JP3997217B2 - Inkjet recording head substrate, drive control method, inkjet recording head, and inkjet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head substrate, an ink jet recording head, and a recording apparatus using the recording head, and more particularly to an electrothermal conversion element that generates thermal energy necessary for ejecting ink and a driving circuit for driving the electrothermal conversion element. The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head formed on the same substrate and a recording apparatus using the recording head.

  In general, an electrothermal conversion element (heater) of a recording head and a driving circuit thereof mounted on a recording apparatus according to an ink jet method are formed on the same substrate using a semiconductor process technique as shown in, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2. Formed on top. In addition to this drive circuit, the state of the semiconductor substrate, for example, a digital circuit for detecting the substrate temperature is formed on the same substrate, and the ink supply port is located near the center of the substrate and sandwiched between them. A configuration of a recording head in which a heater faces is proposed.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a semiconductor substrate for an ink jet recording head of this type, that is, a semiconductor substrate for an ink jet recording head including a circuit for outputting a digital signal for temperature detection.

  In FIG. 5, reference numeral 500 denotes a substrate in which a heater and a drive circuit are integrally formed by a semiconductor process technology. A heater / driver array 501 has a configuration in which a plurality of heaters and driver circuits are arranged. Reference numeral 502 denotes an ink supply port for supplying ink from the back surface of the substrate.

  A shift register 503 temporarily holds print data to be recorded. A decoder circuit 507 outputs a heater block selection signal for driving the heaters in the heater / driver array 501 for each heater block. An input circuit 504 includes a buffer circuit for inputting a digital signal to the shift register 503 and the decoder 507. Reference numeral 510 denotes an input terminal, which includes a terminal for supplying a logic element voltage Vdd, a terminal CLK for inputting a clock signal, a terminal for inputting print data, and the like.

  FIG. 7 is a timing chart for explaining a series of operations from sending print information to the shift register 503 to supplying current to the heater and driving.

  Print data is supplied to the DATA_A and DATA_B terminals in synchronization with the clock pulse input to the CLK terminal. The shift register 503 temporarily stores the supplied print data, and the latch circuit holds the print data by a latch signal applied to the BG terminal. After that, the Block signal for selecting the heater group divided into the desired blocks and the print data held by the latch signal are ANDed in a matrix form in synchronization with the HE signal that directly determines the current drive time. Heater current flows. Printing is performed by repeating this series of operations for each block.

  FIG. 6A is an equivalent circuit diagram for one segment for driving a current to a heater for ejecting ink. FIG. 6B is an equivalent circuit diagram corresponding to 1 bit of a shift register and a latch circuit for temporarily storing image data to be printed.

  Here, the block select signal input to the AND circuit 601 is a signal sent from the decoder 507 for selecting a heater group divided into blocks. The bit signal input to the AND circuit 601 is a signal that is transferred to the shift register 503 and then held by a latch signal. In order to selectively turn on each segment by the print data, the block select signal and the bit signal are ANDed in a matrix form by an AND circuit 601.

  Reference numeral 605 denotes a VH power source line serving as a heater driving power source, reference numeral 606 denotes a heater, and reference numeral 607 denotes a driver transistor for causing a current to flow through the heater 606. Reference numeral 602 denotes an inverter circuit for receiving and buffering the output of the AND circuit 601. Reference numeral 603 denotes a VDD power line serving as a power source for the inverter circuit 602. Reference numeral 608 denotes an inverter circuit serving as a buffer that receives the buffer output of the inverter circuit 602. Reference numeral 604 denotes a VHT power supply line which is supplied to the buffer 608 and serves as a power supply for supplying the gate voltage of the driver transistor.

