Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Muga Mochizuki

Yoshiyuki Imanaka

Ichiro Saito

Teruo Ozaki

Takaaki Yamaguchi

Masahiko Kubota

Hiroyuki Ishinaga

Masahiko Ogawa

Ryoji Inoue

Takuya Hatsui

Toshimori Miyakoshi

Toshio Kashino

Souta Takeuchi

Kousuke Kubo

Sadayuki Sugama

Nobuyuki Matsumoto

Yoichi Taneya

Maki Nishida

Toshiyasu Sakai

Masao Kato

Nobuyuki Hirayama

Tomoyuki Hiroki

Masami Ikeda

Jiro Moriyama

Shuji Koyama

Yoshinori Misumi

Mineo Kaneko

Tatsuo Furukawa

Yoshinori Nakajima

Masafumi Wataya

Masami Kasamoto

Kentaro Yano

Hidehiko Kanda

Takayuki Yagi

Mineo Shimotsusa

Kenji Kitabatake

Katsuhiko Takahashi

Toshiharu Inui

Kenichi Saito

Masashi Miyagawa

Takeshi Okazaki

Tomonori Sato

Akihiro Yamanaka

Shinji Takagi

Toshihiro Mori

Junichiro Iri

Hiraku Kozuka

Yukihiro Hayakawa

Masashi Kitani

Kei Fujita

Tetsuhito Ikeda

Hidenori Watanabe

Yoshiaki Kurihara

Takashi Morii

Masao Mori

Toru Kubokawa

An increase in energy applied to a heating element can be prevented and the service life of a printhead can be prolonged even when the temperature of the printing element having a negative temperature coefficient rises and the resistance of the heating element decreases. A printhead having heating elements connected to a common power supply comprises a switching element series-connected to and controlling driving of the heating element at a voltage applied to a control terminal; a constant voltage source; a wiring resistance generated at a connection wiring line serial-connected to the heating element; and a voltage control circuit which controls to make the potential difference between both ends of the wiring resistance equal to the voltage of the constant voltage source when driving the heating element. A current flowing through the heating element is made constant without any influence of the temperature.

Printhead driving method, printhead substrate, printhead, head cartridge, and printing apparatus

There is disclosed a solid semiconductor element which very efficiently detects information about a liquid and bidirectionally exchanges the information with the outside. The solid semiconductor element is disposed in a liquid container, and includes at least energy converting unit, information acquiring unit, and information communicating unit. The energy converting unit converts an electromotive force from the outside to a power, and operates the information acquiring unit and information communicating unit. The information acquiring unit acquires the information about the liquid in which the solid semiconductor element is disposed from the liquid, and the information communicating unit transmits the information acquired by the information acquiring unit to the outside.

Solid semiconductor element, ink tank, ink jet recording apparatus provided with ink tank, liquid information acquiring method and liquid physical property change discriminating method

In a substrate for an ink jet head used for an ink jet head recording apparatus, electrostatic breakdown of a diode sensor functional as a substrate temperature sensing element is prevented. A protective element is electrically connected between a diode sensor and an input/output pad for the diode sensor.

Substrate for ink jet head, ink jet head, and ink jet recording apparatus having ink jet head

This invention relates to a printhead substrate capable of suppressing an increase in wiring width and an increase in the size of a substrate formed by a film forming process while increasing the number of simultaneously driven printing elements in order to improve the printing performance, a printhead using the substrate, and a printing apparatus using the printhead. The wiring lines of the substrate are formed into a common wiring line, and energy applied to a heating resistance element is prevented from deviating from a stable ink discharge range owing to the difference in the number of simultaneously driven heating resistance elements. For this purpose, a driving element is greatly downsized in comparison with a conventional one, and the operation region of a MOS transistor is shifted from the non-saturation region to the saturation region.

Printhead substrate, printhead using the substrate, head cartridge including the printhead, method of driving the printhead, and printing apparatus using the printhead

An increase in energy applied to a heating element can be prevented and the service life of a printhead can be prolonged even when the temperature of the printing element having a negative temperature coefficient rises and the resistance of the heating element decreases upon controlling a switching element for controlling a current flowing through the heating element so as to make energy as constant as possible. A printhead having a plurality of heating elements connected to a common power supply comprises a switching element series-connected to the heating element and that controls driving of the heating element at a voltage applied to a control terminal; a constant voltage source using a common power supply as a reference; a wiring resistance generated at a connection wiring line serial-connected to the heating element; and a voltage control circuit which controls to make the potential difference between both ends of the wiring resistance equal to the voltage of the constant voltage source when driving the heating element. A current flowing through the heating element is made constant without any influence of the temperature of the heating element.

