EP0749834A2 - Tintenstrahldruckkopf mit integrierten Betätigungskomponenten - Google Patents

Tintenstrahldruckkopf mit integrierten Betätigungskomponenten Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0749834A2
EP0749834A2 EP96109564A EP96109564A EP0749834A2 EP 0749834 A2 EP0749834 A2 EP 0749834A2 EP 96109564 A EP96109564 A EP 96109564A EP 96109564 A EP96109564 A EP 96109564A EP 0749834 A2 EP0749834 A2 EP 0749834A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
ink
resistor
print head
mos transistor
tri
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP96109564A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0749834B1 (de
EP0749834A3 (de
Inventor
Alessandro Scardovi
Tazio Sandri
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Olivetti Tecnost SpA
Original Assignee
Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA filed Critical Olivetti Canon Industriale SpA
Publication of EP0749834A2 publication Critical patent/EP0749834A2/de
Publication of EP0749834A3 publication Critical patent/EP0749834A3/de
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0749834B1 publication Critical patent/EP0749834B1/de
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/04515—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits preventing overheating
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/0454—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits involving calculation of temperature
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/04541—Specific driving circuit
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/0458—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits controlling heads based on heating elements forming bubbles

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a printhead used in equipment for forming black and colour images on a printing medium, generally though not exclusively a sheet of paper, with the thermal ink jet technology and, more particularly to a printhead with integrated driving components.
  • a typical ink jet printer schematically comprises:
  • the printheads also comprise integrated resistor drive components on the same semiconductor substrate.
  • these electronic components are integrated MOS transistors, i.e. produced by the known semiconductor integrated-circuit technology techniques on the same silicon substrate, and selectively supply the energy for heating of the resistors. All the ejection resistors Ri are in turn connected to a voltage V power supply.
  • these integrated driving components TRi all with essentially the same geometrical and electrical characteristics, and the relative ejection resistors Ri associated with them, are laid out in a matrix of rows and columns, according to methods of operation known in the art, in order to reduce the number of connections and contacts between them and electronic controller 101 to a minimum.
  • the electronic controller 101 comprises row and column selection circuits for selectively sending commands to transistors TRi and Ti respectively.
  • Fig. 1 illustrates, as a non-exhaustive example, the electric circuit of a printhead with 64 nozzles, containing 64 ejection resistors Ri laid out in a matrix of 8 rows by 8 columns, corresponding to which there are 64 MOS drive transistors TRi divided into 8 groups; each of these groups is in turn connected to earth through a MOS transistor Ti, which may have different geometrical and electrical characteristics from those of transistors TRi.
  • Method of operation of head 100 is as follows: when the electronic controller 101 simultaneously activates, for example, the "rows 2 selection" command and the " columns 1 selection” command, transistors TR2 and T1 start to conduct. With these two transistors simultaneously conducting to earth, the current supplied by the voltage V power supply is enabled to flow through resistor R2; this current is converted into thermal energy by Joule effect in ejection resistor R2, causing the latter to heat very rapidly to a temperature in the region of 300 °C.
  • a first portion of this thermal energy is transferred to the surrounding ink in contact with resistor R2, vaporising it and thus causing the ejection of a drop of given volume through the nozzle connected to the cell housing resistor R2; a second portion of the thermal energy is lost by conduction through the common substrate (the silicon wafer) on which the ejection resistors are deposited, increasing the temperature Ts of the substrate, of the head as a whole and of the ink it contains, with respect to the ambient temperature.
  • the common substrate the silicon wafer
  • this rise in temperature may be confined to the surrounding region of some of the ejection resistors of the head only, due to the fact that the current printing job may require preferential activation of some nozzles only, and the diffusion of heat by conduction in the substrate is not sufficiently rapid to obtain a uniform distribution of temperature.
