Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-14
2003-11-25
Meier, Stephen D. (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S019000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06652053
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2000-42076, 2000-42077, 2000-42078, 2000-42079 filed Feb. 18, 2000 in Japan, and 2000-133895 filed May 2, 2000, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printing head which is capable of detecting ink therein, a substrate for an ink-jet printing head (hereinafter, simply referred to as a substrate) to be used in the ink-jet printing head, an ink-jet cartridge provided as a combination of the ink-jet printing head and an ink tank, an ink-jet printing apparatus which is capable of performing a printing movement using the printing head and/or the ink-jet printing cartridge, and a method for detecting ink in the printing head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are various kinds of printing apparatuses. For example, there are those having the functions of printing, copying, and transmitting, and also those provided as output devices for complex systems such as computers, word processors, and work station system. Each of these printing apparatuses is configured to print an image on a sheet of printing medium such as a sheet of paper or plastic thin plate (e.g., an overhead transparency film). Depending on their methods of printing, those printing apparatuses can be grouped into one of ink-jet, wire dot-matrix, thermal, heat-transfer, or laser beam type devices.
Among the groups of the printing apparatuses, the printing apparatus of the ink-jet type (the ink-jet printing apparatus) is one that performs a printing movement by ejecting ink onto a printing medium such as a sheet of printing paper, and allows the printing means to be as compact as possible with high speed printing of a fine detailed image. Furthermore, an image can be printed on a sheet of normal paper without previously processing a surface of such a sheet with specific chemicals or the like, so that the printing movement can be performed at low running expenses. In addition, the ink-jet printing apparatus is one of non-impact printing apparatuses that make images on the paper without striking it mechanically, so that it is capable of printing with a low noise. Furthermore, the ink-jet printing apparatus has additional advantages such as the ability of smoothly printing an image in multiple colors using several colored inks.
There are several procedures that may be performed by the ink-jet printing system. One of them is a bubble-jet printing system in which a heating element that provides ink in a nozzle with thermal energy to form a bubble in the ink and concurrently ejects ink from the nozzle by energy caused by the formation of the bubble. In this case, the thermal element provided as a printing element for causing the energy for ejecting ink from the ejecting port is prepared using semiconductor production processes well known to those of skill in the art. Therefore, the ink-jet printing head that utilizes the bubble-jet printing system may be constructed by the steps of forming printing elements on a substrate made of silicon and combining the substrate and a top plate together, where the top plate is made of a resin such as polysulfone or a glass material and has grooves to be formed as ink passages.
As the substrate is provided as a silicon substrate, various functional parts may be installed on the substrate in addition to the printing elements. The functional parts may be a driver for driving the printing elements, a thermal sensor to be used when the printing elements are regulated in response to temperature variations in the printing head, a control unit for adjusting the actuating status of the thermal sensor, and soon.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-256883 (1995), by way of example, a substrate for the above ink-jet printing head is disclosed. The substrate disclosed in that document is configured as shown in FIG.
9
.
In
FIG. 9
, a component substrate
100
is provided as a substrate of the printing head, on which a plurality of heating elements
101
is mounted as printing elements for providing ink with a thermal energy for the ejecting of ink. As shown in the figure, the heat elements
101
are arranged in parallel and connected to power transistors (driver elements)
102
, respectively. The power transistor
102
is responsible for driving the corresponding heat element
101
. Furthermore, a shift register
104
, a latch circuit
103
, and a plurality of AND gates
115
are mounted on the substrate
100
. Image data can be serially transferred from the outside to the shift register
104
through a terminal
106
in synchronization with a serial clock signal entered through a terminal
105
, storing one line of the image data in the shift register
104
. The latch circuit
103
latches one line of the image data provided as a parallel output from the shift register
104
in synchronization with a latch clock signal (a latch signal) provided as an input from the outside to the latch circuit
103
through a terminal
107
. The data is transmitted to each of the power transistors
102
in parallel. The AND gates
115
are connected to their respective power transistors
102
. An output signal from the latch circuit
103
can be applied on the power transistor
102
in response to an enable signal from the outside. In
FIG. 9
, reference. numeral
108
denotes a drive pulse width (heat pulse) input terminal for input of a control signal from the outside of the printing head portion. The control signal controls the ON time of the power transistor
102
provided as the driving element. In this case, the control signal is for controlling the time of driving the heating element
101
by feeding a current through the heating element
101
. Furthermore, reference numeral
109
denotes a terminal for an input of a driving source (
5
V) to logic circuits including the latch circuit
103
and the shift transistor
104
. A ground terminal
110
, terminals
112
for activating and monitoring the sensor
114
, and so on are also mounted on the substrate
100
. Accordingly, the terminals
105
to
112
formed on the substrate
100
are provided as input terminals for inputs of image data and various signals from the outside, respectively.
On the substrate
100
, furthermore, there is mounted a sensor
114
such as a temperature sensor for measuring the temperature of the substrate
100
or a resistance sensor for measuring the resistance of each heating element
101
. The printing head includes the substrate, on which the drivers, the temperature sensor, the drive control part, and so on are mounted, so as to contribute to make the device more reliable and small.
In the printing head as constructed above, an input image data as a serial signal is converted to a parallel signal by the shift resistor
104
and maintained by the latch circuit
103
in synchronization with the latch clock signal. In this state, a drive pulse signal for driving the heating element
101
(i.e., an enable signal for the AND gate
115
) is sent to the input terminal
107
to switch the power transistor
102
on in response to the image data. Subsequently, the switched-on power transistor
102
feeds a current through the corresponding heating element
101
to generate a thermal energy from the heating element
101
. The top plate (not shown) is fixed on the substrate
100
to form liquid passages (i.e., nozzles) for ejecting ink and a common liquid chamber that communicates with these liquid passages. The printing head is configured in this manner, so that ink stored in the ink tank (i.e., ink-reserving part) is supplied to each nozzle through the common liquid chamber, resulting in a stable supply of ink. Subsequently, as described above, the ink in the liquid passage (nozzle) is heated by thermal energy generated by driving the heating element to eject ink as a liquid droplet from an ejecting port formed on the tip of the nozzle.
One of the important points for performing printing movement to produce printed matter with stability is the stable
Ikeda Tetsuhito
Imanaka Yoshiyuki
Inui Toshiharu
Kato Masao
Kubokawa Toru
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Meier Stephen D.
Tran Ly T
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