JP2000141738A - Ion flow recording head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ion flow recording head which can obtain good images with a reduced density irregularity for a long time by removing flashes, burning, clogging and abrasion of the ion-flow recording head by an etching process. SOLUTION: An etching process for removing edge parts of a first electrode 31 and a second electrode 33 is provided after ion emission holes are processed. Flashes, burning and clogging incident to the processing to the ion emission holes can be removed by the process. Therefore, an ion dose of the ion emission holes can be controlled uniformly for an entire recording head, so that good images with a density irregularity reduced can be obtained for a long time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ion flow recording head and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an ion flow recording head capable of obtaining an image with good tone reproducibility as a recording head of an electrostatic recording type printer or the like. It is about the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ion flow recording head which generates ions in the atmosphere and selectively irradiates a flow of ions onto a charge receptor to form an electrostatic latent image has the following configuration.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an ion flow recording head using a corotron discharger as an ion generating source. The ion flow recording head includes an ion source for generating ions, a high voltage power supply for supplying a high voltage to the ion source, a control electrode for controlling the flow rate of the generated ions, a control circuit for driving the control electrode, and a static circuit. And a charge receptor for forming an electrostatic latent image. The ion source is composed of a corona wire made of a metal wire having a diameter of several tens of microns and a shield case arranged so as to surround the corona wire.

The control electrode includes an insulating substrate, a first electrode on one surface of the insulating substrate, and a second electrode on the other surface of the insulating substrate. The control electrode overlaps the first electrode and the second electrode. An ion emission hole is formed at the position. The first electrode and the second electrode are connected to the control circuit.

[0005] In the ion flow recording head having such a configuration, formation of an electrostatic latent image is performed as follows. When a high voltage is applied to the corona wire by a high-voltage power supply, a region of a high electric field is generated in the vicinity of the corona wire, and the air is broken down to generate ions steadily. The generated ions are applied to the shield case and the control electrode along the lines of electric force. In the control electrode, an electric field in the ion emission hole is changed by operating a potential difference between the first electrode and the second electrode by a control circuit, and the flow rate of ions passing through the ion emission hole is controlled.
The ions that have passed through the ion emission holes are irradiated on a charge receptor carried below the control electrode to form an electrostatic latent image.

According to the ion flow recording method, the latent image potential of an electrostatic latent image can be increased or decreased by controlling the amount of ions passing through an ion emission hole, thereby reproducing a multi-tone image. Is possible. For this reason, the amount of ions passing through the ion emission holes must be uniform throughout the recording head. Therefore, requirements for processing accuracy such as the hole diameter and pitch of the ion emission holes have become strict.

For this reason, as a method for manufacturing an ion flow recording head, as described in the invention (JP-A-61-224487) filed under the name of a method for manufacturing an ion flow recording head. Invention filed under the name of a method of processing an ion emission hole by a drill or a method of manufacturing an ion flow recording head (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H2-102071)
As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-157, a method of processing an ion emission hole by using an excimer laser is known.

On the other hand, since the first electrode and the second electrode for controlling the electric field in the ion emission hole are always exposed to the ionized atmosphere, the electrode surface is easily oxidized and deteriorated.
When the electrode surface is oxidized and deteriorated, the controllability of the ion flow rate is reduced, so that it is difficult to reproduce the gradation of the image.

Therefore, in general, an anticorrosion treatment is performed on the electrode surface in order to prevent oxidation and deterioration. As an example of such an anti-corrosion treatment, ions are present by plating the copper wiring surface with gold as described in the invention (JP-A-10-172344) filed under the name of gold-plated copper wiring. Some are less susceptible to oxidation / deterioration even in a hot environment.

[0010]

In the conventional method of manufacturing an ion flow recording head, since the processing of the ion emission hole is performed by a drill or a laser, burrs are generated around the ion emission hole, or the processing heat is generated. Burning of the electrode surface, cutting chips or carbides remaining on the inner wall surface of the ion emission hole and clogging cause ions passing through the ion emission hole to be blocked, and the amount of ion emission becomes uneven throughout the head. There was a problem of causing uneven density.

In addition, when the electrode surface is subjected to anticorrosion treatment for the purpose of improving durability, the electrode surface is subjected to anticorrosion treatment before the drilling step. Was exposed, and corrosion proceeded from there, significantly reducing the life of the recording head.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and removes burrs, burns, clogging, and corrosion of an ion flow recording head, thereby preventing concentration unevenness over a long period of time. An object of the present invention is to provide an ion flow recording head and a manufacturing method capable of obtaining a few good images.

