Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Tohoku University

Eiichi Ohta

Yuji Kimura

Hitoshi Kondo

Yukimichi Someya

Naomi Sugimoto

Yutaka Ebi

Makoto Tanaka

Kouichi Ohtaka

Masanori Horike

Yasuo Katano

Takuro Sekiya

Katsuyuki Yamada

Toshihiro Ishii

Kenji Kameyama

Seiichi Katoh

Takeshi Nanjyo

Akira Shimofuku

Masaetsu Takahashi

Shohji Tanaka

Kohji Izumi

Hirotoshi Eguti

Yuhji Kimura

Yoshihiko Iijima

Yoshinori Nakagawa

Satoshi Ouchi

Takashi Seto

Masaaki Yamada

Shuji Hirai

Katsuaki Miyawaki

Nekka Matsuura

Osamu Satoh

Takeshi Takemoto

Hisashi Shoji

Yoshikazu Akiyama

Sadayuki Iwai

Osamu Machida

Masanori Itagaki

Mitsugu Irinoda

Yohichiro Miyaguchi

Kenichi Ogata

Ryo Tashiro

Kenichiro Hashimoto

Hiroyuki Okamoto

Kouji Izumi

Masumitsu Ino

Akira Watanabe

Katsufumi Kumano

Kohshi Nomura

Makoto Tanabe

Hirotoshi Equchi

A method of manufacturing a metal oxide film is disclosed. The method includes the steps of soaking a substrate on which the metal oxide film is formed in a precursor solution for forming the metal oxide film; and irradiating and scanning a light, the light being collected at an interface between the substrate and the precursor solution, wherein the light is transmitted through the precursor solution, and the metal oxide film is formed on the substrate.

Manufacturing method of and manufacturing apparatus for metal oxide film

Disclosed is an electromechanical transducer element including a first electrode disposed on a substrate; an electromechanical transducer film disposed on a first portion of the first electrode; and a second electrode disposed on a second portion of the electromechanical transducer film, wherein an actuator portion formed by laminating the substrate, the first electrode, the electromechanical transducer film, and the second electrode has a stiffness such that, in a cross section of the actuator portion, the stiffness gradually increases from an end portion of the actuator portion to a center portion of the actuator portion.

Electromechanical transducer element, liquid discharge head, liquid discharge device, and image forming apparatus

A thin-film actuator that deforms a diaphragm to generate force includes a lower electrode disposed on the diaphragm, a first piezoelectric layer disposed on the lower electrode, an intermediate electrode disposed on the first piezoelectric layer, a second piezoelectric layer disposed on the intermediate electrode, and an upper electrode disposed on the second piezoelectric layer.

Thin-film actuator, liquid ejection head, ink cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An electric charging apparatus charges a surface of a charging object. The electric charging apparatus includes an electric field forming device including two electrodes facing each other that form an electric field therebetween. An electron discharging member is provided at a portion of one of the two electrodes that faces the other electrode and discharges electrons into the electric field. The electric charging apparatus also includes a voltage applying controller that controls a voltage applied to the two electrodes. The voltage applying controller selects two or more nonzero intensities of the electric field.

Electric charging apparatus and image forming apparatus using the same

An electron emission element according to the present invention is compact, thin and low cost, and has a structure and constitution in which deterioration of the electron emission material itself is low. In the electron emission element, boron nitride material is used as the electron emission material, and a metal material or a semiconductor material is used as a substrate for forming the boron nitride material. In this way it is possible to obtain good quality boron nitride material on the substrate. Also, a voltage can be applied to the material to emit electrons, also electrons can be supplied. Moreover, by using Sp-bonded boron nitride as the boron nitride material, and using Sp-bonded 5H&#x2014;BN material or Sp-bonded 6H&#x2014;BN material as the Sp-bonded boron nitride, a field electron emission element can be achieved for which high efficiency electron emission characteristics unprecedented in conventional art can be obtained.

Electron emission element, charging device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A charging device including an electron discharging device for forming a latent electrostatic image on an image bearing member and containing an spbonding material and an electroconductive portion.

Charging device, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus using the same

In a state deciding apparatus, an information acquiring unit acquires pieces of information of different types related to a state of an image forming apparatus. An index value calculating unit calculates an index value based on the pieces of information acquired. A state change deciding unit decides a change in a subsequent state of the image forming apparatus, based on a temporal change in the index value calculated.

