JPH07329333A - Ic for driving thermal print head, thermal print head using the same and method for controlling the head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suitably control a time division by two divisions and four divisions or time division print by two divisions, three divisions and four divisions in a thermal print head having many heat generating dots and to easily manufacture the various heads having different sizes. CONSTITUTION:The number of bits of a drive IC 7 for driving heat generating dots in charge of predetermined number is set to the multiple of 8 of 48 or more as the divisor of 1/4 of the entire number of the dots or the multiple of 8 of 48 or more as the common divisor of 1/4 and 1/3 of the entire number of the dots in a thermal print head l having a predetermined number of heat generating dots. 3, 4, 6, 12 or 14 of the ICs 7 in which the number of output bits is set to 144 are used to constitute the various type heads 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal print head drive IC, a thermal print head using the same, and a method for controlling the thermal print head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A thermal print head used in a thermal printing section of a facsimile or the like is constructed so that a large number of heating dots arranged in a row on an insulating substrate are driven by a driving IC to generate heat. In the case of a so-called thick film type thermal print head, the heating dot is a comb-teeth-shaped common electrode pattern in which a heating resistor formed so as to extend linearly on the insulating substrate by printing etc. is sunk into the lower layer. It is formed by dividing by. Each heating dot is electrically connected to one end of the individual electrode, and the other end of the individual electrode is electrically connected to the output pad on the drive IC by wire bonding. The drive IC turns on a predetermined output pad in accordance with the print data, and a current flows between the individual electrode corresponding to the turned-on output pad and the common electrode pattern, so that a predetermined heating dot is driven to generate heat. .

For example, when A4 size printing is performed at a printing density of 200 dpi (8 dots in 1 mm), 1728 heating dots are formed. At present, it is difficult to drive all heating dots with one IC chip due to reasons such as semiconductor manufacturing. Therefore, a plurality of IC chips are mounted on the substrate, and each driving IC has a predetermined number. Each heating dot is driven. Each drive IC has a built-in shift register with a predetermined number of bits corresponding to the number of output pads.
By cascading the data out and data in terminals of C, all shift registers are made substantially continuous. In the case of A4 size printing, the print data is 1728 bits per line, and the print data for one line from the data-in terminal of the drive IC arranged at the end of the plurality of drive ICs. Is serially input. In this way, according to the print data held in the 1728-bit shift register, each output pad is turned on at the timing of the strobe signal commonly input to each drive IC.

By the way, conventionally, the number of output bits of this type of thermal print head drive IC is basically preferably a multiple of 8 bits for the convenience of data transfer between the respective drive ICs. , For example, 32 bits,
64 bits, 96 bits, 128 bits, etc.
It is simply a multiple of 32 bits. The number of bits of one chip is gradually increasing because the IC can be highly integrated.

[0005]

By the way, 1 line 1
The printing drive according to the 728-bit printing data is usually performed in a time division manner, not simultaneously. The reason for this is that when all 1728 dots are heated, the amount of current flowing through the common electrode increases, and the voltage drop of the common electrode wiring due to this increases significantly, causing problems such as uneven printing, and using a large capacity power supply. This is because it becomes necessary to set it, which increases the cost.

Therefore, after the 1728-bit print data is input, the strobe signal for controlling the print timing is output by, for example, the drive IC in charge of the left half heating dot and the drive IC in charge of the right half heating dot. I am trying to shift the input.

For example, when a 64-bit driving IC is used to form a thermal printhead having an A4 width of 1728 dots, the number of driving ICs used is 27.
Then, when printing is performed with two-division control, for example,
Inevitably, there are 13 drive ICs on the left side and 14 drive ICs on the right side, and the number of divided dots is different on the left and right. This also causes print unevenness, and also sets the power supply capacity corresponding to the number of heat-generating dots that the 14 drive ICs are in charge of. Power capacity is wasted.

It is also conceivable that the print control is performed in four divisions in order to further reduce the power supply capacity and further reduce the size of the printing apparatus. Even in this case,
Since 27 is not divisible by 4, the same problem as in the case of controlling in two as described above occurs.

