JP2009143014A - Liquid droplet ejection head, ink cartridge and inkjet apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid droplet ejection head which has also a large degree of dimensional freedom of a step part, can achieve prevention of adhesive squeeze fully with a margin, and surely makes an adhesive squeeze out to a supporting substrate side even if the adhesive protrudes from the step part, and to provide an ink cartridge and an inkjet apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: In the liquid droplet ejection head, a liquid droplet element substrate equipped with a plurality of liquid droplet ejecting elements and one or more supply ports which are formed on a surface of the opposite side to a surface where the liquid droplet ejecting elements are set and which supply a liquid droplet material to the liquid droplet ejecting elements is joined to the supporting substrate equipped with the liquid droplet supply ports by using the adhesive. A step lower than a joining surface between the substrates is formed on the supporting substrate side at a part in contact with the liquid droplet material near a substrate joining part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge head, an ink cartridge, and an ink jet apparatus that prevent an adhesive from protruding.

  A droplet discharge head used in an ink jet recording apparatus used as an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile machine, a copying apparatus, or a plotter is connected to a fine droplet discharge port (hereinafter referred to as a nozzle) that discharges a droplet. A liquid chamber (also called a discharge chamber, a pressure chamber, a pressurized liquid chamber, and an ink flow path), an energy generating means for pressurizing the ink in the liquid chamber, and an ink supply port for supplying ink from the outside The element substrate is connected to an external mechanism such as an ink supply system and the element substrate itself is required to be held, so that it is joined to a support substrate (also referred to as a frame).

  When bonding the element substrate and the support substrate with an adhesive, the adhesive that protrudes from the ink supply port crawls into the ink flow path of the element substrate due to capillary action and causes ink discharge failure. Strict management is required, such as the alignment accuracy of the element substrate and the support substrate, adhesive coating thickness, adhesive viscosity management, and adhesive curing conditions.

  In the future, in order to acquire competitiveness in the market of image forming apparatuses, and to cope with cost reduction and high image quality of the head, it is necessary to reduce the size of the droplet discharge head and increase the number of colors of the head. In order to realize this, with further miniaturization, more accurate process management is required.

  By the way, in order to suppress the influence of the adhesive protruding at the time of adhesive bonding in the inkjet head, a groove shape is provided on the back surface of the recording element substrate for the purpose of preventing the adhesive from entering the recording liquid supply port of the recording element substrate. There is a configuration in which discontinuities are created and pasted together on the adhesive application shape on the support member.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for preventing the adhesive from flowing into the ink supply port, reliably preventing adjacent color mixing when forming multiple colors on one substrate, and easily aligning the substrate and the support plate. An ink supply port for supplying ink from the back surface of the substrate and a recess surrounding the outer periphery of the ink supply port are formed, and correspondingly, a protrusion is formed on the outer periphery of the ink supply port of the support substrate. There is a configuration and a construction method in which an adhesive is applied to the outer periphery of the substrate and the substrate concave portion and the support substrate convex portion are fitted.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a concave portion is provided in a base layer for the purpose of releasing excess adhesive, improving joint strength, and improving joint reliability in adhesive joint between the base layer of the nozzle plate and the ink flow path substrate. Is disclosed.

Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration related to a step (prevention of protrusion) opened in a flow path between a frame and a diaphragm.
JP 2001-239671 A JP 2003-072065 A

  As described in Patent Document 1 described above, by providing a recess that allows excess adhesive to escape, it is possible to prevent the excess adhesive from protruding to some extent, but it is not possible to completely prevent the adhesive from protruding. It is difficult to reliably avoid problems caused by overhang.

  In addition, by applying an adhesive to the outer periphery of the convex portion, the adhesive does not protrude from the ink supply port, but the surface to be joined to the ink supply port and the convex portion is not filled with the adhesive, leaving a gap. Even if the ink is filled, the air in the gap cannot be excluded, which may cause unstable ink ejection, or may not provide sufficient bonding strength, resulting in failure to obtain desired reliability and durability.

  In addition, the projections and recesses are fitted in a fine area, but the fitting with the projections is not sufficient, especially if the recess shape is not finished as designed even if part of the recess shape is caused by foreign matter in the recess formation process. As a result, a gap is generated between the substrates, resulting in insufficient bonding strength or ink leakage.