Abnormal state occurrence predicting method, state deciding apparatus, and image forming system

A center beam which is formed out of a thin film constituted to be combined with a light reflection film provided on one surface of the center beam, which has both ends fixed and which is deformed by an electronic force; a substrate electrode which is opposed to the center beam through a gap formed on the other surface of the center beam; an opposed surface which is a surface of the substrate electrode opposed to the center beam modulating the incident light on the light reflection film, the opposed surface restricting deformation of the center beam due to application of a driving voltage to the substrate electrode by abutting on the center beam; and a substrate which has the substrate electrode having the opposed surface, formed in a concave section, and which holds a to-be-held section of the center beam, are provided. As a result, the structure of modulating light by changing the reflection direction of the incident light is simple, response is fast, the wavelength of the incident light to be used is not limited, operation is stable, reliability is high, the number of manufacturing steps is small and cost reduction can be achieved.

Optical modulator, optical modulator manufacturing method, light information processing apparatus including optical modulator, image formation apparatus including optical modulator, and image projection and display apparatus including optical modulator

OPTICAL MODULATOR, OPTICAL MODULATOR MANUFACTURING METHOD, LIGHT INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS INCLUDING OPTICAL MODULATOR, IMAGE FORMATION APPARATUS INCLUDING OPTICAL MODULATOR, AND IMAGE PROJECTION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS INCLUDING OPTICAL MODULATOR

An electrostatic ink-jet head includes an oscillation plate which defines a bottom of a pressurizing chamber. An electrode substrate is bonded to the oscillation plate and includes a recessed portion that defines an internal space between the oscillation plate and the electrode substrate. A curved electrode is arranged on the recessed portion so as to face the oscillation plate via the internal space. When a driving voltage is applied to the electrode, the electrode actuates the oscillation plate via an electrostatic force, so as to pressurize ink in the pressurizing chamber, thereby ejecting an ink drop onto the recording paper. In the ink-jet head, a dielectric layer is provided on at least one of the electrode and the oscillation plate, and the recessed portion of the electrode substrate has a generally concave cross-section taken along shorter sides of the oscillation plate, such that a gap between the electrode and the oscillation plate is gradually decreased from a middle point to ends of the shorter sides.

Electrostatic ink-jet head and method of production of the same

An electrostatic type inkjet head can be manufactured by a semiconductor manufacturing process without causing a problem inherent to a semiconductor manufacturing process. The inkjet head is produced by bonding a first body member and a second body member to each other. A plurality of vibration plates are formed on the first body member. A plurality of individual electrodes are formed on the second body member. Spacer portions are provided to at least one of the first body member and the second body member so that the first body member and the second body member are bonded to each other with the spacer portions therebetween. The spacer portions define a space providing a gap between each of the vibration plates and a respective one of the individual electrodes. Vent passages connecting each of the spaces to atmosphere are formed by the spacer portions so as to release gasses generated in the space during a manufacturing process.

Electrostatic typeinkjet head having a vent passage and a manufacturing method thereof

An electrostatic inkjet head has an accurately controlled, uniform gap between a diaphragm and an electrode. The gap between the electrode and the diaphragm is defined by a depth of a depression formed in the diaphragm substrate or the electrode substrate. The depression is formed by removing an oxidation layer which is formed by selectively oxidizing a portion of the diaphragm substrate or the electrode substrate. The depth of the depression is determined by a thickness of a portion of the oxidation layer, which portion extends from a surface of the diaphragm substrate or the electrode surface. Since the thickness of the oxidation layer is accurately controlled, the depth of the depression is also accurately controlled. Accordingly, a dimension of the gap between the diaphragm and the electrode is extremely accurate.

Electrostatic inkjet head having an accurate gap between an electrode and a diaphragm and manufacturing method thereof

The present invention discloses a method of operating an active matrix liquid crystal display device having a liquid crystal layer between a pair of substrates and at least one active device to each of picture element electrodes on at least one of the substrates, so that a driving signal applied to a picture element electrode during one frame cycle is always on a side of a voltage having an identical polarity, which is substantially free from scattering in the display, can be operated at a low driving voltage and obtain high contrast.

Method of driving an LCD employing combining two voltages which change

A deposited multi-layer device of an electronic element and a plastic substrate on which an inorganic substance thin film layer is simultaneously formed on both surfaces of the substrate wherein each of the electronic element, plastic substrate and inorganic thin film have internal and thermal stress not equal to zero. The device is free from peeling, deformation or curl of the substrate and degradation due to impurities such as acid, alkali and water.

Deposited multi-layer device with a plastic substrate having an

An active matrix board comprising: an electrically insulating transparent substrate; a pixel electrode disposed in two dimensions on the substrate for each pixel; a scanning electrode arranged in common to the pixel electrodes disposed along a predetermined direction; and a switching element disposed between each of the pixel electrodes and the scanning electrode. The switching element is constituted from a thin film two-terminal element which is composed of a first conductor, a second conductor, and a hard carbon film. The hard carbon film is disposed between the first and second conductors. The element has a standard deviation of current distribution in a surface of the substrate when applied with a predetermined voltage which deviation is less than 35% of the current average.

Active matrix board

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Eiichi Ohta