Sony Corporation

Sony C&ouml;rporation

Takeo Eguchi

Kazuyasu Takenaka

Iwao Ushinohama

Takumi Namekawa

Shogo Ono

Yuichiro Ikemoto

Manabu Tomita

Minoru Kohno

Takaaki Miyamoto

Shinichi Horii

Atsushi Nakamura

Masato Nakamura

Shigeyoshi Hirashima

Shota Nishi

Yuji Yakura

Atsushi Nakayama

Akihito Miyazaki

Shigeyoshi Fujiki

Manabu Matsuda

Toru Tanikawa

Koichi Igarashi

Ryusuke Moriya

Takeo Ohba

Hiroyasu Uchida

Masayuki Takakura

Tatsumi Ito

Yukihiro Ohzeki

Shin Todo

Yoshitaka Hashimoto

Yoshihisa Mori

Shinji Kayaba

Takanori Takahashi

Ichiro Ujiie

Norio Mashimo

Fusa Nakayama

Naoshi Ando

Takaai Miyamoto

A liquid ejection head includes an energy-generating element arranged on a semiconductor substrate, a barrier layer deposited on the semiconductor substrate for forming a liquid chamber in the periphery of the energy-generating element, and a nozzle sheet bonded on the barrier layer and having a nozzle formed at a position opposing the energy-generating element, in which the liquid ejection head ejects liquid contained in the liquid chamber from the nozzle as liquid droplets by the energy-generating element, and the barrier layer is provided with a plurality of depressions, each having an independent contour, arranged within a range, which is separated from the border of the barrier layer, on an adhesive region adhering to the nozzle sheet.

Liquid ejection head, liquid ejection apparatus, and manufacturing method of liquid ejection head

A liquid-ejecting head includes a liquid cell that contains an ejection medium that is liquid at normal temperature, a nozzle for ejecting the ejection medium in the liquid cell, an energy unit for supplying ejection energy to the ejection medium in the liquid cell, and heating means for heating the liquid cell independently of the supply of the ejection energy to the ejection medium in the liquid cell. The energy unit is driven to eject the ejection medium from the nozzle in a droplet form. The heating means is supplied with a substantially direct current component to generate heat so that at least the temperature of the liquid cell is constantly maintained above the ambient temperature irrespective of whether the energy unit is driven.

Liquid-ejecting head, liquid-ejecting device, liquid-ejecting method, and ejection medium for liquid-ejecting head

Disclosed is a liquid emitting apparatus for emitting a liquid pressurized by a pressure generated by a pressure generating element is emitted as liquid droplets onto a support. A controller () controls an emission controller () so that the current value of the pulse current supplied to a heating resistor () will have a current value difference within &#xb1;10% with respect to the current value of the pulse current supplied to a heating resistor (). By so doing, variations in the position of deposition of an ink droplet i emitted with variable emitting directions may be suppressed to enable printing to a high-quality image in which deterioration in the image quality variations ascribable to color time variations or white streaks is prohibited.

Liquid emitting apparatus and method

A remaining-liquid-amount apparatus for displaying an amount of conductive liquid (ink) remaining in a container includes electrode units which are arranged along a direction in which the liquid level falls when the amount of liquid in the container decreases and which conduct current when the electrode units are in contact with the liquid, a voltage source (pulse generator) which applies a voltage to the electrode units, a liquid detector (DFFs) which detects the presence/absence of the liquid at positions of the electrode units on the basis of whether or not the electrode units conduct current when the voltage is applied by the voltage source, and a remaining-liquid-amount display unit (LEDs) which displays, in steps, the amount of liquid remaining in the container on the basis of the detection result of the presence/absence of the liquid at positions of the electrode units obtained by the liquid detector.

Remaining-liquid-amount display apparatus and remaining-liquid-amount display method

The present invention is a liquid discharge device having a function of supplying liquid to liquid chambers in a stable manner, and also has a function of suppressing interference between liquid discharge portions due to discharging of liquid droplets. The liquid discharge device has a liquid discharge head in which a plurality of liquid discharge portions including an ink liquid chamber () for storing a liquid to be discharged, and nozzles () for discharging the liquid stored in the ink liquid chamber (), are arrayed on a substrate. The liquid discharge device comprises: individual channels () provided for each of the liquid discharge portions so as to communicate with the ink liquid chamber () and supply liquid to within the ink liquid chamber (); and a common channel () which is provided to the plurality of individual channels () so as to communicate with each of the plurality of individual channels (), for supplying liquid to the plurality of individual channels (). The common channel () includes a first common channel () provided on a liquid supply source side, and a second common channel () provided adjacent to the individual channels (), and having liquid channel resistance greater than that of the first common channel ().