  In Patent Document 1, a concave portion or a convex portion is formed on the substrate surface, which is an original joint portion different from the ink supply port portion, on the substrate. However, it is expected that it will be difficult to dispose the recesses and projections for providing sufficient functions, and it is considered that countermeasures for defects caused by the protruding adhesive cannot be obtained sufficiently.

  In Patent Document 2, there is a possibility that the adhesive cannot be absorbed by the concave portion with a sufficient margin in the depth of the concave portion (space where the adhesive is held) to prevent the adhesive from sticking out due to restrictions on the thickness of the diaphragm. . In addition, even if the adhesive protrudes from the diaphragm concave portion, a relief part is provided, and the adhesive can be released here, but the adhesive itself protrudes to the functional part (the part responsible for droplet discharge) itself, there is a risk. Will bear.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, the degree of dimensional freedom of the step portion is large, can prevent the adhesive from protruding with a sufficient margin, and even if the adhesive protrudes from the step portion, It is an object of the present invention to provide a droplet discharge head, an ink cartridge, and an ink jet apparatus that reliably protrude to the support substrate side.

  The invention according to claim 1 includes at least one supply that includes a plurality of droplet discharge elements and supplies the droplet material to the droplet discharge element on a surface opposite to the surface on which the droplet discharge elements are provided. In a droplet discharge head in which a droplet element substrate having a mouth and a support substrate having a droplet supply port are bonded using an adhesive, the portion where the droplet material in the vicinity of the substrate bonding portion is in contact is supported. The droplet discharge head is characterized in that the substrate has a lower step than the bonding surface between the substrates.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the liquid droplet ejection head according to the first aspect, the liquid droplet ejection element includes a plurality of liquid droplet ejection elements, and the surface of the liquid droplet ejection element is opposite to the surface on which the liquid droplet ejection elements are provided. In a droplet discharge head in which a droplet element substrate having one or more supply ports for supplying droplets and a support substrate having a droplet supply port are bonded using an adhesive, the element substrate and the support substrate There is a step in the portion in contact with the droplet material in the vicinity of both substrate joints.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the liquid droplet ejection head according to the first or second aspect, the opening front opening of the support substrate has a larger opening front opening than the liquid supply opening opening front of the element substrate.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink cartridge in which a liquid droplet ejection head and an ink tank that supplies ink to the liquid droplet ejection head are integrated, and the liquid droplet ejection head is a liquid according to any one of the first to third aspects. An ink cartridge comprising a droplet discharge head.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the ink jet apparatus equipped with a liquid droplet ejection head for ejecting liquid droplets, the liquid droplet ejection head includes the liquid droplet ejection head according to any one of the first to third aspects. Inkjet apparatus.

  The degree of dimensional freedom of the step part is large, it is possible to prevent the adhesive from protruding with a sufficient margin, and even if the adhesive protrudes from the step part, the liquid droplet ejection head, ink cartridge, An ink jet device can be provided.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a droplet discharge head according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. It is an overlapped view and is shown in a partial cross-sectional view. This embodiment shows an example of a side shooter type in which ink droplets are ejected from nozzle holes provided on the surface of the substrate. The droplet discharge head of this embodiment has a laminated structure in which three substrates 1, 2, 3 having a structure described in detail below and a support substrate 4 are stacked.

  The first substrate 1 includes a plurality of electrostatic actuators 10 as droplet discharge energy generating elements. Further, in order to individually drive the electrostatic actuator 10, a pad 11 is arranged so that a driving pulse can be applied to an electrode (not shown) from the outside. In addition, a common ink supply port 12 that penetrates the first substrate 1 is provided so that ink can be supplied from the back surface of the first substrate 1. The second substrate 2 bonded to the upper surface of the first substrate 1 includes a <110> silicon substrate, a discharge chamber 13 whose surface is the electrostatic actuator 10 surface, and ink is supplied to each discharge chamber 13. A common liquid chamber 14 is provided. A fluid resistance unit 15 that communicates the common liquid chamber 14 and the discharge chamber 13 is provided. The third substrate 3 that is subsequently bonded to the upper surface of the second substrate is a nickel substrate having a thickness of 50 microns, and the nozzle holes 16 are provided in the surface portion of the substrate 2 so as to communicate with the discharge chamber 13. ing. After the substrates (substrates 1, 2 and 3) are joined, the support substrate 4 provided with the ink supply ports 17 is joined with an adhesive in order to supply ink from the outside.

