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:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
May. 10, 2000
Steven W. Steinfield, San Diego, CA (US);
Craig Andrew LeVier, Escondido, CA (US);
John Dangelewicz, San Diego, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is embodied in a system and method for locally controlling the thickness of a flexible nozzle member of a printhead portion of an inkjet printer. The printing system of the present invention includes a printhead assembly and an ink supply for printing ink on print media. The printhead assembly includes a printhead body, ink channels, a semiconductor wafer, a nozzle member and a barrier layer located between the wafer and nozzle member. The nozzle member has plural nozzles coupled to respective ink channels and is secured at a predefined location to the printhead body with a suitable adhesive layer. The flexible member has a mechanical feature defining local thickness variations of the flexible nozzle member. The mechanical feature can be defined in the flexible nozzle member as extending in a range in close proximity to the ink channel and the adhesive. The mechanical feature reduces the stiffness of the flexible nozzle member near the ink channel or near the adhesive for reducing the stress transmitted to an outside portion of the barrier layer. Thus, the present invention reduces trajectory errors of ejected ink droplets from the nozzles.