Pagewidth printhead having small print zone

• US 7,384,131 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Memjet Technology Ltd. (Memjet Limited)
• Original Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited
• Inventors: Silverbrook, Kia
• Primary Examiner(s): Do; An H
• Application Number:
  US11/696,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20070176968A1
• Time in Patent Office: 433 Days
• Field of Search: 347/40, 347/42, 347/49, 347/54, 347/65
• US Class Current: 347/54
• 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 2/155 : for line printing
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1623 : bonding and adhesion
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1628 : dry etching
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1629 : wet 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 2/1639 : 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 2002/14491 : Electrical connection
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 25/005 : for serial printing movements superimposed to character- or line-spacing movements

Abstract

A printer comprising a stationary printhead extending across a paper path is provided. The printhead has a plurality of color channels, each color channel comprising at least one nozzle row extending along the length of the printhead. Each nozzle in a color channel ejects the same colored ink. The printhead has a print zone of less than 10 mm, where the print zone is deifined as the distance covered by all nozzle rows of the printhead in a paper feed direction.

Claims

1. A printer comprising a stationary printhead extending across a paper path, said printhead comprising a plurality of color channels, each color channel comprising at least one nozzle row extending along the length of said printhead, each nozzle in a color channel ejecting the same colored ink, wherein said printhead has a print zone of less than 10 mm, said print zone being defined as the distance spanned by all nozzle rows of the printhead in a paper feed direction.

2. The printer of claim 1, wherein the print zone is less than 5 mm.

3. The printer of claim 1, wherein the print zone is less than 2 mm.

4. The printer of claim 1, wherein the print zone is less than 1 mm.

5. The printer of claim 1 comprising a plurality of printhead chips, which together define said printhead.

6. The printer of claim 5, wherein each printhead chip has a chip area of less than 1 cm².

7. The printer of claim 1 comprising:

a controller for selecting firing nozzles from each color channel of said printhead;

wherein, for one line of printing, all selected firing nozzles of said printhead are fired within about 200 microseconds.

8. The printer of claim 7, wherein said controller selects said firing nozzles by loading a shift register associated with each nozzle.

9. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printhead is a 4″

photo printhead.

10. The printer of claim 9, wherein the photo printhead is configured to print a 4″

×

6″

photo in about 2 seconds.

11. The printer of claim 1, wherein said printhead extends across the width of an A4 page.

12. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printhead comprises at least 19,200 nozzles.

13. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printhead prints with a resolution of 1600 dpi.

14. The printer of claim 1, wherein each color channel comprises a pair of nozzle rows.

15. The printer of claim 14, wherein one nozzle row in the pair is offset from the other nozzle row in the pair.