  In general, the inverter 602, the shift register 503, and the like are digital circuits, and are basically operated by Lo / Hi pulses. In addition, the printing head's original print information interface and the applied pulses for driving the heater are also digital signals, and all the exchange of signals with the outside is performed by Lo / Hi logic pulses. The amplitude of these logic pulses is generally 0 V / 5 V or 0 V / 3.3 V, and the power supply VDD of the digital circuit is supplied by a single voltage among them. Therefore, a pulse having the amplitude of the VDD voltage is input to the AND circuit 601, and further input to the inverter circuit 608 in the next stage through the buffer constituted by the two-stage inverter circuit 602.

  On the other hand, as the driver transistor 607, the resistance value in the on state, that is, the so-called on-resistance is preferably as small as possible. This makes it possible to drive the recording head stably by preventing the substrate temperature from rising by minimizing the power consumed by other than the heater. If the on-resistance of the driver transistor 607 is large, a voltage drop due to the heater current flowing in this portion becomes large, and it becomes necessary to apply an extra high voltage to the heater, and wasteful power is consumed.

In order to reduce the on-resistance of the driver transistor 607, it is necessary to set the voltage applied to its gate high. For this reason, in the circuit shown in FIG. 6A, a circuit for converting the pulse into a pulse having an amplitude higher than the voltage VDD is required. Therefore, in the circuit shown in FIG. 6A, a power supply line 604 having a voltage VHT higher than the voltage VDD is prepared, and the segment selection signal input with a pulse having the amplitude of the VDD voltage is included in the inverter circuit 608. The signal is converted into a pulse having the amplitude of the voltage VHT by the buffer circuit. In this way, it is converted into a pulse having the amplitude of the voltage VHT and then applied to the gate of the driver transistor 607. That is, the exchange of signals with the outside and the signal processing in the internal digital circuit are all performed by pulses of the voltage amplitude of VDD (voltage for driving the logic circuit), and the voltage amplitude of VHT (elements) immediately before driving the gate of the driver transistor 607 A circuit (pulse amplitude conversion circuit) for converting the pulse to a driving voltage is added to each segment.
JP-A-5-185594 US Pat. No. 6,290,334

  Since the recording head generally takes a form in which a plurality of segments are arranged at high density, for example, when the segments are arranged at a density of 600 dpi, the segment width in the arrangement direction is limited to about 42.3 μm. In this pitch, when all the circuits shown in FIG. 6A for driving each segment are stored, the length of each segment increases in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction. become.

  FIG. 10 is an equivalent circuit diagram in the case where the pulse amplitude conversion circuit portion of FIG. 6A is specifically configured. As can be seen from this, since the pulse amplitude conversion circuit portion, particularly the level conversion portion indicated by the dotted line, is composed of many transistors, the required chip area is large.

  However, when considering the layout configuration of the recording head substrate having the above-described configuration, the pulse amplitude conversion circuit added to each segment leads to an increase in the length of each segment, leading to an increase in chip size. This is a factor of cost increase. That is, in the layout as described above, the chip expands in the direction orthogonal to the segment array, and the increase in the chip becomes significant. Further, when a pulse amplitude conversion circuit is added to each segment, for example, when a recording head having 256 segments is considered, the number of buffer circuits required is at least 256 inverters. This leads to a decrease in yield and a complicated circuit configuration, which further increases costs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a circuit configuration for converting a logic drive voltage to an element drive voltage without increasing the length in the direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of each segment. The purpose is to do.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the yield and simplify the circuit configuration by reducing the number of pulse amplitude conversion circuits and the number of elements formed on the substrate.

In order to achieve the above object, an ink jet recording head substrate according to the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is,
An inkjet recording head substrate having an electrothermal conversion element for generating thermal energy used for ejecting ink,
Based on the first voltage amplitude level of the input signal, the element driving signals for each electrothermal transducer in a selected block and a block selection signal for driving selected and the electrothermal transducer element for each block, the first A logic circuit that outputs at a second voltage amplitude level higher than the voltage amplitude level of 1 ;
A drive circuit provided for each electrothermal transducer element to drive the electrothermal transducers in block units based on the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit Is provided.

