JP2009125968A - Manufacturing method for nozzle substrate, and liquid jetting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that, in a resist striping process in a method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate by electrocasting, a striping liquid cannot remove a resist in a nozzle hole completely because a nozzle hole diameter is small, to have possibility of remaining of resist on the internal wall of the nozzle hole, and in the case that the resist remains in the nozzle hole, the nozzle hole diameter becomes smaller than a required one, and an amount of jet ink droplet decreases, and therefore an image cannot be formed accurately. <P>SOLUTION: A residue of a strip of a resist, present in a small nozzle opening hole 5A is removed by ashing processing. Accordingly, since the nozzle 5 keeps a required hole-diameter, an amount of jetted ink droplet 9 is made appropriate, so that an accurate image can be formed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate on which nozzles for ejecting liquid are formed, and a liquid ejecting apparatus.

  Conventionally, a liquid jet that ejects a liquid such as functional liquid or ink onto an object such as paper or a glass substrate to form a predetermined pattern, character, or image (hereinafter collectively referred to as “image”). The device exists. In such an apparatus, for example, a pressure chamber is provided in the middle of a flow path through which ink as a liquid flows, and the pressure of the ink in the pressure chamber is controlled by a predetermined pressurizing means (for example, means utilizing electrostrictive properties of a piezoelectric element). In addition, ink is ejected as ink droplets from the nozzle located at the end of the flow path.

  The nozzle is usually formed by drilling a hole in a metal flat plate with a circular cross section of the ink flow path. Therefore, the metal plate on which the nozzle is formed is generally referred to as a nozzle substrate. In recent years, as the image to be formed becomes high definition, it is necessary to reduce the diameter of the nozzle formed on the nozzle substrate and eject a smaller amount of ink droplets. For this reason, as one of the methods for manufacturing a nozzle substrate having a small nozzle hole diameter, for example, a method of forming by electroforming as disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known.

  As disclosed in Patent Document 1, a method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate by electroforming controls a metal region deposited by a resist, and then peels the resist to form nozzle holes. Therefore, according to the method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate by electroforming, it is possible to manufacture a nozzle substrate having a small nozzle hole diameter by devising the shape of the resist.

JP 2002-1966 A

  However, in the method of manufacturing a nozzle substrate by electroforming, since the nozzle hole diameter is small in the resist peeling process, the stripping solution cannot completely remove the resist inside the nozzle hole, and the resist is not formed on the inner wall surface of the nozzle hole. It can happen that it remains. If the resist remains in the nozzle hole, the nozzle hole diameter becomes smaller than the desired hole diameter, and the amount of ejected ink droplets decreases, making it impossible to form an image correctly. Arise.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to solve at least a part of the problems described above, and the invention can be implemented as the following forms or application examples.

  Application Example 1 A method of manufacturing a nozzle substrate in which a nozzle substrate on which a nozzle for ejecting a liquid is formed is formed by electroforming, wherein a resist representing a hole shape of the nozzle is placed on the base material for electroforming A resist forming step to form, a deposition step of depositing and forming a metal by electroforming on the substrate on which the resist is formed, a resist stripping step of removing the resist with a stripping solution, and depositing by the deposition step And an ashing process for performing an ashing process on the metal.

  According to this method, the resist peeling residue existing in the small nozzle hole portion can be removed by the ashing process. Therefore, since the nozzle hole diameter becomes a desired diameter, the amount of ink droplets to be ejected is appropriate, and an image can be formed correctly.

  Application Example 2 In the method of manufacturing the nozzle substrate, the ashing process is an ashing process by a reactive ion etcher method.

  According to this method, since the reactive ion etcher is capable of removing inorganic substances physically because oxygen plasma ions are high speed, the probability of completely removing the resist peeling residue is increased.

  Application Example 3 In the method for manufacturing the nozzle substrate, the metal is nickel.

  Nickel is suitable as an electroforming material and has an appropriate hardness, so there is no deformation with respect to the ashing treatment, and the influence on the nozzle hole diameter is suppressed.

