Xerox Corporation

Thomas A Tellier

William G Hawkins

Gary Alan Kneezel

Thomas E Watrobski

Cathie J Burke

David Allen Mantell

Richard V LaDonna

Donald J Drake

Juan J Becerra

Joseph F Stephany

James F O'Neill

Joseph J Wysocki

Steven Jay Harrington

Michael Robert Campanelli

Dale R Ims

Christopher R Morton

Alan D Raisanen

Michael P O'Horo

Sophie V Vandebroek

Michael Poleshuk

Eduardo Mariano Freire

Scott Charles Warner

Scott N Seabridge

Yonglin Xie

Ivan Rezanka

Thomas Jay Wyble

Peter A Torpey

Narayan V Deshpande

Thomas P Courtney

Narayan V Desphande

Richard L LaDonna

A fluid ejector includes a fluid channel having a resistive heater and terminating in a nozzle, a common bus formed transverse to the fluid channel and between the resistive heater and the nozzle, a connection line laterally adjacent to the fluid channel, and a connection structure for electrically connecting the common bus with the resistive heater and the connection line, the connection structure including a first set of one or more layers for electrical connection and a second set of one or more layers for covering the common bus and connection line. The first set of one or more layers includes a doped polysilicon layer on or overlaid by an optional tantalum-silicide layer. The second set of one or more layers includes a nitride layer on or overlaid by a tantalum layer.

Polysilicon feed-through fluid drop ejector

A printhead uses large and small drop ejectors to achieve efficient gray scale printing. The printhead is arranged with a close packed configuration of alternating large and small nozzles positioned to maximize coverage while minimizing the volume of ejected ink. The printhead may be operated in a single pass mode or dual pass mode. In the single pass mode, complete coverage is effected by rippling through the odd numbered jets first and then rippling through the even numbered jets. The position of the small spots from the even numbered jets can be adjusted to maximize coverage and counteract offset between nozzle centers. Printheads with different size nozzles can also be operated by a staggered firing method using dual passes to offset spots in the scan direction by shifting the printhead between passes or alternating between groups of large and small nozzles. Further improvements to image quality can be realized by shifting the spots in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction by tilting the printhead or offsetting the nozzles with respect to the ink channels on the printhead.

Method of printing with multiple sized drop ejectors on a single printhead

Printhead with close-packed configuration of alternating sized drop ejectors and method of firing such drop ejectors

The new heater element design has a pit layer which protects the overglaze passivation layer, PSG step region, portions of the Ta layer and dielectric isolation layer and junctions or regions susceptible to the cavitational pressures. Further, the inner walls of the pit layer define the effective heater area and the dopant lines define the actual heater area. In alternative embodiments, the dopant lines define the actual and effective heater areas, and an inner wall and a dopant line define the actual and effective heater areas. Further, when the new heater element designs are incorporated into printheads having full pit channel geometry and open pit channel geometry, the operating lifetime of the printhead is extended because the added protection of the pit layer prevents: 1) passivation damage and cavitational damages of the heater elements; and 2) degradation of heater robustness, hot spot formations and heater failures well into the 10,pulse range. The printhead incorporating the new heater element design can be incorporated into drop-on-demand printing systems of a carriage type or a full width type.

Thermal ink jet heater design

The systems and methods of this invention allows for an electrical contact structure of the drop ejecting transducer in an inkjet printhead to be designed in such a way that the relatively thick electrical contact lines are not in the ink drop ejection path between the drop ejector transducer and the corresponding nozzle. Such a design thereby minimizes any visible defects due to misdirected satellite drops.

Low topography thermal inkjet drop ejector structure

A liquid recording apparatus ejects droplets of liquid onto a recording medium. The apparatus has multiple liquid emitters whose emissions are activated by multiple power pulses. The power pulses are controlled to maximize the number of emitters which can be simultaneously energized while keeping the instantaneous power usage within prescribed boundaries. The multiple emitters are organized into banks of emitters whose numbers are small enough that all emitters within a bank can receive a correct level of power simultaneously without exceeding capacity of a shared power source. A circuit interleaves the power pulses to the emitters so that no bank of emitters are receiving power at the same instant of time.

