JP2002273886A - Ink jet recording head and method for recording gradation by using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the discharge efficiency and execute high-gradation and high-image quality recording with a head having a plurality of heating resistors in one nozzle. SOLUTION: In the ink jet head having a plurality of discharge heaters set to one liquid path 31, an electrothermal conversion element is constituted of the plurality of discharge heaters 2A and 2B, and electrodes 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D connected to the discharge heaters 2. A distance from an end of the discharge heater A2 to an end of the discharge heater 2B is made 16 μm or smaller.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet head, an ink jet head cartridge and an ink jet apparatus used for a copier, a facsimile, a word processor, a printer as an output terminal of a host computer, a video printer, etc., and particularly to an ink jet apparatus. Head having a substrate on which an electrothermal conversion element that generates thermal energy used as energy for the formation is provided. Here, the recording includes printing (printing) on all ink supports to which ink is applied, such as cloth, thread, paper, and sheet material, and includes only meaningful images such as characters. But also meaningless images such as pattern images. The recording device includes all of the various information processing devices or a printer as an output device thereof, and the present invention can be used for them.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording on a recording medium by discharging ink is manufactured in many products from the viewpoints of easiness in miniaturization of the apparatus and low noise.

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for further miniaturization and high-quality color printing, especially high-quality color printing. As a configuration for satisfying such requirements, Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-48585 discloses a configuration in which a plurality of electric heat exchange elements are provided in one nozzle. Then, by independently controlling and driving each electrothermal conversion element, the size of the ejected ink droplet is modulated,
A gradation recording method for realizing high-quality recording has been proposed.

[0004] As a result of the research conducted by the present inventors to perform higher-quality gradation recording using a plurality of electrothermal transducers arranged in one nozzle as described above, the following results are obtained. I understood.

[0005] Usually, the area of the electrothermal transducer is one of the major factors that determines the ink ejection amount. However, when a plurality of electrothermal transducers are provided as described above, the maximum ejection amount of the ink is a plurality of electric heat transducers. It was found that it was not determined by the total area of the heat conversion elements.

Further, since the heat generated from the electrothermal transducer affects other electrothermal transducers, a desired ink discharge amount can be achieved unless the arrangement of the electrothermal transducers is optimized. It turned out to be difficult.

On the other hand, a circuit configuration on an element substrate (heater board) for driving the electrothermal conversion element is as shown in equivalent circuits in FIGS. 22 and 23.

In FIG. 22, an electrothermal conversion element 012
In contrast, a direct wiring configuration is provided in which an electric signal is directly supplied via the wiring and the external end 015.

In the case of such a circuit configuration, the configuration inside the element substrate is simple, but the number of contacts with the outside requires at least n + 1 contacts with respect to the number n of electrothermal conversion elements. In the case where a plurality of electrothermal transducers are provided in one nozzle as described above with such a circuit configuration, an extremely large number of electrical connections are required between the element substrate and the outside, which complicates the manufacturing process. This leads to an increase in the size of the element substrate.

The element substrate shown in FIG. 23 is provided with an electrothermal conversion element 012, a wiring 013, a diode 014, and contacts with the outside. The electrothermal conversion element has a matrix configuration of the wiring and the diode. It is configured to supply electricity. By adopting the diode matrix configuration in this way, the number of contacts 015 to the outside can be reduced to 2√n for the number n of the electrothermal transducers.

However, even with such a wiring configuration, in the head for performing the above-described gradation recording, the number of connection terminals is considerably increased because the number of electrothermal conversion elements is increased. Was.

[0012]

As described above, in a head having a plurality of heating resistors in one nozzle, the use of a plurality of electrothermal transducers causes a decrease in ejection efficiency and a reduction in the desired ejection amount. A shift will occur.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet head, an ink-jet head cartridge, and an ink-jet recording apparatus capable of solving such problems and improving the ejection efficiency and performing high-gradation, high-quality recording. .

