Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Daiki Sugiyama

Takashi Shirakawa

Masayoshi Takeuchi

Noboru Tsushima

Satoshi Kubo

The present invention provides a thermal head having a long lifetime and a high printing quality by making the size of steps of a protective layer formed on a heating portion of a heating resistor small and a method for manufacturing the thermal heads. In the thermal head, respective lower-layer electrodes having a film thickness of approximately 2 &mgr;m are formed on outskirts portion of a bulging portion of a heat insulation layer excluding a heating portion of a heating resistor and portions in the vicinity of the heating portion. Then, respective upper-layer electrodes having a film thickness which falls in a range of 0.1 to 0.3 &mgr;m are continuously formed from portions at positions in the vicinity of the heating portion excluding the heating portion to upper surfaces of the lower-layer electrodes. Due to such a constitution, the size of the steps formed in the protective layer can be made extremely small and hence, it becomes possible to prevent dregs and dusts which are generated during printing from being gathered at the steps.

Growing community of inventors

Iwate-ken, Japan

Daiki Sugiyama