Further, in recent years, in addition to a printing apparatus equipped with an 8-inch thermal print head roughly corresponding to the above A4 width, a 2-inch terminal printer used as a cash register or in a railroad vehicle, gas, etc. A 3-inch terminal printer used for settlement of water bills, a 4-inch terminal printer used for medical equipment, and a 10-inch printer are also in practical use. These printers are, for example, the above 2-inch printers, and require about 400 heat dots.
Similarly, for the 3-inch, 4-inch, and 10-inch ones, a predetermined number of heating dots corresponding to the size are required. Therefore, in order to mount a different number of drive ICs for each type of printer and perform appropriate printing with a small power source, drive control such as the division control described above must be performed.

However, conventionally, it has been the actual situation that no specific means has been found for mounting the same type of drive IC with appropriate compatibility to the various printers exemplified above. Therefore, for example, by using a plurality of drive ICs having the above-mentioned output bit number 64, 2 inches
In order to manufacture inch, 4 inch, 8 inch, and 10 inch printers, even if the total number of output bits of the appropriate number of drive ICs is properly made to correspond to the number of heat generation dots of the various printers exemplified above. In the same manner as described above, it becomes impossible to perform uniform division control, which hinders the drive control.

The present invention has been conceived under such circumstances, and particularly when a thermal print head of A4 size 1728 dots is constructed, it is controlled by appropriate two-division, three-division or four-division control. It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to perform printing properly and to make the drive control of the thermal drive heads of different sizes as simple as possible by using the same drive IC.

[0012]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the thermal print head including a predetermined number of heat generation dots, the number of output bits of the drive IC for driving the predetermined number of heat generation dots is determined as the total number of heat generation dots. Is set to a multiple of 8 which is 48 or more.

In a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a thermal print head having a predetermined number of heat generation dots, the number of output bits of a drive IC for driving the predetermined number of heat generation dots is set as the total number of heat generation dots. 1/4 and 1
It is a common divisor of / 3 and is set to a multiple of 8 which is 48 or more.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, printing of one line can be properly performed by time division control of two divisions or three divisions. The thermal print head having the drive IC (claim 2) and the time division control method (claim 3) of the thermal print head divided into the two or four divisions are also within the scope of the inventive idea of the present application. to go into.

On the other hand, the invention of claim 4 makes it possible to properly print one line not only by two or four divisions but also by time division control of three divisions.
Then, a thermal print head having the drive IC mounted thereon (claim 5), and a time-division control method for dividing the thermal print into the two, three or four divisions (claim 6).
Also, naturally, it falls within the scope of the inventive idea of the present application.

In the invention of claim 7 of the present application, 17
In a thermal print head having 28 heating dots, the number of output bits of a driving IC for driving the heating dots by a predetermined number is set to 72, 144 or 216.

Further, according to the invention of claim 8 of the present application, in the thermal print head in which a plurality of drive ICs for driving a predetermined number of heating dots are mounted, the number of output bits of the drive IC is set to 144. The drive ICs are mounted in any number of 3, 4, 6, 12 or 14. In this case, the dot density of the heat generation dots provided in the thermal print head is preferably 200 dpi (claim 9).

[0019]

When the invention of claim 1 is applied to the thermal print head for A4 size printing having 1728 heating dots, 1/4 of the total number of heating dots is 432. The numbers corresponding to multiples of 8 that are divisors of 432 are 8, 16, 24, 48, 7
2, 144, 216, and 432. In the present invention, 16 and 24 of these are excluded. This is because it is not very realistic to make an IC with such a small number of output bits at the present time when high integration is realized. Therefore, 48,
A drive IC having output bit numbers of 72, 144, 216, and 432 corresponds to the invention of claim 1. 1728
432 which is 1/4 of that is 86 which is 1/2 of 1728
Since it is a divisor of 4, the drive I having the above output bit number
When the thermal print head having A4 size 1728 dots of heat generating dots is driven by using C, the time division control of 2 divisions and the time division control of 4 divisions can be properly performed as follows.

For example, consider the case where a 144-bit driver IC is used. In this case, the number of drive ICs is 172
8 ÷ 144 = 12. This 12 is divisible by 2 or 4. Therefore, in the case of performing the time-division printing control by dividing into two, by providing the strobe signals whose timings are respectively shifted in time to the six driving ICs on the left side and the six driving ICs on the right side, The 1728 dot heating dots can be divided into left 864 dots and right 864 dots for time-division driving.