In addition, an ink jet head, an ink jet head cartridge and an ink jet apparatus for preventing an increase in the number of electrical contacts on a substrate caused by a head having a plurality of electrothermal transducers in one nozzle and preventing the substrate from being enlarged accordingly. It is intended to provide.

Still another object of the present invention is to satisfactorily inject ink into the ink jet head cartridge.

[0016]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and is to optimize the arrangement of a plurality of heating resistors arranged in one nozzle (flow path). To achieve the above objectives.

Further, by forming a functional element for driving the heating resistor of such a head on the same substrate, the number of electrical contacts with the outside of the element substrate can be reduced, and the element substrate can be formed. The size can be reduced. Further, by injecting the ink into the ink jet cartridge using the ink jet head having such a configuration by the ink injection method of the present invention, the ink can be repeatedly filled, and the ink jet cartridge of the present invention can be used for a long time. Becomes possible.

That is, in a first aspect of the present invention, a liquid flow path having a discharge port for discharging ink and a plurality of heat generating resistance elements for discharging ink corresponding to one liquid flow path are provided. A distance from an end of the heating resistor element to an end of the heating resistor element provided in the same liquid flow path where the heating resistor element is provided and adjacent to the heating resistor element. An inkjet head characterized by the following.

A second aspect of the present invention is the ink jet head according to the first aspect, wherein the distance is 8 μm or less or 6 μm or less.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet head according to the first aspect, wherein each of the heating resistance elements has a rectangular shape.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the ink jet head according to the first aspect, wherein the number of heat generating resistance elements provided corresponding to the one liquid flow path is two.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, a shift register circuit for driving the heating resistance element is provided on the same element substrate as the element substrate provided with the plurality of heating resistance elements. An ink jet head comprising a latch circuit.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is the ink jet head according to the first aspect, wherein the ink is ejected in a direction along the heating resistor.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the ink jet head according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, and an ink container holding ink to be supplied to the ink jet head. This is an ink jet head cartridge to be used.

An eighth aspect of the present invention is the ink jet head cartridge according to the seventh aspect, wherein the ink container and the ink jet head are detachable.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet apparatus comprising the ink jet head according to any one of the first to sixth aspects and a conveying means for conveying a recording medium. .

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there are provided the first to sixth aspects.
An ink jet apparatus comprising: the ink jet head according to any one of the above aspects; and a drive signal supply unit for driving the ink jet head.

An eleventh aspect of the present invention is an ink container constituting the ink jet head cartridge according to the seventh aspect, wherein the ink is refilled.

[0029]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments, and any object can be achieved as long as the object of the present invention can be achieved. Good. In this embodiment, ink is taken as an example of the liquid used for ejection.
The liquid is not limited to this, and any liquid may be used as long as the liquid can be ejected using the present invention.

Before describing the embodiments of the present invention, the findings obtained by the inventors in making the present invention will be described.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view taken along line AA, respectively, showing the shape of an electrothermal transducer provided on an element substrate.

The electrothermal conversion element includes a heating resistor element (hereinafter, also referred to as a discharge heater) 2 for generating heat, and electrodes 3A and 3 connected to the discharge heater 2 by a thin film process.
B. Then, by applying a voltage between the two electrodes, a current flows through the discharge heater 2 to generate heat. The heat generated by the discharge heater 2 radiates in the direction of arrow 107 shown in FIG.
There is a component that dissipates heat in the cross-sectional direction shown in FIG. The discharge heater 2 has a heat storage layer 10 made of a material having low thermal conductivity.
5 and a protective layer 103 configured to protect the heater against ink, and a sandwich structure sandwiched between a cavitation-resistant layer 104 against shock waves generated when the foamed ink is defoamed.

As the base 106, a silicon crystal or the like is used. The thickness of each layer is determined so that the heat of the discharge heater 2 is transmitted to the ink 108 more efficiently. In the case of the present invention, the anti-cavitation layer 104 is 0.1 to 1.0 μm, and the protective layer 103 is 0.3 to 2.0 μm.
m, the heat storage layer 105 is about 0.5 to 5.0 μm, and the base 106 is generally 0.5 to 1.0 mm.

