JP5612819B2 - Nozzle substrate, droplet discharge head, and manufacturing method of droplet discharge apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a nozzle substrate on which nozzles are formed by microfabrication, a droplet discharge head that discharges droplets of ink or the like, and a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge device.

  For example, micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) that process silicon or the like to form minute elements or the like have made rapid progress. Examples of microfabricated elements formed by microfabrication technology include, for example, a droplet discharge head (inkjet head), a micropump, and an optical variable filter used in a recording (printing) apparatus such as a droplet discharge type printer. There are electrostatic actuators such as motors, pressure sensors and the like.

  Here, a droplet discharge head will be described as an example of a microfabricated element. A droplet discharge type recording (printing) apparatus is used for printing in various fields regardless of whether it is for home use or industrial use. The droplet discharge method is, for example, a method in which a droplet discharge head having a plurality of nozzles is moved relative to an object (paper, etc.), and droplets are discharged to a predetermined position of the object for printing or the like. It is. This system is a microarray of biomolecules such as color filters for producing display devices using liquid crystals, display panels (OLEDs) using electroluminescent devices such as organic compounds, DNA, proteins, etc. Etc. are also used in the manufacture of

  Here, the droplet discharge head is usually manufactured by laminating a plurality of processed substrates. Among these, for the nozzle substrate on which the nozzles are formed, the silicon substrate (silicon wafer) is mainly processed by anisotropic etching, and a plurality of nozzle substrates are manufactured (manufactured) in a batch, followed by dicing, etc. To divide each nozzle substrate. As an anisotropic etching method at the time of processing, there are dry etching (dry etching) and wet etching (wet etching). In general, a process is often employed in which dry etching is performed from one surface side to form a nozzle shape, and wet etching is performed from the other surface until etching is performed through the nozzle. Here, in order to improve discharge performance, the shape of the nozzle is often formed in two or more steps that are close to a tapered shape.

At this time, if the silicon wafer is cut or the like according to the desired thickness of the nozzle substrate, it is difficult to carry it during the manufacturing process. Therefore, there is a method of forming ribs (reinforcing portions) in portions other than the portion that becomes the nozzle substrate (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-300322

  However, when ribs are formed on the silicon substrate, the portion where the ribs are formed is not used as a nozzle substrate. Further, anisotropic wet etching is used to form ribs and make the nozzle substrate have a desired thickness. However, etching cannot be performed in accordance with the shape of the nozzle substrate due to the plane orientation remaining without being etched. Therefore, the number of nozzle substrates that can be manufactured from one silicon wafer (the number to be obtained) is reduced. Also, it is very difficult to control the nozzle substrate to a desired thickness by anisotropic wet etching.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to obtain a method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate that can be easily transported and can effectively control the thickness in order to solve such problems. Another object of the present invention is to obtain a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head or the like based on the nozzle substrate.

The method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate according to the present invention includes a step of thinning the peripheral portion of a silicon wafer, and processing the thinned portion to form at least nozzle holes, thereby forming a plurality of nozzle substrates. And a step of separating the plurality of nozzle substrates of the silicon wafer into individual pieces.
According to the present invention, since the plurality of nozzle substrates are produced in the thinned portion while leaving the peripheral portion of the silicon wafer, the area of the thinned portion can be increased, and the number of nozzle substrates taken can be reduced. Can do a lot.

In the method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate according to the present invention, a silicon wafer is ground and thinned.
According to the present invention, since the thickness is reduced by grinding, the thickness of the substrate can be controlled with higher accuracy than in wet etching. Thereby, a nozzle substrate with high performance in ejection can be manufactured.

Moreover, in the manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate which concerns on this invention, the edge width of a peripheral part shall be 2-3 mm.
According to the present invention, since the peripheral portion is left with an edge width of 2 to 3 mm, the substrate can be transported without using a support substrate when manufacturing the nozzle substrate. In addition, since a support substrate is not used, processing using a thermal oxidation method or the like can be performed on both surfaces.

