JP2887974B2 - Electrostatic latent image forming device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrostatic latent image forming apparatus used for a printer, a facsimile or the like, and more particularly, to a method for generating charged particles (ions) and forming an electrostatic latent image by the ions. The present invention relates to an electrostatic latent image forming apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as this type of electrostatic latent image forming apparatus, there is the following apparatus. This is because, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, a plurality of drive electrodes 51, 51... Are provided on the surface of an insulating substrate 57 in parallel with each other, and the drive electrodes 51, 51 Are provided so as to intersect with each other, and a matrix is formed by the two electrodes 51, 51, and 52, 52,. The control electrodes 52, 52,.
The openings 53, 5 are provided at positions intersecting the drive electrodes 51, 51,.
3 are formed.

Further, a screen electrode 55 is provided on the lower surface of the control electrodes 52, 52... With an insulating layer 54 interposed therebetween, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 15, the control electrode 52, the screen electrode 55,
, And openings 58 for ion derivation at positions corresponding to the openings 53, 53,.
58 ... are formed.

[0004] The electrostatic latent image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
, A high-frequency high voltage is applied between the driving electrodes 51, 51... And the screen electrode 55, and a DC voltage is applied to the screen electrode 55. In addition, the control electrode 5
A pulse voltage corresponding to image information is selectively applied to 2, 52.

As shown in FIG. 16, creeping corona discharge occurs in the openings 53, 53 between the drive electrodes 51, 51, to which the voltage is selectively applied, and the control electrodes 52, 52,. R is generated, and the ion current S generated by the creeping corona discharge R is accelerated or absorbed by an electric field formed between the control electrodes 52, 52... And the screen electrode 55, thereby controlling the emission of the ions I. The electrostatic latent image is formed on the latent image carrier 59 by the ions I according to the image signal.

Incidentally, this electrostatic latent image forming apparatus is manufactured as follows. Are printed in a predetermined pattern on the insulating substrate 57 made of an insulating material using conductive ink.
The insulating substrate 50 on which 1, 51... Are formed is fired. Next, after the insulating layer 50 is laminated and fired on the insulating substrate 57 on which the driving electrodes 51, 51... Are formed, the control electrodes 52, 52. Printing and baking are performed in a predetermined pattern with conductive ink so as to intersect. After that, a material formed by further laminating an insulating layer 54 on the insulating layer 50 on which the control electrodes 52, 52... Are formed is fired at a high temperature to be integrated. Finally, a screen electrode 55 previously formed of a thin metal plate or the like is fixed on the insulating layer 54 by means of bonding or the like.

[0007]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems. That is, in the above-described electrostatic latent image forming apparatus, the screen electrode 55 which is the third electrode is fixed on the insulating layer 54 by a method such as bonding. Therefore, the screen electrode 55 is connected to a thin metal plate or the like by the opening 5 for deriving ions.
8, 58.. Must be formed and the screen electrode 55 must be fixed on the insulating layer 54 by means such as adhesion, and the formation and attachment of the screen electrode 55 are troublesome, and cost and cost are increased. There is a problem that the manufacturing process becomes complicated. Further, as the latent image formation density of the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus is increased, the screen electrodes 55 are provided with drive electrodes 51, 51.
At the position corresponding to the matrix formed by
The openings 58, 58... For deriving ions must be formed. Therefore, it is difficult to form the ion extraction openings 58, 58,... In the screen electrode 55, and there is a problem that the ion extraction openings 58, 58,. Are formed in the insulating layer 54 to which the screen electrode 55 is fixed, at the positions corresponding to the openings 53 of the control electrodes 52, 52. Are formed larger than the ion deriving openings 58, 58, in consideration of the misalignment with the opening portions 58, 58, etc. Therefore, the openings 53, 5 and 5 of the control electrodes 52, 52.
3 generate ions I in the opening 56 of the insulating layer 54,
56 and the opening 5 for deriving ions of the screen electrode 55
There is also a problem that the extraction is hindered at the step portion between 8, 58, and so on, and the ion I cannot be efficiently discharged.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.
The purpose is to easily form the third electrode, reduce the cost, and easily and accurately form the ion lead-out opening even when the latent image formation density is increased. It is another object of the present invention to provide an electrostatic latent image forming apparatus capable of efficiently performing ion emission.

That is, the present invention comprises an insulating substrate, a first electrode, a second electrode, a third electrode, a first insulating layer, and a second insulating layer. The first electrode and the second electrode are provided in a matrix on the insulating substrate with the first insulating layer interposed therebetween, and the second electrode is
A space region in which a creeping corona discharge is generated by applying a voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the third electrode has a second insulating layer between the second electrode and the second electrode. In the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus having an opening for ion derivation, the third electrode is printed by printing a conductive material on the second insulating layer and then baked. In addition, the opening of the second insulating layer and the third electrode is formed by a lift-off method, and the opening width of the opening of the second insulating layer and the third electrode is set to the opening of the second electrode. The opening width is configured to be equal to or sequentially smaller than the opening width of the portion.