Since the ink 108 starts foaming when the temperature of the surface where the anti-cavitation layer 104 and the ink 108 come into contact with each other is about 300 ° C., the surface is set to a temperature at which the surface stably foams above 300 ° C. On the other hand, the discharge heater 2
Has a surface temperature of about 700 due to a heat resistance temperature and a stress caused by a difference in a thermal expansion coefficient between the protective layer 103 and the heat storage layer 105.
If it exceeds ８００800 ° C., the durability rapidly deteriorates. Therefore, it is desirable to control the surface temperature within this range.

This will be described with reference to the surface temperature distribution shown in FIG. Here, aa ′ corresponds to the heater width in FIG. 1A, and the surface temperature distribution of the anti-cavitation layer 104 is indicated by TempA. ΔT1 is about 30 at the foaming start temperature.
0 ° C., and ΔT2 is a temperature at which durability changes rapidly, and varies depending on the thin film material used.
0-800 ° C. In TempA, the range of the temperature range from ΔT1 to ΔT2 is a region where the ink actually foams on the surface, and is a range indicated by bb ′. Here, the temperature distribution is flat at the central portion of the discharge heater, and the foaming here repeats the foaming / defoaming extremely stably. Therefore, the larger this area is, the more stable the printing performance can be obtained.

As the heater approaches the end of the heater, the temperature gradually decreases due to the heat radiation in the plane direction as shown in FIG. 1, and in the WA, the non-foamed area where the ink is not foamed even though it is on the discharge heater. Becomes Further, the outside of the discharge heater has some temperature rise due to the heat radiation in the plane direction.
As described above, the temperature distribution has an exponential spread curve, but because of this, there is a non-foaming area with a width of about 8 μm around the ejection heater where the ink cannot foam as described above. I do. In order to improve the ink ejection efficiency, this area can be reduced by increasing the overall temperature. In that case, however, the maximum temperature area at the center of the ejection heater exceeds the durability deterioration temperature, that is, ΔT2, and the ejection heater Since the life of the device is shortened, it is difficult to reduce the overall temperature by increasing the temperature. [Embodiment 1] In the case of a configuration having a plurality of discharge heaters in one flow path (also referred to as a nozzle) 31 as shown in FIG.
By optimizing the arrangement of the plurality of heating resistors, the temperature distribution can be made as shown in FIG.
The non-foamed region can be reduced while maintaining the temperature of the stable region of ΔT2.

The temperature distribution on the BB line between the two heaters in FIG. 3 is as shown in FIG.
The temperatures at which A and 2B were driven alone were TempA and Te
mpA 'and has the same distribution as before, but when driven simultaneously, the temperature distributions exponentially expanding at the heater end overlap and the total temperature distribution is as TempB and the effective foaming area of the heater is B becomes larger as compared with the conventional A. That is, the non-foamed area can be reduced, and the foaming efficiency can be increased. Non-foamed areas are usually ab
Is about 8 μm, but when the distance between the two heaters is 12 μm as in the present invention, it can be reduced to about 5 μm.

The smaller the distance between the heaters is, the more effective it is.
If the point at which T = 0 approaches one of the discharge heaters, that is, if d ≦ 16 μm, an effect of increasing the effective foaming area can be obtained. Further, ΔT = 0 of TempA
It is more effective if the point is the distance between the heaters extending to the effective foaming region of one of the heaters. Such a condition is d ≦ 8 μm. Further, when d = 6 μm, 2
The temperature rise due to heat radiation from the width of 8 μm of the non-foaming region of the two heaters is doubled, and the lowest temperature point in the temperature distribution TempB exceeds the level of ΔT1, so that the non-foaming region becomes almost small, but more preferably d ≦ If it is 4 μm, a foaming region can be stably secured with a flatter temperature distribution.

