Zink Imaging, Inc.

Peter Zelten

Stephen J Telfer

William T Vetterling

Brian David Busch

Chien Liu

Juan Carlos Van Dijk

In one aspect of the invention there is disclosed a multicolor thermal imaging system wherein different heating elements on a thermal print head can print on different color-forming layers of a multicolor thermal imaging member in a single pass. The line-printing time is divided into segments, each of which is divided into a plurality of subintervals. All of the pulses within the segments have the same energy. In one embodiment, every pulse has the same amplitude and duration. Different colors are selected for printing during the different segments by varying the fraction of subintervals that contain pulses. This technique allows multiple colors to be printed using a thermal print head with a single strobe signal line. Pulsing patterns may be chosen to reduce the coincidence of pulses provided to multiple print head elements, thereby reducing the peak power requirements of the print head.

Print head pulsing techniques for multicolor printers

The present invention provides a thermal printer in which the temperature of the thermal printing head can be modulated by means of an auxiliary heat sink, and methods for printing using such a thermal printer.

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Melrose, MA, United States of America

Peter Zelten