CN111890800B

CN111890800B - Ink box chip, ink box and ink-jet printer

Info

Publication number: CN111890800B
Application number: CN202010848133.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 文冠果; 廖健生
Original assignee: Print Rite Technology Development Co Ltd of Zhuhai
Current assignee: Print Rite Technology Development Co Ltd of Zhuhai
Priority date: 2020-06-01
Filing date: 2020-08-21
Publication date: 2021-11-16
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-21
Also published as: WO2021244048A1; CN111890800A

Abstract

The invention provides an ink box chip, an ink box and an ink-jet printer, wherein the ink box chip comprises a substrate, a memory and a plurality of connecting terminals are arranged on the substrate, the plurality of connecting terminals comprise a plurality of first terminals electrically connected with the memory, and the plurality of connecting terminals also comprise at least one detection terminal and at least one high-voltage terminal; wherein, be provided with the short circuit detection line between detection terminal and the high voltage terminal, still be provided with short circuit detection circuit on the base plate, short circuit detection circuit includes switching device, and the short circuit detection line is connected with switching device's control end, and switching device's both ends are connected to the high voltage terminal respectively and predetermine the level, predetermine the operating voltage that the voltage of level is less than the high voltage terminal. The side wall of the box body of the ink box is provided with the ink box chip, and the ink box can be installed on the ink-jet printer. The invention can reduce the level of the high-voltage terminal in a very short time after short circuit occurs, thereby avoiding damage to the memory.

Description

Ink box chip, ink box and ink-jet printer

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of printing consumables, in particular to an ink box chip, an ink box with the ink box chip and an ink-jet printer.

Background

The electronic imaging equipment is taken as common office equipment, great convenience is provided for modern office, the common electronic imaging equipment comprises a printer, a copying machine and the like, the existing printer is divided into an ink-jet printer and a laser printer, and the ink-jet printer uses an ink box containing ink as an ink box to jet the ink to paper so as to form characters or patterns to be printed on the paper; the laser printer uses a toner cartridge containing toner as an ink cartridge to form characters or patterns to be printed on a medium.

Referring to fig. 1, a conventional color inkjet printer has a cabinet 11, and the inkjet printer shown in fig. 1 omits a tray of the cabinet 11. The casing 11 is provided with a movement 12 of the ink jet printer and with a slide along which a carriage 14 is driven by a motor (not visible in fig. 1). An adapter plate (not visible in fig. 1) is provided in the carriage 14, and communicates with the movement 12 via the flat cable 13.

A plurality of ink cartridges 15 are detachably mounted on the carriage 14, and different ink cartridges 15 contain different color inks. The structure of the ink cartridge 15 is shown in fig. 2. The ink cartridge 15 has a cartridge body 16, the cartridge body 16 encloses a cavity for accommodating ink, an ink outlet 17 is provided at a lower end of the cavity, and the ink in the cavity flows out through the ink outlet 17 and supplies ink to an ink supply needle of the printing carriage 14.

A chip 18 is mounted on the outer wall of the casing 16 of the cartridge 15, the chip 18 having a substrate with a plurality of connection terminals 19 on one side for electrical connection with the adapter plate. The other side of the substrate is provided with a memory (not visible in fig. 2), which is usually a non-volatile memory, such as an EEPROM or a FLASH, and stores information related to the ink cartridge, including variable information and invariable information, where the variable information is information that is constantly changed with the printing operation, such as information about the remaining amount of ink, the printing duration, the number of printed sheets, and the invariable information is information that is not changed with the printing operation, such as the type of the ink cartridge, the type of an applicable inkjet printer, and the color of ink.

After the ink cartridge 15 is mounted to the carriage 14 of the ink jet printer, the ink jet printer powers up the chip 18 and reads the data stored in the memory of the chip 18 to determine whether the ink cartridge 15 is of the proper type, whether the amount of ink remaining in the ink cartridge 15 is sufficient, and the like. The ink jet printer can perform the printing operation only after the ink cartridge 15 is judged to be of a proper type and the ink cartridge 15 contains sufficient ink.