[0010]

In the present invention, the third electrode is connected to the second electrode.
Is formed by printing a conductive material on the insulating layer and baking the same, so that the third electrode is formed by a printing and baking process in the same manner as the first electrode and the second electrode. Accordingly, the third electrode can be easily and accurately formed. Further, the openings of the second insulating layer and the third electrode are formed by a lift-off method, and the opening widths of the openings of the second insulating layer and the third electrode are adjusted to the opening width of the opening of the second electrode. Since the opening width is configured to be equal to or successively smaller than the opening width, the opening of the third electrode can be easily and accurately formed, and ions can be efficiently extracted.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on the illustrated embodiment.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show an embodiment of the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a recording head as an electrostatic latent image forming apparatus, and the recording head 1 includes a planar rectangular insulating substrate 2 made of ceramics or the like. This insulating substrate 2
As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of linear drive electrodes 3, 3,... Are provided in parallel with each other as first electrodes, and on these drive electrodes 3, 3,. A plurality of control electrodes 4, 4,... Are provided as second electrodes so as to intersect with the drive electrodes 3, 3,... Via the insulating layer 16, and a matrix is formed by the two electrodes 3, 3,. Is formed. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the control electrodes 4, 4,... Have circular openings 5, 5,. Is provided. By these insulating substrate 2, insulating layer 16, drive electrode 3 and control electrode 4,
As shown in FIG. 3, the ion generator 6 is configured.

As shown in FIG. 2, a screen electrode 8 as a third electrode is provided on the lower surface of the control electrode 4 of the ion generator 6 with a spacer layer 7 as an insulating layer interposed therebetween. ing. As shown in FIG. 5, the spacer layer 7 is formed in a flat rectangular shape having a length substantially equal to that of the insulating substrate 2 and a slightly smaller width, and is fixed to the first insulating substrate 2 by means such as adhesion. Have been. In the spacer layer 7, openings 9, 9,... Having the same size as the openings 5, 5,. Also, the screen electrode 8 has an opening 1 as an ion deriving region having the same diameter as the openings 5, 5,... At positions corresponding to the openings 5, 5,.
0, 10,... Are provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the recording head 1 constructed as described above has a dielectric drum 11 as a latent image carrier.
And at a predetermined distance L from each other. The distance L is set to, for example, about 150 to 350 μm. This dielectric drum 11 is formed by forming a dielectric layer 13 on the surface of a conductive substrate 12.

As shown in FIG. 2, the recording head 1 has an AC power supply 17 connected between the drive electrodes 3, 3,... And the screen electrode 8. A high-frequency high voltage is applied between 8. On the other hand, a pulse voltage is selectively applied to the control electrodes 4, 4... By an ion control power supply 18, and a DC voltage is applied to the screen electrode 8 by a DC power supply 19.

By doing so, a surface corona discharge R is generated in the opening 5 as shown in FIG. 6 due to the potential difference between the drive electrode 3 and the control electrode 4 to which a voltage is selectively applied. The ions I generated by the creeping corona discharge R are accelerated or absorbed by an electric field selectively formed between the control electrode 4 and the screen electrode 8,
The ion stream S is controlled and emitted from the opening 10 of the screen electrode 8 to form an electrostatic latent image on the dielectric drum 11 according to an image signal.

In this embodiment, after the third electrode prints a conductive material on the second insulating layer,
It is formed by firing.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, the recording head is manufactured as follows.

First, as shown in FIG. 7A, a conductive material made of tungsten, silver, or the like is dispersed in a solvent in the form of a paste on an insulating substrate 2 formed of ceramics such as alumina or zirconia. Conductive ink
After the driving electrodes 3, 3,... Are printed in a predetermined shape, the insulating substrate 2 on which the driving electrodes 3, 3,.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7B, the insulating layer 16 is printed with an insulating ink in which glass or the like having a high insulating property is dispersed in a solvent in the form of a paste, and baked.

After that, on the insulating layer 16, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, after a photoresist is spin-coated, the photoresist 20 is exposed and cured through a predetermined mask, and then the uncured portion of the photoresist 20 is removed by etching, and the circular shape of the control electrodes 4, 4,... Openings 5, 5
The photoresist 20 is left at the position corresponding to.

Further, on the insulating layer 16 on which the photoresist 20 is formed as described above, as shown in FIG.
The control electrodes 4 and 4 are made of conductive ink made of nickel or the like.
Are formed in a predetermined shape, the conductive ink remaining on the photoresist 20 is scraped off as shown in FIG.

