Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-15
2003-03-04
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S063000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06527371
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head, a method of manufacturing it and an ink jet recording device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an ink jet recording device is drawing attention as a low-cost quality color recording device. A head chip which is an ink jet recording head is fastened to the end of the ink jet recording device and ink droplets are jetted from the head chip.
As shown in
FIGS. 14B and 14C
and
FIG. 15
, in a head chip
100
, plural individual passages
102
communicating with each nozzle
104
, a common liquid chamber
106
communicating with each individual passage
102
and a communicating port
110
for supplying ink to the common liquid chamber
106
from an ink tank and others are formed.
The head chip
100
is formed by joining a passage substrate
120
(see
FIG. 16C
) in which the individual passage
102
, the common liquid chamber
106
and others are formed and a heater element substrate
126
(see
FIG. 16A
) in which a heater element
108
, a signal processing circuit
122
for driving the heater element
108
and a driver circuit
124
are formed.
Referring to
FIGS. 16
, a method of manufacturing the head chip
100
made up as described above in a conventional example will be described below.
Technique for isolating into a chip to be a head chip after two silicon substrates for example are joined with a resin layer between them is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho 61-230954.
The heater element substrate
126
can be formed using LSI manufacturing technology and LSI manufacturing facilities for example. First, as shown in
FIG. 16A
, a heater layer to be a heat storage layer and a heater element, a protective layer for preventing the heater element
108
from being damaged by the pressure of bubbles generated by the heat of the heater element and others are laminated on a monocrystalline silicon wafer
128
. Next, for a protective layer against ink, a resin layer
130
such as photosensitive polyimide is laminated. An opening (not shown) for at least the heater element
108
and an electric signal input-output terminal
132
is provided to the resin layer
130
. Further, to form the individual passage
102
and a part of the common liquid chamber
106
, a second resin layer
131
is formed as shown in FIG.
16
B.
In the meantime, for forming the passage substrate
120
, first, grooves
106
A and
102
A to be the common liquid chamber
106
and the individual passage
102
are formed on a silicon wafer
133
having a crystal face of <100> by, for example, anisotropic etching (see FIG.
16
C). For forming the grooves
106
A and
102
A by anisotropic etching, as described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 11-245413 and Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-183002, after an etching mask is patterned on the silicon wafer
133
which has a crystal face of <100> on the surface, the grooves
106
A and
102
A can be precisely formed by etching using heated aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH).
Further, an adhesive
135
thinly applied on a film by spinning coating and others is selectively transferred on a convex portion of a composition plane on which the grooves
106
A and
102
A are formed for the silicon wafer
133
using a method proposed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho 63-34152 and others as shown in FIG.
16
D.
Next, the silicon wafer
128
and the silicon wafer
133
are precisely aligned using an alignment mark
150
provided in units of wafer by a substrate aligner so that the heater element
108
and the groove
102
A for the individual passage
102
are opposite and are heated at approximately 200° C. for four hours, applying pressure by a vacuum heating and pressure device. As a result, the applied adhesive
134
is cured, and the silicon wafer
128
and the silicon wafer
133
are bonded as shown in FIG.
16
E.
Further, a bonded body
156
in which the silicon wafer
128
and the silicon wafer
133
are bonded is diced and isolated in units of chip by a dicing method described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,888,474 and multiple head chips
100
are simultaneously manufactured as shown in FIG.
16
F.
In this case, as shown in
FIG. 14A
, first, an opening
142
is formed in the silicon wafer
128
by machining along a dicing line
140
. As a result, the electric signal input-output terminal
132
formed on the silicon wafer
128
(the heater element substrate
126
) is exposed outside as shown in FIG.
17
. Next, the length of the individual passage
102
(the nozzle) in each head chip
100
is provided by machining the bonded body
156
along the dicing line
144
. Finally, the bonded body is diced and isolated into an individual head chip
100
by machining the bonded body
156
along the dicing line
146
.
In the head chip
100
formed as described above, as shown in
FIGS. 14B and 14C
and
FIG. 15
, the cut-out portion
134
is formed at the back
120
B on the reverse side to a nozzle forming plane
120
A on which nozzles
104
are formed in the passage substrate
120
and the electric signal input-output terminal
132
formed on the heater element substrate
126
is exposed outside from the opening of the resin layer
130
.
The head chip
100
formed as described above is fastened to a heat sink
136
for outgoing radiation as shown in
FIG. 15. A
printed wiring substrate
138
is also formed on the heat sink
136
, power and a signal supplied from the body of the ink jet recording device are transmitted to the heater element substrate
126
via a bonding wire
141
, and a signal and others from various sensors provided to the heater element substrate
126
are transmitted to the body of the recording device.
As shown in
FIGS. 18
, in the head chip
100
, if the electric signal input-output terminal
132
is formed at both ends in a nozzle arrangement direction (the longitudinal direction of the chip) in which the nozzles are arranged, dicing along a dicing line
154
for forming the cut-out portion is performed in addition to dicing along a dicing line
152
for dicing the head chip and isolating into each chip as dicing along the shorter direction of the chip so as to expose the electric signal input-output terminal
132
at both ends.
As described above, in a method of manufacturing the head chip
100
in the conventional example, the electric signal input-output terminal
132
is exposed outside by machining the passage substrate
120
in which the grooves are formed by dicing. Therefore, the shape of the cut-out portion (the exposed part) is linear and there is a problem that the shape of the cut-out portion (the exposed part)
134
of the head chip
100
is limited. That is, there is a problem that not only the arrangement of the electric signal input-output terminal
132
but the inside structure of the chip are restrained depending upon the shape of the cut-out portion
134
.
Also, as shown in
FIG. 18B
, if the cut-out portion
134
for the electric signal input-output terminal
132
is formed at both ends in the longitudinal direction (the nozzle arrangement direction) of the head chip
100
, the electric signal input-output terminal
132
is exposed on the side of the nozzle forming plane
120
A and there may occur a problem that a hydrophobic agent adheres to the electric signal input-output terminal
132
by hydrophobic treatment for the nozzle forming plane
120
A to disable electric connection. Also, in a process for sealing the electric signal input-output terminal
132
, there may occur a problem that sealer is forced out from the electric signal input-output terminal
132
to the nozzle forming plane
120
A.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the problems and provides an ink jet recording head in which the degree of freedom in the design of the arranged position of an electric signal input-output terminal is enhanced, its manufacturing method and an ink jet recording device.
Acc
Kataoka Masaki
Murata Michiaki
Ueda Yoshihisa
Yamazaki Kenji
Barlow John
Brooke Michael S.
Fuji 'Xerox Co., Ltd.
Morgan & Lewis & Bockius, LLP
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