Referring to fig. 3, 9 connection terminals are provided on one surface of the substrate 20 of the chip 18, and a plurality of the connection terminals are arranged in two upper and lower rows, wherein a first row located above includes four connection terminals, respectively,

connection terminals

21, 22, 23, 24, and a second row located below includes five connection terminals, respectively,

connection terminals

25, 26, 27, 28, 29. These connection terminals are divided into three groups, the first group of connection terminals being the connection terminals electrically connected to the memory, usually located in the middle of each row of connection terminals, for example the

connection terminals

22, 23, 26, 27, 28 being the connection terminals for connection to the memory. The two

connection terminals

21, 24 at the two ends of the first row are detection terminals, and the two connection terminals at the two ends of the second row are

high voltage terminals

25, 29.

The

detection terminals

21, 24 may have a plurality of functions, the first function being to detect whether the ink cartridge 15 is mounted in place, and if the

detection terminals

21, 24 are electrically connected to the corresponding connection terminals on the ink jet printer side, it can be considered that the ink cartridge has been mounted in place. The second function is to identify the type of the ink cartridge, for example, the

detection terminals

21 and 24 may have different short-circuit connection modes with the

connection terminals

22 and 23, and the ink jet printer determines the type of the ink jet printer by detecting the levels of the

detection terminals

21 and 24, thereby determining whether the ink cartridge 15 is installed incorrectly.

The sensor is provided in the ink cartridge 15 to detect the remaining amount of ink, but a high voltage is applied to the sensor when the sensor is operated, and therefore, the

high voltage terminals

25 and 29 receive a high voltage direct current supplied from the ink jet printer and are applied to both ends of the sensor. However, if an ink droplet is dropped between the plurality of connection terminals, a short circuit occurs between the plurality of connection terminals, for example, the ink droplet is dropped between the

connection terminals

21, 25, and 26, and once the high voltage terminal 25 is applied with a high dc voltage, the voltage of the connection terminal 26 is high. If the connection terminal 26 is a connection terminal for passing power to the memory, also called a power supply terminal, since the operating voltage of the memory is usually about 3.3 volts, if the connection terminal 26 is applied with a higher voltage, the memory will burn out, and even the operation of the inkjet printer will be affected.

Therefore, a short-circuit detection circuit is arranged in the movement of the ink-jet printer, the voltage of the detection terminal 21 is detected to judge whether a short-circuit phenomenon occurs or not, for example, ink drops drop between the

connection terminals

21, 25 and 26, when the high-voltage terminal 25 is loaded with high direct-current voltage, the voltage of the detection terminal 21 is increased, and once the ink-jet printer detects that the voltage of the detection terminal 21 is overhigh, the high-voltage direct-current power is disconnected from being loaded to the high-voltage terminal 25, so that the damage to a memory caused by the high voltage of the connection terminal 26 is avoided.

However, since the short circuit detection circuit is disposed in the core of the inkjet printer, the inkjet printer can determine the level of the detection terminal 21 and then disconnect the power supply of the high voltage terminal 25 after the electrical signal of the detection terminal 21 needs to be transmitted to the inkjet printer. In general, it often takes several milliseconds from the detection of an excessively high level of the detection terminal 21 to the disconnection of the power supply to the high voltage terminal 25, possibly resulting in memory damage.

Disclosure of Invention

The first purpose of the invention is to provide an ink box chip which can detect whether a plurality of connecting terminals have a short circuit phenomenon or not and protect a memory in a very short time.

The second purpose of the invention is to provide an ink box applying the ink box chip.

A third object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer having the above ink cartridge.

In order to achieve the first object of the present invention, the ink cartridge chip provided by the present invention comprises a substrate, a memory and a plurality of connection terminals are disposed on the substrate, the plurality of connection terminals comprise a plurality of first terminals electrically connected to the memory, and the plurality of connection terminals further comprise at least one detection terminal and at least one high voltage terminal; wherein, be provided with the short circuit detection line between detection terminal and the high voltage terminal, still be provided with short circuit detection circuit on the base plate, short circuit detection circuit includes switching device, and the short circuit detection line is connected with switching device's control end, and switching device's both ends are connected to the high voltage terminal respectively and predetermine the level, predetermine the operating voltage that the voltage of level is less than the high voltage terminal.

