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:
Feb. 12, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1999
Yoshihide Kanakubo, Chiba, JP;
Yasuhiro Moya, Chiba, JP;
Tatsuya Kitta, Chiba, JP;
Kazutoshi Ishii, Chiba, JP;
Sumitaka Goto, Chiba, JP;
Seiko Instruments Inc., , JP;
Abstract
A thermal head driving integrated circuit may be used to perform an “n” color or “n” 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 “n”, for supplying delayed print data to the drive transistor, a print data storing unit for storing the print data of each of the “n” types, and a print data supplying unit for supplying print data stored in the print data storing unit to the “n” delay elements.