Development and Analysis of Slide Modules for Mobile Phones
Stefan Håkansson, Erik Uppman · 2009
To allow the user interface in a mobile phone more space, slide modules are implemented. The usage of slide modules introduces many new challenges when designing a mobile phone. New solutions to these challenges is the main scope for this thesis. Nokia currently has several different slide phones out on the market implementing some sort of slide module. The slide module provides extra space for the user interface by extending the phone and revealing a hidden surface. This extra surface provided is a trade off, since extending the phone will affect the phones mechanical robustness. The mobile phones today have to be able to withstand outer violence to some extent and Nokia performs several tests to make sure that they live up to the necessary requirements. The slide module must therefore be designed so that the phone can fulfil Nokia’s overall test requirements. This thesis provides an introduction to the slide module design and its properties. A number of new ideas for slide modules are presented, all of them adapted for so called landscape sliding. A few of these new proposals for slide module concepts were chosen for further development and evaluation in terms of structural analysis. This thesis also provides a more general approach to slide modules in mobile phones with theoretical models for evaluating certain properties, such as jamming and rotation angles. The concepts presented displays improvements in such areas as mechanical strength, during simulations. However, further tests are needed if a complete evaluation of these concepts is to be made.