JPH021339A - Heat-resistant insulation substrate, thermal head and heat sensitive recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the rigidity of a heat-resistant insulation substrate and thereby decrease a defect generation rate in a mounting process by forming a specific resin protection layer on the heat-resistant resin layer of a support substrate. CONSTITUTION:A heat-resistant resin layer 2 is provided on a highly heat- conductive support substrate 11. Then on this heat-resistant resin layer 2, a resin protection layer 3 is formed which consists of a non-amorphous body or a laminate of these amorphous bodies. The amorphous body contains at least, either one of hydrogen or halogen element and besides, at least, either one of nitrogen, carbon or oxygen and silicon as main components. Thus a highly rigid heat-resistant insulation substrate 4 is obtained. This substrate 4 is used a the highly resistant base of a thermal head for the stabilization of travelling of the thermal head for printing. At the same time, the generation of cracks in an abrason-resistant layer 9 as a surface layer during the travelling for printing is prevented, and subsequently, stable printing is ensured. Furthermore, power consumption by a heat-sensitive recording device using this kind of thermal head can be reduced significantly.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a thermal recording device such as a facsimile or a printer, a thermal head used therein, and a heat-resistant recording device used in this thermal head and various electronic devices. The present invention relates to an insulating substrate.

(Prior Art) Recently, heat-resistant insulating substrates in which heat-resistant resins such as polyimide resins are provided as insulating layers or heat storage layers on various substrates have been developed for use in high-resistance substrates for thermal heads, multilayer circuit boards for hybrid ICs, etc. They are increasingly being used as support substrates for various electronic devices that require high reliability against such heat.

For example, in thermal heads, instead of the conventional high-resistance substrate formed by forming a glazed glass layer on a ceramic substrate such as alumina as a heat-retaining layer to control heat dissipation and heat accumulation, a ceramic substrate or a metal substrate is used as a high-resistance substrate. A heat-resistant insulating substrate on which a heat-resistant resin layer such as a polyimide resin layer is formed is used.

As a thermal head provided with this polyimide resin layer as a heat insulating layer, for example, one having the following structure is known.

That is, a heat-resistant resin layer made of polyimide resin, etc., which serves as a heat storage layer and an insulating layer is formed on a metal plate made of Fe alloy, etc., and on this, Ta-5in/, Tj-5i
A heating resistor made of O□ or the like is formed into a film by sputtering or the like. Furthermore, an opening that becomes a heat generating part is formed on this heat generating resistor, and individual electrodes and a common electrode made of AQ, Al2-5i-Cu, etc. are formed, and silicon oxynitride is formed so as to cover at least this heat generating part. (SL-0-N) or the like, and has a wear-resistant layer that also serves as an oxidation-resistant film.

This type of thermal head uses a polyimide 1 as a heat insulating layer.
~ By using a resin layer, the thermal diffusivity of polyimide resin is 1/3 to 1/3 that of a conventional glazed glass layer.
Since it is as low as 6, it has very excellent thermal efficiency.

In addition, since it is possible to use a flexible support substrate such as a metal substrate, it is also possible to perform bending processing, so it is attracting attention as a small, inexpensive, and high-performance thermal head. . However, such a thermal head has the following problems in its manufacturing process.

For example, the heat-resistant resin layer is damaged during etching processing performed when forming heating resistors and electrodes, or during ashing of a masking film.

Further, when depositing the heating resistor material in a vacuum, a large amount of gas is released from within the polyimide resin layer, and the influence of this gas causes a problem in that it is difficult to control the resistance value.

Furthermore, when wiring is performed using the wire bonding method, there arises a problem that bonding is difficult due to the elasticity of the polyimide resin layer.

As a means to solve these problems, the present applicant first developed a resin protection layer made of an inorganic insulating material such as alumina, silicon oxynitride, or sialon between the heat-resistant resin layer and the heat-generating resistor layer. proposed a thermal head with layers formed (Japanese Patent Application No. 62-21428, No. 62-21428).
No. 134326, No. 62-191655). By forming the resin protective layer between the two heat-resistant resin layers and the heat-generating resistor layer in this way, explosion damage to the polyimide resin layer and gas release from the polyimide resin layer can be prevented during the manufacturing process, and the overall It also increases the rigidity to a certain extent, so the mounting process can be performed stably, etc. 9! )

Forming a resin protective layer on a heat-resistant resin layer in this way is an effective means not only as a high-resistance substrate for a thermal head, but also as an insulating substrate for other electronic devices, allowing the mounting process to be performed stably. It is.