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided an ion flow recording head and a method of manufacturing the same, comprising an ion source for generating ions by air discharge, a first electrode on one surface of an insulating substrate, and another surface. A second electrode is formed, and an ion emission hole is formed so as to penetrate therethrough at an overlapping position thereof;
In an ion flow recording head including a control electrode configured to control the amount of ions passing through an ion emission hole by a potential difference between the electrode and the second electrode, an edge portion of the first electrode and the second electrode after the ion emission hole processing. Characterized in that an etching step for removing the above is provided. Further, a corrosion prevention treatment is performed after the etching step to prevent corrosion from the inner wall surface of the ion emission hole.

That is, according to the present invention, an etching step for removing the edge portions of the first electrode and the second electrode is provided after the processing of the ion emission hole of the ion flow recording head. Burrs, burns, and clogging can be removed, and the amount of ion irradiation of the ion emission holes can be controlled uniformly over the entire recording head. In addition, by performing the anticorrosion treatment of the electrode after the above-described etching step, oxidation and deterioration from the inner wall surface of the ion emission hole can be prevented, so that it is possible to obtain a good image with less density unevenness over a long period of time.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the internal structure of the ion flow recording head according to the present embodiment by cutting out some of the constituent members. In FIG. 1, 1 is an ion flow recording head, 2 is an ion source, 21 is a corona wire, 22 is a shield case, 3 is a control electrode, 31 is a first electrode, 32 is an insulating substrate, 33 is a second electrode, 4 Is a charge acceptor, 5 is a counter electrode, 6 is a control power supply, 7 is a bias power supply, 8 is a high voltage power supply, and a is an ion emission port.

Next, the operation of the ion flow recording head 1 of this embodiment will be described.

In the ion flow recording head 1 of the present invention, by applying a unipolar high voltage to the corona wire 21 by the high-voltage power supply 8, a corona discharge occurs near the corona wire 21 to ionize gas molecules. The generated ions are applied along the lines of electric force to the shield case 22 and the first electrode 31 installed so as to surround the corona wire 21. The ions applied to the first electrode 31 reach the ion emission holes a formed in the control electrode 3 and
The amount of irradiation passing through the ion emission hole a is controlled by an electric field generated by a potential difference between the electrode 31 and the second electrode 33, so that the counter electrode 5 is irradiated.

At this time, the control of the potential difference between the first electrode 31 and the second electrode 33 is performed by the control circuit 6. The ions applied to the counter electrode 5 are accelerated by an electric field generated by the bias power supply 7 to form an electrostatic latent image on the charge receptor 4. The gradation reproduction of the electrostatic latent image is performed by the amount of ions irradiated on the charge receptor 4. Here, means for generating ions of negative polarity has been described as an ion generation source, but a similar effect can be obtained by changing the polarity of the bias power supply even for positive polarity.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the ion flow recording head 1 in the case where a solid-state discharge element utilizing creeping corona discharge is used as the ion source 2. In FIG. 2, 23 is an induction electrode, 24 is a dielectric substrate, 25 is a discharge electrode, 9 is an AC high-voltage power supply, 10 is a discharge bias power supply, and b is an ion generation space. This is a configuration in which the ion source 2 and the high-voltage power supply 8 in FIG. 1 are replaced with the solid-state discharge elements. The induction electrode 23 and the discharge electrode 25 are
Are formed in a comb-tooth shape, with the ions being generated in the ion generation space b.

In FIG. 2, when an AC high voltage is applied between the induction electrode 23 and the discharge electrode 25 by the AC high-voltage power supply 9, a creeping corona discharge occurs in the ion generation space b in the gap between the electrodes of the discharge electrode 25, and positive and negative are generated. Ions are generated. These ions are selectively irradiated in the direction of the control electrode 3 only with a single polarity depending on the polarity of the discharge bias power supply 10. By utilizing the ions thus generated, an electrostatic latent image can be formed as in the ion flow recording head 1 having the configuration shown in FIG.

The control electrode 3 of the ion flow recording head 1 used in this manner must satisfy the resolution and gradation reproducibility required for the recording head. One electrode 31 and second electrode 33
In this case, the formation of a high-density wiring pattern, the processing accuracy of the ion emission holes a, and the pitch accuracy are required. As a technique satisfying the above, a manufacturing technique of a printed wiring board can be used.

FIG. 3 shows a manufacturing process of the control electrode 3. As the insulating base material 32 used for the control electrode 3, a polyimide film, glass epoxy, or the like having an insulating property and excellent performance in dimensional stability can be used. For example, Upilex-S manufactured by Ube Industries, Ltd. and Kapton manufactured by DuPont fall under this category. The thickness of the insulating base material is selected to be about 100 μm.
FIG. 3 (a) shows a metal foil of about 18 μm formed on both sides of copper 2 such as copper or stainless steel.

The electrode patterns of the first electrode 31 and the second electrode 33 can be formed by a subtractive method or an additive method. In the subtractive method, after forming a resist film 34 corresponding to the electrode pattern on the metal foil and removing unnecessary metal foil by performing wet etching,
By removing the resist film 34, an electrode pattern is formed.

