Thermal printer
First Claim
1. A thermal printer comprising a plurality of heating arrays for printing, the heating arrays having a plurality of dot printing elements and being split up into a plurality of blocks and arranged in a line, a plurality of driver units each for driving a respective block of the heating arrays separately from the other blocks, and a logic circuit for controlling the driver units, wherein:
- the logic circuit comprises block specifying means for specifying one or more of the driver units to be operated according to externally supplied block selection data, the specified driver units being operated simultaneously in response to a single externally supplied strobe signal to drive the corresponding one or more specified blocks of the heating arrays and wherein each of the driver units comprises a shift register and a latch register for storing print data designating dot printing elements of the heating arrays to be energized during a current print operation and historic data designating dot printing elements which are to be energized during the current print operation and which were not energized during an immediately preceding print operation.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Dynamic division drive of a thermal printer is simplified to reduce the number of signal lines, and history control drive is made efficient to shorten time necessary for data transfer. The thermal size printer comprises a plurality of heating arrays for printing split up into blocks and arranged in a line, a plurality of driver units for driving a block of the heating arrays separately from other blocks, and a logic circuit for controlling the driver units. The logic circuit comprises a block specifying means for specifying one driver unit or two or more driver units to be operated according to block selection data BDAT inputted from the external. Only the specified driver units are all at once operated according to a single strobe signal DST inputted from the external. Further, the logic circuit comprises a data operation means for internally originating history data based on print data HDAT inputted from the external. Further, the logic circuit comprises a transfer control means for transferring the history data and the print data HDAT efficiently to each of the driver units to carry out history control drive of each of the heating arrays.
80 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A thermal printer comprising a plurality of heating arrays for printing, the heating arrays having a plurality of dot printing elements and being split up into a plurality of blocks and arranged in a line, a plurality of driver units each for driving a respective block of the heating arrays separately from the other blocks, and a logic circuit for controlling the driver units, wherein:
the logic circuit comprises block specifying means for specifying one or more of the driver units to be operated according to externally supplied block selection data, the specified driver units being operated simultaneously in response to a single externally supplied strobe signal to drive the corresponding one or more specified blocks of the heating arrays and wherein each of the driver units comprises a shift register and a latch register for storing print data designating dot printing elements of the heating arrays to be energized during a current print operation and historic data designating dot printing elements which are to be energized during the current print operation and which were not energized during an immediately preceding print operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 7)
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4. A thermal printer comprising:
- a heating array having a plurality of dot printing elements capable of being selectively energized being arranged therein;
a driver unit for driving the heating array based on print data designating dot printing elements to be energized; and
a logic circuit for logically processing print data received from an external source for a current print operation and print data for an immediately preceding print operation to internally determine historic data designating dot printing elements which were not energized during the immediately preceding print operation and which are to be energized during the current print operation so that the driver unit preliminarily energizes dot printing elements specified based on the historic data and regularly energizes dot printing elements specified based on the print data for the current print operation. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
- a heating array having a plurality of dot printing elements capable of being selectively energized being arranged therein;
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8. A printer comprising:
- a print head having a plurality of printing elements and being split up into a plurality of separately activatable blocks each block having plural printing elements;
a plurality of driver units each for driving a respective block of the print head separately from the other blocks; and
block specifying means for specifying one or more of the driver units to be operated according to externally supplied block selection data, the specified driver units being operated simultaneously in response to a single externally supplied strobe signal to drive the corresponding one or more specified blocks of the print head;
wherein each of the driver units comprises a shift register and a latch register for storing print data designating printing elements of the corresponding block of the print head to be energized during a current print operation and historic data designating printing elements of the corresponding block of the print head which are to be energized during the current print operation and which were not energized during an immediately preceding print operation. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
- a print head having a plurality of printing elements and being split up into a plurality of separately activatable blocks each block having plural printing elements;
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13. A printer comprising:
- a print head having a plurality of printing elements capable of being selectively and separately energized;
a driver unit for driving the print head based on print data designating printing elements to be energized; and
a logic circuit for logically processing print data received from an external source for a current print operation and print data for an immediately preceding print operation to internally determine historic data designating printing elements which were not energized during the immediately preceding print operation and which are to be energized during the current print operation so that the driver unit preliminarily energizes dot printing elements specified based on the historic data and regularly energizes dot printing elements specified based on the print data for the current print operation. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
- a print head having a plurality of printing elements capable of being selectively and separately energized;
Specification