Furthermore, in JP-A No. 62-117760, a polyimide resin layer is formed on a glaze layer, and an adhesive layer made of NiCr, Cr, Ti, etc. is formed on top of the polyimide resin layer as an inorganic layer.
An insulating layer made of jO2, 5i-0-N, Si, N, AQ203, etc. is formed to ensure adhesion with the polyimide resin layer and to create an insulating heat-resistant layer that can be applied to the thermal head. This makes it possible to reduce power consumption.

(The problem that Seimei is trying to solve) As mentioned above, we have developed a heat-resistant insulating substrate that has a resin protective layer made of an inorganic insulator such as alumina, silicon oxynitride, or sialon on a heat-resistant resin layer such as polyimide resin. Although various advantages can be obtained by using it as a high-resistance substrate for a thermal head, for example, the inorganic insulating layer described above does not have sufficient film strength, and the following problems occur, for example. ing.

That is, when the present inventors installed the thermal head having the above-mentioned resin protective layer in a printer and actually conducted a printing running test, it showed an abnormal change in resistance value during running, a phenomenon that adversely affected printing. I was given a lot of cells. A detailed investigation into this abnormal resistance change revealed that foreign matter such as dust caught between the thermal head and the thermal paper or between the thermal paper and the roller caused cracks in the wear-resistant layer, which is the surface layer of the thermal spatula 1. It was found that when these cracks reached the heating resistor, they adversely affected the printing characteristics.

Such problems cannot be seen in thermal heads that use a conventional high-resistance substrate with a glazed glass layer formed on a racemic substrate or a high-resistance element with a glass layer formed on a metal substrate, but otherwise have the same structure. This is a phenomenon that was not possible.

This is because the hardness of the entire substrate is large in thermal heads that use a high-resistance substrate that uses a glazed glass layer or a glass layer as a heat-retaining layer. Because it only undergoes the same deformation as
It is thought that local deformation is prevented and racks as described above do not occur.

On the other hand, in the case of a high-resistance substrate made of a heat-resistant resin such as polyimide resin, although the rigidity of the substrate is increased to some extent by the resin protective layer as described above, the deformability of the resin is This is because the deformation of the heat-resistant resin layer cannot be prevented by the resin protective layer or the wear-resistant layer when a locally concentrated load is applied to the wear-resistant layer. It is thought that the deformation of the resin protective layer and wear-resistant layer cannot follow the deformation of the heat-resistant resin layer, resulting in cracks.

Such problems are not limited to thermal heads, but also occur in multilayer circuit boards for hybrid ICs as mentioned above, where deformation of the heat-resistant resin layer during the mounting process causes disconnection of the wiring layer provided on top of it, defective bonding, etc. It invites.

The present invention was made in order to address the problems of the prior art, and includes a heat-resistant insulated substrate that has increased rigidity and reduced the incidence of defects in the mounting process, and a Prevents cracks in the wear-resistant layer,
The purpose is to provide a thermal head with improved reliability.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) The heat-resistant insulating substrate of the present invention includes a highly thermally conductive support substrate, a heat-resistant resin layer formed on the support substrate, and a hydrogen and A resin protective layer containing at least one halogen element and consisting of an amorphous body mainly composed of at least one selected from nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen and silicon, or a laminate of these amorphous bodies. It is characterized by comprising at least the following.

Further, the thermal head of the present invention includes a highly thermally conductive support substrate, a heat-resistant resin layer formed on the support substrate, a resin protective layer provided on the heat-resistant resin layer, and a resin protective layer formed on the resin protective layer. It comprises at least a large number of heating resistors formed, a conductor connected to each of the heating resistors, and a wear-resistant layer provided to cover at least the heating portion of the heating resistor. In the thermal head, at least one of the resin protective layer and the wear-resistant layer contains at least one of hydrogen and a halogen element, and is an amorphous material whose main components are silicon and at least one selected from nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. It is characterized by being made of a solid body or a laminate of these amorphous bodies.