  • volume VOL of the droplets ejected increases in a way substantially proportional to the increase in energy E supplied to resistor Ri. Conversely, above the Eg value, volume VOL remains substantially unchanged for increases of the energy E supplied to resistor Ri.
  • volume VOL of the ejected droplet does not remain constant but instead increases with the rise in temperature Ts of the substrate, mainly due variations in viscosity of the ink; this phenomenon is related to the chemical and physical characteristics of the ink and can be minimised to at least within a certain temperature range, by appropriately defining the ink's composition.
  • Fig. 3 illustrates graphically by means of the dashed line 1 the experimental pattern of knee energy Eg in function of temperature variations (delta T).
  • It is another object of the present invention to define an ink jet printhead comprising a semiconductor substrate on which are integrated ejection resistors and MOS transistors for supplying energy to the resistors, characterized by the fact that automatic compensation of the energetic operating point of the ejection resistors on variations of temperature of the substrate is provided using the channel resistance of the conducting MOS transistors.
  • It is a further object of the present invention to define an ink jet printhead comprising a semiconductor substrate on which are integrated ejection resistors and MOS transistors for supplying energy to the resistors characterized by the fact that the Rc/R ratio of the conduction channel resistance Rc of the MOS transistors to the resistance R of the ejection resistors has an established value of between 0.10 and 0.25.
  • R is taken to indicate the resistance of ejection resistor Ri
  • Rc represents the channel resistance of MOS transistor TRi during conduction
  • V is the voltage powering the circuit illustrated in Fig. 1
  • t is the time during which MOS transistor TRi is maintained in conduction by electronic controller 101 in order to produce ejection of a droplet of ink by ejection resistor Ri
  • Et V 2 t/(R + Rc).
  • the known art counsels designing the MOS transistor TRi with a channel resistance Rc as low as possible (ideally 0): the merit of the present invention is that of having identified a way of taking advantage of the existence of a channel resistance Rc other than 0 in order to obtain automatic compensation of the energetic operating point of each ejection resistor Ri on variations of the substrate temperature.
  • Rc T1 Rc T0 [1 + 0.001 (T1 - T0)].
  • Eg T1 Eg T0 [1 - 0.003 (T1 - T0)].
  • Rc belongs to the denominator of equation (3), an increase in its value as temperature rises results in a corresponding decrease in the value of El, and it is thus possible to determine a field of values for resistance Rc such that, at least within a defined range of temperatures, the decrease in the value of El optimally compensates the parallel decrease in the value of Eg.
  • the overall result obtained is that the value of El automatically adapts to variations of the value of Eg as temperature Ts of the substrate varies, thereby maintaining the El - Eg difference constant.
  • the value of this ratio is between approximately 0.10 and 0.25, preferably between 0.15 and 0.21
  • the pattern of straight lines representing the knee energy Eg and working energy El is substantially parallel, meaning that their respective values decrease by like amounts and that accordingly the difference between them remains constant on variation of the substrate temperature Ts.
  • the ink jet printhead and method of operation described above mean that the MOS transistors for driving of the ejection resistors may be built smaller in size than would be necessary to obtain the very low channel resistance values Rc, that are considered preferable in the known art, if only for the fact that they minimize the amount of energy dissipated by the MOS transistor TRi when conducting.
  • the compensation between energy El and energy Eg is performed in an extremely localized manner, nozzle by nozzle, and is therefore extremely effective even in cases where significant differences in temperature arise between the areas of the head as a result of the printing method not involving all the nozzles in a uniform way.
  • a printhead with a different scale of component integration may be used, one for example comprising not only the MOS drive transistors, but also logic type circuits (shift registers, decoders, etc.).
  • the printhead may be of the removable type, fitted on a carriage that runs across the entire width of the sheet of paper that is being printed on, or of the fixed type capable of ejecting droplets of ink along the entire width of the sheet (line head).
  • printheads for black and colour printing in which the ink reservoirs, instead of being integrated in the head (the type of printhead known as "monobloc"), are removable and replaceable so that once they are empty, only the reservoir and not the entire printhead need be replaced (“refillable” heads).

