JPH08267762A - Ink jet recording head, its manufacture and ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an ink jet head manufacturing method suitable for the mass production of heads for an ink jet recording device of edge shooter type of high density without lowering productivity. CONSTITUTION: The manufacturing method of an ink jet recording head comprises, (1) formation of mold materials 9 and 10 occupying at least a part forming a liquid flow passage and a liquid chamber on a base 7 to be processed provided with a liquid jet energy generation section, (2) lamination of a curable material 11 coating the mold materials and curing, (3) application of a resist 12 for coating onto the curable material coating the mold materials, and carrying out the patterning so as to form a section forming an ink feed opening 13 on the upper parts of the mold materials providing the liquid chamber section, (4) formation of an opening reaching the above-said mold materials occupying the part forming the liquid flow passage and liquid chamber by dry etching, and (5) melting and removing of the mold materials occupying the part forming the liquid flow passage and the liquid chamber.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head for producing recording liquid droplets used in an ink jet recording system and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to an edge-shaker type ink jet recording head and a method of manufacturing the same. The present invention relates to an inkjet recording device used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording head applied to an ink jet recording system (liquid jet recording system) generally has a fine recording liquid discharge port (orifice), a liquid flow path and a liquid discharge provided in a part of this liquid flow path. It has an energy generator. Conventionally, as a method for producing such an ink jet recording head, for example, JP-A-61-154
The following processes described in Japanese Patent No. 947, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-253457 and the like are known.

FIGS. 1 (1) to 1 (5) are schematic views of the manufacturing process. First, a photosensitive resin layer (positive type photoresist) is formed on the substrate 1 to be processed, and the photosensitive resin layer is exposed through a mask (not shown) and then developed to pattern the photosensitive resin layer and to be processed. A mold material 2 that will become the liquid flow path 6 and the liquid chamber 5 is formed on the substrate 1 (FIG. 1 (1),
(2)). FIG. 1A is a plan view of an example in which the mold material 2 is formed on the substrate to be processed. After that, (2) to (5) in FIG.
(A) shows a sectional view taken along the line AA 'in (1), and (b) shows a sectional view taken along the line BB' in (1).

Next, the patterned mold material 2 is coated with an active energy ray curable or thermosetting liquid flow path forming material 3, and the active energy ray curable or thermosetting is applied by irradiation or heating of active energy rays. The mold liquid flow path forming material is cured (FIG. 1 (3)). Further, the cured liquid flow path forming material is punched to reach the liquid chamber portion of the mold material formed on the substrate to be processed by machining to form the ink supply port 4 (FIG. 1 (4)). ).

Then, the patterned mold material is
The liquid flow path 5 and the liquid chamber 6 are formed by dissolving and removing using an organic solvent such as a halogen-containing hydrocarbon, a ketone, an ester, an ether, an alcohol or an alkaline aqueous solution such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.

In the above-described process method, when the liquid chamber and the ink supply port are formed, when the photosensitive resin layer formed on the substrate 1 to be processed is patterned to form the mold material which becomes the liquid flow path 5. , Patterning the liquid chamber 6 at the same time,
A liquid chamber 6 connected to the liquid flow path 5 is formed. Further, it is necessary to form the ink supply port 4 by machining.

Further, in the ink jet recording head in which the orifice and the liquid flow path 5 communicating with the orifice are arranged at a high density, the liquid chamber is used to increase the liquid supply speed and to stably and uniformly discharge the recording liquid (ink). It is important to increase the volume, and it is necessary to form a liquid chamber higher than the liquid flow path. As a method of forming a liquid chamber higher than the liquid flow path, after forming a mold material to be the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber by the above steps, a second mold material that can be dissolved and removed is laminated on the mold material in the liquid chamber part. Then, a method of forming a liquid chamber forming mold member higher than the liquid flow path is effective. However, even in this case, in order to form the ink supply port for supplying the ink to the liquid chamber, it is necessary to perforate the curable material that covers the liquid chamber forming mold member by machining.

[0008]

When the above curable material is punched by machining, for example, when a drilling machine is used for punching, problems such as chipping of the curable material and deformation or damage of the substrate occur. Further, the processing accuracy and the processing capacity are limited, and the productivity is low. Therefore, a highly reliable and highly productive head manufacturing method suitable for mass production of such inkjet recording heads is strongly desired. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a novel method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head that satisfies the above requirements.

[0009]

Therefore, in the present invention, in an edge-shaker type ink jet recording head, (1) at least a liquid flow path and a liquid chamber are provided on a substrate to be processed having a liquid ejection energy generating portion. A mold material that occupies a portion is formed, (2) a curable material that covers the mold material is laminated and cured, and (3) a silicon-containing resist is coated on the curable material that covers the mold material to form the liquid chamber portion. A patterning process is performed to provide a portion to be an ink supply port on the upper part of the mold material, and (4) a hole reaching the mold material occupying the liquid chamber portion is formed by dry etching, and (5) the liquid flow path and the liquid. The object of the present invention is to achieve the object by adopting a manufacturing method including the steps of dissolving and removing the mold material that occupies a portion to be a chamber.

