International Business Machines Corporation

Hewlett-packard Company

James R White

Jae M Park

Marie Angelopoulos

Wu-Song S Huang

Moses Mekala David

Jonathan David Reid

Bernd Karl Appelt

Rui Yang

Donald L Michael

Neal W Meyer

Perminder S Bindra

Robert Daniel Edwards

Kit C Baughman

Katherine June Pearsall

James R Loomis

Janice D Frazier

Gerald E Heppell

Richard A Reich

Clement A Okoro

Lee Van Nice

Thach G Troung

Lisa J Smith

A high-durability printhead for an ink cartridge printing system. The printhead includes a substrate having ink ejectors (e.g. resistors) thereon and an orifice plate positioned above the substrate. The orifice plate (which preferably involves a non-metallic polymer film) has a top surface, bottom surface and a plurality of openings therethrough. To improve the durability of the orifice plate, a protective coating is applied to the top surface and/or the bottom surface of the plate. Representative coatings involve dielectric compositions (including diamond-like carbon) or at least one layer of metal. This approach improves the abrasion and deformation resistance of the plate and avoids 'ruffling' and 'dimpling' problems.

Printhead structure and method for producing the same

A process for fabricating a printed circuit board concerns the use of a soluble, air-stable conducting polymer applied to plated through holes, blind holes or vias or to a predetermined portion of the printed circuit board surface for selectively metal plating on the polymer without the necessity of either an electroless plating bath or the use of precious metal seeds. A preferred conducting polymer is polyaniline. A preferred metal plating is preferably copper or a noble metal such as palladium or silver.

Fabrication of printed circuit boards using conducting polymer

The composition of the present invention includes a water-soluble soldering flux requiring no thermal energy to place the water-soluble flux in an active state. The water-soluble soldering flux contains (1) from about 1 percent to about 5 percent by weight, based on the weight of the water-soluble soldering flux, of an inorganic acid which, in solution, forms anions of the acid having a low propensity for forming metal complexes; (2) from about 30 percent to about 70 percent by weight, based on the total weight of the water-soluble soldering flux, of an anionic surfactant; and (3) from about 30 percent to about 70 percent by weight, based on the total weight of the water-soluble soldering flux, of a diluent. The composition of the present invention may contain a fourth component, a viscosity modifier from about 5 percent to about 40 percent by weight, based on total weight of the water-soluble soldering flux.

Water-soluble solder flux

Substantially nonconductive or semiconductive surfaces of through holes can be electroplated directly, without an intervening non-electrolytic metallization, by a stepwise process which includes the application to the through holes of a polyelectrolyte surfactant in solution in combination with the application of a conductive metal containing material.

Direct electroplating of through holes

Growing community of inventors

Round Rock, TX, United States of America

James R White