Next, the control electrodes 4, 4,...
As shown in FIG. 7F, the spacer layer 7 is laminated with a glass paste and the screen electrode 8 is laminated with a conductive material on the insulating layer 16 on which is formed, and baked.

By doing so, as shown in FIG. 7 (g), the drive electrodes 3, 3,..., The insulating layer 16, the control electrodes 4, 4,. And the screen electrode 8 are sequentially laminated.

As described above, since the screen electrode 8 is formed by printing a conductive material on the spacer layer 7 and then firing the same, the screen electrode 8 is formed by driving the drive electrodes 3, 3,. And the control electrodes 4, 4,..., Can be formed by a printing and baking process, and the screen electrode 8 can be formed easily and accurately.
Further, since the screen electrode 8 is formed by printing a conductive material on the spacer layer 7 and then baking the conductive material, even when the latent image formation density is increased, the ion lead-out opening is formed. Can be formed easily and with high precision. Furthermore, the openings 9, 9,... Of the spacer layer 7 for laminating the screen electrodes 8 can be formed to have the same diameter as the ion leading openings 10, 10,. Can do well.

Second Embodiment FIG. 8 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. The same portions as those of the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and described. ., And openings 9 formed in the spacer layer 7,
9 and the openings 10, 10... Formed as ion extraction regions formed in the screen electrode 8 are set such that the opening width is narrower on the tip end side as shown in FIG. By doing so, the ions I emitted from the ion leading openings 10, 10,... Of the screen electrode 8 can be concentrated, and a high-density and high-resolution electrostatic latent image can be formed.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the shape of the photoresist 20 formed on the insulating layer 16 is controlled by controlling the exposure conditions and the drying conditions. Is formed in a convex shape such that the width gradually becomes narrower.

The other constructions and operations are the same as those of the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

Third Embodiment FIG. 11 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. The same portions as those of the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and described. ., And openings 9 formed in the spacer layer 7,
9 and openings 10, 10... Formed as ion extraction regions formed in the screen electrode 8, as shown in FIG.
The opening diameters of the openings 5, 5,... Formed in the control electrodes 4, 4,... Are set to be small, and the openings 9, 9,. .. Of the electrode 8 are set such that the leading end side has a narrower opening width. In this way, the creeping corona discharge R can be efficiently generated by the openings 5, 5,... Of the control electrodes 4, 4,. , Ions I released from
And a high-density and high-resolution electrostatic latent image can be formed.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 12, the photoresist 20 formed on the insulating substrate 2 has a base end having a small diameter corresponding to the openings 5, 5,... Of the control electrodes 4, 4,. Part 20a and an upper part 2 having a larger diameter than the base end part 20a.
0b.

The other constructions and operations are the same as those of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

[0032]

According to the present invention, the third electrode is easily formed, the cost can be reduced, and ions can be extracted even when the latent image formation density is increased. It is possible to provide an electrostatic latent image forming apparatus capable of easily and highly accurately forming an opening for use, and capable of efficiently discharging ions.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an essential part showing an embodiment of an electrostatic latent image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an ion generation unit.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an insulating substrate on which electrodes of the device are formed.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an insulating substrate on which a screen electrode is formed in the same device.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory sectional view showing the operation of the embodiment of the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

7 (a) to 7 (g) are cross-sectional views each showing a manufacturing process of the device.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a main part of a second embodiment of the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing step of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing step of the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a main part of a third embodiment of the electrostatic latent image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing step of the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of a main part showing a conventional electrostatic latent image forming apparatus.

FIG. 14 is a sectional view of the same.

FIG. 15 is a plan view showing a state where a screen electrode is attached.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... insulating substrate, 3 ... drive electrode, 4 ... control electrode, 5 ... opening, 7 ... spacer layer, 8 ... screen electrode, 10 ... opening,

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 2/415

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An insulating substrate, a first electrode, a second electrode, a third electrode, a first insulating layer, and a second insulating layer, wherein the first electrode The second electrode is provided in a matrix on the insulating substrate with the first insulating layer interposed therebetween, and the second electrode applies a voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode. A third electrode provided with a second insulating layer interposed between the third electrode and the second electrode, and an opening for deriving ions; The third electrode is formed by printing a conductive material on the second insulating layer, and then firing the printed material, and forming the third electrode on the second insulating layer and the third electrode. The opening of the second electrode is formed by a lift-off method, and the opening width of the opening of the second insulating layer and the third electrode is set to the second width. An electrostatic latent image forming apparatus characterized in that the opening width is made equal to or successively smaller than the opening width of the electrode opening.