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:
Mar. 12, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 13, 2010
Satoru Imai, Nagano-ken, JP;
Satoru Imai, Nagano-ken, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A thermal printer for printing by applying heat energy to a recording medium uses a single logic circuit arrangement to enable operating in a plurality of print modes, and enables easily changing the control logic of each print mode to afford high quality printing. Heating elements apply heat energy to the recording medium. A heating element drive circuit is provided for each heating element to drive a particular heating element. A printing control unitsupplies predetermined drive signals to the heating element drive circuits based on pixel printing data input from an external source. The printing control unitcomprises a configuration registration unitfor storing predetermined value groups corresponding to the drive signal supply patterns so that the value groups can be changed. A logic circuit unitupdates the logic operation applied to the pixel printing data according to the value group stored in the configuration registration unit, and changes the drive signals to track the supply pattern.