JPH02253966A - Thermal head and thermal head device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely and satisfactorily bring only a heating part into contact with heat sensitive paper, a heat sensitive ink sheet and the like by laminating a shared electrode and a selective electrode, both of which are connected to each of resistance heating elements orientated on a substrate via an insulating film. CONSTITUTION:Resistance heating elements 8... are arranged and formed at the left of a silicone substrate 2. A selective electrode 9 and a shared electrode 10 are connected to each of other resistance heating elements 8... provided on an electrode line part 4 right to the above-mentioned resistance heating elements 8..., and laminated via an insulating film 16. Consequently, the wiring width of the shared electrode 10 can be made greater, whereby the wiring resistance of the shared electrode 10 can be lowered. Thus, the back flow of a current to the other resistance heating elements 8, which is caused by wiring resistance, can be prevented, and moreover the malfunction of the other resistance heating elements 8 can be prevented; therefore resolution is improved to perform thermal recording with high accuracy. Although the winding width of the shared electrode 10 is made greater, a distance from the end of the silicone substrate 2 to the resistance heating elements 8 can be minimized because the shared electrode 10 is formed on the selective electrode 9 via the insulating film 16.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention relates to a thermal head that performs heat-sensitive recording. [Prior Art] A thermal head that performs heat-sensitive recording by selectively generating heat from two heating elements has conventionally Heat-generating resistive elements are arranged in an array, a transistor element is arranged at one end of each heat-generating resistor, a common ground line is arranged at the other end of each heat-generating element, and the ground is grounded by this ground line. ing. In such a thermal head, when print data is given to the transistor element from the data latch part, current selectively flows through the heating resistor element to generate heat, and this heat is used to perform thermal recording directly on thermal paper or to print thermal ink. Thermal recording is performed on recording paper via a sheet.

[Problem to be solved by the invention J] In such a thermal heater, the current that flows through the heating resistor element and generates heat is grounded via a common ground line, so the wiring resistance of the ground line itself There is a possibility that the current flowing through the heat generating resistor element 5 may be divided into voltages and flow back to other heat generating resistor elements. Such backflow of current causes other heat-generating resistive elements to generate heat, making it impossible to perform accurate thermal recording and reducing resolution.

Therefore, in order to prevent the above-mentioned backflow of current, the wiring width of the ground line is widened to lower the wiring resistance, but when the wiring width is widened in this way, the heating resistor element can be placed at the edge of the board. This means that if the thermal head is tilted at a steep angle with respect to the recording paper, only the edges of the thermal head will come into contact with the recording paper, and the heat generating part will not come into contact with the recording paper. Therefore, when recording paper such as thermal paper or recording paper is held on a flat surface and thermal recording is performed, it is necessary to set the thermal direction approximately parallel to the recording paper. This increases the risk that parts outside the heat-generating part will come into contact with the recording paper, which is a major hindrance to clear printing.

Note that conventionally, a method of configuring a long thermal head device by connecting a plurality of thermal heads has been studied. There are two methods for forming such a thermal head device, for example, FA.
It is expected that this will make equipment that requires an extremely long printing surface, such as X, cheaper. In this case, the thermal head is
If they are connected in the same direction, the pitch of the heating resistor elements cannot be maintained at each joint, so each thermal head is placed opposite to the adjacent thermal head so that the surface on which the heating resistor element is formed faces the adjacent thermal head. , and the last heating resistive element of the adjacent thermal head and the first heating resistive element of the thermal head itself are arranged and connected so as to have the same pitch as a predetermined pitch. In this way, each thermal head is arranged alternately with the adjacent thermal head. When arranging in a so-called staggered pattern,
Since the end faces of each thermal head are brought into close contact with each other, the distance between the heat generating resistor element rows is twice the distance between the heat generating resistor element rows from the end face of each thermal head.

