Xerox Corporation

Michael Poleshuk

Joseph J Wysocki

Gary Alan Kneezel

Joseph F Stephany

Thomas E Watrobski

Richard V LaDonna

Thomas A Tellier

Robert W Anderson

James N Eaton

A power control system in a thermal ink-jet printer facilitates practically instantaneous voltage changes to a heating element. A first set of selectably-actuable voltage lines is operatively connected in parallel to a first terminal of the heating element, each line having associated therewith a predetermined voltage output. A second set of selectably-actuable voltage lines is operatively connected in parallel to a second terminal of the heating element, each line having associated therewith a predetermined voltage output. One of the first set of selectably-actuable voltage lines and one of the second set of selectably-actuable voltage lines are activated as required.

Power control system for a thermal ink-jet printer

Data relating to the performance of an individual ink-jet printhead is stored in an electrically-readable form on a silicon substrate forming an essential part of the printhead. A template of electrically-detectable structure is created on the substrate at manufacture, and then portions of the structure are removed in accordance with the data desired to be stored. In one embodiment, the digital performance data may be encoded and also read out in serial form using a shift register on the chip.

Electronically readable performance data on a thermal ink jet printhead

A thermal ink-jet printhead comprises a substrate having a plurality of heating elements defined thereon. A thermistor, disposed on the substrate, includes a conductor loop which does not encompass the heating elements on the substrate. The configuration of the thermistor significantly reduces both electromagnetic and capacitance interference caused by the heating elements.

Low-interference thermistor for a thermal ink jet printhead chip

Highlighting a selected area of a holographic display indirectly by selectively repositioning a small lens within the hologram illumination beam.

Holographic display with programmable area highlighting

A thermally activated image bar is disclosed for use in an electrophotographic printer. The image bar comprises at least one transparent prism having a surface closely spaced and parallel with a confronting surface of a transparent member containing an array of transparent heating elements and addressing electrodes thereon to form a gap therebetween. A liquid medium also capable of transmitting light and having an index of refraction matched to that of at least one prism is positioned in the gap. An optical shield bonded to one of the confronting surfaces has at least one aperture aligned with the heating elements to improve optical contrast. This assembly is hermetically sealed within a transparent housing and means are optionally provided to circulate the liquid medium. The heating elements are selectively energized in response to digitized data signals for pulse heating the portions of the liquid medium in the vicinity thereof to form momentary bubbles. The bubbles cause changes in the index of refraction of the medium in the gap, so that selected portions of a sheet of light directed through the prism and into the bubbles are deflected or modulated by the mechanism of total internal reflection. The modulated light may be blocked by a stop or shutter and the unmodulated light may be directed to the precharged photoconductive member of the printer to form latent images or vice versa. Several configurations of the image bar are disclosed for producing latent electrostatic images on a photoconductive member one line of picture elements or pixels at a time. In one embodiment, the optical shield contains a plurality of tunnels which are aligned with the heating elements, so that the bubbles produce a self-pumping action that causes circulation of the liquid medium.

Thermally activated image bar

An ink jet printhead composed of substantially two identical parts and method of batch fabricating the parts. Each part has V-grooves anisotropically etched between a linear array of heating elements having selectively addressable electrodes which are parallel to each other. The grooved structures of the parts permit them to be mated face-to-face, so that they are automatically self-aligned by the inter-meshing of the lands containing the heating elements on one part with the grooves of the other part. A pair of parts may be used as a printhead for a carriage type ink jet printer or a plurality of parts may be assembled for a pagewidth printer. The pagewidth printhead is assembled by offsetting the first two parts a selected number of grooves when they are mated so that the subsequently added adjacent parts abut each other and yet are self-aligned with the confronting parts.

High density thermal ink jet printhead

A photolithographic method for fabricating thin film transistors and thin film transistor arrays in which the contamination vulnerable semiconductor-insulator interfaces are formed in a single vacuum pump-down operation. To minimize step coverage problems, quasi-planar construction is employed to provide a planar substructure for receipt of the deposited thin semiconductor layer.

Photolithographic process for fabricating thin film transistors

In the formation of a thin film device, integrity of the semiconductor-insulator and semiconductor-conductor interfaces is preserved by depositing layers of insulator, semiconductor, and conductor in successive sequence under continuous vacuum. In a preferred embodiment, the method minimizes contamination exposure of the critical interfaces between semiconductor and gate insulator and semiconductor and source-drain contacts of a thin film transistor.

Method of forming a thin film transistor

A planar thin film transistor is described wherein each element of the transistor structure is disposed in a planar relationship with respect to the next adjacent layer. The method of manufacture generally includes the steps of depositing one of the elemental members of a thin film transistor structure and filling in the valleys between the elemental structure with an insulating material to form a planar surface which, in turn, forms the surface upon which the next planar layer is formed.

Growing community of inventors

Webster, NY, United States of America

Michael Poleshuk