  In the present invention, each of the above-described parts is not important and can be formed by a known prior art method.

  The operation of the droplet discharge head configured as described above will be described. Ink is supplied from the ink supply port 17 of the support substrate 4, passes through the common ink supply port of the first substrate 1, and is secondly connected to the individual electrodes in a state where the discharge chamber 12 of the substrate 2 is filled with ink. For example, a pulse potential of 40 V is applied to the pad 11 by an oscillation circuit. When a voltage is applied, electrostatic attraction acts between an individual electrode (not shown) of the electrostatic actuator 10 and a vibration plate (not shown), and the vibration plate (not shown) bends downward. Ink flows into the discharge chamber 13 through 15. Thereafter, when the pulse voltage to the individual electrode (not shown) is set to 0 V, the diaphragm (not shown) bent downward by electrostatic force returns to its original state due to its own rigidity. As a result, the pressure in the discharge chamber 13 rapidly increases, and ink droplets are discharged from the nozzle holes 16 toward the recording paper. By repeating this, ink can be ejected continuously.

  In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, when the support substrate 4 and the first substrate 1 are bonded by the adhesive, the excess adhesive travels along the inner wall of the common ink supply port 12 of the first substrate 1 and the ink flows. It is possible to prevent the flow into the chamber 12 and the nozzle hole 16 and to manufacture the droplet discharge / discharge head with high accuracy and stability.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on examples.

Example 1
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the first embodiment of the present invention and a droplet discharge head (FIGS. 1 and 2) according to the prior art on the S plane of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 shows the first embodiment of the present invention. A schematic plan view and a cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ of the support substrate 4 in the example are shown. FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of the support substrate 4 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As in FIG. 4, a schematic cross-sectional view of a droplet discharge / discharge head in a conventional example is shown.

  The main point of the present invention is that when the first substrate and the support substrate are bonded by the adhesive, the excess adhesive protruding from the inner wall of the ink supply port is removed from the ink supply port of the first substrate to the second substrate and the third substrate. This embodiment is characterized in that it does not flow into the substrate, and this embodiment will be described in detail with respect to the above points.

  In the schematic cross-sectional view of the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3, the electrostatic actuator 10, the first substrate 1 having the common ink supply port 12, the discharge chamber 13, the common liquid chamber 14, and the fluid resistance portion 15 are provided. The second substrate 2 and the third substrate 3 having the nozzle holes 16 previously bonded (element substrate) and the support substrate 4 are bonded via an ultraviolet or thermosetting adhesive 50. ing. In this bonding, the adhesive 50 is thinly applied to the support substrate 4 by a thin film transfer method or a drawing method, for example, with a thickness of 1 μm, and then the element substrate (the first to third substrates bonded) and the support substrate 4. And the adhesive is cured while being pressed using a pressure jig (not shown) or the like.

  At this time, when an abnormal application of the adhesive 50 occurs, excess adhesive in the middle of curing protrudes into the common ink supply port of the first substrate 1 and the inner wall of the ink supply port 17 of the support substrate 4. As described above, the support substrate 4 is prevented from flowing through the inner wall of the common ink supply port of the first substrate 1 into the fluid resistance portion 15 of the second substrate 2, the discharge chamber 13, or the nozzle hole 16 of the third substrate 3. Is provided with a step 100 so that the protruding adhesive 50 remains in the step 50. The size of the step may be optimized depending on the viscosity of the adhesive, the coating film thickness, and the surface properties (wetting properties) of the common ink supply port 12 and the ink supply port 17, and the depth d and width w of the step 100 are A sufficient effect is obtained at about 1 to 10 μm.