Therefore, when performing thermal recording using a platen, the heating resistor array comes into contact with the recording paper at a misaligned position. Naturally, the larger the amount of misalignment, the greater the difference in printing conditions. The print density becomes uneven.

The first object of this invention is that even if the wiring width of the earth line is widened in order to lower the wiring resistance of the earth line, the distance from the end face of the board to the heating resistor element can be reduced, thereby ensuring that the heating resistor element Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermal head that can be brought into good contact with a thermal ink sheet or the like.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a thermal head device capable of improving non-uniformity of print density by arranging the above-mentioned thermal heads in a staggered manner in the longitudinal direction.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The thermal head of the present invention has a laminated structure in which a common electrode and a selection electrode are connected to each of heat generating resistive elements arranged on a substrate with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. .

Further, in the thermal head device of the present invention, the above-described thermal heads are attached to a support substrate in a staggered manner in the longitudinal direction, with the end faces of each thermal head on the heating resistor element formation side facing each other.

[Function] According to the thermal head of the present invention, the common electrode and the selection electrode connected to each of the heating resistance elements arrayed on the substrate have a laminated structure with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. Even if the wiring width of the ground line is widened in order to lower the resistance, the distance from the end surface of the substrate to the heating resistor element can be reduced. Therefore, the thermal head can be set at a steep angle with respect to the recording paper, etc., so only the heat generating part can be brought into reliable and good contact with the thermal paper, thermal ink sheet, etc., and accurate thermal recording can be performed well. be able to.

Further, according to the four-marble head device of the present invention, a long one can be easily obtained by simply arranging the above-mentioned thermal heads in a staggered manner in the longitudinal direction. Moreover, in the thermal head, the distance from the end face of the substrate to the heat generating resistive element is small, that is, the heat generating resistive element array of each thermal head can be brought close to the end face. Therefore, in a thermal head device that connects thermal heads on multiple sides,
Since the heat generating resistor array formed in each thermal head can be brought into contact with the recording paper at approximately the same position, non-uniformity in print density can be improved.

[Example J The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 shows the overall configuration of the thermal head of this invention.
This thermal head l has a rectangular flat plate shape as a whole, and is arranged on a single-crystal silicon substrate z from the upper side of the heat generating element arrangement section 3. Electrode line part 4. A drive element array section 5 and a data holding circuit section 6 are arranged in order, and connection terminals 71 to 7e are provided at the lower right corner. In this case, a large number of heat generating resistor elements 8, which will be described later, are arranged in the heat generating element array section 3. A selection electrode 9 and a common electrode 1O connected to each heating resistor element 8 are stacked on the electrode line portion 4. The drive element array section 5 includes a print drive element 1 that drives each heating resistance element 8...
1... is provided. The data holding circuit section 6 includes a shift register, a latch circuit, a gate, etc., and includes a C-MO3-F
It is composed of ET.

In such a thermal head l, print data is supplied to the connection terminal 7b, and a clock signal is supplied to the connection terminal 7a.
When inputted to the C1 terminal (not shown) of the shift register via the clock signal, one line of print data is sequentially inputted to the shift register of the data holding circuit section 6 in accordance with this clock signal. This 1947 minutes of print data is printed at connection terminal 7.
By the latch signal applied to C, the data holding circuit section 6
is transferred in parallel from the shift register to the latch circuit. The print data held in the latch circuit is transferred from the latch circuit to the drive element array section 5 by opening the gate of the data holding circuit section d in response to an enable signal applied to the connection terminal 7d that determines printing timing, etc. Drive element 11
is input. The print drive element 11 is driven in accordance with the input print data, and selectively applies current to each heating resistor element 8 of the heating element array section 3 to generate heat. In this case, the current flowing through the heating resistor element 8 is grounded from the common electrode IO via the ground connection terminal 7e.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of the thermal head 1 described above. The silicon substrate 2 is a wafer made of n-type single crystal silicon. On this silicon substrate 2, each block has
The above-mentioned heating resistor element 8° selection electrode 9, common electrode work 0,
C-MO of print drive element 11 and data holding circuit section 6
S and the connecting terminals 7a to 7e are formed all at once and cut into blocks, so that one block forms a thermal head l.The configuration of each element will be explained in order below.