Further, in the case of performing the time division control by dividing into four, the twelve driving ICs are divided into four groups of three, and the strobe signals whose timings are shifted are given to the respective groups. The 1728 dot heating dots can be driven, for example, by 4-division control of 432 dots from the left side.

The number of divided heating dots is the same regardless of whether 2-division control or 4-division control is performed.
Therefore, the current capacities required for printing each divided heating dot group are equal, and the voltage drop of the common electrode in the printed state is also equal. Therefore, print unevenness such as different print density for each divided group does not occur. Further, the current capacity of the power supply is not wasted by the group.

Next, the invention of claim 4 will be applied to a thermal print head having heat generating dots of A4 size 1728 dots. 432, which is 1/4 of 1728
Then, the common divisor of 576, which is 1/3, and the multiples of 8 are 16, 24, 48, 72, and 144. Of these, 16 and 24 are excluded from the present invention. The reason is as described above for the invention of claim 1.

Therefore, the 48, 72, and 144-bit drive ICs correspond to the invention of claim 4 of the present application.
In the case of the invention of claim 4, the number of output bits is 576 above.
Since it is also a divisor, it is possible to perform printing control by proper division into three parts.

In the same way as above, 144-bit driving I
As for the case of using C, 12 drive ICs are
It can be divided into three groups of four. By giving strobe signals with different timings to these three groups of four, one line 17
It is possible to divide the 28 dots of heat generation into 3 times, for example, 576 dots from the left side.

Since the number of divided heating dots is the same, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of printing unevenness and set the power source to the minimum capacity without waste as in the case of the invention of claim 1. You can

As described above, according to the first to seventh aspects of the present invention, when the thermal print head having the predetermined number of heat generation dots is lubricated for each predetermined number of heat generation dots, this is properly performed. You will be able to do that.

On the other hand, the inventions of claims 8 and 9 are for properly manufacturing thermal print heads of various sizes using the same drive IC.

That is, by using the driver IC whose output bit number is 144 bits, for example, the above A4 size 172 is used.
Considering the case of manufacturing a thermal print head having 8 heating dots, as described above, 12 drive ICs can be divided into 4 groups of 3 and can be divided into 4 groups. There is 3
It is possible to easily manufacture the first small thermal print head by using only one driving IC.

In the same manner, the A4 size thermal print head can control the 12 drive ICs into 3 groups of 4 drive ICs, respectively, and control them in three divisions.
Since each drive IC can be divided into two groups of six and divided into two groups and controlled in two, only the four and six drive ICs, which are one of these groups, can be used to control the second and third drive ICs. The thermal print head can be easily manufactured.

As described above, the drive IC having the number of output bits of 144 can be mounted on the thermal print head having the A4 size 1728 dots of the heat generating dot described above to perform the appropriate division control, and at the same time, the division control. Other small thermal print heads can be easily manufactured by using only a predetermined number of drive ICs, which is one group for performing. Therefore, the same drive IC and the drive control mode for the drive IC can be commonly applied to a plurality of types of thermal print heads, which is advantageous in terms of cost and simplifies the manufacturing work. You can do it.

In this case, when the dot density of the heat generation dots of the thermal print head is 200 dpi, the total output bit number when three drive ICs with the output bit number 144 are used, and the 2 inch size. The number of heat generation dots required by the print head appropriately corresponds. Similarly, when the four drive ICs are used, the total output bit number and the number of heat generation dots required by the 3-inch size print head appropriately correspond, and when the six drive ICs are used, The total output bit number and the number of heat generation dots required by the 4-inch size print head appropriately correspond.

Therefore, when the above-mentioned drive IC is mounted on the thermal print head having the A4 size 1728 dots of heat generation dots and one group is divided into three groups, two groups are divided into two groups. It will be effectively used for inch, 3 inch and 4 inch size thermal print heads.

Furthermore, since the total output bit number when 14 drive ICs are used appropriately corresponds to the number of heat generation dots required by the 10-inch size print head, this type of print head is used. Can effectively use the drive ICs, and in this case, the drive ICs can be divided into two groups of seven drive ICs, so that the two-division control can be favorably performed.

