Membrane keyboards: What is it and how they work?

Posted by markwahlbargg on May 28th, 2019

Silicone rubber keypads of membrane keyboards are more common and cheaper than mechanics. It usually associated with use in games.

Choosing a new keyboard between the two types can be a confusing task for those who are not informed about the differences between and one type and therefore to help you with the task.

What are the membrane keyboards?

A membrane is a series of silicone rubber keypads screens that lie below the keys. They have electronic contacts for each key on your keyboard. When you press one of them, all layers come into contact, closing an electrical circuit and sending a signal to the keyboard controller, which interprets it according to the key you pressed.

Although we designate these keyboards from these membranes, in fact, what represents the biggest difference between them and the mechanics is in the mechanism of key activation.

Membrane keyboards use small domes, rubber or silicone to control the movement of the key (unlike the switches of the mechanical keyboards). Keyboard quality at the time of typing can be reduced to the level of flexibility and quality of this small element.

Membrane keyboards are the most common:

Membrane models are by far the easiest to find around and cover a large portion of the market, since there are versions that cost from $ 15 and the units with more ergonomic appeal and higher overall quality, leaving for more of $ 200. In the middle of these two extremes, there are a lot of keyboards produced by manufacturers of various types. Today even medical device manufacturers have started using silicone rubber keypads in their devices.

In addition to all possible versions for PCs, they are also very common in notebooks, as the more compact nature of the membranes allows for more compact designs, ideal for ever thinner laptops.

Comfort typing and performance in games:

The alternative to membrane keyboards is mechanical keyboards, which can be configured to directly meet the consumer's usage profile: comfort in long typing sessions or agility and responsive gameplay.

This does not mean that membrane keyboards are necessarily bad for these two types of use. Everything depends mainly on the quality of the keyboard itself, which as you can imagine, varies a lot.

The central point in choosing a good membrane keyboard, regardless of intended use, needs to be ergonomically centered, or the comfort you feel when you manipulate your keys and keep your hands touching the surface of the accessory for long periods of time.