The heating resistor element 8 is formed on one side edge of the silicon substrate 2 at a very fine pitch, for example, 16 to 3
An array is formed with 2 dots/■ set.

An insulating film 12 of 5i02 is formed on the upper surface of the silicon substrate 2. This insulation ll112 is the silicon substrate 2!
It is formed by heating to about 000°C and oxidizing treatment (thermal oxidation treatment). On the surface of this insulation 11112, there is a highly insulating protective film 13 made of linked glass (PSC).
is formed. This insulating protective film 13 is exposed to normal pressure (ry)
CV D (Cbemical Vapor Depos
ition) by law! & filmed. The above-mentioned heating resistance element 8 is a heat storage layer 1 formed on the upper surface of this insulation protection M13.
It is formed on 4. The heat storage layer 14 raises the heating resistance element 8 high.

5i02) Made of PSG, Sin%5iO)N, etc., the above-mentioned insulation! 112 and insulating film; II! The zero-heating resistor element 8, which has a heat storage property like 113 but does not necessarily need to be provided, is formed by doping polycrystalline silicon with impurities. In other words, this heating resistor element 8 is produced by, for example, producing a polycrystalline silicon layer by CVD using monosilane (Sifb) gas, and implanting a predetermined amount of phosphorus (P) ions as impurities into this polycrystalline silicon layer to diffuse it. After that, etching is performed using a photoresist film patterned by photolithography as a mask, and the amount of P ions implanted is adjusted to obtain a predetermined sheet resistance (several tens of Ω10). . In this case, the total resistance value of this heating resistor element 8 is approximately several tens to several hundreds of ohms. As shown in FIG. 2, this heating resistor element 8 is formed in a zigzag shape along the arrangement direction, and one end 8a is connected to a selection electrode 9, which will be described later, and the other end 8b is connected to a common electrode 10.
It is connected to the. In this case, one end 8a is the heat storage layer 14
extends downward from the right end and is electrically connected to the selection electrode 9, and the other end 8b
extends on the heat storage layer 14 to the right, and an insulating protective film 16 which will be described later
The common electrode 10 is connected to the common electrode 10 through the through hole lea provided in the
conducts with. Note that although the lengths of the ends 8a and 8b of the heating resistor element 8 are different in the drawing, they may actually be the same. In other words, in FIG. An insulating protection Jli 16 is formed on the heat generating resistor element 8, which may not extend, but instead may be connected by extending a part of the common electrode 10 toward the heat generating resistor element 8 side.

This insulation protection l1116 has oxidation resistance and wear resistance, and may be of a two-layer structure of 5j02 and SiN or a single layer of 5iON.Furthermore, this insulation protection! A heat collection layer 17 is formed on the heat generating resistor element 8 on the heat generating layer 116 . This heat collection layer 17 is for concentrating the heat emitted from the heat generating resistor element 8.
It is also used to raise the heating resistor element 8 higher than its surroundings, and is formed by forming a film of a metal with good thermal conductivity, such as No or W, by vapor deposition or sputtering, and forming a pattern by photoetching. A protective layer 18, which is the same as the protective layer 16 described above, is formed on this heat collecting layer 17, and the entire heating resistor element 8 is protected by this protective layer 18. By the way, as is clear from FIG. 1, the heat collecting layer 17 of the heating resistor element 8 is positioned to protrude from the upper surface of the other portions except for a portion corresponding to a portion of the common electrode 10.

Therefore, the protective film 18 coated on each heat collecting layer 17 is formed to protrude upward from the left and right sides of the periphery thereof. This structure is extremely effective in bringing the surface of the protective film 18 in the area corresponding to each heating resistive element 8 into close contact with the recording paper or the heat-sensitive ink sheet.

