Portable and compact radiotelephone terminal.

The present invention relates to a compact portable radiotelephone terminal.

Called telephone terminal including a device with an earpiece, microphone, keyboard dialing and transceiver means. Such a terminal should be as compact as possible to be easily manipulated near the user's face during communications, and be as compact as possible during off communications.

For its supply, the terminal often includes a removably mounted battery pack from the housing side which is opposite the face for communication. The presence of this block gives the device a fairly large thickness is not conducive to good performance of the device during communications.

Furthermore, we know the portable terminals including a pallet designed to be placed substantially in front of the user's mouth to receive the sound of the voice. This palette contains the microphone, or is a mere inert reflector returning the sound to the microphone placed close to the earpiece. A current trend is to realize such a pivoting blade, so that, apart from periods of use, the pallet is folded on the keyboard so as to shorten the overall length. To avoid lead to additional on-thickness, the pallet is then made as thin as possible.

The object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which is easier to handle while being even more compact when not in use.

According to the invention, the portable radiotelephone terminal, comprising a housing, a removable battery pack, and a pallet intended to lie in front of the mouth of the user when the terminal is in use, to receive the voice of the user, is characterized in that the storage block is in the assembled state, an integral part of the pallet.

With this arrangement, the body of the device is no longer thickened by the battery pack. Instead, the pallet becomes larger and its cross section is of the same order of magnitude as that of the body. The terminal is easier to grip thanks to its slimmer body.

The palette becomes longer than in the prior art. If it is articulated, the device thus becomes shorter in the folded state, which then reduces its bulk. Indeed, the total length of the terminal when the pallet is deployed varies little because it is a function of the distance between the mouth and ear of an average user.

Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the following description relating to a non-limiting example.

In the accompanying drawings<ul><li>Figure 1 is a view of the terminal in the folded position, with further partial representation of the base of the pallet in the deployed state, and battery block display for inserting therein;</li><li>Figure 2 is a partial view of the terminal, partially in section, with the storage block ready to be inserted into the base of the pallet deployed; and</li><li>Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 but with the folded pallet and the accumulator block in place.</li></ul>

In the example shown in the figures, the terminal comprises a body 1 whose one end face consists of an earphone 2 near one of its ends. At its other end, the body 1 is hinged to a collapsible pallet 3 pivotally movable about an axis 4 between the deployed position shown in Figure 2 and the folded position shown in Figure 3. As shown in Figure 1, the pivoting means comprise for example two flanges 6 integral with the body 1 (Figure 1) to which is articulated a pin 7 integral to a base 8 of the blade 3 (figures 2 and 3).

When the pallet 3 is deployed (bottom of Figure 1 and Figure 2), a front face 9 of the pedestal 8 is situated opposite the mouth of the user currently communicating. The face 9 then returns the sound of the voice to a microphone 11 located on the front of the body 1 between the axis 4 and the earpiece 2. The sound path is illustrated by the arrow 12.

When the armature 3 is in the stowed position it is folded against a part of the front of the body having the microphone 11 and a dial key 13.

The terminal further comprises a removable battery pack 14 which, in accordance with the invention, is an integral part of the pallet 3 when in the mounted state.

For this purpose, the base 8 is made in the form of a flattened rectangular tube open at one end face of its periphery on the side opposite to the axis 4 and the closed side of the axis 4. The storage block 14 s 'engages in the manner of a drawer in the parallelepipedal housing 16 defined by the tube. The end of insertion, a boss 17 of block 14 engages in a corresponding recess 18 of the inner wall of the base 3 to make a releasable locking.

Block 14 contains a rechargeable battery Cadmium / Nickel, or preferably an accumulator battery of the type known as the Nickel-Metal-Hydrogen Ni (M) H, or even more preferably of the type known as the rechargeable Lithium. This order of preference corresponds to the increasing compactness of order.

Block 14 has on its front side, relative to the direction of engagement, at least two rigid contacts 19 which, when the block 14 is locked into the base 8 are supported on two spring contacts 21 arranged at the bottom of the housing 16. the two contacts 21 are connected by a flexible cable 22 with the electronics located inside the body 1. the cable 22 is preferably of the flat type copper.

The cable 22 may for example pass between the pin 7 and a cylindrical sector-shaped tongue 23 also integral with the base 8. The tongue 23 is coaxial with the trunnion 7 and surrounds the latter at a radial distance. The housing 1 comprises on its rear side a lip 24 providing a certain seal with the tongue 23 regardless of the angular position of the base 8 about the axis 4 relative to the housing 1 and in particular in its two extreme positions.

The block 14 has at its opposite end to the rigid contacts 9 a grip region 26 which remains visible outside the housing 16 when the block 14 is in the service position.

The front of the body 1 has in the region which is covered by the flap 3 in the folded position, a recess 27 of a depth sufficient to accommodate the thickness of the folded pallet, so that a rear face 28 of the pallet 8 is substantially in the extension of the non-hook portion 29 of the front panel 1 when the blade is folded. As shown in Figure 1, the region 29 comprises in addition to the receiver 2, a display screen 31 enabling the user to perceive certain information even when the pallet 8 is folded, while the terminal operates in the queue.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the example described and shown.

The palette could be fixed.

Especially if the type of battery used is compact, especially in the case of the lithium rechargeable type batteries, one could place the microphone in the palette in order to capture the voice directly, not by reflection.

The battery pack could engage laterally in the range, for example in a side opening of the base.

It is also conceivable that the battery pack itself constitutes almost all of the pallet and in particular define the sound of the reflecting surface to the microphone. In this case, the base is only a short mount hinged to the body. We can even remove the base completely, the block then comprising snap hinge means of complementary means carried by the body 1, with a system of rotating contacts in this joint.