The development of technology has never stopped. Every moment, we witness the advances and revolutions of technology. All of them contribute to bringing increasingly greater values, giving people a more convenient, smarter, and more progressive life.
And as the title of this article suggests, today we will have the opportunity to learn about one of those technological milestones, or more specifically, the technique of manufacturing switches on mechanical keyboards.
If you have studied mechanical keyboards, you will probably see clearly that mechanical switches using the contact principle (represented by Cherry) have not changed significantly for a long time, and if there are any, they are just variations of different manufacturers, creating new types of mechanical switches that they advertise as superior. However, basically, all of these switches only use the same signal generation mechanism, which is the contact between two copper sheets in the switch, changing the resistance to create a signal. Over time, this mechanism has almost reached its limit and will become increasingly difficult to improve.
For example, Cherry’s “MX” switches are like “living fossils”. After decades of no change, they are still extremely successful designs, still proudly carrying the Cherry brand, still considered the standard for the mechanical keyboard switch market. Later mechanical switches are mostly based on Cherry’s standard design, but it is very difficult to do better than them.
The structure and operating mechanism of a Cherry MX Blue consists of the following components:
At this time, developing a completely new type of switch was necessary if we wanted to push the keyboard's functionality to a new level. And in that context, a type of switch that uses light signals, providing superior features compared to any traditional mechanical switch that has ever been used before, was born - and we call it an optical switch.
In this article, the author will use the word "optical switch" to refer to the term Optical Switch.
Perhaps the concept of optical switches is not really popular yet, but it has had a very successful development process when many major gaming gear companies have begun to apply it to their strategic products.
An optical switch from Flaretech – the world's first manufacturer to bring optical switching mechanism to keyboard switches.
We can consider Flaretech as a pioneer manufacturer when their products have been applied to the Celreritas 2 keyboard of the "Esport boss" - Zowie and the most advanced keyboard of Gigabyte, the Aorus K9. All of them inherit the quintessence of optical switch technology, bringing a huge advantage over conventional optical switches.
Aorus K9
RAZER's Opto-Mechanical switches, featuring a built-in stabilizer bar, deliver a consistently responsive feel and superior performance.
Next up is Razer with their own opto-mechanical switches that they proudly bring to their Hunstman keyboard line – keyboards that have created a craze in the gaming gear enthusiast community.
The Razer Huntsman Elite keyboard has an official price of about 5.5 million VND in the Vietnamese market.
Besides, some cheap keyboard manufacturers, mainly from China such as Fuhlen, Dare-U, E-DRA ... also have their own optical keyboard products, however, within the framework of this article, the author would like to consider only products that can be considered as representative of optical switches. If you want to refer to these products, you can learn more
So what makes optical switches so great? What are they made of and how do they work?
In terms of structure, an optical switch also has the same basic components as a mechanical switch.
A Flaretech optical switch.
1. Top housing
2. Stem
3. Lens assembly
4. Bot housing
5. Spring
The signal LED and receiver are usually located directly on the circuit board rather than on the switch to increase operational reliability and reduce manufacturing costs.
In terms of operating principles, although the same basic principle is to use light signals to provide superior features than traditional mechanical switches, each manufacturer has different approaches, for example:
Light-block principle
Animation simulating the principle of light blocking
Instead of using 2 copper pieces like traditional mechanical switches, the signal generator includes a signal LED and a light signal receiver.
The signal light is always separated from the receiver by the stem.
When receiving impact from the tapping force, the stem sinks and creates a light gap so that light can pass from the lamp to the receiver, creating a signal.
Refraction principle – represented by Flaretech:
There is a transmitter and receiver similar to the blocking principle which does not generate a signal by blocking-opening but changes the path of light by a prism block on the stem.
The signal light is always on but does not shine directly on the receiver. When the stem receives the impact of the tapping force and sinks, the prism will enter the light beam and direct part to all of the light beam towards the receiver to create a signal.