When the heater width is 2 · WA, that is, 16 μm or less, as seen from TempA in FIG. 2, the foamed area has no flat surface, and the effective area between the unstable area and the endurance deteriorated area is almost small. In the case of a multi-heater as in the present invention, a stable effective foaming area can be obtained even with a heater of 16 μm or less for the above-described reason.

The following effects are obtained by reducing the size of the non-foamed area. 1. Since the heater size can be reduced to obtain a predetermined discharge amount, energy is saved, so that power supply and driver costs are reduced. The heat generated in the non-foamed area raises the temperature of the head with wasteful energy.Thus, the temperature-dependent ink changes the ejection amount due to the decrease in viscosity and degrades the print quality. Can be suppressed. The above is more pronounced with small heaters and narrow heaters. [Embodiment 2] In the above embodiment, a configuration in which the non-foaming area of the heating resistor is reduced by optimizing the arrangement of a plurality of heating resistors (discharge heaters) arranged in one nozzle. did. In the present embodiment, a circuit of the element substrate for efficiently driving these heat generating resistors and miniaturizing the element substrate with the head having a configuration in which a plurality of heating resistors are arranged in one nozzle as described above is described. explain.

It should be noted that "on the substrate" used in this embodiment is used as a term including the inside of the vicinity of the surface of the substrate.

FIG. 5 shows an arrangement of elements constituting an element substrate of an ink jet head according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Nozzle walls 5 are provided on the element substrate.
Two discharge heaters, a large heating resistor (hereinafter abbreviated as a discharge heater) 2a and a small discharge heater 2b, are arranged in one discharge nozzle under the condition of the previous embodiment. Each discharge heater is connected via a through hole 4 to a common wiring 1 below an interlayer insulating film below the discharge heater, and a voltage is applied from the common wiring 1.
The wirings 6 and 7 are connected to the large discharge heater 2a and the small discharge heater 2b and the switching transistors 11 and 10 respectively.
Are connected through a through hole 16.

Switching transistors 10 and 11
Are also arranged below the interlayer insulating film below the heater. Further, in order to limit ON / OFF of the transistors 10 and 11, signal wirings 17 and 18 are connected to the transistors 10 and 11, and shift register / latch circuits 19 and 20, respectively. As a result, the driving of the heater is limited by turning on / off the transistor based on the data fetched by the shift register / latch circuit. The ground lines 12, 13, 14 and 15 are connected to the emitters of the switching transistors 8, 9, 10 and 11, respectively. FIG. 5 shows a configuration for two nozzles, but FIG. 6 shows an arrangement configuration of the entire substrate.

In FIG. 6, the element substrate 1 is constituted by a continuous arrangement of cells 25 having a single structure shown in FIG. The common wiring 23 is connected to the contact 24 by the common vertical wiring 22 and receives supply from an external power supply. The ground lines 12, 13, 14 and 15 are connected to the contact 24 by vertical ground lines 21. FIGS. 7 and 8 show equivalent circuits of FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. In FIG. 7, the shift register / latch circuit 19
And 20 are shown in detail.

The shift register 36 has the CLK signal line 3
7 and the serial data line 35 are input, and the serial data is developed in the shift register 36 by a clock signal. The data input to the shift register 36 is latch 3
3 is held by the latch signal from the latch signal line 34.
Next, the enable signal 32 is connected to the AND gate 31 and inputs a timing signal for applying the data of the latch 33 to the transistor 11. Since there are two enable signals 32, the ejection heaters 2a and 2b can be driven simultaneously or at different timings.

FIG. 8 shows a substrate 2 on which the cells of FIG.
3 is an equivalent circuit of the entire configuration of FIG. Here, there are a decoder circuit 38 and a decoder signal line 39, which are used for various driving timings, whereby it is possible to drive with many contacts with a small number of contacts without having a plurality of enable signals 32. it can. FIG. 9 shows these basic timing charts.

