Hewlett-Packard Company

Hewlett-Packard Corporation

James S Aden

Paul H McClelland

Si-Ty Lam

Howard H Taub

Suraj L Hindagolla

Glen A Hopkins

Jeffrey A Kahn

Selected portions of the orifice plate surfaces are formed to have wetting and non-wetting surface characteristics for minimizing the accumulation of residual ink on the outer surface of the plate and for enhancing the flow of supply ink to the orifices of the plate.

Orifice plate for an ink-jet pen

A process for manufacturing a thin film resistor substrate useful, for example, in fabricating an ink jet printhead, wherein discontinuous strips of conductive material are initially patterned on the surface of a resistive layer. These strips are formed using a first series of masking and etching steps of define an 'X' dimension of a resistive heater element. Then, the conductive strips and resistive material therebetween are completely masked in preparation for a subsequent, second etching step used to remove the exposed portions of the resistive layer and thereby define a 'Y' dimension of the resistive heater element. These steps leave smooth contours, good step coverage and high quality bevelled edges of the thus defined conductive and resistive layers. These layers are now ready for subsequent passivation layer, barrier layer and orifice plate deposition processes to complete a thin film printhead for use in an ink jet printer.

Thin film device for an ink jet printhead and process for the

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Corvallis, OR, United States of America

James S Aden