[0035]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
A specific description will be given with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1A schematically shows a planar structure of the thick film type thermal print head 1. The heating resistors 3 are linearly arranged along one side edge on the upper surface of the insulating substrate 2 having a long rectangular shape. This heating resistor 3
The common wiring pattern 4 is arranged in a strip-shaped region between the side edge 2a of the substrate 2 and the side edge 2a of the substrate 2, and both ends of the common wiring pattern 4 are extended to the other side edge 2b of the substrate. Its end is connected to the common terminal 5.

As shown in detail in FIG. 2, a comb-teeth-shaped common electrode 4a is extended from the common wiring pattern 4 and, on the other hand, it is inserted between the comb-teeth-shaped common electrodes 4a. One end of the individual electrode 6 is extended. The other end of each individual electrode 6 extends to the vicinity of the drive IC 7 mounted on the substrate, and a wire bonding pad 6a is formed at that end.

As shown by the phantom line in FIG. 2, the heating resistor 3 is formed so as to overlap with the comb-teeth-shaped common electrode 4a and the individual electrode 6 that is inserted between them, and is adjacent to the common electrode 4a. A heating dot is defined by the comb-shaped common electrode 4a. That is, when the individual electrode indicated by reference numeral 6 in FIG. 2 is driven on, a current flows through the heating resistor 3 in the area surrounded by the two comb-teeth-shaped common electrodes 4a surrounding this electrode, and that portion becomes a heating dot. Function.

When printing at 200 dpi, the pitch of each heating dot is 0.125 μm.
Then, as described above, for A4 size, the 1728 heating dots are linearly arranged in a line.

In this embodiment, the drive IC 7 for driving the above-mentioned heating dots by taking charge of each predetermined number.
Is set to 144 bits. That is,
As shown in FIG. 3, the drive IC 7 has 144 output pads 8 arranged in a zigzag pattern on the upper surface of one side edge thereof. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 9 is a data pad,
Reference numeral 10 indicates a data out pad, respectively. Reference numeral 11 is a clock pulse input pad, reference numeral 12 is a strobe pad, reference numeral 13 is a logic power supply pad, and reference numeral 14 is a ground pad.

A 144-bit shift register corresponding to the output pad 8 is built in the drive IC 7, and a strobe input from the strobe pad 12 is provided according to the print data held in the shift register. The corresponding output pad 8 is turned on depending on the timing of the signal.

Since this driving IC 7 is 144 bits, it has 1728 dots of heat generating dot A shown in FIG.
When configuring a thermal print head for 4 sizes,
Twelve drive ICs 7 are mounted on the board. The output pad 8 of each drive IC 7 and the individual electrode 6 described above.
The wire bonding pads 6a are connected by wire bonding as is well known. The data out pad 10 and the data in pad 9 of the adjacent drive ICs 7 are substantially electrically connected by wire bonding with a wiring pattern (not shown) provided on the substrate. The logic power supply pad 13 is commonly connected to a power supply wiring pattern (not shown) formed on the substrate through wire bonding. The clock pulse input pad 11 is also commonly connected to a clock signal wiring pattern (not shown) formed on the substrate. The same applies to the above ground pad.

In FIG. 1A, for example, the data in pad 9 (see FIG. 3) in the leftmost drive IC 7 is
The wiring pattern connected to the data-in terminal provided on the substrate is connected by wire bonding.

The print data of 1728 bits per line is
It is held in a total of 1728 bit shift register, which is substantially concatenated as described above. The printing drive is performed according to the timing of the strobe signal input from the strobe pad 12, but normally not all the heating dots are driven at the same time, but are divided into several groups and driven in time division.

FIG. 1B schematically shows a case where the 1728 heating dots are driven by being divided into two groups of 864 dots each. Similarly, (c) of Figure 1
FIG. 1D schematically shows a case where the time division drive is divided into three groups of 576 dots and a case where the time division drive is divided into four groups of 432 dots.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), when the control is performed in two divisions, the strobe pads of the left six drive ICs 7 out of the 12 drive ICs 7 are commonly used for the first strobe signal wiring pattern. Connected, 6 drive ICs 7 on the right
Will be commonly connected to the second strobe signal wiring pattern.

Similarly, three-system strobe signal wiring patterns are required for three-division control, and four-system strobe signal wiring patterns are required for four-division control.