  Application Example 4 In the method for manufacturing the nozzle substrate, the resist is formed such that a side facing the base is opposite to a liquid ejecting direction.

  By doing so, the ashing surface becomes the surface on the liquid ejection side of the nozzle substrate, so that the vicinity of the nozzle hole opening on the side where the liquid is ejected can be appropriately ashed. Therefore, even if the nozzle hole diameter is small, the resist residue remaining on the nozzle hole wall surface can be removed.

  Application Example 5 A liquid ejecting apparatus that includes the nozzle substrate manufactured by the nozzle substrate manufacturing method and that ejects the liquid from the nozzle formed on the nozzle substrate.

  The liquid can be correctly ejected from the nozzle from which the resist peeling residue has been removed. Accordingly, the liquid ejecting apparatus including the nozzle substrate on which the nozzles are formed by the manufacturing method can correctly form a high-definition image.

  An embodiment embodying the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 shows the schematic structure of an ink jet printer 10 as an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid from nozzles provided on a nozzle substrate formed by the manufacturing method of the present invention.

  The ink jet printer 10 is equipped with ink cartridges 11, 12, 13, and 14 each containing ink of each color as a liquid (for example, Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), K (black)). The carriage 20 is provided. The carriage 20 is provided with a liquid ejecting head 30 on the surface facing the printing paper 25 in the downward direction (the back side of the drawing), and the ink cartridges 11 to 11 pass through a flow path (not shown) provided in the carriage 20. The ink supplied from 14 is ejected as ink droplets from the liquid ejecting head 30 to print a predetermined image or the like on the printing paper 25.

  Specifically, the carriage 20 is fixed to the carriage belt 41, and as the carriage belt 41 is driven by the carriage motor 40, the left and right direction of the drawing (main scanning direction) along the guide 21 fixed to the frame 17. ) At this time, ink pressurized by a pressure generating mechanism formed for each nozzle from a plurality of nozzles formed in the liquid ejecting head 30 and formed substantially linearly in a direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction. The ink is ejected onto the printing paper 25 as a predetermined amount of ink droplets. The printing paper 25 is supported by the platen 28 from the back side, and is moved by a predetermined amount in the vertical direction of the drawing perpendicular to the main scanning direction by a paper feed roller (not shown) driven by a driving motor 26 fixed to the frame 17. To do. In this way, a high-quality image is printed on the entire surface of the printing paper 25. The main control for this series of operations is performed by the main board 50 attached to the frame 17 and the sub board 60 connected to the main board 50 by the flexible board 45 and attached to the carriage 20.

  Next, the pressure generation mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. Of course, the pressure generating mechanism has the same structure for all nozzles.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the carriage 20 as viewed from the direction of the white arrow S in FIG. As shown in the drawing, a pressure generating mechanism is formed in the liquid jet head 30 provided in the downward direction of the carriage 20 as shown in the blowing portion in the drawing. The pressure generating mechanism uses the piezoelectric element 2 as a driving body (actuator). When a predetermined voltage is applied between the COM electrodes and GND at both ends of the piezoelectric element 2, the piezoelectric element 2 contracts or expands due to electrostriction and deflects the diaphragm 3 in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The ink present in the pressurizing chamber 4 formed in the middle of the ink flow path is pressurized. As a result, the pressurized ink is ejected as ink droplets 9 from the nozzles 5 provided on the bottom surface member 8 of the liquid ejecting head 30.

  As described above, the bottom surface member 8 in the present embodiment is a metal having nozzles 5 that are perforated so as to form a plurality of nozzle rows arranged substantially linearly in the main scanning direction in a direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction. Made of flat plate. The bottom member 8 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The bottom surface member 8 corresponds to the nozzle substrate described in the claims, and the bottom surface member 8 is hereinafter referred to as a nozzle substrate 8.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the nozzle substrate 8 of the present embodiment, and is a perspective view showing a hole portion of the nozzle 5 in cross section. The nozzle substrate 8 is manufactured by nickel electroforming, in which nickel is deposited on the mother die by electroplating. In the present embodiment, four rows of nozzles 5 are formed in the main scanning direction as shown in the figure. The case where a plurality of nozzles 5 are formed so as to be arranged is shown. Of course, the arrangement method and the number of the nozzles 5 are not limited to those illustrated. For example, about several hundred nozzles may be formed in one row. There are also cases where a large number of nozzle rows are formed, such as two rows for each color ink.