It can be seen by above-mentioned scheme that sets up the short circuit detection line between detection terminal and high-voltage terminal, in case there is the ink droplet to drip between detection terminal and high-voltage terminal, then the short circuit detection line must take place the short circuit with detection terminal, high-voltage terminal, and like this, circuit detection circuit detects the short circuit between a plurality of connecting terminals immediately, and switching device switches on, and high-voltage terminal is connected to and predetermines the level to make the voltage of high-voltage terminal reduced, avoid causing the damage to the memory.

Preferably, a gap is formed between the short circuit detection line and the detection terminal, and a gap is formed between the short circuit detection line and the high voltage terminal.

Therefore, gaps are formed among the short-circuit detection line, the detection terminal and the high-voltage terminal, namely, ink drops do not drop in front of the substrate, the short-circuit detection line cannot be in short circuit with the detection terminal and the high-voltage terminal, and therefore the condition that the ink drops drop is detected.

Further, in at least one direction, the detection terminal overlaps with the short detection line, and the high voltage terminal overlaps with the short detection line.

It can be seen that, in different directions, the short-circuit detection line overlaps with the detection terminal and the high-voltage terminal, and regardless of the shape of the ink drop, the short-circuit detection line can ensure that the short-circuit detection line inevitably detects the occurrence of the short-circuit condition when the detection terminal and the high-voltage terminal are short-circuited, so that the accuracy of short-circuit detection is improved.

In a further aspect, the detection terminal includes a first detection terminal and a second detection terminal, the high voltage terminal includes a first high voltage terminal and a second high voltage terminal, the first detection terminal is adjacent to the first high voltage terminal, and the second detection terminal is adjacent to the second high voltage terminal; the short circuit detection line includes a first segment located between the first detection terminal and the first high voltage terminal, and further includes a second segment located between the second detection terminal and the second high voltage terminal.

Therefore, a section of short detection line is arranged between each two adjacent high-voltage terminals and the detection terminal, so that when ink drops are contacted with any detection terminal and any high-voltage terminal on the substrate, the short detection line can detect the occurrence of a short circuit condition, and the delay of short circuit detection is avoided.

Further, the number of the switching devices is two, the first high-voltage terminal is connected to the first switching device, and the second high-voltage terminal is connected to the second switching device.

Like this, each high voltage terminal all is connected to a switching device, and each switching device all switches on when short circuit detection line detects high voltage signal, and like this, in case the condition of short circuit appears, two switching devices all switch on, and the level signal of two high voltage terminals is all reduced to avoid the memory to damage.

Further, the plurality of first terminals includes a power supply terminal, and the switching device is connected to the power supply terminal.

It can be seen that, when the switching device is connected to the power supply terminal, since the voltage of the power supply terminal for supplying power to the memory is very low, usually only 3.3 v, and the power supply terminal is usually not applied with voltage when the high voltage terminal is applied with high voltage direct current voltage, i.e. the power supply terminal is 0 v, the voltage of the high voltage terminal can be reduced, and the memory can be prevented from being damaged.

In a further aspect, the switching device is a high-level conducting switching device. Thus, when a short circuit occurs, the voltage of the short detection line becomes high, and the switching device is turned on, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the short detection.

In order to achieve the second purpose, the ink box provided by the invention comprises a box body, wherein the box body encloses a containing cavity, and the outer wall of the box body is provided with the ink box chip.

To achieve the third objective, the present invention provides an ink jet printer including a housing, and the ink cartridge is mounted in the housing.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a structural view of a conventional ink jet printer.

Fig. 2 is a structural view of a conventional ink cartridge.

Fig. 3 is a structural view of a conventional ink cartridge chip.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an ink cartridge chip of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a plurality of connection terminals, short detection lines and short detection circuits of an embodiment of an ink cartridge chip of the invention.