Further, according to the present invention for achieving the above object, a suitable drive control method for an ink jet recording head substrate is provided. This drive control method
A drive control method for an electrothermal conversion element in a substrate having an electrothermal conversion element for generating thermal energy used for ejecting ink, comprising:
Input an input signal of the first voltage amplitude level,
Based on the input signal, a block selection signal for selecting and driving the electrothermal conversion element for each block and an element drive signal for each electrothermal conversion element in the selected block from the first voltage amplitude level. Output at a high second voltage amplitude level,
The driving said electrothermal transducers in block units by a driving circuit provided for each of the electrothermal transducer on the basis of the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit.

Further, according to the present invention, there are provided an ink jet recording head, an ink jet recording head cartridge using the ink jet recording head substrate , and an ink jet recording apparatus using the ink jet recording head.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a circuit configuration for converting a logic driving voltage to an element driving voltage without increasing the length in the direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the segments. In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the yield and simplify the circuit configuration by reducing the number of pulse amplitude conversion circuits and the number of elements formed on the substrate.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Note that “recording” used in the present invention means not only giving an image having a meaning such as a character or a figure to a recording medium but also giving an image having no meaning such as a pattern. Is.
In addition, the “substrate” used below does not indicate a simple base material made of a silicon semiconductor but indicates a substrate provided with each element, circuit, wiring, or the like.
The shape of the substrate may be a plate shape or a chip-like substrate.
Further, “on the substrate” not only indicates the surface of the substrate, but also indicates the surface of the substrate and the inside of the substrate near the surface. In addition, the term “built-in” as used in the present invention does not simply indicate that separate elements are placed on a substrate, but each element is placed on a substrate by a semiconductor circuit manufacturing process or the like. It shows that it is integrally formed and manufactured.

  In the inkjet recording head substrate of the embodiment described below, the pulse amplitude voltage conversion (see FIG. 6A) performed immediately before entering the gate terminal of the driver transistor 607 is performed for each segment by the decoder output (Block This is performed before AND of (Select) and shift register output (BIT). In addition, a voltage higher than the logic voltage is applied to the circuit of the portion that performs AND for each segment, so in this embodiment, the elements of this portion are referred to as a decoder or a shift register (S / R). The transistor has a higher breakdown voltage than other logic circuits. With this configuration, it is possible to convert a segment selection signal input with a pulse having the amplitude of the VDD voltage into a pulse having the amplitude of the VHT voltage without increasing the length in the direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the segments. In particular, in the configuration of this embodiment, the pulse width conversion is performed before ANDing the output signal from the decoder side and the signal from the shift register side, so the pulse amplitude added for each segment. No conversion circuit is required, and the number of pulse width conversion circuits itself is the sum of the number of time-division-driven blocks (number of signals output from the decoder) and the number of data corresponding to each block (number of outputs from the shift register). The yield can be improved and the circuit configuration can be simplified.

<First Embodiment>
First, an outline of the ink jet recording apparatus will be described.

  FIG. 8 is a schematic view of an ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied. In the drawing, a lead screw 5005 rotates via driving force transmission gears 5011 and 5009 in conjunction with forward and reverse rotation of a driving motor 5013. The carriage HC has a pin (not shown) that engages with the spiral groove 5005 of the lead screw 5004 and is reciprocated in the directions of arrows a and b as the lead screw 5004 rotates. An ink jet cartridge IJC is mounted on the carriage HC.

  Reference numeral 5002 denotes a paper pressing plate that presses the paper against the platen 5000 in the moving direction of the carriage. Reference numerals 5007 and 5008 denote home position detecting means for confirming the presence of the lever 5006 of the carriage in this region and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013. Reference numeral 5016 denotes a member that supports a cap member 5022 that caps the front surface of the recording head. Reference numeral 5015 denotes suction means for sucking the inside of the cap, and performs suction recovery of the recording head through the opening 5023 in the cap. Reference numeral 5017 denotes a cleaning blade, and reference numeral 5019 denotes a member that enables the blade to move in the front-rear direction, and these are supported by a main body support plate 5018. Needless to say, the blade is not in this form, and a known cleaning blade can be applied to this example. Reference numeral 5021 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery, which moves in accordance with the movement of the cam 5020 engaged with the carriage, and the driving force from the driving motor is controlled by a known transmission means such as clutch switching. Is done.

