Seiko Instruments Inc

Tatsuya Kitta

Yoshihide Kanakubo

Yasuhiro Moya

Kazutoshi Ishii

Sumitaka Gotou

Tadao Akamine

Sumitaka Goto

A constant-current FET functions as a constant current element by application of a constant voltage to the gate thereof. A first switch FET is disposed between the constant-current FET and a power supply without another switching element being disposed between the constant current FET and an output terminal. A second switch FET that performs an on/off operation in association with an on/off operation performed by the first switch FET is connected between the output terminal and ground.

Constant-current output driver with reduced over-shoot

A thermal head driving integrated circuit capable of preventing the lowering of data transfer speed, and in which the number of bonding pads can be reduced as well as current consumption has a driver circuit in which at least two shift registers are series-arranged in front and rear stages to sequentially transfer print data in a serial signal manner to be read out in a batch mode to drive a plurality of heating resistive elements. A switch circuit is interposed between an output terminal of the front-staged shift register and an input terminal of the rear-staged shift register to selectively connect and disconnect the two shift registers.

Thermal head driving integrated circuit

A thermal head driving integrated circuit may be used to perform an &ldquo;n&rdquo; color or &ldquo;n&rdquo; gradation printing operation with a simplified circuit having a reduced size by employing a single delay element connected to a plurality of resistive heating elements. The integrated circuit has a plurality of drive units each for driving a respective one of the heating elements and each having a drive transistor for driving a respective heating element, one or more delay elements, the number of delay elements being less than &ldquo;n&rdquo;, for supplying delayed print data to the drive transistor, a print data storing unit for storing the print data of each of the &ldquo;n&rdquo; types, and a print data supplying unit for supplying print data stored in the print data storing unit to the &ldquo;n&rdquo; delay elements.

Since a field effect MOS transistor can be formed with a reduced number of manufacturing processes, a semiconductor integrated circuit device can be materialized at a low cost. A semiconductor device has a structure in which a gate electrode is provided in the vicinity of the surface of a semiconductor substrate through a gate insulating film, a second conductive type heavily doped impurity region is provided in a region adjacent to a part of the gate electrode through a part of the gate insulating film and a part of a thick oxide film, another second conductive type heavily doped impurity region is provided in a region adjacent to an opposite part of the gate electrode opposing the part of the gate electrode through the part of the gate insulating film and a part of another thick oxide film, and a first conductive type heavily doped impurity region for device isolation is provided so as to surround the gate electrode and the second conductive type heavily doped impurity regions.

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Tatsuya Kitta