Next, FIG. 10 shows the control of the ink discharge amount using this element substrate. As shown in (a), the ink is filled in the ejection nozzle 104 sandwiched between the nozzle walls 109, and when the ejection heaters 2a and 2b are heated and foamed, the ink is ejected from the orifice 40 by the foaming pressure. (B) shows a state in which the small discharge heater 2 b is heated and foamed, and the small drop 114 is discharged by the small foaming 113. The discharge amount at this time is set to about 30 ng.

Next, (c) shows a state in which the large discharge heater 2a is heated and foamed, and the large drop 115 is discharged by the large foam 112. The large discharge heater 2a is the small discharge heater 2b
If the area is designed to be twice as large, the discharge amount is proportional to the heater area, so that the discharge amount is about 60 ng. (D) shows a state where both the small discharge heater 2b and the large discharge heater 2a are heated and foamed. In this case, the discharge heater area is three times as large as the small discharge heater (in the case of (b)), and the discharge amount is 90 ng, which is three times as large as 30 ng. FIG. 11 shows the case where an image is formed with such a discharge amount, which is represented by the reflection density. Since the density is proportional to the ink ejection amount, three types of densities are obtained. That is, four-level gradation control is realized by two large and small heaters. [Embodiment 3] Next, the configuration of the head described above will be specifically described. FIGS. 12 and 13 show the configuration around the nozzle.
Indicated by Both have a configuration called an edge shooter type and a side shooter type, respectively. The ink in the flow path 104 is heated and foamed by the discharge heaters 3 and 4, and is laterally (edge shooter type) or upward (side shooter type). The discharge is performed from the opened discharge port 40. The element substrate 1 is bonded to a base plate 41, and the nozzle wall 5 is provided on a top plate 101.

FIG. 14 is slightly different from the substrate of FIG. 15, but has a basic structure. An interlayer insulating film 51 is provided below the discharge heaters 2a and 2b, and an aluminum wiring B on the heater side (wirings 6 and 7)
And aluminum wiring A (common wiring 1, ground 14, 15)
And is insulated. Transistors 10 and 11 are latch 3
3 and an AND gate 31 are connected by a silicon layer 53. Transistors 10, 11, AND gate 31,
The latch 33 and the shift register 36 are made of a silicon layer 53
Is configured within. Embodiment 4 FIG. 15 shows an ink jet head cartridge in which an ink jet head of the present invention and an ink container holding ink to be supplied to the ink jet head are separably connected.

The ink may be injected into the ink container constituting the ink jet head cartridge as follows.

An ink supply path for introducing ink is formed by connecting an ink supply pipe or the like to the ink container, and the ink may be injected into the ink container via the ink introduction path. As the ink supply port on the ink container side, a supply port on the ink jet head side, an air communication port, a hole formed in a wall surface of the ink container, or the like may be used. [Embodiment 5] FIG. 16 is a schematic view showing an example of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with the ink jet recording head constructed as described above. This ink jet recording apparatus IJRA has a lead screw 2040 that rotates via driving force transmission gears 2020 and 2030 in conjunction with forward and reverse rotation of a driving motor 2010. The carriage HC on which the inkjet cartridge IJC in which the inkjet recording head and the ink tank are integrated is mounted,
Carriage shaft 2050 and lead screw 2040
, And the wire groove 204 of the lead screw 2040
1 and a pin (not shown) which engages with the first screw 1, and reciprocates in the directions of arrows a and b with the rotation of the lead screw 2040.

Reference numeral 2060 denotes a paper pressing plate, which presses the paper P against the platen roller 2070 in the carriage movement direction. Reference numerals 2080 and 2090 denote photocouplers, which are levers 21 provided on the carriage HC.
The motor operates as a home position detecting means for switching the rotation direction of the motor 2010 or the like by confirming the presence of the motor in this area.