  These capping, cleaning, and suction recovery are configured so that desired processing can be performed at their corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw 5004 when the carriage comes to the home position side region. Any of these can be applied to this example as long as the above operation is performed.

  Next, a control configuration for executing the recording control of the above-described ink jet recording apparatus will be described with reference to a block diagram shown in FIG. In the figure, showing a control circuit, reference numeral 1700 denotes an interface for inputting a recording signal, 1701 denotes an MPU, 1702 denotes a program ROM for storing a control program executed by the MPU 1701, and 1703 denotes various data (the recording signal and the recording supplied to the head). This is a dynamic RAM (hereinafter referred to as DRAM) for storing data and the like. Reference numeral 1704 denotes a gate array that controls supply of recording data to the recording head 1708, and supplies a signal for driving the recording head via the gate array. The gate array also controls data transfer among the interface 1700, MPU 1701, and RAM 1703.

  Reference numeral 1710 denotes a carrier motor for conveying the recording head 1708, and 1709 denotes a conveyance motor for conveying the recording paper. Reference numeral 1705 denotes an ink jet recording head substrate provided in the recording head 1708, and includes an ink discharge heater and its drive circuit. Reference numerals 1706 and 1707 denote motor drivers for driving the transport motor 1709 and the carrier motor 1710, respectively.

  The operation of the control configuration will be described. When a recording signal enters the interface 1700, the recording signal is converted into recording data for printing between the gate array 1704 and the MPU 1701. Then, the motor drivers 1706 and 1707 are driven, and the ink discharge heater is driven according to the recording data sent to the recording head substrate in the recording head 1708 to perform printing.

  FIG. 11 is an external perspective view showing a detailed configuration of the ink jet cartridge IJC.

  As shown in FIG. 11, the ink jet cartridge IJC is composed of a cartridge IJCK that ejects black ink and a cartridge IJCC that ejects three color inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y). These two cartridges are separable from each other and can be detached from the carriage HC independently of each other.

  The cartridge IJCK includes an ink tank ITK that stores black ink and a recording head IJHK that discharges and records black ink. These cartridges have an integrated configuration. Similarly, the cartridge IJCC includes an ink tank ITC that stores three color inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), and a recording head IJHC that discharges and records these color inks. However, these are integrated.

  Further, as apparent from FIG. 11, the nozzle row for ejecting black ink, the nozzle row for ejecting cyan ink, the nozzle row for ejecting magenta ink, and the nozzle row for ejecting yellow ink are arranged side by side in the carriage movement direction. The nozzle arrangement direction intersects the carriage movement direction.

  FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a three-dimensional structure of a recording head IJHC that discharges three color inks.

  From FIG. 12, the flow of ink supplied from the ink tank ITK becomes clear. The recording head IJHC has an ink channel 2C that supplies cyan (C) ink, an ink channel 2M that supplies magenta (M) ink, and an ink channel 2Y that supplies yellow (Y) ink. The ink channels are provided with supply paths (not shown) for supplying respective inks from the back side of the substrate.

  Through these ink channels, the C ink, M ink, and Y ink are guided to an electrothermal transducer (heater) 401 provided on the substrate by ink flow paths 301C, 301M, and 301Y, respectively. When the electrothermal converter (heater) 401 is energized through a circuit to be described later, heat is applied to the ink on the electrothermal converter (heater) 401, and the ink boils, resulting in the occurrence. Ink droplets 900C, 900M, and 900Y are ejected from the ejection ports 302C, 302M, and 302Y by bubbles.

