Hewlett-packard Company

Paul H. Mcclelland

William J. Lloyd

Alfred I. Pan

Laurie S. Mittelstadt

Si-ty Lam

Eric G. Hanson

Christopher A. Schantz

William J Lloyd

Paul H McClelland

Si-Ty Lam

Christopher A Schantz

Eric G Hanson

Laurie S Mittelstadt

Alfred I Pan

Paul H Mcclelland

Winthrop D Childers

Kent D Vincent

Alfred I Tsong Pan

Si Ty

In one of the preferred embodiments, an inkjet printhead includes a nozzle member formed of a polymer material that has been laser-ablated to form inkjet orifices. The nozzle member also has formed on it conductive traces for supplying electrical signals to heating elements on a substrate mounted to a surface of the nozzle member. In a preferred method, the orifices are formed by Excimer laser ablation.

Integrated nozzle member and tab circuit for inkjet printhead

In one of the preferred embodiments, an inkjet printhead includes a nozzle member formed of a polymer material that has been laser-ablated to form inkjet orifices, ink channels, and vaporization chambers in the unitary nozzle member. The nozzle member is then mounted to a substrate containing heating elements associated with each orifice. In a preferred method, the orifices, ink channels, and vaporization chambers are formed using an Excimer laser.

Method of making a nozzle member including ink flow channels

In one of the preferred embodiments, an inkjet printhead includes a nozzle member formed of a polymer material that has been laser-ablated to form tapered inkjet orifices. The nozzle member is then mounted to a substrate containing heating elements, each heating element being associated with a single orifice. In a preferred method, the orifices are formed by Excimer laser ablation. In other aspects of the invention, vaporization chambers as well as ink channels, providing fluid communication between an ink reservoir and the orifices, are also formed by Excimer laser ablation.

Laser ablated nozzle member for inkjet printhead

Nozzle member including ink flow channels

A desktop printer for plain paper sheets includes the integral combination of a color printer and a text printer. The color printer is of the inkjet type to print color images incrementally and the text printer is of the laser-electrophotographic type to print monochrome text continuously. The printing information is segregated into color and text components, and the color printer is controlled to print only color components while the text printer is controlled to print only text components. A conveyor transports sheets from the text print engine to the color image print engine with incremental indexing motion.

Text and color image printing system

Disclosed is an integral ink jet print head having an improved design. An ink reservoir wall at the base of print head guides a flow of ink from a remote reservoir. Ink is drawn by capillary action past flow restrictors and an ink channel into an ink heating zone. The ink heating zone is a chamber residing below an integrated ink heating structure which has been fabricated, using processes including photolithography, directly on the underside of an orifice plate. An orifice is located to one side of the ink heating zone. The ink heating structure housing the ink heating zone is a combination of thin layers deposited directly on the orifice plate. The multilayered structure includes an insulating layer of silicon dioxide, a resistive layer of tantalum aluminum alloy, and a top conductive layer formed of gold. The invention provides a single integrated print head that combines the separate elements of the previous designs into one unit having many ink jets on one ink jet print head.

Integral ink jet print head

A thermal ink jet printing system includes a drop detector which is used in a feedback loop to optimize operational drive pulse parameters. By optimizing the drive pulse, drop velocity can be set within an optimal range above a inflection point in the transfer function of a print head drop generator. This provides near maximal drop velocity while minimizing heat dissipation at the heater resistors which would otherwise impair reliability and print head life. The drive circuitry includes a microcontroller including a pulse controller, a test generator and an algorithm function. During a maintenance procedure, for example, during start-up, the test generator causes the pulse controller to test each of many drop generators with a series of fixed-voltage rectangular pulses of digitally increasing pulse width. The pulse width at which a drop is first detected and the velocity of each drop detected is correlated with the width of the pulse which generated that drop. The algorithm function calculates an individual operational pulse width for each drop generator, or alternatively, a common operational pulse width for all drop generators, from the test data so collected. The pulse parameter value set so determined is programmed into the pulse controller and used during normal printing operation.

Thermal-ink-jet print system with drop detector for drive pulse

A unique inverse processed film resistance heater structure including a conventional passivation wear layer which is deposited directly on a first substrate. This deposition step is then followed by the deposition and patterning of resistance and conductive layers, and these layers are covered by an isolation layer and a thick support layer. The thick support layer is then bonded to a second substrate and the first substrate is removed so that a uniform, flat passivation layer is exposed. The result is a film resistor which has a reduced failure rate as compared to the prior art because it is covered by a planar passivation wear layer with fewer pin-holes and reduced stress.

Inversely processed resistance heater

A unique inverse processed film resistance heater structure is disclosed. A conventional passivation wear layer is deposited directly on a first substrate, followed by the deposition and patterning of resistive and conductive layers, and covered by an isolation layer and a thick support layer. The thick support layer is then bonded to a second substrate and the first substrate is removed so that a uniform, flat passivation layer is exposed. The result is a film resistor which has a reduced failure rate as compared to the prior art because it is covered by a passivation wear layer with fewer pin-holes and reduced stress.

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Pigeon, MI, United States of America

William J Lloyd