FIG. 6 is an electrical schematic diagram of a short detection circuit in an embodiment of the cartridge chip of the present invention.

The invention is further explained with reference to the drawings and the embodiments.

Detailed Description

The ink cartridge of the present invention is an ink cartridge to be mounted on an ink jet printer, and the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

Ink cartridge chip example:

the ink cartridge chip of the present embodiment is an ink cartridge chip mounted on an ink cartridge for an ink jet printer, and has a substrate 40, and a plurality of connection terminals are provided on one surface of the substrate 40, and as shown in fig. 4 and 5, the plurality of connection terminals are arranged in two rows, wherein the first row located above includes four connection terminals, i.e.,

connection terminals

41, 42, 43, and 44, and the second row located below includes five connection terminals, i.e.,

connection terminals

45, 46, 47, 48, and 49. A memory 55 is provided on the other surface of the substrate 40, and the memory 55 is a nonvolatile memory such as an EFFROM or FLASH.

In the present embodiment, the plurality of connection terminals on the substrate 40 are divided into three groups, the first group of connection terminals are the

first connection terminals

42, 43, 46, 47, 48, the plurality of first connection terminals include the power supply terminal VCC, the clock signal terminal CLK, the data terminal DAT, the chip select terminal SC, the ground terminal GND, and the like, and the first connection terminals are electrically connected to the memory 55. As can be seen from fig. 5, these connection terminals are located at the middle of each row of connection terminals. Preferably, one of the five first terminals is a power supply terminal to which the ink jet printer applies a low voltage dc voltage to supply the power required for the operation of the memory 55, typically, the operating voltage of the power supply terminal is 3.3 volts.

The second group of connection terminals are two

connection terminals

41, 44 at both ends of the first row, the

connection terminals

41, 44 are detection terminals, and the third group of connection terminals are two

connection terminals

45, 49 at both ends of the second row, these two connection terminals being high voltage terminals.

In the ink cartridge, a device having a high operating voltage, for example, a sensor for detecting the remaining amount of ink, such as a crystal oscillator, is provided, and

high voltage terminals

45 and 49 are connected to both ends of the sensor, respectively. When the ink jet printer needs to detect the ink residual amount, a high direct current voltage is loaded to the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49 so that the crystal oscillator generates an oscillation signal. However, since the operation of detecting the remaining amount of ink is not performed in real time, and is usually performed before the start of one printing operation or after the completion of the printing operation, the high-

voltage terminals

45 and 49 are not applied with a high dc voltage in real time, but are applied with a high dc voltage at a specific timing. In general, the dc voltage applied to the

high voltage terminals

45, 49 by the ink jet printer is 25 volts or more, and if the

high voltage terminals

45, 49 are short-circuited to the first terminal, the memory 55 is damaged by the higher dc voltage.

In order to prevent the memory from being damaged by improper high-voltage direct current application when the high-voltage terminal and the first terminal are short-circuited, in the present embodiment, the short detection line 50 is provided on the substrate 40, and preferably, the short detection line 50 is formed on the substrate 40 by copper-clad, and is formed together with the plurality of connection terminals by copper-clad, for example, when a circuit board of a chip is manufactured. The short detection line 50 is not physically connected to the

detection terminals

41 and 44 and the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49, and as can be seen from fig. 4, the short detection line 50 has gaps between the

detection terminals

41 and 44 and the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49.

In the present embodiment, the detection terminal 41 is disposed adjacent to the high voltage terminal 45, and two terminals are respectively located at the leftmost ends of the first and second rows of terminals, while the detection terminal 44 is disposed adjacent to the high voltage terminal 49, and two terminals are respectively located at the rightmost ends of the first and second rows of terminals. Further, along the longitudinal direction of the substrate 40, i.e., the X direction in fig. 5, the detection terminal 41 and the high voltage terminal 45 partially overlap, and the detection terminal 44 and the high voltage terminal 49 also partially overlap. In the width direction of the substrate 40, i.e., the Y direction in fig. 5, the detection terminal 41 and the high voltage terminal 45 partially overlap each other, and the detection terminal 44 and the high voltage terminal 49 also partially overlap each other.

