JPH01255567A - Thermal head for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the formation of an optimum heating resistance layer for an electrode pattern, by providing a reference position mark for processing the heating resistance layer together when the electrode pattern is formed or after it is formed. CONSTITUTION:A glass glazed layer 2 is laminated on a head insulation substrate 1 formed of alumina ceramic or the like, and a plurality of electrodes 3 and 4 formed of metal conductors are provided thereon at an equal interval. In addition, marks 7 and 8 are also formed. The common electrode 3 and the electrode 4 are insulated on the glazed layer 2, and a resistance layer 5 is laminated thereon in the shape of a belt so that it intersects the electrodes 3 and 4. In the resistance layer 5, slits 6 are provided in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of this layer and substantially in the vicinity of the center between the electrodes provided in juxtaposition. Since the relative positional relation with an electrode pattern is very important for a slit processing as a countermeasure for cross talk, the marks are advantageous as references for the slit processing. In addition, the relative positional relation with the electrodes can be known easily from the marks, and this is very favorable for a forming processing of the resistance layer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a heat-generating facsimile machine, a heat-generating printer device, etc., and particularly relates to a thermal head of a recording section.

[Conventional technology]

As is generally well known, a thermal head for printers uses a ceramic material as a substrate, has a glass-based glaze layer on its surface for heat storage, and has an electrode layer and a heating resistor layer for printing on top of that. It is constructed by arranging multiple layers in parallel, and then layering a highly heat conductive protective film layer on top of the layers. By selectively applying electric signals to the electrodes, the resistor generates heat, and the heat is directly transmitted to the recording paper, or the desired characters and figures are colored and printed by thermal transfer via the ink paper. The heating resistor layer formed by laminating the electrode layer is
Normally, the layers are stacked in a band shape, crossing multiple electrodes arranged in parallel, but the current flowing through this heating resistor layer is shunted not only to a predetermined opposing electrode, but also to adjacent electrodes. There are cases where this happens. This is generally called crosstalk. This is not much of a problem when the recording density is high, but when the density is low, for example when recording one pixel, it is preferable to have less crosstalk.
As described in the above-mentioned No. 1, a method of preventing current splitting is taken, such as by forming slits or dividing the resistance layer located between the opposing electrodes and the adjacent electrodes. By the way, in the past, the setting of the reference point for positioning during slit processing was not clear, which caused problems such as the optimum slit position being shifted. For this reason, there were problems such as difficulty in obtaining uniform recorded pixels. However, the current state of the art is that no specific method for this point has been specified in the prior art.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

For the above-mentioned slit processing, a trimming method using, for example, a laser beam is generally used, but the positional relationship with the electrode is extremely important. However, after forming the electrode pattern,
Since an opaque heat generating resistor layer is laminated on top of the heat generating resistor layer, there are problems such as difficulty in determining the exact position. That is, a resistive paste is printed and sintered on the center line between a plurality of opposing electrodes, but this is caused by the fact that the resistive layer is generally disposed in an offset manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to facilitate the formation of an optimal heating resistor layer for an electrode pattern in order to obtain a good thermal head with less crosstalk.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above purpose is used when forming the electrode pattern after depositing the glaze layer on the head insulating substrate, or immediately after forming the electrode pattern.
Also form a mark pattern for processing the heating resistor layer.
When cutting slits in the resistor layer stacked on the electrode, this mark is recognized as a reference position and aligned during processing, making it easy and accurate to trim the optimum shape and size using laser beams, etc. can be achieved. Note that by selecting a mark forming position other than the position of the resistive layer, there will be no hindrance to processing.

Furthermore, even when the electrode conductor material and the heat generating resistor material are laminated and adhered on the head substrate in advance, and then both are trimmed into a predetermined pattern by etching or the like, the mark pattern is formed at the same time as the electrode pattern is formed as described above. By also taking this into account, the relative positional relationship between the electrode position and the heating resistor layer can be easily and accurately obtained.

[Effect]

In order to properly and accurately position the heat-generating resistor layer for slit trimming using a laser beam, etc., the present invention provides a standard for forming an electrode pattern during or after forming the electrode pattern. By providing a position mark in advance, the processing position of a slit of a predetermined size and shape calculated from this reference position can be accurately grasped, and processing accuracy can be improved.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a partially enlarged perspective view of the thermal head, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1 viewed from above. A glass glaze WJ2 is laminated on a head insulating substrate 1 made of alumina ceramic or the like, and a plurality of electrodes 3 and 4 made of metal conductors are provided thereon at equal intervals. In this way, parallel patterns are formed. Marks 7.8 are also formed. Among these electrodes, electrode 3 is a common electrode.

The common electrode 3 and the electrode 4 are insulated on a glaze layer 5, and a resistive layer 5 is laminated thereon in a band shape intersecting with the electrodes 3 and 4. Therefore, when a signal voltage is supplied from the electrode 4 side between the predetermined opposing electrodes selected to generate heating dots, the current flow path is from the electrode 4 to the resistance layer 5 along the path shown by the arrow, and then the common electrode It will move on to 3. Further, a slit 6 is provided in the resistance layer 5 in a direction perpendicular to its longitudinal direction and approximately in the center between the electrodes arranged in parallel.

The slit 6 prevents the current from flowing toward the common electrode adjacent to the selected counter electrode, so that the current flows concentrated only between the counter electrodes.

In reality, a highly heat conductive protective film layer is further provided on the heat generating resistor layer 5 to prevent sliding wear on the recording paper, but this is not shown.

According to the above structure, the heating resistor layer is generally formed by uniformly depositing the resistor material on the electrode using a metal mask pattern and then sintering the resistor material. For this reason, it is unavoidable that the shape changes after sintering and slight positional deviation with the electrode pattern occurs.When forming slits as a crosstalk countermeasure, the relative positional relationship with the electrode pattern is extremely important, so when forming the electrode, The mark provided on the surface is convenient as a reference for slit processing. Since the relative positional relationship with the electrode can be easily grasped by such a mark, it is extremely advantageous in forming the resistive layer. By the way, it is easily understood that the number, shape, and formation position of marks are not limited and can be arbitrarily selected. Of course, it is possible to select a material that has a clear relative positional relationship with the electrode pattern, does not have an electrically adverse effect on the electrode, and is convenient for manufacturing the electrode pattern. That is, other embodiments are shown in FIGS. 3 to 5. Fig. 3 shows a case in which the mark 7 is a thin line marked with a concave notch, and Fig. 4 shows a case in which two marks 7 and 8 are provided diagonally on the pace board. FIG. 5 shows an example in which dot-shaped marks 7.8 are marked on the electrodes. The mark may be formed integrally with the electrode, and may be formed as a thick film by printing or a thin film by vapor deposition.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the slits in the heating resistor layer can be processed to the optimal position and shape with respect to the electrode pattern, so that high-quality recording pixels with less crosstalk can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a thermal head showing an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are perspective views of a thermal head showing other embodiments of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Insulating substrate, 2... Glaze layer, 3... Common electrode, 4... Electrode, 5... Resistance layer, 6... Slit, 7, 8... Mark. Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A thermal head for a printer comprising an insulating substrate, at least an electrode layer facing the insulating substrate, and a resistance layer consisting of a heating resistor, which are successively laminated at a visually visible position. A thermal head for a printer, comprising at least one mark by which the center position between opposing electrodes can be found. 2. The thermal head for a printer according to claim 1, wherein the mark is composed of at least one dot or line, or an aggregate shape thereof. 3. The thermal head for a printer according to claim 1, wherein the mark is provided in a convex or concave shape.