $4.00 for a panel with a 1.35” x 3.50” viewing area and one white LED in quantities of 5,000.