  Each nozzle 5 includes a nozzle opening hole 5 </ b> A on the ejection side of the ink droplet 9, and a nozzle having a hole diameter larger than that of the opening hole and serving as a nozzle inflow hole through which ink flows from the pressurizing chamber 4. An opening hole 5B is formed. The nozzle substrate 8 of this embodiment is manufactured so that the hole diameter of the nozzle opening hole 5A becomes a desired hole diameter, and corrects the ink amount of the ejected ink droplets 9.

  Then, the manufacturing method of the nozzle board | substrate 8 in this embodiment is demonstrated using FIG.4 and FIG.5. 4 and 5 show a forming method for one nozzle 5, all nozzles 5 are formed by the forming method for nozzles 5 described below, and the nozzle substrate 8 is manufactured. Of course.

  First, as shown in FIG. 4A, a resist 82 is applied to a base 81 made of a conductive material such as a stainless steel plate or an aluminum plate by applying a resist film with a predetermined film thickness. In this embodiment, the resist is a positive type. Of course, a negative resist may be used. Then, the resist is exposed by the mask 100 using a photolithography technique.

  The mask 100 is divided into a mask region 101, a mask region 102, and a mask region 103 so as to have different exposure light transmittances. That is, the mask region 103 is formed in a place corresponding to the position of the nozzle opening hole 5A so as to exhibit a shape corresponding to the hole diameter of the nozzle opening hole 5A, and is in a light-shielding state where exposure light is not transmitted. The mask region 102 is formed around the mask region 103 and is in a semi-transmissive state that reduces the amount of exposure light. The mask area 102 has an outer shape corresponding to the diameter of the nozzle opening hole 5B, and is arranged concentrically with the mask area 103 as shown in the upper part of FIG. The mask region 101 other than the mask region 103 and the mask region 102 is formed in a transmissive state that does not block exposure light. Therefore, the exposure light is shielded in the mask area 103 (solid arrow R in the figure), and in the mask area 102, the amount of light is reduced to a predetermined ratio according to the transmittance of the semi-transmissive area (broken arrow H in the figure). It passes through the mask region 101 (solid arrow P in the figure). The resist 82 is exposed in this way.

  Next, the resist 82 is developed with a developer (for example, an organic alkali aqueous solution). The state after the processing is shown in FIG. The resist 82 remains on the substrate 81 as a resist 83 having a resist shape as illustrated by development. That is, a substantially cylindrical resist shape 83a having a diameter corresponding to the mask region 103 and a substantially cylindrical resist shape 83b having a diameter corresponding to the mask region 102 are formed in accordance with the exposure process described above.

  Next, nickel electroforming is performed on the surface of the base material 81 on which the resist 83 is formed to deposit nickel. The state in which nickel is deposited is shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the deposition of nickel is continued until the surface is lower than the resist 83 and almost the same height. Therefore, as shown in the figure, the deposited nickel is formed as a nickel substrate 84 having a base material 81 and a resist 83 as a matrix and a thickness substantially equal to the height of the resist 83.

  Next, the resist 83 is stripped with a resist stripping solution (for example, a mixed solution of an organic amine and a polar solvent). In the present embodiment, the peeling process is performed by a dip method in which the film is immersed in a peeling solution. Of course, the peeling treatment may be performed by a paddle method in which the peeling solution is coated while being repeatedly spun and stopped.

  The state after the peeling treatment is shown in FIG. Of the space formed by peeling off the resist 83, the space corresponding to the resist shape 83a becomes the nozzle opening 5A, and the space corresponding to the resist shape 83b becomes the nozzle opening 5B.