Landscapes

  • Particle Formation And Scattering Control In Inkjet Printers (AREA)
EP96109564A 1995-06-22 1996-06-14 Tintenstrahldruckkopf mit integrierten Betätigungskomponenten Expired - Lifetime EP0749834B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ITTO950521 1995-06-22
IT95TO000521A IT1276431B1 (it) 1995-06-22 1995-06-22 Testina di stampa a getto di inchiostro con componenti di pilotaggio integrati

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0749834A2 true EP0749834A2 (de) 1996-12-27
EP0749834A3 EP0749834A3 (de) 1997-07-23
EP0749834B1 EP0749834B1 (de) 2001-04-04

Family

ID=11413667

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP96109564A Expired - Lifetime EP0749834B1 (de) 1995-06-22 1996-06-14 Tintenstrahldruckkopf mit integrierten Betätigungskomponenten

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0749834B1 (de)
JP (1) JP3795959B2 (de)
DE (1) DE69612327T2 (de)
IT (1) IT1276431B1 (de)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2001005594A1 (en) * 1999-07-19 2001-01-25 Olivetti Tecnost S.P.A. Droplet volume calculation method for a thermal ink jet printer
GB2371268A (en) * 2000-12-11 2002-07-24 Macroblock Inc Printhead driver/heating circuit having a resistance heater disposed between a collector load of a transistor and a current/voltage source
US6883894B2 (en) * 2001-03-19 2005-04-26 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Printhead with looped gate transistor structures
EP1591252A1 (de) * 2004-04-26 2005-11-02 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Flüssigkeitsausstosskopf

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4717924A (en) * 1986-08-18 1988-01-05 Ncr Corporation Thermal printing control system
EP0401440A1 (de) * 1988-03-07 1990-12-12 Xerox Corporation Monolithisch integrierte Siliciumschaltkreis für einen Thermotintenstrahldrucker
US5038154A (en) * 1988-06-28 1991-08-06 Hitachi, Ltd. Driving apparatus for thermal head
EP0558221A2 (de) * 1992-02-24 1993-09-01 Xerox Corporation Elektronische Punktgrössesteuerung in einem thermischen Tinten-Strahldrucker

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4717924A (en) * 1986-08-18 1988-01-05 Ncr Corporation Thermal printing control system
EP0401440A1 (de) * 1988-03-07 1990-12-12 Xerox Corporation Monolithisch integrierte Siliciumschaltkreis für einen Thermotintenstrahldrucker
US5038154A (en) * 1988-06-28 1991-08-06 Hitachi, Ltd. Driving apparatus for thermal head
EP0558221A2 (de) * 1992-02-24 1993-09-01 Xerox Corporation Elektronische Punktgrössesteuerung in einem thermischen Tinten-Strahldrucker

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2001005594A1 (en) * 1999-07-19 2001-01-25 Olivetti Tecnost S.P.A. Droplet volume calculation method for a thermal ink jet printer
US6517182B1 (en) 1999-07-19 2003-02-11 Olivetti Tecnost S.P.A. Droplet volume calculation method for a thermal ink jet printer
GB2371268A (en) * 2000-12-11 2002-07-24 Macroblock Inc Printhead driver/heating circuit having a resistance heater disposed between a collector load of a transistor and a current/voltage source
GB2371268B (en) * 2000-12-11 2002-12-11 Macroblock Inc Printhead circuit
US6883894B2 (en) * 2001-03-19 2005-04-26 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Printhead with looped gate transistor structures
EP1591252A1 (de) * 2004-04-26 2005-11-02 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Flüssigkeitsausstosskopf
US7350891B2 (en) 2004-04-26 2008-04-01 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Liquid discharge head

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP0749834B1 (de) 2001-04-04
ITTO950521A0 (it) 1995-06-22
DE69612327D1 (de) 2001-05-10
IT1276431B1 (it) 1997-10-31
JPH091800A (ja) 1997-01-07
DE69612327T2 (de) 2001-11-29
EP0749834A3 (de) 1997-07-23
JP3795959B2 (ja) 2006-07-12
ITTO950521A1 (it) 1996-12-22

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