Reference numeral 2110 denotes a cap member for capping the front surface of the recording head, which is supported by a support member 2120. Reference numeral 2130 denotes suction means for sucking the inside of the cap, and performs suction recovery of the recording head through the opening in the cap. A cleaning blade 2140 for cleaning the end face of the recording head is provided on a member 2150 so as to be movable in the front-back direction.
0 supported. The blade 2140 is not limited to this form, and it goes without saying that a well-known cleaning blade can be applied to this embodiment. Reference numeral 2170 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery, and a carriage HC.
The driving force from the driving motor 2010 is controlled by known transmission means such as clutch switching.

The capping, cleaning, and suction recovery are configured so that desired processing can be performed at the corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw 2040 when the carriage HC reaches the home position side area. If the desired operation is performed at the timing described above, any of the embodiments can be applied. Each of the configurations described above is an excellent invention when viewed alone or in combination, and shows preferred configuration examples for the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows a basic configuration of a long-life heater which is a related technique of the present invention. As shown in (a), in this case, the first heater 42 and the second heater 4 are arranged in the width direction.
3 is the same heater size. Therefore, the droplets 117 and 118 in the case where the first heater 42 is heated and ejected by the foaming 120 (b) and in the case where the second heater 43 is heated and ejected by the foaming 121 (c) have the same ejection amount. is there. This is to double the heater life by alternately striking the same ejection data with two heaters. Instead of using the first heater 42 alternately, the first heater 42 may be used first, and when the first heater 42 is disconnected or a certain number of pulses are counted, the second heater 43 may be started to be used. Embodiment 6 FIG. 18 shows an example of 8-level gradation control. (A)
In this case, the relationship between the heater sizes of the small discharge heater 2c, the medium discharge heater 2b, and the large discharge heater 2a arranged in the width direction is 1: 2: 4. By the combination of these three heaters, the discharge amount can be controlled from 0 to 70 ng in 10 ng steps, thereby improving the image quality. The state of this control is shown in FIG.

Similarly, 16 gradations can be realized by using four types of heaters, and 2 × gradations can be realized by using x types of heaters. The discharge heater of the present embodiment also uses the arrangement of the discharge heater of the first embodiment. [Embodiment 7] FIG. 19 shows a configuration for analog gradation. In the present embodiment, the ink temperature of the ink jet recording head affects the ejection amount, and the ink temperature can be controlled to a predetermined ejection amount by controlling the ink temperature.

As shown in FIG. 19, in this embodiment, an ink preheating heater 44 is provided in front of the large and small ejection heaters 3 and 4 arranged in the width direction in the ejection direction. This embodiment utilizes the fact that when the temperature of the ink is high, the ink viscosity decreases and more ink can be ejected even with the same foaming power.
By preheating the ink by using, a subtle change can be given to the ejection amount.

For example, as shown in FIG. 20, the ink temperature is raised by a signal A applied to the ink preliminary heater 44,
The signal B is applied to the ejection heater 2a or 2b to cause ejection. At this time, the point C is the temperature at which the ink foams, and the ink preheater 44 does not exceed this temperature. According to this method, it is possible to change the digital gray scale to an analog gray scale in the first embodiment as shown in FIG.

It is also possible to control the discharge amount depending on the head temperature to a predetermined discharge amount by controlling the ink temperature in the discharge nozzle 104 with the ink pre-heating heater 44. In the conventional method of controlling the discharge amount, in the case of one heater, there is a case where a pre-pulse is applied before the main application pulse to perform preliminary heating. Cannot heat. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the ink pre-heating heater 44 is independent of the ejection heater, the power per unit area of the heater can be reduced to a level that does not cause foaming. The ink is preheated by the heater, and the effect of controlling the ejection amount can be enhanced.

[0060]

As described above, the following effects can be obtained by providing a plurality of heaters for one nozzle and providing functional elements in the substrate. 1. Since the heater size can be reduced to obtain a predetermined discharge amount, energy is saved and power and driver costs are reduced. 2. The heat generated in the non-foamed area raises the temperature of the head with wasteful energy.Thus, the temperature-dependent ink changes the ejection amount due to the decrease in viscosity and degrades the print quality. Can be suppressed.

