JPH05185597A - Manufacture of ink jet recording head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the machining accuracy in providing groove-shaped ink passages to be formed on a silicone substrate serving as a cavity plate and improve therewith the printing quality and yield rate. CONSTITUTION:When applying dry plasma etching to an ink reservoir 7 and each of ink passages communicating with the ink reservoir, grooves 12 for adjusting processing area, isolated from each of the ink passages, are formed in the neighborhood of the ink passages so that gas reaction velocity in the plasma etching becomes uniform.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head which can improve the processing accuracy of a groove-shaped ink flow path formed on a silicon substrate as a cavity plate and thus improve the printing quality and the yield rate. ..

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a method of ejecting ink from fine nozzle holes and adhering it onto a recording medium such as paper for recording is known as an ink jet recording method. And as one of the principles, there is an on-demand type ink jet recording head. In this type of double-sided ink jet recording head, ink ejection nozzles are arranged in a zigzag pattern on both sides in order to obtain high resolution. Generally, FIG. 4 is a plan view seen from the groove side of the cavity plate. As shown in FIG. 5 which is a cross-sectional view, a plurality of ink ejection nozzles 2, ejection channels 3, ink pressurization chambers 5 are formed on both surfaces of a plate member such as silicon, glass or a metal plate by etching or machining. After the cavity plate 31 having the ink supply path 6 and the common ink reservoir 7 and the vibrating plate 9 are laminated and integrated, the electric machine is provided on the outer surface of the vibrating plate 9 at a position facing the ink pressurizing chamber 5. The piezoelectric element 10 as the conversion element is a conductive film 11
It has a structure that is joined through.

In addition, a supply jig 32, which is a U-shaped rubber molded product or a plastic molded product, is hermetically fitted and adhered to the right end portion of FIG. The supply jig 32 is provided with a hole 33 to which an ink tube (not shown) is connected, and a front space 35 communicating with this is provided so as to be connected to the ink reservoir 7. The front space 35 is literally installed in the front stage of the ink reservoir 7 and has a buffering function for the ink flowing in and supplied from the hole 33, that is, a function of relaxing the momentum of the ink.

In such a structure, when a voltage as an electric signal is applied to the piezoelectric element 10, the vibrating plate 9 is displaced inside the ink pressurizing chamber 5 and the volume of the ink pressurizing chamber 5 is rapidly reduced, Ink corresponding to the volume is ejected from the nozzle 2 and becomes an ink droplet, which is spotted and printed on the opposing recording paper.

In FIG. 4, a slightly more specific supplementary explanation will be given. The nozzle 2 has a space (pitch) 2 on one surface.
Twenty-four of 54 μm are arranged, and the other surface is arranged in a staggered manner, and a total of 48 on both sides are arranged at a pitch of 127 μm, which corresponds to a resolution of 200 dpi. The nozzle shape at this time is generally 50 μm in width and 40 μm in depth. This processing is based on the dry plasma etching method. In this method, a high-frequency electric field is applied between electrodes placed in a predetermined gas atmosphere, and ions or excited atoms separated from the gas by plasma excited at that time react with the surface of a silicon wafer to remove silicon. By removing it, that part is carved into a groove.

Since silicon wafers are expensive,
It is possible to take a plurality of silicon wafers without waste. In the layout of Fig. 6, the dimensions are 35 x 45
The four cavity plates 41 for the mm recording head are arranged in an annular shape to form one 4-inch diameter silicon wafer 20.
Taken from. Grooves such as ink reservoirs, ink pressurizing chambers and nozzles of the four cavity plates 41 arranged in an annular shape are
At the same time, it is engraved by the dry plasma etching method.

