Power distribution for inkjet printheads

• US 6,938,989 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2001
• Issued: 09/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Zamtec Limited (Memjet Limited)
• Original Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited
• Inventors: Silverbrook, Kia
• Primary Examiner(s): Meier, Stephen D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIANG, LEONARD S
• Application Number:
  US09/835,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20030020784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,604 Days
• Field of Search: 347/50, 347/42, 347/13, 347/20, 347/40, 347/47, 347/12, 347/9, 347/5, 347/237, 347/238
• US Class Current: 347/50
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04505 aiming at correcting alignment
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04516 preventing formation of satellite drops
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04518 reducing costs
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0452 reducing demand in current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04528 aiming at warming up the head
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04541 Specific driving circuit
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04543 Block driving
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04553 detecting ambient temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04563 detecting head temperature; Ink temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04565 detecting heater resistance
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0457 Power supply level being detected or varied
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04571 detecting viscosity
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04585 controlling heads based on thermal bent actuators
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04588 using a specific waveform
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0459 Height of the driving signal being adjusted
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04591 Width of the driving signal being adjusted
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04593 Dot-size modulation by changing the size of the drop
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04596 Non-ejecting pulses
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04598 Pre-pulse
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/14427 Structure of ink jet print heads with thermal bend detached actuators
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1623 : bonding and adhesion
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1628 : dry etching
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1631 : photolithography
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1632 : machining
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1635 : dividing the wafer into individual chips
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1637 : molding
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1639 : sacrificial molding
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1642 : thin film formation by CVD [chemical vapor deposition]
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1646 : thin film formation by sputtering
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1648 : Production of print heads with thermal bend detached actuators
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 25/005 : for serial printing movements superimposed to character- or line-spacing movements

Abstract

An inkjet printhead having a series of nozzles for the ejection of ink wherein each said nozzle has a rim formed by the deposition of a rim material layer over a sacrificial layer and a subsequent planar removal of at least said rim material layer so as to form said nozzle rim.

Claims

1. An inkjet printhead assembly, including:

a longitudinally extending inkjet printhead, including a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart power supply points and a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart ground supply points;

at least one longitudinally extending power busbar;

at least one longitudinally extending ground busbar; and

at least one double-sided tape automated bonded (TAB) film configured to connect a plurality of said power supply points to said at least one power busbar and a plurality of said ground supply points to said at least one around busbar, said double-sided TAB film having

power and ground interconnect means on a first side of the TAB film, the power and ground interconnect means connecting said busbars and their corresponding power and ground supply points; and

control line interconnect means on the other side of the TAB film, the control line interconnect means being configured to provide the inkjet printhead with control data from a print controller, wherein

the TAB film is configured such that it need only be connected to said printhead along one edge thereof.

2. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein said busbars extend parallel to said inkjet printhead and said interconnect means extend generally transversely between the busbars and the respective power and ground supply points.

3. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein said TAB film electrically connects with said busbars by means of correspondingly sized noble metal deposited strips formed on said TAB film.

4. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein said interconnect means also includes a plurality of control lines configured to provide the inkjet printhead with control data from a print controller.

5. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 4, wherein the inkjet printhead is in the form of a plurality of printhead;

chips manufactured by a MEMS processing technique.

6. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, including an associated ink supply unit for delivering ink to ink supply passages formed in said printhead.

7. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 6, said ink supply unit including:

a slot for insertion of said printhead and a series of elongated chambers for the storage of separate color inks, said chambers being interconnected with said slot for the supply of ink to said printhead, wherein said busbars are disposed along said ink supply unit and the interconnect means take the form of a tape automated bonding (TAB) strip similarly disposed along an outside of said ink supply unit, the TAB strip including a series of control lines along one surface thereof for mating with a corresponding external series of control lines for receiving control signals from a print controller, said TAB strip further having a repeating series of interconnects to said inkjet printhead, said interconnects connecting said control lines and said busbars to said printhead.

8. An inkjet printhead assembly according to 7, wherein said ink supply unit includes a series of positioning protuberances for accurately locating the power supply busbars and/or interconnect means therewith.

9. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein said interconnect means is in the form of one or more printed circuit boards connected directly to said busbars, with wire bonds connecting the printed circuit boards to said printhead.

10. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein said inkjet printhead has a plurality of nozzle arrangements, each of which includes a thermal bend actuator device for ejection of ink from a corresponding nozzle.

11. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein each of said busbars comprises a mechanically stiff conductive rail.

12. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, wherein said interconnect means includes a flexible portion that connects with said inkjet printhead.

13. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1, comprising at least two of the power supply point, wherein the inkjet printhead comprises at least two printhead chips, the inkjet printhead assembly being configured such that each of the at least two power supply points is supplied with power from a different one of the pow supply points.