Moreover, the manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate which concerns on this invention forms the cleaving groove | channel and / or a through-hole for dividing a several nozzle substrate into the same process as the process of forming the hole used as a nozzle.
According to the present invention, since the cleaving groove and / or the through hole is formed in the same process as the process of forming the hole to be the nozzle, it is easily separated into a plurality of nozzle substrates not only by cutting but also by cleaving. be able to.

In addition, the method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head according to the present invention includes a nozzle substrate manufactured by the above method, a channel for supplying liquid to the nozzles of the nozzle substrate, and a liquid added to a part of the channel. And a step of bonding a substrate provided with a pressing means for pressing.
According to the present invention, since the droplet discharge head is manufactured using the nozzle substrate manufactured by the above-described manufacturing method, the number of nozzle substrates can be increased and manufacturing can be performed efficiently.

In addition, a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge device according to the present invention is a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge device by applying the method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head described above.
According to the present invention, since the droplet discharge device is manufactured using the droplet discharge head manufactured by the above-described manufacturing method, the number of nozzle substrates can be increased and the manufacturing can be performed efficiently. .

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a droplet discharge head according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a face eject type liquid droplet ejection head as a representative of an electrostatic actuator. (For the sake of clarity, the components are shown in the following drawings including FIG. May be different from the actual relationship, and the upper side of the figure is the upper side and the lower side is the lower side). In FIG. 1, the electrode substrate 10 has a thickness of about 1 mm. In FIG. 1, the electrode substrate 10 is bonded to the lower surface of the cavity substrate 20 so as to face the diaphragm 22. In the present embodiment, a borosilicate heat-resistant hard glass is used as a material for the substrate constituting the electrode substrate 10. The electrode substrate 10 is provided with, for example, a groove portion 11 having a depth of about 0.25 μm in accordance with each discharge chamber 21 formed in the cavity substrate 20, and an individual electrode 12 </ b> A facing each discharge chamber 22 on the inner side (particularly the bottom portion). The lead portion 12B and the terminal portion 12C (hereinafter referred to as the electrode portion 12 when they are not particularly distinguished) are provided. In the present embodiment, ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) doped with indium with tin oxide as an impurity is used as the material of the electrode portion 12, and the bottom surface of the groove portion 11 is, for example, 0.1 μm by sputtering or the like. A film is formed with a thickness. The liquid supply port 13 serves as an intake port for supplying liquid such as ink from an external tank (not shown) to the droplet discharge head.

  The cavity substrate 20 is made of, for example, a silicon single crystal substrate whose surface has a (110) plane orientation (including this substrate, hereinafter, simply referred to as a silicon substrate). The cavity substrate 20 is formed with a recess serving as the discharge chamber 21 (the bottom wall serves as the vibration plate 22 serving as the driven portion) and a recess serving as the reservoir 23 for storing the liquid ejected in common to each nozzle. Yes. For example, an anisotropic wet etching method (hereinafter referred to as wet etching) is used to form the recess. The reservoir 23 temporarily stores the liquid supplied via the liquid supply port 13 and supplies the liquid to each discharge chamber 22. The common electrode terminal 24 provided on the cavity substrate 1 is for supplying the cavity substrate 20 with a charge opposite to the charge supplied to the electrode portion 12. In addition, an insulating film 25 is formed on the lower surface of the diaphragm 22 in order to insulate the individual electrode 12 </ b> A from the diaphragm 22.