Liquid discharging device

A liquid ejecting head includes a plurality of liquid ejecting portions arrayed in a flat region on a substrate. The liquid ejecting portions each include a liquid chamber that accommodates liquid to be ejected, a heater element arranged in the liquid chamber, the heater element generating bubbles in liquid in the liquid chamber when heated, and a nozzle for ejecting liquid in the liquid chamber in accordance with generation of bubbles by the heater element.

Liquid ejecting head and liquid ejecting apparatus

A liquid-amount detecting apparatus detects the amount of a liquid in containers. The liquid-amount detecting apparatus includes a liquid detecting circuit and a determining unit. The liquid detecting circuit includes electrode units disposed so as to be in contact with the liquid in the containers, which becomes electrically conductive when in contact with the liquid, an impedance, and an AC-signal source. An AC signal not containing a DC component is input from the AC-signal source to the electrode units through the source impedance, and a signal representing the status of electric connection of the electrode units is output. Furthermore, based on the output signal, a binary signal representing the presence or absence of electrical connection of the electrode units is output. The determining unit determines the presence or absence of the liquid at the electrode units based on the binary signal output from the liquid detecting circuit.

Liquid detecting apparatus, liquid-amount detecting apparatus, liquid detecting method, and liquid-amount detecting method

In a method and an apparatus for ejecting liquid, the processing accuracy of an ejection unit for ejecting ink can be easily increased and the variations in the volume of ink drops, the ejection angle thereof, etc., can be reduced even when dust is mixed in ink. In addition, a reduction in an ink-supply speed at which ink is supplied to an ink ejection unit can be prevented. An ink ejection apparatus includes a plurality of heating units () provided on a base member (), ink cells for pressurizing ink with energy generated by the heating units (), and nozzles () having ejection holes for ejecting the ink which is pressurized in the ink cells. Each of the nozzles () is disposed above each of the heating units (). In addition, first open sides of the nozzles () which face the heating units () serve as ink inlets () and second open sides of the nozzles () serve as the ejection holes (), so that inner spaces of the nozzles () serve as the ink cells, the ink cells not being provided separately.

Method and apparatus for ejecting liquid

A liquid ejection head includes a liquid chamber configured to contain liquid to be ejected from a nozzle, a liquid ejection member including the nozzle, and an energy generating element configured to provide energy to the liquid contained in the liquid chamber. The energy generating element ejects the liquid contained in the liquid chamber from the nozzle as a liquid droplet. A depression is formed on a surface of the liquid ejection member around the nozzle such that an opening of the depression has a width greater than a width of an opening of the nozzle and the nozzle is positioned at the bottom of the depression. The interior angle of the bottom corner of the depression is determined to be greater than 90 degrees.

Liquid ejection head, liquid ejection apparatus, and method for fabricating liquid ejection head

A liquid ejecting head includes a plurality of arrays of liquid ejecting portions each having a nozzle for ejecting a droplet. The nozzle is arranged along each of an imaginary straight line Rand an imaginary straight line Rthat are arranged in parallel at a distance &#x3b4; from each other, and a distance, with respect to the direction of the imaginary straight lines Rand Rbetween two adjacent ones of the nozzles respectively arranged on the imaginary straight line Rand the imaginary straight line Ris set to a fixed value P. The liquid ejecting portions arrayed along at least one of the imaginary straight lines Rand Rare formed so that a liquid is ejected from each of the liquid ejecting portions while being deflected to the other imaginary straight line side.

The liquid discharge apparatus including a head having liquid dischargers capable of deflecting the trajectories of discharged droplets in a plurality of directions. At least two of the liquid dischargers neighboring each other are capable of discharging droplets in the same pixel area. When there is a shut-off liquid discharge due to droplet discharge failure, this information is stored. According to the stored information, the discharge signal corresponding to the droplets the shut-off discharger were supposed to discharge is transferred to another liquid discharger in the vicinity of the shut-off discharger. This other liquid discharger alternatively discharges droplets so that the droplets land in a position the droplets would have had landed if they were discharged by the shut-off discharger.

Liquid discharge apparatus and method for discharging liquid

A flow path structure includes a heating element, a barrier layer, a liquid chamber formed by a part of the barrier layer and a pair of walls confronting each other to hold the heating element therebetween and a first individual flow path and a second individual flow path disposed on both the sides of the liquid chamber to communicate with the liquid chamber, a liquid is supplied to the liquid chamber from at least one of first and second individual flow paths, and the distance U between the walls in the liquid chamber and the flow path width W of the first individual flow path are set to satisfy U&#x3e;W. With this arrangement, a flow path structure can be provided in which a failure in flow paths due to dusts is unlike to occur and which minimizes the influence of bubbles and has almost no uneven ejection.

Liquid ejection head and liquid ejection device

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Takeo Eguchi