[0007]

Generally, when the grooves such as the ink reservoir of the cavity plate, the ink pressurizing chamber, and the nozzle are processed by the dry plasma etching method, the processed part (non-masked part) in each unit area is processed. If the area ratio between the portion) and the non-processed portion (mask portion) is significantly different, the reaction rate of the gas by the plasma becomes non-uniform, and the processing accuracy varies. That is, when the reaction rate of gas by plasma is high, the processing rate generally tends to increase. As shown in FIG. 4, in the conventional cavity plate, the area ratio between the processed portion and the non-processed portion largely fluctuates, so that the reaction rate of the gas by the plasma becomes large and non-uniform, and the etching rate is accordingly large. Becomes difficult to control, resulting in a large variation in processing accuracy. In other words, the processing dimensions of the ink flow path partly change, which directly affects the ink ejection characteristics and thus the print quality. In other words, this lowers the yield rate of the cavity plate.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems of the prior art, to improve the processing accuracy of a groove-shaped ink flow path formed in a silicon substrate as a cavity plate, and thus to improve the printing quality and the yield rate. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head that can be improved.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head, comprising: a common ink reservoir;
In a method of manufacturing a recording head having a cavity plate made of a silicon substrate on which a plurality of ink flow paths including an ink pressurizing chamber and an ink jetting nozzle communicated with this are formed in a groove by dry plasma etching, In the vicinity of each ink channel on the surface of the silicon substrate, an adjustment groove that is not connected to each ink channel and is isolated at the same time is formed by the dry plasma etching, and by this formation, the area of each partial region on the surface of the silicon substrate is formed. With respect to, the area ratio of all the groove portions formed in the partial region is made uniform.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head, wherein a plurality of cavity plates are taken from one silicon wafer, and a common ink reservoir of each cavity plate and a common ink reservoir for communicating with the ink reservoir. When the ink flow path including the ink pressurizing chamber and the ink jetting nozzle is formed by dry plasma etching, the adjustment recesses isolated in the intermediate regions of the adjacent cavity plates are simultaneously formed by the dry plasma etching. , By this formation, for the area of each cavity plate of the plurality of taking on the surface of the silicon wafer,
The area ratio of all grooves formed in the cavity plate,
The area ratio of the adjustment recess formed in the intermediate region to the area of the intermediate region of each cavity plate is equal.

[0011]

In the method of manufacturing the ink jet recording head according to the first aspect, in the vicinity of each ink flow path on the surface of the silicon substrate,
By forming isolated adjustment grooves that do not communicate with the respective ink flow paths, the area ratio between the processed portion and the non-processed portion is made uniform, and the gas reaction rate by the plasma of dry plasma etching is made uniform. ..

In the method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to a second aspect of the invention, the area ratio between the processed portion and the non-processed portion is made uniform by forming isolated adjusting recesses in the intermediate regions of the adjacent cavity plates. The reaction rate of gas by the plasma of dry plasma etching is made uniform.

[0013]

Embodiments of the method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a main part of a cavity plate in the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, a portion where the area ratio between the processed portion (non-masked portion) and the non-processed portion (masked portion) is particularly different, in other words, a portion where the non-processed portion is particularly wide is an intermediate region adjacent to the ink supply path 6. And an intermediate region of the ejection flow path 3 connected to the ink pressurizing chambers 5 adjacent to each other. When the ink pressurizing chambers 5 are staggered and are adjacent to each other, the ejection passages 3 connected to them are connected.
The intermediate region of is not particularly wide. Therefore, the adjustment grooves 12 for equalizing the area ratio in the above two places,
The non-mask portion is provided so as to form 13 (hatched display for emphasis). That is, the adjustment groove 12 is located in the adjacent intermediate region of the ink supply path 6, and the adjustment groove 13 is provided when the ink pressurizing chambers 5 are adjacent to each other.
It is located in the intermediate region of the injection flow path 3 connected to this.

By forming the adjustment grooves 12 and 13, the area ratio between the processed portion and the non-processed portion is made uniform, and the reaction rate of gas by the plasma of dry plasma etching is made uniform. In other words, the size and shape of each of the adjustment grooves 12 and 13 are determined so that the area ratio between the processed portion and the non-processed portion at that portion is made uniform. When the adjustment groove is properly set, the processing accuracy of the ink flow path can be set to ± 5 μm.