Further, the thermal recording device of the present invention includes a thermal recording paper, a conveying means for conveying the thermal recording paper,
3. The thermal head according to claim 2, which prints on the thermal recording paper; a drive element that drives each heating resistor of the thermal head individually according to No. 8 data; and a recording signal is supplied to these drive elements. The device is characterized in that it includes at least an information processing circuit.

(Function) In the thermal head of the present invention, the resin protective layer and the wear-resistant layer, and in the heat-resistant insulating substrate as the resin protective layer, contain at least one of hydrogen and halogen elements, selected from among nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. An amorphous layer containing at least one selected one and silicon as main components is formed. This amorphous layer has high toughness because it contains hydrogen and halogen elements and many dislocations, and unlike polyimide, etc., it is an inorganic film, so the hardness of the substrate itself is low. Significantly improved.

This increases the rigidity of the entire substrate or the entire thermal head, and improves crack resistance. That is,
It is possible to prevent cracks caused by local deformation of the heat-resistant resin layer such as polyimide resin due to the pressure applied to the surface layer.

By the way, if we only consider preventing deformation of the heat-resistant resin layer in a thermal head, for example, this can be achieved by increasing the thickness of the wear-resistant layer. However, in this method, the distance between the heat generating resistor and the thermal paper becomes large, which not only causes significant performance disadvantages such as decreased efficiency and resolution, but also significantly reduces mass productivity. In contrast, in the present invention, since an amorphous material having the above properties is used, the strength of the entire substrate can be improved without increasing the film thickness.

(Example) Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the main parts of a thermal head according to an embodiment of the present invention.
, 5+nm. On this metal substrate, a heat-resistant resin layer 2 made of polyimide resin, polyamide-imide resin, or a mixture or laminate thereof, which serves as a heat storage layer and an insulating layer, is formed to a thickness of about 20 mm. Thickness 1- to 10- on top of resin layer 2
Then, a resin protective layer 3 made of an amorphous material mainly composed of at least one of nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen and silicon, and containing at least one of hydrogen and a halogen element is formed, thereby forming a heat-resistant insulating substrate 4. has been done.

On this heat-resistant insulating substrate 4, Ta-5in2, Ti-
5in.

A heat generating resistor 5 made of a material such as A4, AQ-3L-Cu, etc. is formed with a thickness of 0.7 to 1-100 mm and an opening is formed on the heat generating resistor 5 to become a heat generating part. An adhesive layer 8 made of SiO□ and a wear-resistant layer 9 made of 5L-0-N which also serves as an oxidation-resistant film are formed so as to cover at least the opening serving as the heat generating part. It is formed.

In this thermal head, by applying pulsed pressure between the individual ff1t4i6 and the common electrode 7 at predetermined time intervals, the heat generating resistor corresponding to the opening that becomes the heat generating part generates heat and prints are recorded. .

This thermal head is manufactured, for example, as follows.

First, as shown in FIG. 2, a metal substrate 1 made of an Fe-16% by weight Cr alloy is cut into predetermined dimensions, degreased, cleaned, dried, and heated at 600°C to 800°C in a dry hydrogen atmosphere.
Heat treatment is performed at C (Figure 2-A). Next, a predetermined amount of polyamide-imide or polyamide-imide varnish, for example, is applied onto the metal substrate 1 using a roll coater or a spin coater so that the film thickness will be 20 to 30 m after firing.
Drying and baking are performed to form a heat-resistant resin layer 2 (Fig. 2 - opening).

Next, after cleaning the surface of this heat-resistant resin layer 2 (Fig. 2-
c), such as sputtering method, ion blating method,
Vacuum deposition method, plasma CVD method, ECR plasma VCVD
The resin protective layer 3 is formed by
(Fig. 2-2). Among these methods, this method has the following advantages: it has good film adhesion, it can be processed at relatively low temperatures without damaging the properties of the substrate, and the physical properties of the film, such as electrical and optical properties, can be easily controlled. Plasma CVD method is suitable. In particular, in the present invention, since the substrate to be adhered is made of a heat-resistant resin, the substrate temperature may be -
Since it cannot be heated above 550°C, which is the heat-resistant temperature of the polyimide resin in the shell, a method that can process at a lower temperature than this heat-resistant temperature is required.

This plasma CVD method uses SiII4 gas or SiF4 gas as the Sj acid component of the raw material gas, N2 gas, CIL gas, N20 gas, etc. as the other component, and combines these gases in a vacuum. This is a method of turning it into plasma and forming the desired ceramic thin film on a substrate. At this time, hydrogen and halogen elements such as fluorine in the source gas are occluded in the film, and a thin film that can stably maintain an amorphous state due to the influence of these elements is obtained.