  Now, the spatial region formed after the peeling process, particularly the spatial region corresponding to the nozzle opening 5A, exhibits a very small hole diameter (for example, about 10 to 20 microns in diameter) as described above. Therefore, in such a small diameter hole, the resist stripping action is insufficient, and the resist cannot be completely removed, and a resist residue 83c tends to occur on the wall surface as shown in the figure. Then, as described above, if the resist remains in the nozzle opening hole 5A, the nozzle hole diameter becomes smaller than the desired hole diameter, and ink droplets cannot be correctly ejected from the nozzle.

  Therefore, in order to remove the remaining resist 83c, an ashing process is subsequently performed. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5B, the nickel substrate 84 is formed by electroforming so that the nozzle opening hole 5A is located on the surface opposite to the base material 81, so that the ashing process is performed. The surface of the nickel substrate 84 is a surface on the liquid ejection side. As a result, the resist remaining 83c remaining in the space portion of the nozzle opening hole 5A can be reliably removed by the ashing process. In this embodiment, the ashing process is performed by a reactive ion etching (RIE) method. By doing so, the inorganic substance contained in the resist residue 83c can be removed together with the organic substance. Of course, the ashing process may be performed not by the RIE method but by the direct plasma (DP) method.

  Then, after the ashing process, the base material 81 is peeled off from the formed nickel substrate 84, whereby the nickel substrate 84 is completed as the nozzle substrate 8 as shown in FIG. As a peeling method of the base material 81, a normal peeling process may be performed according to the material of the base material 81. For example, a stainless steel plate may be mechanically peeled off by force, and an aluminum plate may be dissolved and peeled off.

  In the nozzle substrate 8 thus completed, the nozzle opening of the nozzle 5 has a desired hole diameter, so that ink droplets can be correctly ejected from the nozzle.

  As described above, according to the nozzle substrate of the present embodiment, the hole diameter of the nozzle opening hole is correctly formed by the manufacturing method described above, and the desired hole diameter is obtained, so that the amount of ejected ink droplets is appropriate. . Therefore, the liquid ejecting apparatus including the nozzle substrate according to the present embodiment can correctly form a high-definition image.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated using one embodiment, this invention is not limited to such embodiment at all, and can be implemented with various forms within the range which does not deviate from the meaning of this invention. Of course. Hereinafter, a modification will be described.

(Modification)
In the above embodiment, the shape of the nozzle 5 is formed by the substantially cylindrical resist shape 83a and the resist shape 83b having different diameters, but it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to this. Another example will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 shows a nozzle substrate using a mask 100a that changes in a so-called gradient state in which the transmittance gradually increases from the mask region 103 toward the mask region 101, rather than in a certain semi-transmissive state. FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, in the mask 100a, the mask region 102 is different from the above embodiment, and the transmittance in the peripheral region of the portion adjacent to the mask region 103 is in a light-shielded state or a low transmittance state. Until it becomes, it changes so that it may change to what is called a gradient state continuously toward the mask area | region 101. FIG. Therefore, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 6A, the closer to the mask region 103, the more exposure light is shielded. Accordingly, the exposure light indicated by the arrows in the drawing is shielded in the mask area 103 in the same manner as in the above embodiment and the light quantity is zero, but in the mask area 102, the light quantity gradually increases from the mask area 103 toward the mask area 101. To increase.

  As a result, the resist 83 formed on the substrate 81 by the exposure process has a shape shown in FIG. 6B after the development process. That is, the resist shape 83b corresponding to the mask region 102 is a substantially conical resist shape 83b, unlike the above embodiment.

  Accordingly, the nozzle substrate 8 finally obtained has a shape shown in FIG. That is, the nozzle opening hole 5B has a tapered cross-sectional shape unlike the above-described embodiment. Therefore, in the nickel deposition process, when the nozzle opening hole 5B is shifted from the nozzle opening hole 5B formation to the nozzle opening hole 5A formation, In contrast, there is no portion where the amount of nickel deposited changes suddenly. Therefore, the nickel deposited by electroforming increases the probability of correctly forming the shape of the nozzle opening hole 5B and the nozzle opening hole 5A. As a result, it is possible to correctly eject ink droplets from the nozzles.