Control electrode 2 for which electrode pattern formation has been completed
Is from φ100 μm to φ2 as shown in FIG.
An ion emission hole a penetrating through a position where the electrode patterns of the first electrode 21 and the second electrode 23 intersect is drilled by a 00 μm carbide drill.

In this embodiment, etching is further performed lightly. This is because, as shown in FIG. 4A, burrs 36 are formed around the ion emission holes a during machining with a carbide drill, and chips are attached to the inner wall surface of the ion emission holes a to cause clogging 37. Therefore, it is performed for the purpose of removing these.
Therefore, the degree of etching differs depending on the metal foil material of the electrode pattern, the etching solution, the concentration, and the degree of the burr 36, but as a guide, the edge of the metal foil around the ion emission hole a is shown in FIG. Rounded or several microns.

Although the electrode thickness of the first electrode 31 and the second electrode 33 is reduced by this etching step, the electrode thickness before the etching step is reduced by applying electrolytic plating 35 of copper, nickel or other metal as necessary. It can be returned to thickness. In the control electrode 3 thus formed, the burr 3
By removing 6, the concentration of the electric field can be avoided, and by removing the clogging 37, the effect of uniform ion irradiation can be obtained.

In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the machining of the ion emission holes a is performed by a carbide drill is shown, but the machining can also be performed by an excimer laser. Fig. 4 for laser processing
Various problems occur due to the processing heat as shown in FIG. On the laser incident side, burns 38 on the surface of the electrode pattern due to the processing heat of the laser, and burrs 36 in the form of balls formed by melting the metal foil of the electrode pattern material can be seen around the ion emission holes a.

On the laser emission side, carbide generated by burning the insulating base material 32 adheres to the electrode surface, and when the ion emission hole a penetrates, the carbide turns up the electrode pattern to generate burrs 36. Further, carbide also adheres to the inner wall surface of the ion emission hole a, and clogging 37 occurs.

In order to remove the burrs 36, clogging 37 and burns 38 as described above, light etching is performed to such an extent that the burrs 36 are removed. Thereby, burr 36 and burn 3
8 is removed, and the clogging 37 can be easily removed by washing.

In this embodiment, the durability of the control electrode 3 can be increased by performing an anticorrosion treatment on the surface of the electrode pattern. For example, it is conceivable to perform gold plating on the surface of the electrode pattern. The thickness of the gold plating is 1μ in the environment where ions exist.
It is desirable that the thickness be at least m, and when the electrode pattern is lost by etching any more, the thickness is made as large as possible.

The anticorrosion treatment is not limited to gold plating, but may use noble metal plating such as platinum and silver. Conventionally, the anticorrosion treatment was performed before the processing of the ion emission hole a, so that the metal foil constituting the electrode pattern was exposed on the inner wall surface by the processing of the ion emission hole a.

For this reason, corrosion progressed from the inner wall surface of the ion emission hole a, and a long life could not be realized. However,
In the control electrode 3 subjected to the anticorrosion treatment as in the present embodiment, the surface of the electrode pattern and the inner wall surface of the ion emission hole a are subjected to the anticorrosion treatment, so that the ion control performance is stabilized for a long period of time.

[0034]

According to the present invention, by providing an etching step for removing the edge portions of the first and second electrodes after processing the ion emission hole of the ion flow recording head, the burr generated by the processing of the ion emission hole is provided. Burning and clogging can be removed, and the amount of ion irradiation of the ion emission holes can be uniformly controlled in the entire recording head. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a good image with less density unevenness over a long period of time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of an ion flow recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of one embodiment of an ion flow recording head according to the present invention.

FIGS. 3A to 3F are side sectional views showing a process sequence of a method of manufacturing an ion flow recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view showing a state around an ion emission hole during drilling.

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view showing a state around an ion emission hole during laser processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ion flow recording head, 2 ... Ion generation source, 3 ...
Control electrode, 4 ... Charge receptor, 5 ... Counter electrode, 6 ... Control power supply, 7 ... Bias power supply, 8 ... High voltage power supply, 9 ... AC high voltage power supply, 10 ... Discharge bias power supply, 21 ... Corona wire, 2
2 Shield case 23 Induction electrode 24 Dielectric substrate 25 Discharge electrode 31 First electrode 32 Insulating substrate 33 Second electrode 34 Resist film 35 Metal plating film 36 ... burr, 37 ... clogging, 38 ... burn, a
... Ion emission holes, b ... Ion generation space.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ion source for generating ions by discharge, a first electrode formed on one surface of an insulating substrate, and a second electrode formed on the other surface. An ion flow recording head comprising: a control electrode configured to control the amount of ions passing through the ion emission hole according to a potential difference between the first electrode and the second electrode. An ion flow recording head, further comprising an etching step for removing an edge of the first electrode and the second electrode.