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:
Nov. 19, 2013
Filed:
Feb. 17, 2012
Toshihiro Hayashi, Matsumoto, JP;
Toshihiro Hayashi, Matsumoto, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A plurality of transmission gates provided in mask circuits each having another transmission gate which connects/disconnects an original signal generating circuit to/from a corresponding piezoelectric element (electrode), and a plurality of voltage waveform detecting circuits respectively connected to the electrodes of the respective piezoelectric elements via the former transmission gates are provided exclusively for the respective piezoelectric elements. In detecting an ejection failure of each nozzle, the original signal generating circuit generates a test drive signal enough to prevent each nozzle from ejecting ink to switch all the latter transmission gates on for a certain time, and then switch them off, and switch all the former transmission gates on, so that an ejection failure of the corresponding nozzle is determined based on the vibration period of a voltage waveform detected by the voltage waveform detecting circuit for each piezoelectric element.