This type of switch also has a very remarkable feature, which is the ability to change the key recognition point. For example, in traditional mechanical switches, people will use 2 copper sheets to create a signal, between the 2 copper sheets there is always a gap, this gap is fixed and cannot be changed and it can only create 2 signal levels: "key recognition" and "no key recognition". As for optical switches, because the number of light beams that the receiver captures can be changed based on the opening of the light gap, it can create signals with different levels based on the sinking of the stem. So in theory, we can change the key recognition point just by customizing the software.
The signal generation mechanism of the refractive optical switch allows the generation of different signal levels based on the light energy level captured by the “receiver” (photoresistor).
However, that is only in theory. To do this, keyboard manufacturers must optimize their software, but the companies that are at the forefront of software optimization have not yet joined in. Logitech is busy with Omron with their new mechanical switches, Cosair does not seem to be very interested in optical switches, RAZER has a different direction for itself... Meanwhile, the "newbies" in customization software like Gigabyte, Fuhlen... are very active. As for Zowie BenQ, there is probably no need to say much. Although it is also one of the famous Gear manufacturers, with the familiar "Plug and Play" design style, this giant certainly will not bother to touch the software, let alone optimize it.
Advantage
With such structure, optical switches will have the following advantages:
Durability – For example, a mechanical switch will be considered dead when its signal generator, which is a copper plate, is deformed during use and creates an incorrect signal, such as double click or delayed response speed. This will not happen on an optical switch when its signal generator is not physically affected by the stem. Simply put, if you do not use contact, there will be no problem with the contact surface. At this time, the lifespan of an optical switch will be considered mainly based on its operating time limit (durability of the signal LED and receiver), so the durability of optical switches will often exceed the "50 million standard" commonly found on mechanical switches.
Smoothness – In a traditional mechanical switch, there are two main types of friction, one is the friction between the stem and the housing, and the other is the friction between the stem and the copper foil. On optical switches, because copper foil is not used, there will only be friction between the stem and the housing, giving a smoother, lighter feeling, especially in linear switches. Of course, to truly promote this feature, the switch manufacturer must also have a method to reduce the friction between the housing and the stem to a minimum, only then will the smoothness of the optical switch be promoted to its maximum level.
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A Cherry MX Red, you can easily see the friction between the copper foil and the stem – something that has been eliminated in optical switches
Response speed – On a normal mechanical switch, the time from when the two copper pieces touch each other until the current flows through and creates a signal will take about 5ms (Cherry MX) for the whole process, meaning a delay of 5ms. Meanwhile, the time for light to travel from the LED to the receiver and create a signal takes only about 0.03ms (Flaretech Optical), which is about 150 times faster than a mechanical switch. And this is the most “valuable” point of the optical switch when it brings absolute advantages to users on the fiery E-sport battlefields – where every millisecond can make a difference.
Maybe for you, 5ms is less than a flash of light, but for the E-sport battlefield, those are the moments that make history.
At this point, we have a question: “Why hasn’t the optical switch and its concept reached the majority of people despite its superiority?”
Whenever a new technology is born, it is almost certain that its first steps will encounter certain difficulties, and optical switches are no exception. They still have some limitations compared to older technologies.
First: Cost – New technologies often come with a high price tag, and optical switches are no exception. The cost of research and production lines will push the cost of keyboards using optical switches up significantly compared to keyboards using mechanical switches with similar finishing quality, at least at the moment. Therefore, we will usually only see this type of switch on high-end products from major brands.
Second: The structure of optical switches is very different from mechanical switches, so the tactile feedback parts in the switch are also designed differently, leading to an unfamiliar pressing feeling. And if you are a long-time user of mechanical switches and you are already familiar with them, it will definitely be quite difficult for you to decide to buy an optical keyboard no matter how good it is.
From there, we can see that, despite its superiority, optical switches still have inherent characteristics such as suboptimal price and unfamiliar typing feel. And these will be fatal weaknesses, making it extremely difficult for optical switches to reach the general user segment - where price requirements are always put first, along with the familiarity in typing feel of traditional mechanical switches that will be difficult to replace overnight.