In this example, a heat-resistant insulating substrate 4 was produced by forming a resin protective layer 3 using a parallel plate type capacitively coupled plasma CVD apparatus shown in FIG. 3 according to the procedure shown below.

In FIG. 3, 11 is a vacuum chamber, and inside this vacuum chamber 11 there is a flat ground electrode 12 and a high frequency electrode 1.
3 are installed facing each other, and this flat ground electrode 1
A processing substrate 14, that is, a metal substrate on which a heat-resistant resin layer is formed, is placed on the substrate 2. Next, the inside of the vacuum chamber 11 is evacuated to about 10-' Torr using a vacuum pump (not shown), and then the processing substrate Fi 14 is heated to about 150° C. to 450° C. by the heater 15 attached to the ground electrode 12. Next, while supplying the raw material gas into the vacuum chamber Il from the gas inlet 16, the temperature is set at 0.05 Torr to 1.0 T.
By supplying power from the high-frequency power source 19 to the high-frequency electrode 13 via the matching box 18 while evacuating from the exhaust port 17 so as to maintain a degree of vacuum of approximately
A glow discharge is caused between the electrodes to turn the raw material gas into plasma, thereby forming a target thin film on the processing substrate 14 .

Here, specific examples of film forming conditions are shown in Table 1 below.

(Left below) When depositing a 5in2 film using the conventional sputtering method, for example, when depositing a 5i-0-N film using 4000 people/hour.

Compared to 5,000 people/hour, plasma CV
When method D is used, as shown in Table 1, the film formation rate is significantly improved.

Therefore, the process time can be shortened, which is advantageous in reducing costs.

Next, Ta-5in2 is deposited on the resin protective layer 3 of the heat-resistant insulating substrate 4 by sputtering or other known methods.
, Ti-3in2, etc., to form a film of heat-generating resistor material (Fig. 2-E), and then electrode materials AR, AQ, -
3 After forming a film of L-Cu, Au, etc. by sputtering method (see Figure 2) 1. Masking of a desired circuit pattern in which openings that will become heat generating parts are formed 1.
Then, a chemical dry etching process is performed, for example, to form individual heating resistors 5, individual TFI 6, and common electrode 7 (FIG. 2-1).

After this, adhesive layer 8 consisting of 5in2 and 5i-0-N
A wear-resistant layer 9, which also serves as an oxidation-resistant film, is formed by a sparso-regi method or other known method (FIG. 2-H), and the thermal head is completed.

Next, in the manufacturing process of this thermal head.

The results of measuring the hardness of the resin protective layer and the hardness on the wear-resistant layer serving as the surface layer will be described.

First, a-5iN was formed as a resin protective layer 3 on the heat-resistant resin layer 2.
500 each of the film, a-S jC film, and a-5iO film.
Films with film thicknesses of 1 μm, 2β1n, 3 μm, and 57 μm were formed according to the above-described procedure, and the Knoop hardness was determined for each film. The results are shown in FIG. As is clear from the figure, the a-S iN film, the a-S i
011'J and a-S i CIlx both 2~3μ
The Knoop hardness value became almost constant at a film thickness of about m or more. Further, when the film thickness is 1 μm or less, a certain hardness is not achieved.

Next, using a heat-resistant insulating substrate having a resin protective layer of each film thickness, a heating resistor, an individual hypode, and a common electrode are formed according to the procedure described above, and a contact R layer is formed to the north of the heat-generating resistor, an individual hypode, and a common electrode. A SiO□ film with a thickness of 1 ㎡ and a 2㎯ thick film as a wear-resistant layer.
A 5i-0-N film and a 5i-0-N film were sequentially formed, and the Knoop hardness on this 5i-0-N film was measured. The results are shown in FIG. From the same figure, it can be seen that the hardness of the resin protective layer reaches an almost constant level when the thickness of the resin protective layer is about 2 μs or more, similar to the hardness of the resin protective layer.
It can be seen that if the hardness is less than rabbit, sufficient hardness cannot be achieved.