  The nozzle substrate 30 is bonded to the cavity substrate 20 on the surface opposite to the electrode substrate 10 (upper surface in the case of FIG. 1). The nozzle substrate 30 of the present embodiment is assumed to have a plurality of nozzles 31 formed in two stages that communicate with the discharge chamber 21. A cylindrical nozzle having a smaller diameter (about 20 μm) on the liquid discharge side, which is opened so as to be circular on the outer surface (upper surface in the case of FIG. 1) of the nozzle substrate 30, is the first. Let it be nozzle 31A. In addition, a circle having a larger diameter (about 50 μm) on the liquid supply side, opened to be circular on the inner surface (the surface facing the cavity substrate 20, the lower surface in FIG. 1). The columnar nozzle is referred to as a second nozzle 31B. Here, it is assumed that the centers of the circles formed by the first nozzle 31A and the second nozzle 31B are the same (concentric circles). In addition, a narrow groove serving as an orifice 32 is provided on the inner surface, and the discharge chamber 21 and the reservoir 23 are communicated with each other to serve as a communication groove for supplying the liquid stored in the reservoir 23 to the discharge chamber 21. Although not particularly shown here, for example, a diaphragm for buffering the force propagating to the liquid stored in the reservoir 23 by pressurizing the diaphragm 22 may be provided. In FIG. 1, the nozzle substrate 30 is the upper surface and the electrode substrate 20 is the lower surface. However, when actually used, the nozzle substrate 30 is usually lower than the electrode substrate 20.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the droplet discharge head. The terminal portion 12 </ b> C is exposed to the outside at the electrode outlet 26. The oscillation circuit 41 is electrically connected to the terminal portion 12C and the common electrode terminal 24 directly or via a wire 42 such as a wire or FPC (Flexible Print Circuit), and the individual electrode 12A, the cavity substrate 20 (the diaphragm 22). ) Is a circuit for controlling supply and stop of electric charge (electric power). The oscillation circuit 41 oscillates to supply charges by applying, for example, a pulse voltage to the individual electrode 12A. The oscillation circuit 41 oscillates and drives the individual electrodes 12A selectively to charge them positively or negatively, and to charge the diaphragm 22 relatively negative in negative phase. At this time, the diaphragm 22 is attracted to the individual electrode 12A by the electrostatic force and bent. This increases the volume of the discharge chamber 21. When the charge supply is stopped, the diaphragm 22 returns to its original state, but at that time, the volume of the discharge chamber 21 also returns to its original state, and droplets are discharged by the pressure. For example, printing is performed by the droplets landing on an ejection target. In order to prevent the space (gap) between the individual electrode 12A and the diaphragm 22 from communicating with the outside air by exposing the terminal portion 12C to the outside, the sealing material 27 is used to seal and block the outside air. Yes.

  In this embodiment, with respect to the silicon substrate (silicon wafer) when the nozzle substrate 30 is manufactured, the inner peripheral portion (inner peripheral portion) of the peripheral edge is ground by a grinder (grinding machine) while leaving the peripheral edge portion of the silicon substrate. I do. A plurality of nozzle substrates 30 are manufactured and separated from the thinned portion by grinding. By leaving only the peripheral portion of the silicon substrate, the number of silicon substrates can be increased. Further, it can be thinned by grinding with a grinder or the like, and it becomes easy for a robot or the like to handle (carry), for example, without supporting the silicon substrate by a support substrate or the like.

  3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating a method for manufacturing the nozzle substrate 30 according to the first embodiment. Next, based on FIG.3 and FIG.4, the procedure of the manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate 30 in this invention is demonstrated. As described above, a plurality of droplet discharge head nozzle substrates 30 are simultaneously formed from a silicon substrate. In FIG. 3 and FIG. It is assumed that only a part centered on the part is shown. Here, the following description will be made with specific numerical values, but these numerical values represent an example and are not limited to these values.

  First, in this embodiment, it is assumed that a silicon substrate 51 having a size of 8 inches is used, and one surface of the flat silicon substrate 51 is mirror-polished (FIG. 3A). Here, the mirror polishing is performed on a surface that is not ground by a grinder for thinning. Then, the other surface of the silicon substrate 51 is ground by the grinder leaving the peripheral portion (FIG. 3B). Here, the edge width of the peripheral portion is not particularly limited. However, in order to increase the number of nozzle substrates 30 as much as possible and to enable handling effectively, in this embodiment, an edge width of about 2 to 3 mm is left.

  When the grinding by the grinder is completed, a silicon oxide film 52 that becomes a film (resist, mask) for protecting the silicon substrate 51 is formed to about 1.2 μm, for example, when etching is performed (FIG. 3C). The film forming method is not particularly limited, but here, for example, a method by thermal oxidation in which the silicon substrate 51 is exposed to an oxygen and water vapor atmosphere at a high temperature (about 1075 ° C.) is used.