3. It is possible to control the gradation of an image while increasing the cost and miniaturizing the head and the device. 4. The gradation control can be performed without shortening the life of the electrothermal conversion element. 5. Even when the number of data is small, gradation control is possible (xb
It is 2 × gradations), it is possible to reduce the data transfer time and the memory cost.

6. The gradation can be controlled without increasing the driving frequency of the nozzle. 7. Since the positions of the pixels are not shifted, there is no deterioration in image quality.

8. The life can be extended by providing heaters of the same size and punching them separately. 9. By providing a heater that does not foam, the effect of discharge amount control can be enhanced. Also, it should be noted that while these effects are obtained, the functional element is provided in the substrate, so that the cost can be hardly increased and the size can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a foaming region of an electrothermal conversion element.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a foaming region of an electrothermal conversion element.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a structure in which a plurality of electrothermal converters are arranged in one flow path.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a foaming region of the electrothermal conversion element in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a view showing an arrangement of elements on a substrate constituting a base of the ink jet recording head according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an entire configuration of a substrate constituting a base of the inkjet recording head of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an equivalent circuit of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an equivalent circuit of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a timing chart of driving of the inkjet recording head according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of control of an ink ejection state of an inkjet recording head according to one embodiment.

11 is a diagram showing the reflection density when an image is formed by the control of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an inkjet recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an inkjet recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a modification of FIG. 5;

FIG. 15 is an ink jet head cartridge using the head of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an inkjet recording head on which the inkjet recording head of the present invention is mounted.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an inkjet recording head according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of control of 8-level gradation of the ink jet recording head of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration for analog gradation of the inkjet recording head according to the invention.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of control of the configuration in FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of the reflection density according to the configuration of FIG. 19;

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an equivalent circuit of a configuration of a substrate of a conventional inkjet head.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an equivalent circuit of a substrate configuration of a conventional inkjet head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Common wiring 2A, 2B, 2a, 2b Electrothermal conversion element (heater) 6,7 Wiring 8,9,10,11 Switching transistor 12,14,15 Ground wiring 17,18 Signal wiring 19,20 Shift transistor latch circuit Reference Signs List 21 vertical ground wiring 22 common vertical wiring 23 substrate 24 contact 25 cell 31 AND gate 32 enable signal 33 latch 34 latch signal line 35 serial data line 36 shift register 37 CLK signal line 38 decoder circuit 39 decoder signal line 40 orifice 41 substrate 42 43, 45, 46 Heater 44 Ink preheater 51 Interlayer insulating film 53 Silicon layer 104 Discharge nozzle 109 Nozzle wall 112 Large foam 113 Small foam 120, 121 Foam

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission Date] February 26, 2002 (2002.2.2)
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[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Name of invention

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Patent application title: Inkjet recording head and gradation recording method using the same

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

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[Claims]

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0001

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[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet printer used in a copier, a facsimile, a word processor, a printer as an output terminal of a host computer, a video printer, and the like.
TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an inkjet recording head and a gradation recording method using the same , and particularly relates to an inkjet recording head having a base on which an electrothermal conversion element for generating thermal energy used as energy for discharging ink is formed. And use it
The gray scale recording method used . Here, the record is
Includes ink printing (printing) on all ink supports that receive ink, such as cloth, thread, paper, and sheet materials.
Further, it includes not only meaningful images such as characters but also meaningless images such as pattern images. The recording device is
The present invention includes all of various information processing apparatuses or a printer as an output device thereof, and the present invention can be used for them.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0013

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

The present invention, such a problem to resolve, improvement of the discharge efficiency, high gradation, which can perform high-quality recording Lee
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head and a gradation recording method using the same.