The short detection line 50 includes a first segment 51 and a second segment 52, and as shown in fig. 4, the first segment 51 is located between the detection terminal 41 and the high voltage terminal 45, and the second segment 52 is located between the detection terminal 44 and the high voltage terminal 49. The first and

second segments

51 and 52 are bent to avoid physical connection with the

detection terminals

41 and 44 and the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49.

The substrate 40 of the chip is provided with a short-circuit detection circuit 60, and preferably, the short-circuit detection circuit 60 is located on the other surface of the substrate 40 where the connection terminals are provided, for example, when the chip is mounted on the ink cartridge, the surface provided with the connection terminals faces outward, and the surface provided with the memory 55 and the short-circuit detection circuit 60 faces the cartridge body of the ink cartridge. In the present embodiment, the two

high voltage terminals

45, 49 and the short detection line 50 are connected to the short detection circuit 60.

Referring to fig. 6, two switching devices are disposed in the short circuit detection circuit 60, and in this embodiment, each switching device is a high-voltage fet, which is a fet T1 and a fet T2. Wherein fet T1 is connected to high voltage terminal 45 and fet T2 is connected to high voltage terminal 49. The gate of the fet T1 is the control terminal of the fet T1, which is connected to the short detection line 50, the drain is connected to the high voltage terminal 45, and the source is connected to a preset level, which may be 0 v in this embodiment. Of course, the source of the fet T1 may also be grounded.

Preferably, the source of the field effect transistor T1 is connected to a power supply terminal. Since the ink jet printer does not perform the read/write operation on the memory 55 when detecting the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge, when the ink jet printer applies a high dc voltage to the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49, a low voltage dc is not written to the power supply terminal, and the voltage of the power supply terminal is 0 at this time.

Similarly, the fet T2 has a gate connected to the short detection line 50, a drain connected to the high voltage terminal 49, and a source connected to a predetermined level, e.g., to a power supply terminal. Further, the short detection line 50 is also connected to the power supply terminal VDD through a resistor R1.

In normal operation, when there is no ink droplet on the substrate 40, the high voltage terminal 45 and the detection terminal 41 will not be short-circuited, and the short circuit connection line 50 and the high voltage terminal 45 will not be electrically connected, so that the short circuit connection line 50 is in a low level state, and at this time, the fet T1 and the fet T2 are not conductive. In addition, since the high voltage terminal 45 is not electrically connected to the first terminal, the memory 55 does not receive the high voltage dc voltage, and the memory 55 is not damaged.

When an ink droplet lands on the substrate 40 and causes a short circuit between the high voltage terminal 45 and the detection terminal 41, the short detection line 50 is located between the high voltage terminal 45 and the detection terminal 41, so that the short detection line 50 is also short-circuited with the high voltage terminal 45, and at this time, a high dc voltage is formed on the short detection line 50, so that the fets T1 and T2 are both turned on. Since the power supply terminal is not applied with voltage, the voltage of the power supply terminal is 0, and after the fet T1 is turned on, the high-voltage terminal 45 is connected to the power supply terminal, and at this time, the voltage of the high-voltage terminal 45 is pulled down instantaneously, thereby preventing the memory 55 from being damaged due to the application of an excessively high voltage to the memory 55.

Similarly, if a short circuit occurs between the high voltage terminal 49 and the detection terminal 44, the second segment 52 of the short detection line 50 will also be short-circuited with the high voltage terminal 49, so that the voltage of the short detection line 50 is a high level signal, the fet T2 is turned on, the high voltage terminal 49 is connected to the power supply terminal, and the voltage of the high voltage terminal 45 is momentarily pulled low due to the low voltage of the power supply terminal to prevent the memory 55 from being damaged.

Even if the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49 are applied with a higher voltage after the ink droplets on the substrate 40 are removed, the short detection line 50 will not form a high level signal, and the fets T1 and T2 will not be turned on, and at this time, the high voltage signals formed at the

high voltage terminals

45 and 49 will not damage the memory 55.