Each selection electrode 9 of the electrode line section 4 and the common electrode 1
0 is stacked on the right side of the heat generating resistor element 8 described above with an insulating protective film 16 interposed therebetween. That is, the second selection electrode 9 connects the heating resistor element 8 described above and the print drive element 11 described later, and is an insulating protective film 16 made of PSG formed on the silicon substrate 2 via an insulating film 12 of 5i02. formed on top. This selective electrode 9 is formed by depositing a highly conductive metal such as AI by vapor deposition and sputtering, and is patterned by photoetching, and each left end is connected to one end 8a of the heating resistor element 8 that is lowered from the right end of the heat storage layer 14. has been done. And, this selection electrode 9 has the above-mentioned intermediate insulation protection! 116.

The common electrode 10 is the ground line of the heating resistor element 8,
It is formed in a band shape on the insulating protection film 16 corresponding to the selection electrode 9 along the arrangement direction of the heating resistor elements 8 . That is, this common electrode 10 is similar to the selection electrode 9 described above.
The other end 8h of the heating resistor element 8 extends on the heat storage layer 14, and the other end 8h of the heating resistor element 8 extends on the heat storage layer 14.
Insulation protection! It is connected to the left side through a through hole 16a formed in 116. In this case, the common electrode 10
In order to lower the electric resistance, the wiring width is formed sufficiently wide between the heating resistor element 8 and the print drive element ll, which will be described later. Note that if the common electrode 10 is made of the same metal as the heat collecting layer 17, it is formed at the same time as the heat collecting layer 17.

This common electrode 10 is covered and protected together with the heat collecting layer 17 by the above-mentioned protective film 18.

The print drive element 11 is a field effect (FET) type n-MOS formed for large current, and is formed on the silicon substrate 2 in a part far away from the heating resistor element 8 to the right side via the electrode line part 4. In other words, boron (B) is contained inside the upper surface of the silicon substrate 2 in that part.
A p-layer region 19 doped with ions is formed,
Two n-type regions 20 and 20 doped with P ions are formed within this p-layer region 19. These two n-type regions 20 and 20 form source and drain electrodes, respectively. An insulating film 12 is formed on the upper surface of the silicon substrate 2 where the n-type regions 20.20 are formed in the p-layer region 19, except for the central portion including the two n-type regions 20.20. and two n-type regions 20.
A gate electrode 22 made of the same polycrystalline silicon as that of the heating resistor element 8 is formed at a location located between the heat generating resistor elements 8 and 20 with a gate insulating film 21 made of SiO2 interposed therebetween. Also.

At locations corresponding to the two n-type regions 20.20.

Source and drain wiring patterns 23.23 are formed. In this case, the intermediate gate electrode 22 is formed to have a low resistance by doping with P ions, similar to the heating resistive element 8, and its surface is covered with an insulating protective film 13. In addition, source and drain wiring patterns 23.2
3 is A1. A+- Made of low resistance metal such as Si, No, W, etc. Insulation protection is provided on the wiring patterns 23, 23 and the gate electrode 22! Insulated protection that covers 113!
116 is formed. In this case, insulation protection! 1I1
6 is formed lower than the upper surface of the insulation protection 11i18 corresponding to the heating resistance element 8.

Such a print drive element 11 is formed as follows. That is, an insulating film 1 is formed on the surface of a silicon substrate 2.
2 is formed, this insulation 1112 is etched, a portion corresponding to the p layer region 19 is removed, and B ions are implanted and diffused through this removed portion to form a p layer region 19 in the silicon substrate 2. . Thereafter, a gate insulator [21] is formed on the removed portion of the insulating film 12, and a polycrystalline silicon layer is formed on the upper surface thereof. The polycrystalline silicon layer is made into the gate electrode 22 by implanting P ions, but this implantation of P ions can also be performed simultaneously with the heating resistor element 8. After that, P is added in the p layer region 19.
Two n-type regions 20, 20 are formed by implanting ions. Gate insulation! 1I21 and the surfaces of the insulating film 12 are
Insulation protection made of SG! After removing the insulating film on the n-type region 20.20, a metal film is formed on the surface by vapor deposition or sputtering, and this metal film is etched to form a wiring pattern 23.23. .

