Industrial Technology Research Institute

International United Technology Company, Ltd.

Yi-Hsuan Lai

Chieh-Wen Wang

Je-Ping Hu

Yi-Yung Wu

Hung-Lieh Hu

I-Chung Hou

Ming-Ling Lee

Hui-Fang Wang

Daniel Y Lan

Zhi-Ru Lian

Yuh-Horng Chuang

Chen-Yu Cheng

An ink print head has an ink container for storing fluid, a chip installed at a bottom of the ink container having a central slot for passing fluid, and a dry film formed on the chip having a plurality of ink chambers. The ink print head also has a nozzle plate formed below the dry film, a middle portion of the nozzle plate protruding above the nozzle plate so as to form a central refill chamber, a plurality of nozzles corresponding to the ink chambers of the dry film, and a plurality of heaters set on the chip for heating fluid inside the ink chambers so that the fluid can be ejected from the nozzles of the nozzle plate. The fluid inside the ink container will flow through the central slot into the central refill chamber and then into the ink chambers.

Ink print head with low flow resistance central refilling

A monolithic ink-jet print head and a method of fabricating the same are proposed, which not only can allow the nozzle device to be highly secured to the ink-jet print head, but also can allow the overall manufacturing process for the ink-jet print head to be more simplified and thus more cost-effective to implement as compared to the prior art. The monolithic ink-jet print head is constructed on a print-control chip formed with an array of transducers. A plurality of ink barrier layers are then formed from a first polymer over the print-control chip for separating the transducers from each other; and subsequently, a nozzle device is formed from a second polymer over the ink barrier layer. The second polymer is substantially equal or at least close in thermal expansion coefficient to the first polymer used to form the ink barrier layer. Therefore, the nozzle device would hardly break apart from the ink barrier layer after a long period of use that would easily occur in the prior art due to repeated unequal thermal expansions during operation. Moreover, the monolithic process to fabricate the ink-jet print head also allows the manufacture of the ink-jet print head to be easily carried out for mass production with reduced manufacturing cost simply through conventional semiconductor fabrication processes.

Monolithic ink-jet print head and method of fabricating the same

A magnetoelectric apparatus for measuring the droplet frequency response at a printhead by applying a method comprising a metallic detecting plate and a magnetic ring, and a method using the foregoing apparatus to determine the maximum droplet frequency response of the printhead. When an ink drop jetted from the nozzle makes contact with the detecting plate, which is perpendicular to the nozzle plate of the printhead, a current flows through the detecting plate immediately, and is detected as a portion of an expected signal. As soon as the ink drop leaves the nozzle completely, the foregoing current no longer exists. However, the magnetic ring generates an induced current that flows in the same direction as that of the foregoing current to complement the absence thereof, wherein the induced current is also detected as another portion of the expected signal. The expected signal is then processed by a signal-processing routine for determining the maximum droplet frequency response of the inkjet printhead.

Method and apparatus for measuring the droplet frequency response of an ink jet printhead

A structure of ink slots on an ink-jet printhead chip. The structure includes a plurality of firing chambers and a plurality of ink reservoirs. Each of the firing chambers has a heater and is enclosed by a plurality of walls, so each of the firing chambers is isolated. The ink reservoirs are respectively connected to the firing chambers by ink slots and each of the ink reservoirs is also isolated. Additionally, distances of the ink slots are equal.

Structure of ink slot on ink-jet printhead chip

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Yi-Hsuan Lai