FIG. 4 shows a timing chart in the case of performing time-division printing control by four divisions. In accordance with the clock pulse signal (CLK), 1728-bit print data is held in a total of 1728-bit shift registers in each cascaded drive IC. Then, during the falling time of the first strobe signal STB1, the 1st to 3rd driving ICs heat-drive the _{1st to 432nd} heating dots (D _{1 to} D ₄₃₂ ) according to the print data, and sequentially. During the fall of the second strobe signal or the fourth strobe signal STB2 to STB4, the heating dots of 432 dots each shown in FIG. 1D are driven to generate heat according to the print data.

As can be seen from FIG. 1, in this embodiment, 1
Since a 44-bit drive IC is used to drive the A4 size 1728 dot thermal print head, the number of drive ICs 7 mounted on the substrate is twelve. Since the number of 12 is divisible by 2, 3, or 4, two-division printing control, three-division printing control, and four-division printing control can be properly performed. That is, it is possible to perform division control so that the number of divided heating dots is the same.

As described above, in the present embodiment, appropriate print drive control can be performed corresponding to any of the time division control such as the 2-division control, the 3-division control and the 4-division control. become able to.

Of course, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. When driving an A4 size 1728 dot thermal print head, the number of output bits of each drive IC that can support any of two-division control, three-division control and four-division control is 48 bits and 72 bits. May be. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the 72-bit drive IC for reference.

Further, in order to be able to support the 2-division control and the 4-division control, the number of output bits of the driving IC is 2.
It may be 16 bits or 432 bits.

Although a 432-bit IC is difficult in the current semiconductor manufacturing technology, it may be realized in the future. Theoretically, four 432-bit driving ICs are used to perform 1728-dot thermal printing. The case of driving the head is also within the scope of the present invention.

Further, the driving IC 7 listed in the above embodiment.
Among them, the drive IC 7 whose output bit number is set to 144 bits can be used as follows. In the following description based on FIG. 6 to FIG. 9, the same reference numerals and the same expression form will be used for the common configuration requirements and the display mode of the number of heat generation dots as in the above-described thermal print head 1 shown in FIG. The detailed description thereof will be omitted.

That is, the 2-inch thermal print head 1a shown in FIG. 6, the 3-inch (or 2.7-inch) thermal print head 1b shown in FIG. 7, and the 4-inch thermal print shown in FIG. For the print head 1c, the drive IC 7 having the same output bit number 144 as described above is used. In this case, of course, it is assumed that the dot density of the heat generating dots is 200 dpi (the same applies to the following). The A4 size thermal print head 1 has 8
It corresponds to inch size.

The various types of thermal print heads will be described in detail. The 2-inch size shown in FIG. 6 uses three drive ICs 7 described above, so that the total output bit number is 432 bits, which is 2 inches. The size of the thermal print head properly corresponds to the number of heat generation dots required. This 2 inch size is
For example, it is used for ticket printing in cash registers and rail cars.

The 3-inch size shown in FIG. 7 uses four of the above driving ICs 7, and the total output bit number is 576 bits. Further, the 4-inch size shown in FIG. Six drive ICs 7 are used, and the total output bit number is 864 bits. Also in this case, the total number of output bits corresponds to the number of heat generation dots required by the thermal print heads of 3 inch size and 4 inch size. The 3-inch size is used as a terminal printer for settlement of gas or water charges, and the 4-inch size is used as a terminal printer.
It is used as a terminal printer for electrocardiogram and other medical devices for diagnosis.

As described above, the driving IC 7 used for the A4 size (8 inch size) thermal print head 1 is effective for the 2 inch, 3 inch and 4 inch size thermal print heads 1a, 1b, 1c. Will be used. Further, the 3-inch size one shown in FIG. 7 can be divided into two groups of two drive ICs 7 so as to perform two-division control, and the 4-inch size one shown in FIG. Divide the drive ICs 7 into 2 or 3 groups into 3 or 2 groups.
It is possible to perform division control or two-division control. By performing the division control in this way, a large-capacity power supply is not required, which is convenient for a handy type terminal printer, and the number of divided heating dots is the same so that uniform drive control can be performed. Therefore, problems such as uneven printing will not occur.