And the entire surface is insulated and protected! 116.

The C-MOS constituting the data holding circuit section 6 is actually:
It is formed in a much smaller area than the print drive element 11. but.

Among the n-MOS and P-MO5 that make up the C-MOS, the structure of the n-MO5 itself is similar to the print drive element 1 described above.
It is exactly the same as 1. That is, a p-type region 24 doped with B ions is formed inside the upper surface of the silicon substrate 2, and within this p-type region 24, two n-type regions 25 and 25 doped with P ions are formed. *T has been done. There are two n-type regions 25 on the upper surface of the silicon substrate 2 in this part.
．． An insulating layer 1112 is formed except for the central portion including 25, and a gate electrode 27 made of polycrystalline silicon is formed between the two n-type regions 25.25. Source and drain wiring patterns 28.28 are formed at locations corresponding to the regions 25.25. In this case as well, the gate electrode 27 is formed with low resistance by doping polycrystalline silicon with P ions, and its surface is covered with the insulating protective film 13.

Then, an insulating protective film 16 is formed to cover the wiring patterns 28, 28 and the insulating film @[13 on the gate electrode 27. Such n-MO5 is formed at the same time as the print drive element 11 in the same process.

Furthermore, the p-MOS constituting the C-MO3 has exactly the same structure as the n-MOS mentioned above, except that two p-type steel regions 29.29 are formed inside the upper surface of the silicon substrate 2, and has the same structure. Elements will be given the same reference numerals and their descriptions will be omitted. Note that such a p-MO3 has the same configuration as the print drive element 11 described above except that the two p-type steel regions 29.29 are formed directly within the silicon substrate z, so the p-type steel regions 29.29 are It is formed at the same time as the print drive element 11 in the same process except when it is formed.

The connection terminals 7a to 7e are each formed to protrude above the insulation protection 116, and are referred to as bump electrodes 32 in FIG. That is, Si
On the upper surface of the wiring pattern 30 formed through the Oz insulating film 12 and the insulating protective film 13, an insulating protective film 16 is formed by etching a predetermined portion, and barrier metal and adhesive are etched in the etched portion. A pad portion 31 made of a two-layer structure of metal or an alloy thereof is patterned to be electrically connected to the wiring pattern 30 .

On this pad portion 31, a bump electrode 32 made of solder plating or Au plating is formed. When forming such a bump electrode 5, it is necessary to insulate it on the silicon substrate z in the same way as the print drive element 11 described above. 112. Insulating protective film 13. A wiring pattern 30 and an insulating protective film 16 are sequentially laminated.

This insulation protection 11i16 is etched to form the rosette part 3.
The insulation protection [116] corresponding to the formation area of 1 is removed.

Thereafter, a metal layer is formed by depositing barrier metal, adhesive metal, or an alloy thereof on the surface of the insulating protective film 16 by vapor deposition or sputtering, and a photoresist is patterned on the upper surface of this metal layer. Then, the photoresist in the bump formation area is removed, and the removed portion is plated to form the bump electrode 32. Thereafter, the photoresist and unnecessary portions of the metal layer are sequentially etched and removed. As a result, a pad portion 31 made of a metal layer and electrically connected to the wiring pattern 30 is formed on the insulation protection 111118 on the silicon substrate 2, and a bump electrode 32 is formed on this pad portion 31.

