Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-08
2004-08-10
Hsieh, Shih-Wen (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S023000, C347S056000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06773096
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording head used as a recording head for conducting printing onto a recording medium, the recording head having an energy converting element for converting electric energy into printing energy, and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to a substrate for a recording head, which is a semiconductor substrate having a printing energy generating element for generating printing energy and a manufacturing method thereof.
In this specification, printing onto a recording medium shall include not only operations of printing of characters, but also printing operations of images other than characters such as symbols and graphics.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is conventionally known an ink-jet recording method called the bubble-jet recording method comprising the steps of causing a change in state in ink leading to a steep change in volume (occurrence of bubbles) by imparting energy such as heat to a liquid such as ink, discharging the ink from a discharge port under the effect of a working force resulting from the change in state, and forming an image by depositing the discharged ink onto a recording medium. A recording apparatus based on this bubble-jet recording method usually comprises, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,129, a discharge port for discharging ink, an ink channel communicating with the discharge port, and a heating resistor serving as an energy converting element for discharging the ink, arranged in the ink channel.
According to such a recording method, it is possible to record a high-quality image at a high speed with low noise, and in a head carrying out this recording method, it is possible to arrange discharge ports for discharging ink at a high density. This recording method therefore provides many advantages including a recorded image of a high resolution available with a compact apparatus, and the possibility to easily obtain a color image. The bubble-jet recording method has therefore been popularly used in recent years in many office machines such as a printer, a copying machine and a facsimile machine, and the uses thereof now cover industrial systems including a textile printing apparatus.
A heating resistor for producing energy for discharging ink is manufacturable by means of a semiconductor manufacturing process. A conventional head based on the bubble-jet technology therefore has a configuration in which a covering plate made of a resin such as polysulfone or glass having a groove for forming an ink channel formed thereon is bonded onto an element substrate (a substrate for a recording head) comprising a silicon substrate having a heating resistor formed thereon.
In some such conventional heads, by use of the fact that the element substrate comprises a silicon substrate, in addition to the heating resistor formed on the element substrate, a driver for driving the heating resistor, a temperature sensor used when controlling the heating resistor in response to the head temperature, or a driving controller is arranged on the element substrate (Japanese Patent. Application Laid-Open No. 7-52387, etc.). A bead thus having a driver, a temperature sensor and a drive controller thereof has already been industrialized, contributing to improvement of reliability of recording heads and downsizing of apparatuses.
A configuration in which an element substrate
101
serving as a substrate for a recording head is arranged on a supporting plate
102
of the recording head is illustrated in FIG.
10
. The element substrate
101
and a wiring substrate
105
are arranged on the recording head supporting plate
102
, and the element substrate
101
and the wiring substrate
105
are bonded by wire bonding. A contact pad
106
for connecting to a printer main body is provided on the wiring substrate
105
.
A configuration of the circuit element formed on the element substrate
101
is illustrated in a block diagram of FIG.
11
. As shown in
FIG. 11
, a beater section
201
, a driving circuit section
202
, a retaining circuit section
203
, a transfer circuit section
204
, a voltage drop circuit section
905
, a rank resistance measuring circuit section
906
, and a temperature measuring circuit section
907
are formed on the element substrate
101
.
The heater section
201
is composed of a plurality of heating resistors. The transfer circuit section
204
is composed of a shift register and the like, and converts serial data for printing into parallel data by sequentially transferring the same. The retaining circuit section
203
is a circuit for latching and retaining the parallel data converted by the transfer circuit section
204
. The driving circuit section
202
individually drives the heating resistors of the heater section
201
on the basis of the data latched by the retaining circuit section
204
. A reset signal
210
for achieving a standby state of a printing operation is entered in the retaining circuit section
203
, and the retaining circuit section
203
outputs a data for prohibiting the driving circuit section
202
from operating when the reset signal
210
is active on a high level (hereinafter denoted as “H”).
The voltage drop circuit section
905
is a circuit that outputs a voltage value of a beater driving power source VH by reducing the same by a certain value. The rank resistance measuring circuit section
906
is a circuit for measuring a resistance value of the rank resistance formed on the element substrate
101
. The rank resistance as herein used is a resistance provided for measuring dispersion in manufacturing of the resistance values of the heating resistors formed in the heater section
201
, provided separately from the other circuits, only for measuring resistance values. The temperature measuring circuit section
907
is for measuring temperature of an ink-jet head, being a sensor for measuring the ink temperature. Measurement of the ink temperature is based on the fact that the positive-direction voltage of a diode varies with temperature.
Typical circuit configurations of the voltage drop circuit section
905
, the driving circuit section
202
, and the heater section
201
are illustrated in FIG.
12
.
The voltage drop circuit section
905
comprises resistances
21
,
22
and
24
, and an N-channel MOS transistor
23
. The heater section
201
is composed of a plurality of heating resistors
50
. In the driving circuit section
202
, a resistance
25
, N-channel MOS transistors
26
to
28
and a P-channel MOS transistor
29
are provided for one heating resistor
50
of the heater section
201
.
The voltage drop circuit section
905
divides the entered heater power source VH by the resistances
21
and
22
into a certain voltage, and outputs a voltage lower than the thus divided voltage by a threshold value voltage of the N-channel MOS transistor
23
. Because the heater power source VH has been divided by the resistances
21
and
22
, a constant current to flows in the voltage drop circuit section
905
, irrespective of the operating state of the recording head, i.e., the operating state of the heater serving as an energy converting element for converting electric energy into printing energy.
The driving circuit section
202
on/off-controls the N-channel MOS transistor
28
on the basis of data held in the retaining circuit section
203
and drives the heating resistors
50
. The term “constant current” as herein used means a constant current flowing into circuits without being affected by the output state or the like, upon impression of the source voltage in a normal operating state. The constant current is used as a reference current in the above-mentioned circuits.
The voltage drop circuit section
905
for outputting the heater power source VH after reducing it by a prescribed value is provided for the following reasons.
Since the heater power source VH impressed onto the heating resistors
50
has a higher voltage than a logic power source VDD, the N-channel MOS transistor
28
i
Imanaka Yoshiyuki
Mochizuki Muga
Ozaki Teruo
Saito Ichiro
Yamaguchi Takaaki
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Hsieh Shih-Wen
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