  Then, in order to perform patterning by selectively etching the silicon oxide film 52, a photolithography method is used, and a photosensitive agent that becomes a resist film (photoresist) 53 is sprayed and applied by, for example, a spray coating method. Then, by exposure and development, the resist film in the portion that becomes the second nozzle 31B and the portion that becomes the orifice 32 is removed, and patterning is performed (FIG. 3D). Further, by using an anisotropic dry etching (hereinafter referred to as dry etching) method, the silicon oxide film 52 is removed from the portion to be the second nozzle 31B and the portion to be the orifice 32 to expose the silicon (FIG. 3E). ).

  Then, again, a photosensitive agent is applied and a resist film 54 is applied. Then, by exposure and development, the resist film in the portion that becomes the first nozzle 31A is removed, and patterning is performed to expose silicon (FIG. 4F).

Next, dry etching is performed to form, for example, a recess (hole) having a diameter of about 20 μm and a depth of about 50 μm in the first nozzle 31A (FIG. 4G). The type of dry etching or the like is not particularly limited. For example, dry etching by ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) discharge may be performed. In this case, for example, the side wall surface is protected with fluorine-based C ₄ F ₈ (octafluorocyclobutane), and dry etching is performed by a Bosch process in which etching in the depth direction is alternately repeated with SF ₆ (sulfur hexafluoride). Etching can be performed. When the dry etching is finished, the resist film 54 is removed.

  Then, dry etching is further performed to form a recess (hole) having a diameter of about 50 μm and a depth of 50 μm with respect to the second nozzle 31B (FIG. 4H). At this time, the silicon oxide film 52 functions as a mask. The first nozzle 31A is etched to a deeper portion. Then, the etching is stopped by the silicon oxide film 52 on the surface opposite to the surface where dry etching is performed. Although not shown in FIG. 4, the orifice 32 is simultaneously formed by dry etching. Again, the type of dry etching is not particularly limited. When dry etching is completed, the silicon oxide film 52 formed as a mask is removed by wet etching (FIG. 4I). The nozzle 31 penetrates by wet etching. Here, wet etching is performed, for example, by immersing in a hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution, a buffered hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution (BHF: for example, a liquid in which a hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution and an ammonium fluoride aqueous solution are mixed 1: 6), or the like. Thereafter, for example, an ink-resistant protective film or the like may be formed by performing water repellent treatment, primer treatment, or the like. Then, by cutting (dicing) using a diamond blade or the like, the silicon substrate 51 is divided into each nozzle substrate 30 to form individual pieces (chips), and the nozzle substrate 30 is manufactured (FIG. 4J). .

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the silicon substrate 51 and the number of pieces taken. In FIG. 5, 102 nozzle substrates 30 can be manufactured from one silicon substrate 51. As shown in FIG. 5, since only the peripheral portion is left, it is possible to increase the number.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a manufacturing process of the droplet discharge head. Based on FIG. 6, the manufacturing process of the droplet discharge head including the production of another substrate will be described. Actually, a plurality of droplet discharge head members are simultaneously formed from the silicon substrate, but only a part of them is shown in FIG.

  A groove 11 having a depth of 0.2 μm is formed in accordance with the shape pattern of the electrode portion 12 on one surface of a glass substrate of about 1 mm to be the electrode substrate 10. Then, using a method such as sputtering, ITO having a thickness of 0.1 μm is formed on the inner side (particularly the bottom wall) of the groove 11 to form the electrode 12. Further, the liquid supply port 13 is formed by a sandblasting method or a cutting process. Thereby, the glass substrate 10 is produced (FIG. 6A).