From these results, it can be seen that the effect of improving film hardness cannot be sufficiently obtained unless the film thickness of the resin protective layer reaches 1 μs. Moreover, if it is too thick, not only will no further effect be obtained, but the heat storage effect of the heat-resistant resin layer will be weakened and the efficiency will decrease, so the preferred thickness of the resin protective layer is 1 μm = 1
It will be about 01 Peng.

Next, a-5iN film, a-3iCI, each having a thickness of 11 as described above.
A thermal head with a resin protective layer made of FJ, a-5iQ film, etc. is mounted on a heat dissipation board made of AQ using double-sided tape, and a drive IC mounted in the same way on a driver board and ultrasonic wire bonding. When we conducted a wiring test using this method, we were able to perform stable bonding. In addition, the thermal head obtained in this way was heated to 60°C and 90%
When the film was left in a constant temperature and humidity chamber for 1,000 hours, the film did not peel off and no problems occurred.

In addition, each of these thermal heads was actually installed in a printer and a printing running test was conducted. The test environment was at room temperature and humidity. As a result of a 5km running test, the film thickness was 500 people.
-The thermal head with a 5iN film as a resin protective layer had five cracks in the wear-resistant layer.
Cracks occurred at 8 locations in each case where the 5↓C film, a-5iO film, etc. were used as the resin protective layer. On the other hand, when using a-8iN film, a-3iC film, a-3jO film, etc. with film thicknesses of 1 μm, 2 μm, 3 m, and 571 m, almost no cracks were observed in ISUKU. .

In addition, as a comparison with the present invention, a thermal head having the same structure as the thermal head 1-1 of the above-mentioned example was used, except that a sialon layer with a thickness of 1 μm was formed by sputtering as a resin protective layer. When a printing running test was conducted, 20 cranks were found in the Jf wear-resistant layer.

It is clear from this test result that the thermal head of this example has excellent crack resistance.

In addition, the thermal head of this embodiment uses an a-3iN film, an a-3iC film, an a-3iO film, etc., formed by plasma CVD as a resin protective layer between the heat-resistant resin layer and the heating resistor. There is no risk of damaging the heat-resistant resin layer when dissolving and removing the heat-generating resistor material into the desired circuit pattern, and gas generation can be prevented when the heat-generating resistor material is formed in a vacuum, so the resistance value can be reduced. Stabilize.

Furthermore, during wire bonding in the mounting process, the cushioning effect of the heat-resistant resin layer is offset by the hardness of the resin protective layer, making it possible to perform wire bonding stably. In addition to these effects, a of this example
-5iN film, a-5iC film, a-5iO film, etc. have extremely high hardness compared to heat-resistant resin layers, so it is possible to apply local pressure to the wear-resistant layer during actual printing operations without increasing the film thickness too much. This resin protective layer can prevent the heat-resistant resin layer from being deformed even if the heat-resistant resin layer is applied, that is, local deformation is prevented and cracks in the wear-resistant layer are prevented. Therefore, printing can be performed stably for a long period of time, and reliability is greatly improved.

In addition, in the above examples, a-3iN was used as the resin protective layer.
film, a-5iC film, a-3iO film, a-SiCN
Although the explanation has been made using the film, a-5iON film, and a-5iCO film individually, similar effects were obtained when a laminate of these films was used as the resin protective layer. for example.

A-5iN film, a-5iO film, etc., which are advantageous in terms of film formation speed, are formed to a thickness of about 3 μm on the heat-resistant resin layer, and then etching resistance properties (against chemical dry etching) are formed on the heat-resistant resin layer.
A similar effect was obtained by forming an a-5iC film having a thickness of about 0.3 μs, which is advantageous for this purpose. In particular, it is practically preferable to use a resin protective layer consisting of a laminated layer in which the first layer is an a-3iO film which has a high deposition rate, and the second layer is an a-5iC film which has excellent etching resistance. That is, the time required for the process can be shortened and productivity is excellent.

Note that the a-5iC film, which is the second layer mentioned above, needs to have electrical insulation properties since it is in direct contact with the resistive film, but the specific resistance value at room temperature (about 25°C) is 101
If it is 1Ω mark or more, there is no particular problem.

Further, similar effects were obtained when using a stack of films in which the composition ratio of the constituent elements of these a-5iNl and a-5iC films was changed to change the film quality. For example, a-3iC films with different carbon degrees are stacked to form a two-layer structure, the heat-resistant resin layer side is a layer with a low carbon beta degree to increase the film formation speed, and the resistive layer side is a layer with a low carbon degree, which is advantageous for etching resistance. Nayo charcoal Ja
What is necessary is just to consist of a layer with a high degree of strength.

