Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Kenji Tomita

Osamu Watanabe

Isaku Kanno

Koji Matsuo

Mamoru Soga

Tohru Nakagawa

Ryoichi Takayama

Shigeyuki Takao

Keisuke Shimamoto

Hidetoshi Tanoue

Satoru Fujii

Hiroyuki Matsuo

Eiichiro Tanaka

A coat liquid, in which a methoxysilane or ethoxysilane compound which is a precursor of silicon oxide and an ethoxysilane or methoxysilane compound which contains therein a carbon fluoride chain are dissolved, is applied onto the surface of a base material of SUS having a thickness of 20 &#x3bc;m. This is followed by drying the base material for one hour at room temperature condition. Thereafter, the base material is baked at 200 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes thereby to form a water repellent thin film having a thickness of from 10 nm to 1000 nm and containing therein a molecule in which fluoroalkyl chains are bonded to the silicon oxide. A nozzle orifice is formed by electrical discharge machining from the lower side of the base material.

Ink jet head and method for the manufacture thereof

A piezoelectric thin film element D, in which a piezoelectric thin film with first and second electrode films and respectively formed on its opposite surfaces in the thickness direction is held by a hold film , is fabricated by forming each film , and on a film formation substrate 11 and removing the film formation substrate by etching. Even when the hold film is made of material such as resin and therefore exhibits relatively poor adhesion with respect to the other films, the piezoelectric thin film is protected from damage by etchant because the first electrode film which comes into contact with the film formation substrate is formed such that the overall circumference of a peripheral edge portion of the first electrode film laterally extends beyond the lateral surface of the piezoelectric thin film and closely adheres to the hold film

Piezoelectric thin film element, ink jet recording head using such a piezoelectric thin film element, and their manufacture methods

A coat liquid, in which a methoxysilane or ethoxysilane compound which is a precursor of silicon oxide and an ethoxysilane or methoxysilane compound which contains therein a carbon fluoride chain are dissolved, is applied onto the surface of a base material of SUS having a thickness of 20 &mgr;m. This is followed by drying the base material for one hour at room temperature condition. Thereafter, the base material is baked at 200 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes thereby to form a water repellent thin film having a thickness of from 10 nm to 1000 nm and containing therein a molecule in which fluoroalkyl chains are bonded to the silicon oxide. A nozzle orifice is formed by electrical discharge machining from the lower side of the base material.

Method of manufacturing an ink-jet print head coated with a water repellent thin film

In order to provide a miniaturized ink jet head having a piezoelectric actuator by which ink in a pressure chamber is emitted and to improve its productivity and reliability, a vibration plate is made up of two layers having different Young's moduli, i.e., a layer having a smaller Young's modulus and a layer having a greater Young's modulus. Further, the Young's modulus of each of the layers and is set at values ranging from 50 GPa to 350 GPa and the total thickness of the vibration plate is set at values ranging from 1 &mgr;m to 7 &mgr;m.

Formed on a surface of an oscillation plate on the side of a head main body portion is an intermediate layer having a window portion through which a displacement portion of the oscillation plate is exposed to a pressure chamber. The intermediate layer and a compartmenting wall of the main body portion are adhered together by an adhesive of electro-deposition resin. The intermediate layer is formed of copper, having a thickness of 5 &mgr;m, so that, when a part of the adhesive is forced out, such a forced-out adhesive portion will not adhere to the displacement portion of the oscillation plate.

An ink jet head H is downsized by making piezoelectric elements top electrodes provided on surfaces of the piezoelectric elements that are opposite to pressure rooms and bottom electrode provided on other surfaces of the piezoelectric elements that are on the pressure rooms into thin films in piezoelectric actuators a crack covering layer made from an electric insulating material is arranged on the surfaces of the piezoelectric elements that are on the bottom electrode so that the electric insulating material is filled into the cracks in the piezoelectric elements in order to prevent the piezoelectric actuators from malfunctioning due to the cracks occurring during the film formation of the bottom electrode and piezoelectric elements

Ink-jet head, method for fabricating same, and ink-jet recording device

The method of manufacturing an ink-jet head of this invention includes the steps of forming plural individual electrodes and plural piezoelectric devices stacked in this order on a supporting substrate; flattening a top surface of the supporting substrate including the individual electrodes and the piezoelectric devices by filling a filler in a portion on the supporting substrate where the individual electrodes and the piezoelectric devices are not formed up to substantially the same level as a level of upper surfaces of the piezoelectric devices; forming a common electrode on the entire flattened top surface of the supporting substrate; fixing a pressure chamber part for forming pressure chambers on the common electrode; and removing the supporting substrate after fixing the pressure chamber part on the common electrode. Thus, the entire plane on which the common electrode is to be formed is flattened before forming the common electrode.

Ink-jet head and method of manufacturing the same

An ink jet including a head body including plural pressure chamber concaves each having a supply port for supplying ink and a discharge port for discharging ink, and a piezoelectric actuator including mutually electrically connected vibration plates that cover the concaves of the head body in order to form pressure chambers together with the concaves and are separately provided correspondingly to one or plural pressure chambers, piezoelectric device respectively provided on surfaces of the vibration plates opposite to the pressure chambers correspondingly to the pressure chambers and individual electrodes respectively provided on surfaces of said piezoelectric devices opposite to said vibration plates for applying a voltage to said piezoelectric devices together with said vibration plates. The vibration plates are deformed in a manner that volumes of the pressure chambers are decreased by applying a voltage to the piezoelectric devices through the vibration plates and the individual electrodes, whereby ink contained in the pressure chambers is discharged through the discharge ports. Additionally, a portion of each of the vibration plates corresponding to each of the pressure chambers is bent into a convex projecting toward an opposite direction to the corresponding pressure chamber due to a compressive internal stress action of each of the piezoelectric devices.

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Kumamoto, Japan

Kenji Tomita