Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Utility Patent
1997-12-16
2001-01-02
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
Utility Patent
active
06168251
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording head, a recording control method using the recording head, and a recording apparatus using the recording head and the recording head cartridge thereof, and particularly relates to, e.g., a recording head which performs recording by the ink-jet method, a recording control method using the recording head, and a recording apparatus using the recording head and the recording head cartridge thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Recording using the ink-jet method has been gathering much interest recently, due to factors such as the noise during recording being extremely low to the point of being negligible, being capable of high-speed recording, and further being capable of fixing the recorded image on so-called “plain paper” without requiring special processing.
Particularly, the recording method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-51837 and German Deutsche Offenlegungsschrift DT-OS 28 43 064 is different from the others in that thermal energy is applied to a liquid such as ink thereby obtaining the force for ejecting the liquid.
That is, according to the recording methods disclosed in the above publications, the liquid which is subjected to thermal energy undergoes a state transition accompanying a sudden increase in volume, the liquid is ejected from orifices at the tip of the recording head owing to force based on the change in state, whereby discharged droplets are formed, and recording is performed by the droplets adhering to the recording medium.
Particularly, the recording method described in DT-OS 28 43 064 is not only applicable to so-called drop-on-demand recording in an extremely efficient manner, but also allows for easy realization of full-line type recording heads which have a recording width equivalent to the entire width of the recording medium and have high orifice density. Accordingly, this arrangement is advantageous in that an image with high resolution and high quality can be obtained at high speed.
Now, recording heads of recording apparatuses to which such a recording method is applied are comprised of: orifices provided for ejecting liquid, liquid channels which are connected to the orifices and form part of the thermal application portion in which the thermal energy is applied to the liquid, and a substrate having electro-thermal converters (heat-generating elements) for generating thermal energy.
In recent years, advances in technology have allowed for not only a plurality of heat-generating elements to be mounted on the substrate, but also a plurality of drivers which drive the respective heat-generating elements, a shift register which temporarily stores image data of the same number of bits as the number of heat-generating elements in order to take the image data input serially from the recording apparatus and transfer this image data to the drivers in parallel, and logic circuits such as a latch circuit which temporarily latches the data output from the shift register, all on the same substrate.
FIG. 15
is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a logic circuit of a known recording head which has an N number of heat-generating elements (recording devices).
In
FIG. 15
, reference numeral
700
denotes a substrate,
701
denotes heat-generating elements,
702
denotes power transistors,
703
denotes an N-bit latch circuit, and
704
denotes an N-bit shift register. Also,
715
denotes a sensor which monitors the resistance of the heat-generating elements
701
and the temperature of the substrate
700
, and also a heater which maintains the heat of the substrate
700
. Either a plurality of the sensor and heater may be provided, or the sensor and heater may be formed integrally. Reference numerals
705
through
714
and
716
are input/output pads. More specifically,
705
denotes a clock input pad for inputting clock (CLK) for operating the shift register
704
,
706
denotes an image data input pad for inputting image (DATA) serially,
707
denotes a latch input pad for inputting latch clock (LTCLK) for holding the image data at the latch circuit
703
,
708
denotes a drive signal input pad for inputting heat pulses (HEAT) for external control of the time that the power transistors
702
are turned on and driving current is supplied to the heat-generating element
701
,
709
denotes driving electric source input pad for inputting driving electric source (VDD=3-8 V, generally 5V) for driving the logic circuit,
710
denotes a ground terminal (VSS),
711
denotes a heat-generating element electric source input pad for inputting electric source (VH) for driving the heat-generating element
701
,
712
denotes a reset input pad for inputting reset signals (RST) for initializing the latch
703
and shift register
704
, and
713
is an H ground terminal for the heat-generating element driving electric source.
Also,
714
-(
1
) and
714
-(
2
) are a monitor signal output pad and an input pad for control signals (SENS
1
, SENS
2
) for driving the sensor and heater. Further,
716
-(
1
) through
716
-(n) are block selection signals (BLK
1
, BLK
2
, . . . , BLKn) for block selection upon dividing the N number of heat-generating elements into an n number of blocks and performing time-division driving. Finally,
717
denotes an AND circuit which computes the logical sum of the latch circuit
703
, heat signal (HEAT), and the block selection signals (BLK
1
, BLK
2
, . . . , BLKn).
The driving sequence of a recording head such as described above will now be described. In the following description, image data (DATA) is understood to be binary data of 1-bit per pixel.
First, image data (DATA) is serially output from the recording apparatus proper which is mounted with the recording head, in a manner synchronous with the clock (CLK), and the data is taken into the shift register
704
. Next, the image data (DATA) is temporarily stored in the latch circuit
703
, and ON/OFF is output by the latch circuit
703
, corresponding to the value of the image data value (“0” or “1”).
Once the heat pulse (HEAT) and block selection signals are thus input, ON output signals are supplied from the latch circuit
703
, and the power transistors corresponding to the block-selected heat-generating elements by the clock selection signal are driven during the time that the heat pulse (HEAT) is turned ON, thereby providing electrical current to the corresponding heat-generating elements, thus executing the recording operation.
Since block selection signals (BLK
1
, BLK
2
, . . . , BLKn) are used, the number of heat-generating elements
701
driven simultaneously decrease according to the time division driving per block, doing away with the need to supply excessive current to the recording head, and preventing generation of noise due to switching on great electrical current.
A recording head such as described above is mounted on a carriage in the recording apparatus, and moves with the reciprocal movement of the carriage (the movement direction thereof being referred to as the “main scanning direction”), discharging ink onto the recording paper according to the recording data. With each reciprocal movement of the carriage, the recording paper is transported by the width of the recording head (the movement direction thereof being referred to as the “sub-scanning direction”). An image is recorded on the recording paper by repeating such operation over the entirety of the sheet of recording paper.
FIG. 16
is a signal timing chart representing the recording head executing recording for one recording cycle. Here, the term “one recording cycle” refers to one recording operation that the recording head performs in the same position in the main scanning direction. For example, in the event that value of the recording data equivalent to the recording width in the one recording cycle is “1”, all of the heat-generating elements of the recording head are driven.
With reference to
FIG. 16
, the reset signal (RST) is input before the recording operation, initializing th
Imanaka Yoshiyuki
Miyakoshi Toshimori
Mochizuki Muga
Ozaki Teruo
Saito Ichiro
Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Stephens Juanita
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