  Moreover, what is necessary is just to set an optimal shape as a level | step difference cross-sectional shape as shown in FIG. In addition, the opening dimensions of the common ink supply port 112 and the ink supply port 17 on the joint surface between the first substrate 1 and the support substrate 4 are set to X1 <X4 and Y1 <Y4 as shown in FIG. Even when the amount of protrusion of the adhesive exceeds the allowable level of the step, the adhesive does not crawl up to the common ink supply port of the first substrate 1 and crawls up the inner wall of the ink supply port 17 of the support substrate 4. As in the case of technology, it is possible to prevent problems caused by the protruding adhesive.

  In this way, by providing a step for fixing the protruding adhesive on the inner wall of the ink supply port, sufficient adhesive strength can be obtained because there is no discontinuous portion of the bonding surface as compared with the conventional configuration in which a groove is provided on the outer periphery of the ink supply port. In the present invention, since there is a step in the ink supply port itself, there are almost no layout restrictions compared to the conventional technique in which grooves are formed in the outer peripheral portion. In order to cope with this trend, it is possible to sufficiently withstand the demands for miniaturization and high-precision positioning, and a liquid droplet ejection head with higher accuracy, higher density, and higher reliability than the prior art can be realized. In addition, the present invention can be applied to the manufacture of a droplet discharge head having high accuracy, high density, and high reliability, which is excellent in dimensional control having good productivity and production efficiency, which has been difficult with the prior art.

  In the first embodiment, an electrostatic actuator is used as the droplet discharge energy generating element. However, an electrothermal change element or a piezoelectric element may be applied.

(Example 2)
FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a joint portion between the first substrate 101 and the support substrate 104 of the droplet discharge head according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The second and third substrates are the same as in the first embodiment.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the step 110 is provided on the support substrate 104, the step 102 is provided on the first substrate 101, and the steps are provided on both substrates. When a Si substrate is used as the material of the first substrate 101, the groove 102 is easily formed by wet etching using an alkaline solution or dry etching after patterning by a lithography technique which is a known prior art method. Can do. Here, in the wet etching method using an alkaline solution, the groove 101 can be formed at the same time as the common ink supply port 12, and a desired shape can be formed without deteriorating mass productivity.

  As described above, the second embodiment is more effective than the first embodiment in that the adhesive that protrudes into the common ink supply port 12 and the ink supply port 17 is prevented from creeping up to the inner wall of the first substrate 101 common ink supply port 12. Is also expensive. Therefore, as in the first embodiment, a liquid droplet ejection head having high accuracy, high density, and high reliability can be realized.

(Example 3)
Next, an ink cartridge according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  This ink cartridge is obtained by integrating the ink jet head 81 according to any of the above embodiments having the nozzle 80 and the like, and the ink tank 82 for supplying ink to the ink jet head 81.

  Thus, in the case of an ink tank integrated head, by making the actuator part highly reliable, the yield and reliability of the ink cartridge are improved, and the cost of the head integrated ink cartridge can be reduced.

(Example 5)
Next, an example of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with the ink jet head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 is an explanatory perspective view of the recording apparatus, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory side view of a mechanism portion of the recording apparatus.

  This ink jet recording apparatus includes a carriage movable in the main scanning direction inside the recording apparatus main body 81, a recording head composed of an ink jet head embodying the present invention mounted on the carriage, an ink cartridge for supplying ink to the recording head, and the like. A sheet feeding cassette (or a sheet feeding tray) 84 on which a large number of sheets 83 can be stacked from the front side is detachably attached to the lower part of the apparatus main body 81. The manual feed tray 85 for manually feeding the paper 83 can be opened, the paper 83 fed from the paper feed cassette 84 or the manual feed tray 85 is taken in, and the printing mechanism 82 After recording a required image, the image is discharged to a paper discharge tray 86 mounted on the rear side.

  The printing mechanism 82 holds the carriage 93 slidably in the main scanning direction (the direction perpendicular to the paper in FIG. 9) with a main guide rod 91 and a sub guide rod 92 which are guide members horizontally mounted on left and right side plates (not shown). The carriage 93 is provided with a plurality of ink discharge ports including a head 94 formed of an ink jet head according to the present invention that discharges ink droplets of each color of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (Bk). (Nozzles) are arranged in a direction crossing the main scanning direction, and are mounted with the ink droplet ejection direction facing downward. In addition, each ink cartridge 95 for supplying ink of each color to the head 94 is replaceably mounted on the carriage 93.