The silicon substrate 2 is finally diced into individual blocks at the locations indicated by the two-dot chain lines and separated into individual thermal heads l. 3 times the width of the heating resistor element 8 (for example, the width of the heating resistor element 8 is 125
This can be done within a range of about Bm. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1, a thermal heating pad 1 is obtained in which the heating resistive element 8 is close to the end surface of the silicon substrate 2.

Therefore, according to such a thermal head l, the heating resistive elements 8 are arranged and formed on the left end side of the silicon substrate 2, and the heating resistive elements 8 are provided in the electrode line portion 4 on the right side of the heating resistive elements 8. The selection electrode 9 and the common type ailO connected to each heating resistance element 8 are connected to the insulating layer 16.
Because of the laminated structure with the common electrode IO interposed therebetween, the wiring width of the common electrode IO can be increased, and thereby the wiring resistance of the common electrode IO can be lowered. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a backflow of current to other heating resistive elements 8 due to wiring resistance, prevent malfunction of other heating resistive elements 8, improve resolution, and perform accurate thermal recording.

In particular, even if the wiring width of the common electrode lO is widened in this way,
Since the common electrode 10 is formed on the selection electrode 9 via the insulating layer 16, the distance from the end surface of the silicon substrate 2 to the heating resistor element 8 can be reduced. Therefore, when performing thermal recording, the thermal head l can be tilted at a steep angle with respect to the recording paper, thermal ink sheet, etc.
The heat-generating portion (protective film 18 on the heat-generating resistor element a) can be brought into reliable and good contact with the recording paper, heat-sensitive ink sheet, etc., and good heat-sensitive recording can be performed. Moreover, by forming 81 layers of selective electrodes 9 and common electrodes 10 between the 1 heating resistor element 8 and the print drive element 11, the print drive element 11 (print drive element 11 ) and heat generating resistor element 8 so that the heat generating resistor element 8
Since the space between them is effectively utilized, it can be made smaller than before. Furthermore, such a thermal head 1 can simultaneously form each element such as the heating resistor 81, the selection electrode 9, the common electrode 1O1, the print drive element 11, and the C-MOS on the silicon substrate 2. Therefore, productivity is good, and since each active element is formed by directly doping impurities into a silicon single crystal substrate, it has high electrical mobility and can be driven at extremely high speed.

Next, referring to FIG. 4, a long thermal head device 33 in which a plurality of the above-mentioned thermal heads 1 are arranged will be described.

This thermal head device 33 has a configuration in which a plurality of thermal heads are attached on a long support substrate 34 as described below. That is, the support substrate 34 is an elongated plate made of ceramic, metal, glass, quartz, or the like. The plurality of thermal heads are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the support substrate 34 so that each end face 3a on the side of the heating element arrangement section 3 faces the adjacent thermal head. The thermal heads are arranged in a staggered manner alternately with the adjacent thermal heads. In this case, each thermal head has the same predetermined pitch P between the last heating resistive element 8 of the adjacent thermal head and the first heating resistive element 8 of the thermal head itself. As a result, the pitch P of each heating resistor element 8 of all the thermal heads becomes the same. Each of the thermal heads arranged in this way is placed in a state in which each end face 3a of the heat generating element arrangement section 3 is brought into contact with the heat generating resistive elements 8, and the heat generating resistive elements 8 are brought close to each other. 34 and glued. In addition, flexible connectors 35 are connected to the terminals 7a to 7e of each thermal head.
5... is connected to a circuit board or the like of a device (not shown).