[0010]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below based on examples.
2 (a) to 2 (f) are explanatory diagrams of respective steps of one embodiment of the method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

(A) to (f) schematically show each step of the method of forming the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber in this embodiment, and an example of the constitution of the ink jet recording head of this embodiment. Is shown. In this embodiment, an example of an ink jet recording head having two orifices is shown, but the same applies to a high density ink jet recording head having a larger number of orifices or an ink jet recording head having one orifice. is there.

In this embodiment, for example, a substrate made of glass, ceramics, plastic, metal or the like is used. FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram in which the photosensitive resin layer 8 is formed on the substrate 7 to be processed. Such a substrate 7 functions as a part of the liquid flow path 6 and the liquid chamber constituent material 5, and also as a support at the time of forming the mold members 9 and 10 and the curable material described later. Can be used without any particular limitation on its shape and material.

A desired number of liquid ejection energy generating elements such as electrothermal converters or piezoelectric elements are arranged on the substrate 7 (not shown). This drunk liquid ejection energy generating element gives ejection energy for ejecting recording liquid droplets to the recording liquid (ink) to perform recording.

When an electrothermal converter is used as the liquid ejection energy generating element, the element heats the recording liquid in the vicinity to generate ejection energy.
When a piezoelectric element is used as the liquid ejection energy generating element, ejection energy is generated by mechanical vibration of the element.

It should be noted that a control signal input electrode for operating these elements is connected to these elements (not shown). Further, generally, various functional layers such as a protective layer are provided for the purpose of improving the durability of these ejection energy generating elements, but the functional layer may be provided in this embodiment as well.

Next, on the substrate 7 including the liquid discharge energy generating element, a mold material 9 which will be a part of the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber is formed in the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber forming portion by a photolithography process (FIG. 2). (B)).

Next, a mold material 10 as a material that can be dissolved and removed is formed in the liquid chamber forming portion so as to be higher than the liquid flow path by screen printing or the like (FIG. 2C).

The mold members 9 and 10 are removed after each step described later, and a liquid flow path and a liquid chamber are formed in the removed portion. Of course, the shapes of the liquid flow path 6 and the liquid chamber can be set to desired shapes, and the mold material can also be formed according to the shapes of the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber.

Next, a curable resin material 11 is coated on the mold members 9 and 10 sequentially laminated on the substrate 7, and the curable resin material 11 is cured (FIG. 2 (d)). further,
A silicon-containing resist 12 is applied on the cured resin 11, and a portion to be the ink supply port 13 is formed on the upper parts of the liquid chamber forming mold members 9 and 10 by a photolithography process (FIG. 2E).

Then, using the patterned silicon-containing resist 12 as a mask, dry etching is performed to form holes reaching the liquid chamber forming material, and the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber forming mold material are dissolved and removed (FIG. 2). (F)).

Although only one ink jet recording head is shown here, a large number of ink jet recording heads may be formed on the substrate 7 and separated and cut after a series of treatments to form individual heads. Absent.

As the curable material 11 used here, any material can be used as long as it can be cured by light irradiation or heat treatment and can cover each of the mold members 9 and 10, but this material is Since the liquid flow path 6 and the liquid chamber are formed to serve as a constituent material for an ink jet recording head, it is desirable to select a material having excellent adhesion to the substrate 7, mechanical strength, and corrosion resistance. .

Further, the silicon-containing resist used in the present invention functions as a mask when processing the curable material by dry etching, and the larger the etching ratio with the curable material, the better. Specifically, it is necessary to have resistance to oxygen plasma used for dry etching. In order to obtain sufficient resistance to oxygen plasma, the higher the silicon content in the resist, the better, and preferably the silicon content is 5% or more. , And more preferably 10% or more. Further, the used film thickness of the silicon-containing resist can be arbitrarily set according to the etching rate of the silicon-containing resist and the curable material, the processed film thickness of the curable material to be processed, and the like. As the silicon-containing resist, both a negative type and a positive type can be used, and the resist may be peeled off after processing the curable material or after removing the molding material.

Hereinafter, detailed steps of this embodiment will be described in detail: (Example 1) A positive photoresist AZ- on a glass substrate 7 on which an electrothermal converter as a liquid discharge energy generating element is formed. 4903 (trade name, manufactured by Hoechst) was spin-coated to a film thickness of 30 μm and placed in an oven for 9
Pre-baking was performed at 0 ° C. for 40 minutes to form a resist layer. Pattern exposure was performed on the resist layer with a mask aligner PLA501 (trade name, manufactured by Canon Inc.) through a mask pattern of a liquid flow path and a liquid chamber portion at an exposure amount of 800 mJ / cm ² , and then 0.75 wt% of hydroxylation was performed. Development was performed using a sodium aqueous solution, followed by rinsing treatment with ion-exchanged water, and post-baking was performed in a vacuum oven at 50 ° C. for 30 minutes to obtain a resist pattern.