With reference to FIG. 2, the cavity plate in the embodiment will be described in more detail in a form closer to the actual condition. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the left half of the cavity plate in the embodiment. In FIG. 2, corresponding portions in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and isolated areas hatched represent adjustment grooves. In the left half area of the cavity plate, twelve segments Ai, Bi, Ci, Di (i
= 1, 2, 3), and the distribution of the area ratio of the processed portion in each segment to the area of each segment was calculated. Since the purpose is to make the area ratio uniform, we decided to express the area ratio exponentially and set the smallest area ratio to 100. As a result, the distribution of area ratio is 100
There was a variation of ~ 140 with an average value of 130. On the other hand, in the conventional cavity plate shown in FIG. 4, the same area is segmented and the area ratio is expressed exponentially.
Looking at the distribution of the area ratio, there was a variation of 100 to 240, and the average value was 180. As a matter of course, 100 in the conventional example and 100 in the example do not represent the same area ratio. Now, as an effect of making the area ratio of each segment uniform, when the variation of the initial velocity related to ink ejection is measured, what is ± 40% in the conventional example is suppressed to ± 20% or less in the example. Results were obtained.

[0016]

In the method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to the first aspect of the present invention, the processed portion is formed by forming an isolated adjustment groove in the vicinity of each ink channel on the surface of the silicon substrate without communicating with each ink channel. The area ratio between the unprocessed part and the unprocessed part is made uniform, and the reaction rate of the gas by the plasma of the dry plasma etching is made uniform. Therefore, the etching rate can be controlled accurately and easily, and the processing accuracy of the ink flow path and thus the printing quality can be improved and the yield rate can be improved.

In the method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to a second aspect of the present invention, by forming isolated adjusting recesses in the intermediate regions of the adjacent cavity plates, the area ratio between the processed portion and the unprocessed portion is made uniform. The reaction rate of gas by the plasma of dry plasma etching is made uniform. Therefore, the control of the etching rate becomes accurate and easy, and the processing accuracy and thus the printing quality are improved.
The yield rate can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a main part of a cavity plate according to a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the left half of the cavity plate in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a layout view of a four-cavity cavity plate on a silicon wafer in a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a cavity plate in a conventional example.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the same.

FIG. 6 is a layout view of a four-cavity cavity plate on a silicon wafer in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cavity Plate 2 Nozzle 3 Ejection Flow Path 5 Ink Pressurization Chamber 6 Ink Supply Path 7 Ink Reservoir 12 Adjustment Groove 13 Adjustment Groove 20 Silicon Wafer 21 Cavity Plate 22 Adjustment Recess 23

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Akihiko Kadowaki 1-1, Tanabe Nitta, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. No. 1 within Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A silicon substrate in which a common ink reservoir and a plurality of ink flow passages which are connected to the ink reservoir and are provided with an ink pressurizing chamber and an ink ejecting nozzle are formed in a groove shape by dry plasma etching on a surface. In a method of manufacturing a recording head using a cavity plate, an adjustment groove which is not in communication with each ink flow path and is isolated in the vicinity of each ink flow path on the surface of the silicon substrate is simultaneously formed by the dry plasma etching. A method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head, wherein an area ratio of all the groove portions formed in the partial region to the area of each partial region on the surface of the silicon substrate is made uniform. 2. When a plurality of cavity plates are taken from one silicon wafer, a common ink reservoir of each cavity plate, an ink pressurizing chamber and an ink ejecting nozzle communicating therewith are provided. The ink flow path provided is
When formed by dry plasma etching, the adjustment recesses that are isolated in the intermediate regions of the adjacent cavity plates are simultaneously formed by the dry plasma etching, and by this formation, the cavity plates for taking the plurality of wafers on the surface of the silicon wafer are formed. So that the area ratio of all the groove portions formed in the cavity plate to the area of and the area ratio of the adjustment recesses formed in the intermediate region to the area of the intermediate region of each cavity plate are equal. An ink jet recording head manufacturing method characterized by the above.