Further, in FIG. 9, a 14-inch thermal print head 1d is constructed by using 14 of the driving ICs 7 described above. In this case, above 14
The total number of output bits of each drive IC 7 is 2016, which corresponds to the number of heat generation dots required by a 10-inch size thermal print head. Further, the thermal print heads 1d are divided into two groups of seven, so that the two-division control is performed. In this case also, the same drive IC as above
7 can be used, and the number of divided heating dots becomes the same, and uniform drive control can be performed.

The number of heat generation dots required by the thermal print heads 1a, 1b, 1c, 1 and 1d of the 2 inch, 3 inch, 4 inch, 8 inch and 10 inch sizes is determined by the respective thermal prints. The number is slightly smaller than the total output bit number of each drive IC 7 mounted on the head. For example 2
Taking the inch-size thermal print head 1a as an example, the number of heat generation dots required is the drive IC in this case.
400, which is slightly less than the total output bit number of 7
It is about 420.

Here, suppose, for example, that a variety of thermal print heads are manufactured in the same manner as described above by using a drive IC having an output bit number of 64, and 7 2-inch size ones are used. The total output bit number becomes 448, the total output bit number becomes 640 by using 10 of the 3-inch size, and the total output bit number becomes 832 by using 13 of the 4-inch size. The total number of output bits is 17 by using 27 of the 8-inch size.
28, the total output bit number becomes 2048 by using 32 10-inch size ones.

As described above, the drive I having 64 output bits is used.
When C is used, the number used is 7, 10,
There are 13, 27, and 32. Of these,
Since 7 and 13 are prime numbers, uniform division control cannot be performed,
It becomes impossible to appropriately deal with the demand for miniaturization of the power supply and the demand for wasteful consumption of the power supply capacity. On the other hand, if the drive IC having the output bit number of 144 is used, such a problem does not occur.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a plan view schematically showing a configuration of a first embodiment of a thermal print head of the present invention. (b) is 2
It is explanatory drawing in the case of performing division control. (c) is an explanatory diagram of a case where three-division control is performed. (d) is an explanatory diagram of a case where four-division control is performed.

2 is a partially enlarged plan view of the thermal print head shown in FIG. 1 (a).

FIG. 3 is a drive IC for a thermal print head according to the present invention.
It is an enlarged plan view of an example.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart when performing time-division printing control by four divisions.

FIG. 5 is a drive IC for a thermal print head according to the present invention.
It is an enlarged plan view of another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a plan view schematically showing the configuration of a second embodiment of the thermal print head of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view schematically showing the configuration of a third embodiment of the thermal print head of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a plan view schematically showing the constitution of a fourth embodiment of the thermal print head of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a plan view schematically showing the configuration of a fifth embodiment of the thermal print head of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Thermal print head 3 Heating resistor 7 Driving IC

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B41J 3/20 114 A

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A drive IC for driving a predetermined number of heat generation dots in a thermal print head having a predetermined number of heat generation dots, wherein the number of output bits of the drive IC is the total number of heat generation dots. 1 / of
A drive I for a thermal print head, which is a divisor of 4 and is set to a multiple of 8 which is 48 or more.
C. 2. A thermal print head on which the drive IC according to claim 1 is mounted. 3. The method of controlling a thermal print head according to claim 2, wherein printing of one line is performed by time division of two divisions or four divisions. 4. A thermal print head having a predetermined number of heating dots, which is a driving IC for driving the heating dots by a predetermined number, wherein the number of output bits of the driving IC is the total number of heating dots. 1 / of
A driving IC for a thermal print head, which is a common divisor of 4 and 1/3 and is set to a multiple of 8 which is 48 or more. 5. A thermal print head equipped with the drive IC according to claim 4. 6. The method of controlling a thermal print head according to claim 5, wherein printing of one line is performed by time division of two divisions, three divisions or four divisions. 7. A thermal print head having 1,728 heating dots, which is a driving IC for driving a predetermined number of the heating dots, wherein the number of output bits of the driving IC is 72, 144 or Two
16. A thermal print head drive IC, which is set to 16. 8. A thermal print head having a plurality of drive ICs for driving a predetermined number of heating dots and driving the same, wherein the number of output bits of the drive IC is set to 144, and the drive IC is set to 3 A thermal print head, characterized in that only four, four, six, twelve or fourteen are mounted. 9. The thermal print head according to claim 8, wherein the dot density of the heat generation dots provided in the thermal print head is set to 200 dpi.