  In FIG. 12, reference numeral 1 denotes an electrothermal transducer to be described later, various circuits that drive the memory, memory, various pads that serve as electrical contacts with the carriage HC, and recording in which various signal lines are formed. A head substrate (hereinafter referred to as a head substrate).

One electrothermal transducer (heater) and the MOS-FET that drives the electrothermal converter are collectively referred to as a recording element, and a plurality of recording elements are collectively referred to as a recording element unit.

  Although FIG. 12 shows the three-dimensional structure of the recording head IJHC that discharges color ink, the recording head IJHK that discharges black ink also has the same structure. However, the structure is one third of the configuration shown in FIG. That is, there is one ink channel, and the size of the head substrate is about one third.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an inkjet recording head according to the first embodiment. Reference numeral 100 denotes a substrate in which a heater and a drive circuit are integrally formed by a semiconductor process technology, and corresponds to the above-described ink jet recording head substrate 1705. Reference numeral 102 denotes an ink supply port (supply path) for supplying ink from the back surface of the substrate, 101 denotes a heater / driver array in which a plurality of heaters and driver circuits are arranged, and a heater which is an electrothermal converter for discharging ink. And a driver array for selectively driving the heater. Reference numeral 103 denotes a shift register having data corresponding to one block of time-division driving for temporarily storing print data to be recorded, and 107 selects and drives a heater in the heater / driver array for each heater block. A decoder circuit 104 is an input circuit including a buffer circuit for inputting a digital signal to the shift register 103 and the decoder 107, and 110 is an input terminal.

  Reference numeral 130 denotes a VHT voltage generation circuit that generates a VHT voltage supplied to the pulse amplitude conversion circuit based on the heater drive power supply voltage (VH), and 140 denotes a gate drive pulse of a driver signal having a VHT voltage amplitude. This is a pulse amplitude conversion circuit for converting to. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the pulse amplitude conversion circuit 140 of the present embodiment is provided in each of the output stage of the decoder circuit 140 and the output stage of the shift register 103.

  Reference numeral 121 denotes a temperature detection block including an element for detecting the temperature of the semiconductor substrate 100. Although the temperature detection block 121 for detecting the temperature of the substrate is illustrated as an element for monitoring the state of the substrate, the element for detecting the resistance value of the electrothermal conversion element or the current driving transistor is in operation. An element or the like for detecting the resistance value may be provided. Needless to say, a plurality of types of sensing elements may be provided.

FIG. 2 is an equivalent circuit diagram for one segment for driving the ink by supplying a current to the discharge heater in the first embodiment. Reference numeral 205 denotes a VH power source line serving as a heater driving power source, 206 denotes a heater, and 207 denotes a driver transistor for passing a current through the heater 206. FIG. 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram corresponding to 1 bit of a shift register and a latch circuit for temporarily storing image data to be printed.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the inkjet recording head substrate 100 of the present embodiment, each segment (a heating resistor for discharging ink) is used in the conventional circuit described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6A. The pulse amplitude conversion circuit added to is added to the output section of the shift register 103 and the decoder 107. That is, the pulse voltage amplitude is already increased before ANDing the output signal (block select signal) of the decoder circuit 107 and the output signal (bit signal) of the shift register circuit 103. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2, a pulse whose amplitude has already increased to the VHT voltage is supplied to each segment, and the conversion circuit becomes unnecessary, so that the area of the element spent for this becomes unnecessary.

  Here, since a high voltage is applied to the AND circuit 201 that takes an AND for each segment, a high-breakdown-voltage element is required for the transistor constituting the AND circuit 201. In the past, this part only required a low voltage corresponding to the logic voltage, so it was composed of low breakdown voltage elements. In this example, this part has a higher breakdown voltage than transistors constituting other logic circuits. Specifically, this is achieved by making the transistors constituting the AND circuit high-voltage elements.