[Procedure amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0014

[Correction method] Change

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[0014] Further, an ink jet apparatus for preventing an increase in the number of electrical contacts on a substrate caused by a head having a plurality of electrothermal transducers in one nozzle and an accompanying increase in the size of the substrate.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dot recording head and a gradation recording method using the same.

[Procedure amendment 6]

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[Correction target item name] 0015

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[Correction target item name] 0017

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Further, by forming a functional element for driving the heating resistor of such a head on the same substrate, the number of electrical contacts with the outside of the element substrate can be reduced, and the element substrate can be formed. The size can be reduced.

[Procedure amendment 8]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0018

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

That is, in a first aspect of the present invention, a discharge port for discharging ink and a liquid flow communicating with the discharge port are provided.
Path and a plurality of discharge heaters for controlling the discharge amount of the ink
And the amount of ink ejected by the ejection heater
Insufficient ink ejection to adjust for changes
And a preliminary heater for supplying energy
An ink jet recording head characterized by the following.

[Procedure amendment 9]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0019

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, two discharge heaters are provided, and
Characterized in that it is arranged in parallel to the liquid storage channel.
Inkjet recording head.

[Procedure amendment 10]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0020

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the preliminary heater includes the discharge port and the discharge heater.
Characterized by being disposed between the
Print head.

[Procedure amendment 11]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0021

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, ink is ejected.
Outlet, a liquid flow path communicating with the outlet, and a plurality of
Equipped with a discharge heater and a preliminary heater
Preparing a printhead, and the discharge heater
Drive a different amount of ink by driving
And discharge of ink discharged by the discharge heater.
In order to adjust the change of the output,
To supply insufficient energy to discharge ink
Ink jet recording head characterized by having
This is a gradation recording method using a gray scale.

[Procedure amendment 12]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0022

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, provided by the energy supply step.
Inkjet printing characterized by performing analog gradation recording
This is a gradation recording method using a recording head.

[Procedure amendment 13]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0023

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 14]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0024

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 15]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0025

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 16]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0026

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 17]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0027

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 18]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0028

[Correction method] Deleted

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Yoshinori Misumi, 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Fumio Murooka 3-30-2, Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inside (72) Inventor Tatsuo Furukawa 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Maru 3-30-2, Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. ( 72) Inventor Masaaki Izumida 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Masami 3-30-2 Shimomaruko 3-chome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Invention Person Jun Kawai 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Yuji Ueyama 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Within Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Teruo Arashima 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Kazuaki Masuda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Stocks In-house F-term (reference) 2C057 AF39 AG46 AG91 AM14 AM15 AP51 AQ02 BA13 CA01

Claims (11)

[Claims] An ink jet head provided with a plurality of liquid flow paths having discharge ports for discharging ink, and a plurality of heating resistance elements for discharging ink corresponding to one liquid flow path, Ink-jet printing, wherein a distance from an end of the heating resistor element to an end of the heating resistor element provided in the same liquid flow path where the heating resistor element is provided and adjacent to the heating resistor element is 16 μm or less. head. 2. The distance is 8 μm or less, or 6 μm.
2. The ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein each of said heat generating resistance elements has a rectangular shape. 4. The ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein the number of heat generating resistance elements provided corresponding to the one liquid flow path is two. 5. A shift register circuit and a latch circuit for driving the heating resistor elements are formed on the same element board as the element board on which the plurality of heating resistor elements are provided. The inkjet head according to claim 1, wherein 6. The ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein the ink is ejected in a direction along the heating resistance element. 7. An ink jet head cartridge comprising: the ink jet head according to claim 1; and an ink container that holds ink to be supplied to the ink jet head. 8. The ink jet head cartridge according to claim 7, wherein said ink container and said ink jet head are detachable. 9. An ink jet apparatus comprising: the ink jet head according to claim 1; and a conveying unit for conveying a recording medium. 10. An ink jet apparatus comprising: the ink jet head according to claim 1; and a drive signal supply unit for driving the ink jet head. 11. An ink container constituting the ink jet head cartridge according to claim 7, wherein the ink is refilled.