For the substrate to be the cavity substrate 20, first, for example, one surface of the silicon substrate 61 having a low oxygen concentration with a (110) plane orientation is mirror-polished to a thickness of 220 μm. Next, the surface on which the boron-doped layer 62 is formed on the silicon substrate 61 is set on a quartz boat so as to face a solid diffusion source mainly composed of B ₂ O ₃ . Further, a quartz boat is set in a vertical furnace, and the inside of the furnace is made into a nitrogen atmosphere. For example, the temperature is raised to 1050 ° C. and held for 7 hours to diffuse boron into the silicon substrate 61 to form a boron doped layer 62. . At this time, a boron compound is formed on the surface of the boron dope layer 62 (not shown), but etching with a hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution is possible by oxidizing for 1 hour 30 minutes in an oxygen and water vapor atmosphere at 600 ° C. It is chemically changed to B ₂ O ₃ + SiO ₂ and removed by wet etching with a hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution. Further, the insulating film 25 is formed on the surface on which the boron doped layer 62 is formed by the plasma CVD method (FIG. 6B). The insulating film 25 is formed by a plasma CVD method, for example, at a film forming temperature of 360 ° C., a high frequency output of 250 W, a pressure of 66.7 Pa (0.5 Torr), and a gas flow rate of TEOS (Tetraethyl orthosilicate Tetraethoxysilane). A film having a thickness of 0.1 μm is formed under the conditions of an ethyl silicate flow rate of 100 cm ³ / min (100 sccm) and an oxygen flow rate of 1000 cm ³ / min (1000 sccm).

  Next, after heating the silicon substrate 61 and the electrode substrate 10 to 360 ° C., a negative electrode is connected to the electrode substrate 10 and a positive electrode is connected to the silicon substrate 71, and an anodic bonding is performed by applying a voltage of 800V. Then, in the bonded substrate after anodic bonding, the surface of the silicon substrate 61 is ground until the thickness of the silicon substrate 61 becomes about 60 μm. Thereafter, in order to remove the work-affected layer, the silicon substrate 61 is wet-etched by about 10 μm with a potassium hydroxide solution having a concentration of 32 w%, for example. As a result, the thickness of the silicon substrate 61 is reduced to about 50 μm (FIG. 6C).

For example, a silicon oxide film 63 serving as an etching mask is formed on the wet etched surface by a plasma CVD method using TEOS. The deposition conditions of the silicon oxide film 63 include, for example, a processing temperature of 360 ° C., a high-frequency output of 700 W, a pressure of 33.3 Pa (0.25 Torr), and a gas flow rate of TEOS flow rate 100 cm ³ / min (100 sccm). ), And a film thickness of 1.5 μm is formed under the condition of an oxygen flow rate of 1000 cm ³ / min (1000 sccm). Film formation using TEOS can be performed at a relatively low temperature, and heating of the substrate can be suppressed as much as possible. Further, using the photolithography method, the portions that become the discharge chamber 21, the reservoir 23, and the electrode outlet 26 in the silicon oxide film 63 are removed by etching (FIG. 6D). Here, for example, silicon is exposed in portions that become the discharge chamber 21 and the electrode outlet 26, and the silicon oxide film 63 is left in the reservoir 23 by half etching. This is because the portion that becomes the reservoir 23 is made rigid by leaving silicon.

  Next, the bonded substrate is immersed in a 35 wt% potassium hydroxide aqueous solution, and wet etching is performed until the thickness of the portion that becomes the discharge chamber 21 becomes about 10 μm. Further, the bonded substrate is immersed in a 3 wt% potassium hydroxide aqueous solution, and etching is continued until it is determined that the etching stop is sufficiently effective in the boron doped layer 62. As described above, by performing wet etching using the two types of potassium hydroxide aqueous solutions having different concentrations, it is possible to suppress the surface roughness of the diaphragm 22 to be formed to have a desired thickness. As a result, the discharge performance of the droplet discharge head can be stabilized (FIG. 6E). When the wet etching is completed, the bonded substrate is immersed in a hydrofluoric acid aqueous solution, for example, and the silicon oxide film 63 on the surface of the silicon substrate 61 is removed (FIG. 6F).