  The ink cartridge 65 has an air opening communicating with the atmosphere upward, a supply opening supplying ink to the inkjet head below, and a porous body filled with ink inside, and the capillary force of the porous body. Thus, the ink supplied to the inkjet head is maintained at a slight negative pressure. Further, although the heads 64 of the respective colors are used here as the recording heads, a single head having nozzles for ejecting ink droplets of the respective colors may be used.

  Here, the carriage 63 is slidably fitted to the main guide rod 61 on the rear side (downstream side in the paper conveyance direction), and is slidably mounted on the secondary guide rod 62 on the front side (upstream side in the paper conveyance direction). is doing. In order to move and scan the carriage 63 in the main scanning direction, a timing belt 70 is stretched between a driving pulley 68 and a driven pulley 69 that are rotationally driven by a main scanning motor 67, and the timing belt 70 is moved to the carriage 63. The carriage 63 is reciprocally driven by forward and reverse rotations of the main scanning motor 67.

  On the other hand, in order to convey the paper 83 set in the paper feed cassette 84 to the lower side of the head 94, the paper feed roller 101 and the friction pad 102 for separating and feeding the paper 83 from the paper feed cassette 84 and the paper 83 are guided. A guide member 103, a transport roller 104 that reverses and transports the fed paper 83, a transport roller 105 that is pressed against the peripheral surface of the transport roller 104, and a leading end that defines a feed angle of the paper 83 from the transport roller 104 A roller 106 is provided. The transport roller 104 is rotationally driven by a sub-scanning motor 107 through a gear train.

  A printing receiving member 109 is provided as a paper guide member that guides the paper 83 sent from the transport roller 104 below the recording head 94 in accordance with the movement range of the carriage 93 in the main scanning direction. A conveyance roller 111 and a spur 112 that are rotationally driven to send the paper 83 in the paper discharge direction are provided on the downstream side of the printing receiving member 109 in the paper conveyance direction, and the paper 83 is further delivered to the paper discharge tray 86. A roller 113 and a spur 114, and guide members 115 and 116 that form a paper discharge path are disposed.

  At the time of recording, the recording head 94 is driven according to the image signal while moving the carriage 93, thereby ejecting ink onto the stopped sheet 83 to record one line. Record the line. Upon receiving a recording end signal or a signal that the trailing edge of the paper 83 has reached the recording area, the recording operation is terminated and the paper 83 is discharged.

  Further, a recovery device 117 for recovering defective ejection of the head 94 is disposed at a position outside the recording area on the right end side in the movement direction of the carriage 93. The recovery device 117 includes a cap unit, a suction unit, and a cleaning unit. The carriage 93 is moved to the recovery device 117 side during printing standby and the head 94 is capped by the capping means, and the ejection port portion is kept in a wet state to prevent ejection failure due to ink drying. Further, by ejecting ink that is not related to recording during recording or the like, the ink viscosity of all the ejection ports is made constant and stable ejection performance is maintained.

  When a discharge failure occurs, the discharge port (nozzle) of the head 94 is sealed with a capping unit, and bubbles and the like are sucked out from the discharge port with the suction unit through the tube. Is removed by the cleaning means to recover the ejection failure. Further, the sucked ink is discharged to a waste ink reservoir (not shown) installed at the lower part of the main body and absorbed and held by an ink absorber inside the waste ink reservoir.

  Thus, since this inkjet recording apparatus is equipped with an inkjet head equipped with an electrostatic actuator embodying the present invention, there is no ink droplet ejection failure due to diaphragm drive failure, and stable ink droplet ejection characteristics. As a result, the image quality is improved. In addition, since a head that can be driven at a low voltage is mounted, the power consumption of the entire inkjet recording apparatus can be reduced.

  In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to an ink jet head. However, the present invention can also be applied to a liquid droplet ejection head that ejects liquid droplets other than ink, for example, a liquid resist for patterning.

