Rohm Co., Ltd.

Masatoshi Nakanishi

Kunio Motoyama

Yoichi Aoki

Tadashi Yamamoto

Kaoru Muraki

Hisayoshi Fujimoto

Goro Nakatani

Hiroaki Onishi

Takaya Nagahata

Tomoharu Horio

Yasuhiro Fuwa

Toshihiko Takakura

Hideo Taniguchi

Takumi Yamade

Yasuyuki Aritaki

Hiroyuki Maeda

Yutaka Tatsumi

Hideaki Hoki

Nobuhito Kinoshita

Masashi Takagi

A thermal printhead includes a substrate having an obverse surface, a projection formed on the obverse surface and extending in a primary scanning direction, a plurality of heating elements arranged in the primary scanning direction on the top of the projection, a groove dented from the top of the projection and extending in the primary scanning direction, and a heat storage member filling at least an opening of the groove.

Thermal printhead

A thermal print head includes: a substrate having an obverse surface; a plurality of heat generators arranged on the substrate in a main scanning direction; and a wiring layer provided on the substrate and constituting an energization path to the heat generators. The substrate has a protrusion protruding from the obverse surface and extending in the main scanning direction. The protrusion has a top portion having the largest distance from the obverse surface, and an inclined portion connected to the top portion in a sub-scanning direction. The inclined portion is inclined relative to the obverse surface at a predetermined angle. Each of the plurality of heat generators extends across a boundary between the top portion and the inclined portion. Each of the heat generators is formed on at least a part of the top portion and at least a part of the inclined portion in the sub-scanning direction.

Thermal print head

A heater includes an elongated substrate, a heating resistor formed on the substrate, a resistor electrode that is formed and is in contact with the heating resistor, and a heat conducting film. The substrate includes a heat generating section and a non-heat generating section. The heat generating section is a section that is overlapped with, out of the heating resistor and the resistor electrode, only the heating resistor in the lengthwise direction of the substrate. The non-heat generating section is a section that is different from the heat generating section and is adjacent to the heat generating section in the lengthwise direction of the substrate. The heat conducting film is formed so as to extend from the heat generating section into the non-heat generating section on the substrate.

Heater

A thermal print head includes a heating resistor for forming images on a print target by generating heat, and a driver for controlling power supply to the heating resistor. The thermal print head also includes a storage unit and a controller. The storage unit stores print data inputted from outside. The controller causes a transfer action and a printing action to be repeated alternately, wherein the transfer action includes retrieving print data from the storage unit and transferring the retrieved print data to the driver, and the printing action includes causing the driver to retain the transferred print data and supplying power to portions of the heating resistor selected in accordance with the print data retained by the driver, so as to conduct printing.

Thermal print head, thermal printer and printer system

The thermal printhead (A) performs printing on RFID tag (T) as a print target that includes a coil antenna and a memory. The thermal printhead includes a coil antenna () as a part of a data transmitter-receiver for the transmitting and receiving of data with respect to the RFID tag (T) by wireless communication.

Thermal print head and thermal printer provided with wireless communication function using such thermal print head

In a thermal headof the present invention, a head-side I/Fincludes: an LVDS receiverthat receives a low-voltage differential signal from a set-side I/Fand converts the low-voltage differential signal into a single-end signal that is then outputted; a decoderthat divides an output from the LVDS receiverinto a data signal string DAT and a trigger signal TG; and a clock generating sectionthat generates a clock signal CLK that is synchronized by the trigger signal TG, and a driver circuitreads a print data signal DI and various control signals in response to the clock signal CLK and drives a heat generating element according to the print data signal DI and the various control signals.

Thermal head and image forming apparatus using the same

A thermal printhead (A) includes an insulating substrate (), a glaze (), a plurality of pairs of first and second electrodes (A,B) and heating resistors (). Each of the heating resistors () includes a heating portion () spaced apart from the first electrode (A) and the second electrode (B). The respective ends (A,B) of the electrodes (A,B) are embedded in the glaze (). An insulating film () is provided between the heating portion () of each heating resistor () and the glaze (). The hardness of the insulating film () is higher than that of the glaze () and lower than that of the heating resistor (). The thermal conductivity of the insulating film () is higher than that of the glaze () and lower than that of the heating resistor ().

Thermal print head and method for manufacturing the same

A thermal printhead (A) includes a substrate () and a plurality of heat-producing resistance sections () provided on the substrate (). The heat-producing resistance sections () melt ink of an ink ribbon, which is transferred together with a recording sheet, to transfer the ink onto the recording sheet. An inequality surface region () is provided downstream from the heat-producing resistance sections () in a secondary scanning direction (x) which is the transfer direction of the ink ribbon. The inequality surface region includes a plurality of projections () each of which extends in the secondary scanning direction (x) and which are aligned at predetermined intervals in a primary scanning direction (y) which is perpendicular to the secondary scanning direction (x).

A thermal print head (A) has main heat producing resistor sections () formed on a substrate () and arranged in the main scan direction (X) at predetermined intervals; auxiliary heat producing resistor sections () provided with a predetermined gap in the auxiliary scan direction (Y) relative to the main heat producing resistor sections (); first electrodes () for individually connecting in series, out of the main heat producing resistor sections () and the auxiliary heat producing resistor sections (), at least main heat producing resistor sections () and auxiliary heat producing resistor sections () arranged in the auxiliary scan direction (Y); and second electrodes () for conducting electricity to the series circuits composed of the main heat producing resistor sections () and the auxiliary heat producing resistor sections () connected in series by the first electrodes(). The distance (D) in the auxiliary scan direction (Y) between each main heat producing resistor section () and each auxiliary heat producing resistor section () is greater than the length (L) in the auxiliary scan direction (Y) of each main heat producing resistor section ().

A thermal printhead includes plural groups of drive ICs (DrIC,), a plurality of main conductor wirings (,) for transmitting signals to the drive ICs in the respective groups, and a plurality of auxiliary conductor wirings (,) respectively provided to accompany the main conductor wirings for providing conduction between the drive ICs in adjacent groups. The main conductor wirings and the auxiliary conductor wirings respectively include severable sites (a-f) for severing electrical conduction of the main conductor wirings and the auxiliary conductor wirings. A plurality of recovery wiring portions (,and,) are provided to the respective severable sites in parallel thereto. Each of the recovery wiring portions includes a pair of pads spaced from each other.

Thermal printing head

Apparatus for controlling driving of thermal printhead

In a thermal print head, a partial glazed layer has a width of 0.1 to 0.4 mm and a height of 15 to 25 .mu.m. With the partial glazed layer of this size, since the amount of accumulated heat is reduced, no trailing phenomenon would arise so as to improve the printing quality. It is also advantageous that no defective product will be manufactured because the glazed layer is not too small, with less energy consumption. As a result, a high-quality printing operation can be maintained even during such high-speed printing as not exceeding 1 ms per one line.

Glazed layer for a thermal print head

A drive control apparatus for a thermal head, capable of controlling application energy given to heater elements in the thermal head on the basis of not only history information of a present heater element but also print information including print history information of heater elements adjacent to the present heater element. A print information processing is carried out based on the print history information of the present heater element, the print information of the adjacent heater elements, and the print history information of the preceding and two times before print information of the adjacent heater elements. One example of this processing circuit includes an OR circuit for a logical sum of the preceding and two times before print information of the adjacent heater element, an AND circuit for a logical product of this OR output and a print speed signal, and an OR circuit for a logical sum of this AND output and the print information of the adjacent heater element.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Masatoshi Nakanishi