(Other variations)
In the above embodiment, the base material 81 is peeled from the nickel substrate 84 after the ashing process. This is for facilitating handling of the processing object by keeping the base material 81 from being peeled from the nickel substrate 84 in the resist stripping process and the ashing process. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to this as long as handling is possible, and the base material 81 may be peeled off from the nickel substrate 84 before the ashing process or the resist stripping process.

  In the above embodiment, the carriage 20 provided with the liquid ejecting head 30 that ejects ink is reciprocated in the main scanning direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the printing paper 25 to print a predetermined image on the printing paper 25. In the above description, the inkjet printer 10 is described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a device that ejects ink droplets onto printing paper by an ink jet printer having a line head in which nozzles are formed in the entire width direction of the printing paper 25 may be employed as one embodiment of the liquid ejecting apparatus of the present invention. Is possible.

  In the above embodiment, the liquid ejecting apparatus including the liquid ejecting head 30 has been described as the ink jet printer 10 that ejects ink as liquid. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, by ejecting functional liquid onto a glass substrate or resin substrate and ejecting the functional liquid using a method capable of ejecting liquid, such as a manufacturing apparatus for forming a wiring pattern and a manufacturing apparatus for a color filter, an image or a figure The present invention can also be implemented in an apparatus that records characters or the like on the object to be ejected.

  In the above-described embodiment, the method using the piezoelectric element 2 is described as a method for ejecting ink droplets. However, a so-called thermal method in which ink droplets are ejected using a heating element may be used.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an ink jet printer that is an embodiment of a liquid ejecting apparatus including a nozzle substrate formed by the manufacturing method of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a carriage included in the ink jet printer according to the embodiment. The schematic diagram which shows the nozzle substrate of this embodiment. (A)-(c) is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the process of the manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate of this embodiment. (A)-(c) is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the process of the manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate of this embodiment. Explanatory drawing for demonstrating the formation method of the nozzle which has a shape of a modification.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 ... Piezoelectric element, 3 ... Diaphragm, 4 ... Pressure chamber, 5 ... Nozzle, 5A ... Nozzle opening hole, 5B ... Nozzle opening hole, 8 ... Nozzle substrate (bottom member), 9 ... Ink droplet, 10 ... Inkjet printer 11, 12, 13, 14 ... ink cartridge, 17 ... frame, 20 ... carriage, 21 ... guide, 25 ... printing paper, 26 ... drive motor, 28 ... platen, 30 ... liquid ejecting head, 40 ... carriage motor, 41 ... carriage belt, 45 ... flexible substrate, 50 ... main substrate, 60 ... sub-substrate, 81 ... base material, 82 ... resist, 83 ... resist, 83a ... resist shape, 83b ... resist shape, 84 ... nickel substrate, 100 ... mask , 100a ... mask, 101 ... mask region, 102 ... mask region, 103 ... mask region.

Claims (5)

A nozzle substrate manufacturing method for forming a nozzle substrate on which a nozzle for ejecting liquid is formed by electroforming,
A resist forming step of forming a resist representing the hole shape of the nozzle on the base material for electroforming;
A deposition step of depositing metal by electroforming on the substrate on which the resist is formed;
A resist stripping step for removing the resist with a stripping solution;
An ashing process for performing an ashing process on the metal deposited by the deposition process;
A method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate, comprising: It is a manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate according to claim 1,
The method of manufacturing a nozzle substrate, wherein the ashing process is an ashing process using a reactive ion etcher method. It is a manufacturing method of the nozzle substrate according to claim 1 or 2,
The method for manufacturing a nozzle substrate, wherein the metal is nickel. A method of manufacturing a nozzle substrate according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The method of manufacturing a nozzle substrate, wherein the resist is formed such that a side facing the base material is opposite to a liquid ejecting direction.   A liquid ejecting apparatus comprising the nozzle substrate manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid is ejected from a nozzle formed on the nozzle substrate.

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