  When such a high breakdown voltage transistor (MOS transistor) is used, each transistor becomes larger than a low breakdown voltage transistor. However, as described above, the number of pulse width conversion circuits (boost circuits) can be reduced. In addition, since it can be arranged at a position away from the vicinity of each segment, the size of the ink jet recording head substrate 100 can be reduced as a whole.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the shift register 103 and the pulse amplitude conversion circuit 140 according to the present embodiment. In contrast to the circuit configuration of the shift register shown in FIG. 6B, a pulse amplitude conversion circuit is added to the output stage. Here, the pulse amplitude is converted from the VDD voltage to the VHT voltage.

  The number of output stages of the shift register 103 and the decoder circuit 107 is determined by the number of divisions when all segments are driven in a time division manner, and is generally about 8 to 32 divisions. For example, when 256 segments are divided into 16 (each block has 16 segments), the number of necessary pulse amplitude conversion circuits is 16 × 2 (shift register side and decoder side) ) = 32. This is a significant reduction compared to 256 when a pulse amplitude conversion circuit is added to all segments. For this reason, the chip length in the direction perpendicular to the segment arrangement direction can be reduced. Further, the pulse amplitude conversion circuit added to the shift register 103 and the decoder circuit 107 increases the length of the chip in the arrangement direction, which is a slight increase with respect to the reduction of the length in the vertical direction. The total chip area is reduced.

<Second Embodiment>
FIG. 4 is a view for explaining an ink jet recording head substrate according to the second embodiment. In FIG. 4, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  In the second embodiment, the pulse amplitude conversion circuit 140 is inserted immediately after the input circuit 104. With such a configuration, only the same number of pulse amplitude conversion circuits as the number of input terminals (logic input terminals of CLK, DATA_A, DATA_B, BG, HE_A, and HE_B) are required, and further chip size reduction can be realized.

  As described above, according to each of the embodiments described above, the voltage conversion of the pulse amplitude, which is conventionally performed immediately before entering the gate terminal of the driver transistor, is performed before ANDing the decoder output and the shift register output. Thus, the circuit for converting the segment selection signal input with the pulse having the amplitude of the Vdd voltage into the pulse having the amplitude of the VHT voltage without increasing the length in the direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the segments. Configuration is realized. In addition, a circuit configuration in which the pulse amplitude conversion circuit added for each segment is significantly reduced is realized. For this reason, a reduction in chip size, an improvement in yield due to a decrease in the number of elements, and a cost reduction effect due to a simplified circuit configuration can be expected.

It is a figure explaining the structure of the inkjet recording head by 1st Embodiment. FIG. 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram for one segment for supplying ink to a discharge heater and driving the ink in the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows the shift register 103 structure by this embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the board | substrate for inkjet recording heads by 2nd Embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a semiconductor substrate for an ink jet recording head, that is, a semiconductor substrate for an ink jet recording head including a circuit for outputting a digital signal for temperature detection. (A) is an equivalent circuit diagram for one segment for driving a current to a heater for discharging ink, and (b) is a shift register and a latch circuit for temporarily storing image data to be printed. It is an equivalent circuit diagram corresponding to 1 bit. 5 is a timing chart for explaining a series of operations from sending print information to a shift register 503 and supplying current to a heater for driving. 1 is an overview of an ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied. It is a figure which shows the control structure for performing recording control of the inkjet recording device shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the equivalent circuit of a pulse width conversion circuit. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows the detailed structure of the inkjet cartridge IJC. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a three-dimensional structure of a recording head IJHC that discharges three color inks. FIG.