Printhead driving method, printhead substrate, printhead, head cartridge and printing apparatus

Method of driving a printhead using a constant current and operating MOS transistor in saturation region

To drive an inkjet printhead having an array of printing elements, where the first and second printing elements which discharge relatively different amounts of ink are arranged on the same array in a predetermined direction, print data for the first or second printing element is serially inputted, the inputted print data is sequentially stored, the stored print data is latched, a selection signal indicative of which of the first or second printing element is to be driven is inputted, a driving signal indicative of a driving period is inputted, and respective printing elements are driven in accordance with the latched print data, the selection signal, and the driving signal. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the cost of the printhead having plural types of printing elements, which discharge relatively different amounts of ink, and possible to easily control driving of the printhead.

Inkjet printhead, driving method of inkjet printhead, and substrate for inkjet printhead

A recording head comprises a plurality of recording elements for performing recording; a driving circuit for driving the plurality of recording elements; and a predetermined voltage generating circuit for generating a predetermined voltage to be applied to the plurality of recording elements from voltage supplied from outside. With the head thus structured, a desired voltage is generated in the interior of the head by use of the predetermined voltage generating circuit for performing recording, thus making it possible to prevent the voltage drop which may take place if the voltage is supplied from outside through a cable, as well as to prevent the durability of the heat generating elements from being damaged due to noises. It also becomes possible to set the voltage to be applied to the recording elements at an optimal value corresponding to the discharge voltage, hence stabilizing ink discharges efficiently.

Recording head, substrate for use of recording head, and recording apparatus

An individual electrode layer electrically connected to an individual electrode layer having an opening is formed beneath a heater layer and a common electrode layer along an ink flow path.

Electrothermal converting element board, ink jet printing head provided with electrothermal converting element board and ink jet printing apparatus using the same

A base plate for use in a recording head, which is used by an ink jet head for printing by discharging ink onto a recording medium, the recording head being provided with energy converting element for discharging the ink by generating a bubble in the ink by converting electric energy to thermal energy, and an anti-cavitation film to protect the energy converting element from shocks generated at the time of bubble growth and extinction, the anti-cavitation film being used as electrodes for detecting the state of the ink by energizing the ink. The base plate comprises a first diode having the a cathode thereof connected to the anti-cavitation film and an anode thereof connected to a ground potential; and a second diode having the anode thereof connected to the anti-cavitation film and the cathode thereof connected to a power supply potential. With the structure thus arranged, it is made possible to reduce the possibility that the circuit element formed on a semiconductor substrate is destroyed by electrostatic discharge.

Base plate for use of recording head, recording head, recording apparatus, and method for manufacturing recording head

An ink tank is provided which can efficiently perform detection of information in an ink tank such as an ink residual amount in the ink tank with a simple configuration in which it is unnecessary to set wiring or the like. A solid semiconductor element, which is provided with an acquiring unit for acquiring environmental information of the outside, an information storing unit, a discriminating unit for comparing acquired information and stored information to make a determination, and an information communicating unit for displaying the acquired information or communicating the acquired information to the outside, is embedded in an outer wall of an ink tank such that the solid semiconductor element is exposed to an internal side and an external side of the ink tank from the outer wall. The solid semiconductor element can perform supply of its operation energy or exchanges of signals in a non-contact state or by connecting with a terminal provided in a supporting portion or the like of the ink tank directly, thus, it is unnecessary to set wiring. In this case, the information acquiring means can be preferably disposed in the part of the solid semiconductor element exposed to the inside of the ink tank.

Ink tank and ink jet recording apparatus provided with the same

The invention intends to maintain a constant ink discharge amount among the recording heads, even in case a total pulse width of pulse voltages applied to heat generating resistors. For this purpose, a rank table is prepared in such a manner, even in a situation where a total pulse width of the pulses applied to the heat generating resistor is 3 &#x3bc;s or less whereby the ink discharge amount decreases with a decrease in the total pulse width, that a maximum reached temperature on the surface of the heat generating resistors at the application of a preheat pulse becomes higher with a decrease in the resistance of a rank resistor, and a pulse width Pon the rank table is made longer thereby compensating a decrease in the ink discharge amount with a decrease in the total pulse width and maintaining a constant ink discharge amount.

Recording apparatus and liquid discharge method

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Kanagawa, Japan

Muga Mochizuki