Since the short-circuit detection circuit 60 is provided on the substrate 40, when the short-circuit between the high-

voltage terminals

45 and 49 and the short-circuit detection line 50 occurs, the voltages of the high-

voltage terminals

45 and 49 are instantaneously pulled down, and the memory 55 can be protected in a shorter time than when the level signals of the

detection terminals

41 and 44 are detected by the ink-jet printer to determine whether the short-circuit occurs and to cut off the power supply to the high-

voltage terminals

45 and 49. Through experiments, by applying the scheme of the invention, the level signal of the high-voltage terminal 45 is pulled down from the short circuit of the high-voltage terminal 45 and the short circuit detection line 50, the required time is only 10 microseconds, which is far shorter than the time from the short circuit of the high-voltage terminal 45 and the detection terminal 41 to the disconnection of the power supply to the high-voltage terminal 45 in the prior art, and the damage of the memory 55 can be effectively avoided just by shortening the protection time of the memory 55.

In addition, since the short detection circuit 60 uses very few electronic components, the cost is low, and the production cost added by the ink cartridge chip is not high.

Ink cartridge example:

the embodiment has a casing, and the casing encloses into a cavity that holds the ink, is equipped with the ink outlet with the cavity intercommunication in the below of cavity, and the ink accessible in the cavity flows out through the ink outlet. And, a cartridge chip according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention is detachably mounted on one outer wall of the case.

Inkjet printer example:

the ink jet printer of this embodiment is provided with a body in which a housing chamber for housing the ink cartridge is formed.

Finally, it should be emphasized that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and the switching device used is not necessarily a field effect transistor, and a triode may be used instead of the field effect transistor, or the position of the detection terminal and the high voltage terminal on the substrate may be changed, and these changes should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An ink cartridge chip comprising:

the circuit board comprises a substrate, a memory and a plurality of connecting terminals, wherein the substrate is provided with the memory and the connecting terminals comprise a plurality of first terminals electrically connected with the memory, and the connecting terminals also comprise at least one detection terminal and at least one high-voltage terminal;

the method is characterized in that:

a short-circuit detection line is arranged between the detection terminal and the high-voltage terminal, a short-circuit detection circuit is further arranged on the substrate, the short-circuit detection circuit comprises a switching device, the short-circuit detection line is connected with a control end of the switching device, one end of the switching device is directly connected to the high-voltage terminal, the other end of the switching device is connected to a preset level, the voltage of the preset level is lower than the working voltage of the high-voltage terminal, and the switching device is a switching device which is switched on at a high level;

when a short circuit occurs between the short circuit detection line and the high voltage terminal, the switching device is turned on and the voltage of the high voltage terminal is reduced to the preset level.

2. The cartridge chip of claim 1 wherein:

a gap is arranged between the short circuit detection line and the detection terminal, and a gap is arranged between the short circuit detection line and the high voltage terminal.

3. The cartridge chip of claim 2 wherein:

in at least one direction, the detection terminal overlaps with the short detection line, and the high voltage terminal overlaps with the short detection line.

4. The cartridge chip according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein:

the detection terminals comprise a first detection terminal and a second detection terminal, the high-voltage terminals comprise a first high-voltage terminal and a second high-voltage terminal, the first detection terminal is adjacent to the first high-voltage terminal, and the second detection terminal is adjacent to the second high-voltage terminal;

the short detection line includes a first section between the first detection terminal and the first high voltage terminal, and further includes a second section between the second detection terminal and the second high voltage terminal.

5. The cartridge chip of claim 4 wherein:

the number of the switching devices is two, the first high-voltage terminal is connected to the first switching device, and the second high-voltage terminal is connected to the second switching device.

6. The cartridge chip according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein:

a plurality of said first terminals include a power supply terminal, said switching device being connected to said power supply terminal.

7. An ink cartridge, comprising:

the box body is enclosed into an accommodating cavity;

the method is characterized in that:

the ink cartridge chip as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 is provided on an outer wall of the cartridge body.

8. An ink jet printer comprising a body, wherein the ink cartridge according to claim 7 is mounted in the body.