Method and apparatus for interleaving pulses in a liquid recorder

The invention describes a temperature sensing system which provides a digital signal representative of the temperature of an ink jet printhead during a predetermined time period. In one embodiment, a temperature controlled oscillator is formed on the printhead, the oscillator including a resistor whose resistance varies proportional to printhead temperature variations. An analog signal from the resistor representative of printhead temperature is converted by the oscillator into a digital output signal whose frequency varies with variations in the resistor and, therefore, with the printhead temperature. The oscillator outputs are counted in an electrical counter over a sampling period. The accumulated count is converted into a digital code representing the printhead temperature. This byte is available for comparison with predetermined values stored in a look-up table and is converted into electrical image signals sent to the printhead which are adjusted and compensate for changes in the volume of ink ejected by the printhead nozzles. In a preferred embodiment, the oscillator counter and synchronizing circuitry are formed on one chip located on the printhead. The printhead can be either a single partial width printhead located on a carriage which is moved through a print zone or a full width printhead. The temperature sensing circuit has a high signal to noise ratio resulting in a more accurate temperature measurement. Because of the noise immunity, the sensing can take place during a print operation.

System for sensing the temperature of a printhead in an ink jet printer

A liquid ink printing apparatus printing images includes a printhead having a plurality of nozzles wherein a single power pulse causes two or more nozzles to eject ink simultaneously. The printhead includes an ink directing element having a plurality of ink conduits coupled to an array of spaced nozzles and a transducer element aligned with and mated to the ink directing element. The transducers are spaced a distance apart and each transducer is substantially aligned with at least two or more of the nozzles. The printhead is stepped in a direction transverse to the array of spaced nozzles a stepping distance approximately equal to or less than the distance between transducers. The ink directing element includes a silicon wafer having etched ink conduits or channels holding ink for ejection through the nozzles connected thereto. Each transducer is cooperatively associated with one channel having a fork member coupled to two or more nozzles or is cooperatively associated with two or more channels wherein each channel is connected to one or more nozzles.

Liquid ink printer having apparent 1XN addressability

An ink-jet printhead accepts a series of digital addresses as image data. Each digital address causes an individual ejector in the printhead having the particular address to be activated. The frequency of operation of the printhead can be directly related to the frequency at which addresses are submitted to the printhead. A scheduler polls image data for spot placements which require simultaneous activation of a plurality of ejectors in a set of interdependent ejectors, and then reschedules the activation of ejectors to avoid conflicts.

Ejector activation scheduling system for an ink-jet printhead

An electrostatic discharge protection device for a connector associated with an integrated circuit chip, particularly one associated with a thermal ink-jet printhead. AMOS field effect device extends along at least one edge of the connector on the chip. A bipolar transistor, parasitic to the field effect device, conducts current from the connector to ground in response to a voltage between the connector and ground in excess of a predetermined threshold. A zone of a predetermined electrical resistance is operatively disposed between the bipolar transistor and ground. The zone may substantially encircle the bonding pad of the connector to evenly distribute local incidences of high voltage. The invention enables integrated circuits to pass ESD requirements of office products, which is 15 kV by Human Body Model testing.

Office environment level electrostatic discharge protection

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 wide semiconductor transducer device comprises a linear array of semiconductor chips. Each of the semiconductor chips has a plurality of transducer elements arranged on it along a front edge at a constant spacing, the constant spacing being maintained across the semiconductor chip boundaries. Each of the semiconductor chips also includes associated transducer circuits which are each connected one of the plurality of transducer elements formed on the semiconductor chip. While the requirement that the transducer elements maintain the constant spacing requires them to be located within a damage zone created during the dicing and/or thermally induced compression of the semiconductor chip, the associated transducer circuits can be located within an interior portion of the semiconductor chip. The interior portion of the semiconductor chip is located a sufficient distance from the edges of the semiconductor chip such that it does not encroach on the damage zone.

Integrated circuit fan-in for semiconductor transducer devices

An electrostatic discharge protection device for a connector associated with an integrated circuit chip, particularly one associated with a thermal ink-jet printhead. A MOS field effect device extends along at least one edge of the connector on the chip. A bipolar transistor, parasitic to the field effect device, conducts current from the connector to ground in response to a voltage between the connector and ground in excess of a predetermined threshold. A zone of a predetermined electrical resistance is operatively disposed between the bipolar transistor and ground. The zone may substantially encircle the bonding pad of the connector to evenly distribute local incidences of high voltage. The invention enables integrated circuits to pass ESD requirements of office products, which is 15 kV by Human Body Model testing.

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

A thermal ink jet printhead includes a switched power supply for the intermediate voltage predriver sections. The power supply is switched by a MOSFET connected between an intermediate point of a voltage divider and ground. By switching the power supply, the predriver sections are turned off, unnecessary power consumption and overheating the printhead are avoided.

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Williamson, NY, United States of America

Thomas A Tellier