  A portion of silicon (boron doped layer 62) that becomes the electrode outlet 26 of the silicon substrate 61 is removed and opened. The removal method is not particularly limited. For example, it can be broken by a pin or the like. Moreover, it can also open by performing dry etching. Thereafter, sealing is performed by pouring, for example, epoxy resin or depositing silicon oxide along the opening of the gap formed between the cavity substrate 20 and each recess 11 at the end of the electrode outlet 26. A stopper 27 is formed and sealed, and the gap is shielded from the outside air (FIG. 6G). Here, although not particularly illustrated, for example, a silicon oxide film for protecting the liquid may be formed on the upper surface of the cavity substrate 20 by plasma CVD using TEOS, for example.

  When the sealing is completed, for example, a mask having an opening at a portion to be the common electrode terminal 24 is attached to the surface of the bonding substrate on the silicon substrate 61 side. Then, for example, sputtering is performed using platinum (Pt) as a target to form the common electrode terminal 24. Then, the above-described nozzle substrate 30 produced in a separate process is bonded and bonded from the cavity substrate 20 side of the bonding substrate, for example, with an epoxy adhesive (FIG. 6H). Then, dicing is performed along the dicing line, and cutting into individual droplet discharge heads is completed.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, the silicon substrate 51 (silicon wafer) is thinned while leaving the peripheral portion, and the plurality of nozzle substrates 30 are formed in the thinned portion. The area of the thinned portion can be increased, and the number of nozzle substrates 30 can be increased. At this time, since the sheet is thinned by grinding, the thickness of the substrate can be controlled with higher precision than wet etching.

  Furthermore, since the peripheral portion is left with an edge width of 2 to 3 mm, it is possible to carry the substrate without using a support substrate during manufacturing. In addition, since it is not necessary to use a support substrate, it is possible to perform a process such as thermal oxidation on both surfaces of the substrate, so that not only the droplet discharge surface but also the inner wall of the nozzle 31 reaches the liquid protective film continuously. The silicon oxide film to be formed can be formed.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a boundary portion of each nozzle substrate 30 of the silicon substrate according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the first embodiment described above, each nozzle substrate 30 is separated by cutting. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the through hole 71 and the cleaving groove 72 are formed at the boundary portion of the nozzle substrate 30 so that the cleaving can be performed. Therefore, the plurality of nozzle substrates 30 of the silicon substrate 51 are cleaved and separated, and it becomes easy to separate them.

  Here, if the through hole 71 is formed in the same manner as the first nozzle 31A and the cleaving groove 72 is formed in the same manner as the second nozzle 31B, the through hole 71 can be efficiently penetrated to form the cleaving groove 72. It can be performed.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
The droplet discharge head in the above-described embodiment is configured by laminating three substrates of the electrode substrate 10, the cavity substrate 20, and the nozzle substrate 30, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in order to increase the volume of the reservoir 23, the present invention can also be applied to a droplet discharge head having a configuration in which a recess serving as the reservoir 23 is formed on an independent substrate and four substrates are stacked.

  In the above-described embodiment, the liquid droplet discharge head that pressurizes the liquid by displacing the vibration plate 22 by the electrostatic force generated between the vibration plate 22 and the individual electrode 12 and discharges the liquid droplets from the nozzle 31 has been described. . The present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can also be applied to a droplet discharge head using another pressurization method such as generating gas or using a piezoelectric element.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
FIG. 8 is an external view of a droplet discharge apparatus using the droplet discharge head manufactured in the above embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of main constituent means of the droplet discharge device. 8 and 9 is intended for printing by a droplet discharge method (inkjet method). Further, it is a so-called serial type device. In FIG. 9, a drum 101 on which a printing paper 100 that is a substrate to be printed is supported, and a droplet discharge head 102 that discharges ink onto the printing paper 100 and performs recording are mainly configured. Although not shown, there is an ink supply means for supplying ink to the droplet discharge head 102. The print paper 110 is held by being pressed against the drum 101 by a paper press roller 103 provided parallel to the axial direction of the drum 101. A feed screw 104 is provided parallel to the axial direction of the drum 101, and the droplet discharge head 102 is held. As the feed screw 104 rotates, the droplet discharge head 102 moves in the axial direction of the drum 101.

