Reliable contact pad arrangement on plastic print cartridge
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A print cartridge comprising:
- a plastic print cartridge body which has been injection molded, said print cartridge body including a first side having a depressed valley along a middle portion of said first side running along a length of said first side due to said middle portion sinking during an injection molding process to form said print cartridge body; and
a flexible circuit secured on at least said first side of said print cartridge body,said flexible circuit having contact pads formed thereon for contacting corresponding electrodes in an ink printer, said flexible circuit having conductive traces terminating in said contact pads for connection to a printhead,said flexible circuit having a width larger than a width of said valley in said first side of said print cartridge body so as to extend to both sides of said valley and so that a middle portion of said flexible circuit running a length of said flexible circuit secured to said first side overlies said valley, none of said contact pads on said flexible circuit being formed in said middle portion of said flexible circuit where said flexible circuit overlies said valley.
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Abstract
The contact pads of a print cartridge are formed on a flexible tape. Each of the uniformly spaced contact pads is preferably a square separated from an adjacent square by a minimum distance to provide each contact pad with a maximum area. The contact pads are arranged on the flexible tape only along the side portions of the plastic print cartridge body, where body is generally flat, to avoid the pads being located in the sunken middle portion of the body, where the sinking occurs during the injection molding process used to form the body. This improves the reliability of the interconnection between the pads and the printer electrodes.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. A print cartridge comprising:
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a plastic print cartridge body which has been injection molded, said print cartridge body including a first side having a depressed valley along a middle portion of said first side running along a length of said first side due to said middle portion sinking during an injection molding process to form said print cartridge body; and a flexible circuit secured on at least said first side of said print cartridge body, said flexible circuit having contact pads formed thereon for contacting corresponding electrodes in an ink printer, said flexible circuit having conductive traces terminating in said contact pads for connection to a printhead, said flexible circuit having a width larger than a width of said valley in said first side of said print cartridge body so as to extend to both sides of said valley and so that a middle portion of said flexible circuit running a length of said flexible circuit secured to said first side overlies said valley, none of said contact pads on said flexible circuit being formed in said middle portion of said flexible circuit where said flexible circuit overlies said valley. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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Specification