  According to this embodiment, in the droplet discharge / ejection head manufactured by bonding the element substrate and the support substrate with an adhesive, excess adhesion protrudes into the ink flow path, but a step is formed on the inner wall of the ink flow path on the bonding surface. By providing this, the protruding adhesive can be kept at this level difference, and it is possible to prevent the adhesive from creeping up into the discharge chamber and the nozzle hole. Therefore, compared to the conventional measures against protruding adhesives (grooves are formed on the outer periphery of the ink supply port), the layout is more flexible and can be used for miniaturization and multicolor heads. In addition, a liquid droplet ejection head having high reliability can be realized. In addition, it is possible to produce a liquid droplet ejection head with high precision, high density, and high reliability that has excellent adhesiveness, good productivity, and production efficiency that was difficult to achieve with conventional technology. Applicable to.

  The purpose and effect of each claim are described below.

  (Claim 2) Further, by providing a step for restricting the adhesive protruding to both of the bonded substrates without increasing the number of steps, it is possible to sufficiently cope with the adhesive protruding beyond the structure of claim 2. Therefore, a highly accurate and reliable droplet discharge / discharge head can be obtained without improving productivity and reducing yield.

  (3) An ink supply port on the support substrate side even when the protruding adhesive does not stay in the step by making the ink channel opening on the support substrate side larger than the ink channel port on the element substrate side. The inner wall can be crawled up so that the ink discharge chamber is not affected by the adhesive, so that the process tolerance is widened and mass productivity can be expected to improve, contributing to stable liquidation.

  (Claim 4) Since the ink jet head which is any one of the liquid droplet ejection heads according to the present invention and the ink tank for supplying ink to the ink jet head are integrated, manufacturing defects can be reduced and the cost can be reduced. it can.

  (Claim 5) According to the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention, since the ink jet head equipped with any one of the droplet discharge heads according to the present invention is mounted, manufacturing defects are reduced and mass productivity is high. Cost can be reduced.

  Each embodiment described above is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. The present invention is applicable to an ink jet recording apparatus.

1 is an exploded perspective view of a droplet discharge head in a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram in which three substrates 1, 2, 3 and a support substrate 4 are superposed. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a droplet discharge head according to a first embodiment of the present invention and a related art. FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view and a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line A-A ′ as viewed from the bonding surface of the support substrate 4 of the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of the support substrate 4 of 1st Example of this invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a joint portion between a first substrate 101 and a support substrate 104 of a droplet discharge head according to a second embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the ink cartridge which concerns on this invention. It is a perspective explanatory view of an ink jet recording apparatus. It is side surface explanatory drawing of the mechanism part of an inkjet recording device.

Explanation of symbols

1, 2, 3 Substrate 4 Support substrate 10 Electrostatic actuator 11 Pad 12 Common ink supply port 13 Ejection chamber 14 Common liquid chamber 15 Fluid resistance portion 16 Nozzle hole 17 Ink supply port

Claims (5)

A liquid having a plurality of droplet discharge elements, and having one or more supply ports for supplying the droplet material to the droplet discharge elements on a surface opposite to the surface on which the droplet discharge elements are provided In a droplet discharge head in which a droplet element substrate and a support substrate including the droplet supply port are bonded using an adhesive,
A droplet discharge head characterized in that a portion of the substrate bonding portion in contact with the droplet material has a level difference lower than the bonding surface between the substrates on the support substrate side. A droplet having a plurality of droplet discharge elements and having one or more supply ports for supplying the droplets to the droplet discharge element on a surface opposite to the surface on which the droplet discharge elements are provided In a droplet discharge head in which an element substrate and a support substrate having the droplet supply port are bonded using an adhesive,
2. The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein a step is formed at a portion in contact with the droplet material in the vicinity of the substrate bonding portion of both the element substrate and the support substrate.   The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein an opening opening of the droplet supply port of the support substrate is larger than the opening of the droplet supply port on the element substrate side.   An ink cartridge in which a droplet discharge head and an ink tank for supplying ink to the droplet discharge head are integrated, wherein the droplet discharge head includes the droplet discharge head according to any one of claims 1 to 3. An ink cartridge characterized by.   An ink jet apparatus equipped with a liquid droplet ejection head for ejecting liquid drops, wherein the liquid droplet ejection head comprises the liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1.

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