Claims (12)

An inkjet recording head substrate having an electrothermal conversion element for generating thermal energy used for ejecting ink,
Based on the first voltage amplitude level of the input signal, the element driving signals for each electrothermal transducer in a selected block and a block selection signal for driving selected and the electrothermal transducer element for each block, the first A logic circuit that outputs at a second voltage amplitude level higher than the voltage amplitude level of 1 ;
A drive circuit provided for each electrothermal transducer element to drive the electrothermal transducers in block units based on the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit An ink jet recording head substrate comprising: The logic circuit is:
A first conversion circuit for converting an input signal having a first voltage amplitude level into a block selection signal and an element drive signal having the first voltage amplitude level;
And a second conversion circuit for converting the block selection signal and the element drive signal output from the first conversion circuit into the second voltage amplitude level higher than the first voltage amplitude. 2. An ink jet recording head substrate according to 1. The logic circuit is:
A first conversion circuit for converting an input signal of the first voltage amplitude level into the second voltage amplitude level higher than the first voltage amplitude level ;
A block selection signal having the second voltage amplitude level and a second conversion circuit for generating an element drive signal for the selected block from the input signal having the second voltage amplitude level obtained from the first conversion circuit. The inkjet recording head substrate according to claim 1.   The inkjet recording head substrate according to claim 1, further comprising a monitor element for detecting a state of the semiconductor substrate. The drive circuit includes an AND circuit that ANDs a block selection signal having the second voltage amplitude level output from the logic circuit and an element drive signal, and a transistor for causing a current to flow through the heater. The inkjet recording head substrate according to claim 1. 2. The ink jet recording head substrate according to claim 1, wherein the block selection signal is an output signal of a decoder circuit, and the element driving signal is an output signal of a shift register. A drive control method for an electrothermal conversion element in a substrate having an electrothermal conversion element for generating thermal energy used for ejecting ink, comprising:
Input an input signal of the first voltage amplitude level,
Based on the input signal, a block selection signal for selecting and driving the electrothermal conversion element for each block and an element drive signal for each electrothermal conversion element in the selected block from the first voltage amplitude level. Output at a high second voltage amplitude level,
Driving the electrothermal transducers in block units by a driving circuit provided for each of the electrothermal transducer on the basis of the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit A drive control method characterized by the above. An inkjet recording head,
An ejection port for ejecting ink;
Comprising a substrate having an electrothermal conversion element provided corresponding to the discharge port;
A block selection signal for the substrate to select and drive the electrothermal conversion element for each block based on an input signal of the first voltage amplitude level and an element drive signal for each electrothermal conversion element in the selected block A logic circuit that outputs a second voltage amplitude level higher than the first voltage amplitude level ;
A drive circuit provided for each electrothermal transducer element to drive the electrothermal transducers in block units based on the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit An ink jet recording head comprising: The drive circuit includes an AND circuit that ANDs a block selection signal having the second voltage amplitude level output from the logic circuit and an element drive signal, and a transistor for causing a current to flow through the heater. The ink jet recording head according to claim 8. 9. The ink jet recording head according to claim 8, wherein the block selection signal is an output signal of a decoder circuit, and the element driving signal is an output signal of a shift register. An inkjet recording head including an ejection port for ejecting ink, and a substrate having an electrothermal conversion element provided corresponding to the ejection port;
An ink tank filled with ink to be supplied to the inkjet recording head,
The substrate is
Based on the first voltage amplitude level of the input signal, the element driving signals for each electrothermal transducer in a selected block and a block selection signal for driving selected and the electrothermal transducer element for each block, the first A logic circuit that outputs at a second voltage amplitude level higher than the voltage amplitude level of 1 ;
A drive circuit provided for each electrothermal transducer element to drive the electrothermal transducers in block units based on the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit An ink jet recording head cartridge comprising: A substrate having an ejection port for ejecting ink and an electrothermal conversion element provided corresponding to the ejection port;
A block selection signal for the substrate to select and drive the electrothermal conversion element for each block based on an input signal of the first voltage amplitude level and an element drive signal for each electrothermal conversion element in the selected block A logic circuit that outputs a second voltage amplitude level higher than the first voltage amplitude level ;
A drive circuit provided for each electrothermal transducer element to drive the electrothermal transducers in block units based on the second voltage amplitude level block selection signal and element driving signal output from the logic circuit An ink jet recording head comprising:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a circuit for transmitting a control signal to the recording head.

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