Regarding the degree of film composition, a-5iO, a-5iN, a
-3iC.

The higher the total concentration of acid, nitrogen, and carbon contained in a film such as a-5iON, a-5iOC, and a-5iNC, the higher the hardness and the more advantageous it is in terms of crack resistance. 10
There is no practical problem if the fi factor is at least %, but in consideration of anti-etching properties, it is preferably at least 20%.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiments, evaluation of characteristics as a thermal head was explained, but the heat-resistant insulating substrate described in 2.
As a multi-layer circuit board for use, the hardness of the resin protective layer provides various effects such as stabilizing the mounting process and effectively preventing defects due to breakage of wiring layers. It is very effective.

Next, an example of a thermal head using an a-5iN film, an a-5iC film, an a-5iO film, or the like as a wear-resistant layer that also serves as an oxidation-resistant film will be described.

First, a polyimide resin layer was formed as a heat-resistant resin layer on the metal substrate prepared in the above example, and
A SiO□ film having a thickness of 1 μm was formed as a resin protective layer on this heat-resistant resin layer by sputtering to produce a heat-resistant insulating substrate.

Next, a heating resistor, individual electrodes, and a common FFi electrode are formed on this heat-resistant insulating substrate by the same method, and a-3iN film, a-3iC film, and a-S x O film are formed on this heat-resistant insulating substrate. A wear layer was formed by the same method as in the above-mentioned example, and a thermal head was manufactured. The thicknesses of these wear-resistant layers were 2 μm, 3 μm, 5 μm, and 8 μm, respectively.

In addition, as a comparative example for the thermal head of this embodiment, Ta205 was prepared by sputtering as a wear-resistant layer.
5L-0 formed by a sputtering method using a film and a target with a composition of -25% by weight 5in2 of Si, N,
-Thermal heads each having a N film were produced.

Using each thermal head, a printing running test of 5 + 1 was conducted by incorporating it into an actual machine in the same manner as in the above-mentioned example, and the number of cracks generated in these wear-resistant layers was measured. The results are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2 As is clear from Table 2, the a-5iN film, the a-5iC film, and the a-5iC film of this example formed by plasma CVD method.
-5iO film is Ta2O, film of comparative example and 5i-0 film.
- Compared to the N film, the crack resistance is clearly superior to that of the N film at the same film thickness. Although not shown in Table 2, a-3
Similar effects were obtained with the iCN film, a-5iON film, and a-3iCO film.

In addition, the thickness of the wear-resistant layer is preferably 3 μm or more from the results of this example, but if a resin protective layer with even higher hardness is used, a film thickness of about 2 μm can be obtained. However, it is fully effective. Also,
If the thickness of this wear-resistant layer is too thick, the efficiency of the thermal head will decrease, so a thickness of 87 mm or less is preferable.

As is clear from the above examples, a-3iN film, a-3iC film, a-3jO film, a-
By using the 3iCN film, a-5j, ON film, and a-5iCO film as the wear-resistant layer, cracking of the wear-resistant layer 17 during actual printing is prevented, and a higher quality thermal head can be obtained. In addition, these films made using the plasma CVD method contain hydrogen and halogen elements, and contain many dislocations, so they are more difficult to produce than conventional Ta2O, , and 5i-0-N films. It has excellent toughness and is excellent as a wear-resistant layer for thermal heads in terms of crack resistance.

In each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the amorphous layer mainly composed of at least one of nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen and silicon is the resin protective layer of the thermal head, and the 'tt- wear layer is one of the amorphous layers. Although we have explained an example in which both of these layers are formed using this amorphous layer, it is natural that the same effect can be obtained, and in that case, please refer to the above-mentioned film thickness values. , it is also possible to further reduce the film thickness.

Further, in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, a heat-resistant resin layer is formed on a metal substrate. However, the effect of the present invention can be similarly expected even if the supporting substrate is not limited to metal but also ceramics or glass. .

However, if a metal substrate is used as a support substrate, the metal substrate itself can also be used as a common electrode,
Since it can be bent, it greatly contributes to the miniaturization of thermal heads.