Therefore, according to such a thermal head device 33, by simply arranging a plurality of thermal heads in a staggered manner in the longitudinal direction with their end faces facing each other on the side of the heating element arrangement section 3, it is possible to print long ones. can be obtained easily. in this case,
Since the distance from the end surface of the silicon substrate 2 to the heat generating element array section 3 of the thermal head is small, the heat generating element array section 3 of each thermal head can be brought close to each other, and each thermal The distance by which the heat generating element arrangement section 3 of the head l is shifted can be reduced. Therefore, when performing thermal recording, it can be set at a steep angle with respect to the recording paper, etc., so each heat-generating part can be brought into contact with the recording paper at almost the same position, thereby making the printing conditions the same, It is possible to perform thermal recording with uniform print density.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be modified and applied in various ways. For example, the heating resistor element 8 of the thermal head 1 may be configured as shown in FIG. 5, that is, This heat generating resistor element 8 has a heat generating resistor element 36 formed in a zigzag shape on the heat storage layer 14, twice the length of the above-mentioned one, and both ends thereof are connected to each selection electrode 37, 37, respectively. The middle of the heat generating resistor element 36 is connected to a common electrode 38, and the heat generating resistor element 36 is time-divisionally driven by two selection types [37, 37]. In this case as well, it goes without saying that the insulating protective film 16 is interposed between each selection electrode 37 and the common electrode 38, and the middle of one heating resistor element 36 is Like common electricity! The common electrode 38 does not extend unilaterally for a long time, but on the contrary, a part 38a of the common electrode 38 extends toward the heating resistor element 36 side and is connected through the through hole 16a of the insulating protective film 16. Therefore, the heat generating region of each heat generating resistor element 36 forms a straight band-like shape along the arrangement direction without any irregularities, allowing for highly accurate printing. Further, the substrate is not limited to the single crystal silicon substrate 2, but may be an insulating substrate such as quartz or glass. In this case, a polycrystalline silicon layer is formed on the surface of the insulating substrate, and this polycrystalline silicon layer is formed on the surface of the insulating substrate. Each element such as a heating resistor element and a printing drive element may be formed by doping a predetermined impurity.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above in detail, according to the thermal head of the present invention, the common electrode and the selection electrode connected to each of the heating resistor elements arranged on the substrate are laminated with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. Because of this structure, even if the wiring width of the earth line is widened in order to lower the wiring resistance of the earth line, the distance from the end surface of the substrate to the heating resistor element can be reduced.

Therefore, even when performing thermal recording without using a platen, the thermal head can be set at a steep angle with respect to the recording paper, etc., so that only one heat generating part can reliably and well contact the thermal paper, thermal ink sheet, etc. This allows accurate thermal recording to be performed well.

Further, according to the thermal head device of the present invention, a long one can be easily obtained by simply arranging a plurality of the above-mentioned thermal heads in a staggered manner in the longitudinal direction. Moreover, since the distance from the end surface of the substrate to the heat generating resistor element of the thermal head is small, the heat generating resistor elements of each thermal head can be brought close together, reducing the distance by which the heat generating resistor element rows are alternately shifted for each thermal head. be able to.

Therefore, when performing thermal recording, each heating resistor element array can be brought into contact with the recording paper at approximately the same position.
As a result, the printing conditions become the same, and thermal recording with uniform printing density can be performed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 5 show embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part of the thermal head, and FIG. 2 is the main part showing the state of connection between the heating resistor element, the selection electrode, and the common electrode. An enlarged plan view, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the block configuration of the thermal head, FIG. 4 is a plan view of the thermal head device, and FIG. 5 is a modified example of the connection state between the heating resistor element, the selection electrode, and the common electrode. This is an enlarged plan view of the main parts. 1...Thermal head, 2...Silicon substrate, 3...Heating element array section, 8.36...
...Heating resistance element, 9.37...Selection electrode, 10.38...Common electrode, 16...
Insulating protective film, 33... Thermal head device, 3
4...Support substrate. Patent applicant: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A thermal head in which a common electrode and a selection electrode are connected to each of heating resistive elements arranged in an array on a substrate, characterized in that the common electrode and the selection electrode have a laminated structure with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. thermal head. (2) The thermal heads according to claim (1) are attached to the support substrate in a staggered manner in the longitudinal direction, with the end surfaces of the thermal heads on the side where the heating resistor element is formed facing each other. Thermal head device.