  On the other hand, the drum 101 is rotationally driven by a motor 106 via a belt 105 or the like. Further, the print control unit 107 drives the feed screw 104 and the motor 106 based on the print data and the control signal, and although not shown here, drives the oscillation drive circuit to vibrate the diaphragm 22, Printing is performed on the print paper 110 while controlling.

  Here, the liquid is ejected onto the print paper 110 as ink, but the liquid ejected from the droplet ejection head is not limited to ink. For example, in an application to be discharged onto a substrate to be a color filter, a liquid containing a pigment for a color filter, an application to be discharged to a display substrate such as an OLED, an application to be wired on a substrate, a liquid containing a compound to be a light emitting element In this case, for example, a liquid containing a conductive metal may be discharged from a droplet discharge head provided in each device. In addition, when the droplet discharge head is used as a dispenser and used for discharging onto a substrate that is a microarray of biomolecules, DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acids: deoxyribonucleic acid), other nucleic acids (for example, Ribo Nucleic Acid: ribonucleic acid, Peptide (Nucleic Acids: peptide nucleic acids, etc.) A liquid containing a probe such as a protein may be discharged. In addition, it can also be used for discharging dyes such as cloth.

2 is an exploded view of a droplet discharge head according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is sectional drawing of a droplet discharge head. FIG. 6 is a process diagram (part 1) illustrating the production of the nozzle substrate according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a process diagram (part 2) illustrating the production of the nozzle substrate according to the first embodiment. It is a figure showing the relationship between the silicon substrate 51 and the number of taking. It is a figure which shows the manufacturing process of a droplet discharge head. It is a figure showing the boundary part of each nozzle board | substrate 30 of a silicon substrate. It is an external view of a droplet discharge device using a droplet discharge head. It is a figure showing an example of the main structural means of a droplet discharge apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

  10 electrode substrate, 11 groove portion, 12 electrode portion, 12A individual electrode, 12B lead portion, 12C terminal portion, 13 liquid supply port, 20 cavity substrate, 21 discharge chamber, 22 diaphragm, 23 reservoir, 24 common electrode terminal, 25 insulation Membrane, 26 Electrode outlet, 27 Sealant, 30 Nozzle substrate, 31 Nozzle, 31A First nozzle, 31B Second nozzle, 32 Orifice, 41 Oscillator circuit, 42 Wiring, 51 Silicon substrate, 52 Silicon oxide film, 53, 54 resist film, 61 silicon substrate, 62 boron doped layer, 63 silicon oxide film, 71 through hole, 72 cleaving groove, 100 printer, 101 drum, 102 droplet discharge head, 103 paper pressure roller, 104 feed screw, 105 belt, 106 Motor, 107 Print control means, 110 print Paper.

Claims (5)

Removing a part of the silicon wafer by grinding leaving a peripheral edge of the silicon wafer, and forming a thin plate portion having a thickness of the silicon wafer thinner than before the removal; and
Forming a through-hole serving as a nozzle in the thin plate portion;
Forming a through part different from the through hole in a part of the thin plate part different from the through hole;
Cutting the silicon wafer along the penetrating part into individual pieces;
A method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate, comprising: Removing a part of the silicon wafer by grinding leaving a peripheral edge of the silicon wafer, and forming a thin plate portion having a thickness of the silicon wafer thinner than before the removal; and
Forming a through-hole serving as a nozzle in the thin plate portion;
Forming a groove in a portion different from the through hole of the thin plate portion;
Forming a through part different from the through hole in a part of the thin plate part different from the through hole;
Cutting the silicon wafer along the groove and the penetrating part into individual pieces;
A method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate, comprising: 3. The width of the silicon wafer other than the thin plate portion extends from an outermost peripheral end portion of the substrate toward a center portion of the substrate, and the width is 2 to 3 mm. The manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate as described in 2. A nozzle substrate manufactured by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
Droplet ejection comprising: a step of bonding a flow path for supplying a liquid to the through hole of the nozzle substrate and a substrate having a pressurizing means for pressurizing the liquid to a part of the flow path. Manufacturing method of the head. A method for manufacturing a droplet discharge device, wherein the method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head according to claim 4 is applied to manufacture a droplet discharge device.

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