Note that the resin protective layer according to the present invention can also be formed by a sputtering method in a gas atmosphere containing hydrogen or a halogen element, using a target made of silicon and at least one selected from nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon. It is.

Next, an example in which the thermal head of the present invention is applied to a thermal recording device will be explained using a facsimile as an example.

Note that only the printing section will be explained here.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. The thermal recording paper 22 is conveyed by a platen roller 23 and a pair of drive rollers (not shown), and the platen roller 23 moves toward the thermal head 21 to hold down the thermal recording paper 22. For printing, a recording signal sent from the information processing circuit to the thermal head 21 is sent to the thermal head 21.
The drive set in the second! Signal processing is performed by the 1llJ element 24, and an electric pulse is passed through the driver 1- necessary for printing to heat it, thereby changing the color of the corresponding portion of the heat-sensitive recording paper 22.

According to the above-mentioned facsimile, the thermal efficiency of the thermal head section is approximately 1.8 times higher, so that the power per meter is significantly reduced. That is, the electrical energy required to produce the same printing degree is reduced by about 40% compared to when a conventional thermal head is used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the heat-resistant insulating substrate of the present invention,
By improving the hardness of the resin protective layer, the mounting process can be carried out stably, and the incidence of defects such as wire breakage is reduced. Also, when used as a high resistance substrate for a thermal head, the thermal head's impression It is possible to stabilize the curve running.

In addition, according to the thermal head of the present invention, damage to the heat-resistant resin layer during the manufacturing process is prevented, resistance value can be easily controlled, wire bonding can be performed stably during the mounting process, and wire bonding can be performed stably during actual printing. It is possible to effectively prevent cracks in the wear-resistant layer, which is the surface layer, and therefore it is possible to perform stable printing, and its reliability is significantly improved.

Further, according to the heat-sensitive recording device of the present invention, power consumption is significantly reduced, which has great industrial value.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially exploded perspective view showing the main parts of a thermal head according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart 1 showing the manufacturing process of a thermal head according to an embodiment of the present invention,
The figure shows the configuration of the plasma CVO device used to form the amorphous layer in the example of the present invention, and Figure 4 shows the relationship between the thickness of the resin protective layer and its soup hardness in the example of the present invention. Fig. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between the thickness of the resin protective layer and the soup hardness on each wear-resistant layer in an example of the present invention, and Fig. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the thickness of the resin protective layer and the soup hardness on each wear-resistant layer in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a cross section. 1 - Metal substrate 2... Heat-resistant resin layer 3... Resin protective layer 4... Heat-resistant insulating substrate 5... Heat generating resistor 6... Individual electrode 7... Common electrode 9... Oxidation prevention Jf wear-resistant layer that also serves as a film 21...Thermal head 22...Thermal recording paper 23/Platen roller
24...Information processing circuit agent Patent attorney Nori Chika
Yudo Take Hana Kikuo to qfu = 29 Carp treadmill wo resistant special edition 蝮且っま 71 waves (ni g/mm2) Ousuo Hy;i/iEJ also -7° Ishisara 1 degree (ni 9/mm
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Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A support substrate with high thermal conductivity, a heat-resistant resin layer formed on the support substrate, and a heat-resistant resin layer provided on the heat-resistant resin layer containing at least one of hydrogen and halogen elements, containing nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. 1. A heat-resistant insulating substrate comprising at least one selected from among the above, an amorphous body mainly composed of silicon, or a resin protective layer made of a laminate of these amorphous bodies. (2) A highly thermally conductive support substrate, a heat-resistant resin layer formed on this support substrate, a resin protective layer provided on this heat-resistant resin layer, and a large number of heat generating units formed on this resin protective layer. A resistor, a conductor connected to each of these heating resistors,
A thermal head comprising at least a wear-resistant layer provided to cover at least a heat-generating portion of the heating resistor, wherein at least one of the resin protective layer and the wear-resistant layer contains at least one of hydrogen and a halogen element. A thermal head comprising an amorphous material whose main components are silicon and at least one selected from nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen, or a laminate of these amorphous materials. (3) A thermal recording paper, a conveying means for conveying the thermal recording paper, a thermal head according to claim 2 for printing on the thermal recording paper, and a heating resistor of the thermal head, respectively, in accordance with recording signal data. A thermal recording device comprising at least drive elements that are driven individually and an information processing circuit that supplies recording signals to these drive elements.