The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 16, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 28, 1997
Neal W Meyer, Corvallis, OR (US);
Donald L Michael, Monmouth, OR (US);
Lee Van Nice, Corvallis, OR (US);
Gerald E Heppell, Tigard, OR (US);
Kit Baughman, Escondido, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A high-durability printhead for an ink cartridge printing system includes a substrate having ink ejectors (e.g. resistors) thereon and an orifice plate positioned above the substrate. The orifice plate (which preferably involves a non-metallic polymer film) has a top surface, bottom surface and a plurality of openings therethrough. To improve the durability of the orifice plate, a protective coating is applied to the top surface and/or the bottom surface of the plate. Representative coatings involve dielectric compositions (including diamond-like carbon) or at least one layer of metal. This approach improves the abrasion and deformation resistance of the plate and avoids 'dimpling' problems. Likewise, an intermediate barrier layer of diamond-like carbon is used between the orifice plate and the substrate. As result, an additional level of structural integrity is imparted to the orifice plate and printhead.