Next, on the resist pattern in the liquid chamber portion,
A plating resist MA-830 (trade name, manufactured by Taiyo Ink Co., Ltd.) was formed by screen printing so as to have a thickness of 50 μm, and solvent drying was performed at 70 ° C. for 2 hours. afterwards,
Thermosetting epoxy resin composition EME on substrate 7 to be processed
-700 (trade name, manufactured by Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.) was coated by a transfer molding method under conditions of a molding temperature of 120 ° C., a plunger pressure of 40 kg and a holding time of 5 minutes, and then 1
A heat treatment was performed at 50 ° C. for 2 hours to completely cure the epoxy resin composition.

Next, a silicon-containing resist SNR-M2 (trade name, manufactured by Tosoh Corporation) is applied on the cured epoxy resin so that the film thickness is 1 μm, and a mask aligner PLA-520 (via a mask pattern of an ink supply port). After performing deep UV exposure for 15 seconds using a product name (Canon Inc.), develop with a solvent of propylene glycol-α-monomethyl ether / di-normal butyl ether = 5/2 for 1 minute, to obtain di-normal butyl ether. Then, a rinsing process for 1 minute was performed to form a pattern of the ink supply port.

Next, the substrate 7 to be processed is set in a parallel plate type dry etching apparatus, the epoxy resin cured product is etched by oxygen plasma, a hole reaching the mold material for forming the liquid chamber is opened, and then immersed in acetone. Then, the mold material for forming the liquid flow path and the liquid chamber was dissolved and removed.

The nozzles thus manufactured had extremely high accuracy and high reliability. further,
The ink jet recording head thus produced was capable of stable printing.

(Embodiment 2) A positive photoresist AZ-4903 (trade name, manufactured by Hoechst) having a film thickness of 30 μm is formed on a glass substrate on which an electrothermal converter as a liquid discharge energy generating element is formed. After spin coating, prebaking was performed in an oven at 90 ° C. for 40 minutes to form a resist layer. A mask aligner PLA- is formed on the resist layer through a liquid flow path and a mask pattern of the liquid chamber.
800 mJ / by 501 (trade name, manufactured by Canon Inc.)
After pattern exposure with an exposure amount of cm ² , 0.75 wt%
Development using an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide as described above, followed by rinsing with ion-exchanged water, followed by 3 hours at 50 ° C. in a vacuum oven.
Post-baking was performed for 0 minutes to obtain a resist pattern.

Next, on the resist pattern in the liquid chamber portion,
A plating resist MA-830 (trade name, manufactured by Taiyo Ink Co., Ltd.) was formed by screen printing so as to have a thickness of 50 μm, and solvent drying was performed at 70 ° C. for 2 hours.

Next, 1.0 J / cm ^{2 is applied} onto the substrate 7 to be processed.
After performing degassing for 30 minutes under a vacuum condition of 0.1 mmHg, the epoxy resin Cyracure UVR-6110 40 parts by weight Cyrurec UVR-6200 20 parts by weight was manufactured. Cycure UVR-6351 40 parts by weight and triphenylsulfonium hexafluoroantimonate 1 part by weight were coated with a photocurable material 11, 8.5 J / cm ^2.
The entire surface was exposed with an exposure amount of 5 to cure.

Then, a silicon-containing resist SNR-M2 (trade name, manufactured by Tosoh Corporation) is applied onto the cured epoxy resin so as to have a film thickness of 1 μm, and a mask aligner PLA-520 (via a mask pattern of an ink supply port). After performing deep UV exposure for 15 seconds using a product name (Canon Inc.), develop with a solvent of propylene glycol-α-monomethyl ether / di-normal butyl ether = 5/2 for 1 minute, to obtain di-normal butyl ether. Then, a rinsing process for 1 minute was performed to form a pattern of the ink supply port.

Next, the substrate 7 to be processed is set in a parallel plate type dry etching apparatus, the epoxy resin cured product is etched by oxygen plasma, holes are formed to reach the liquid chamber forming mold members 9 and 10, and then acetone is used. By immersing in, the liquid flow path and liquid chamber forming mold members 9 and 10 were dissolved and removed.

The nozzles produced as described above were highly accurate and highly reliable. Furthermore, the ink jet recording head thus produced was capable of stable printing.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A highly reliable ink jet recording head that does not cause problems such as chipping of the curable material and deformation or damage of the substrate by processing the curable material by dry etching using a silicon-containing resist to form the ink supply port. Can be manufactured. Further, by adopting the method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head according to the present invention, an inkjet recording head having high productivity and high reliability can be manufactured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a manufacturing process diagram of an inkjet recording head.

FIG. 2 is a process diagram of a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head according to an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Processing Substrate 2 Mold Material 3 Liquid Flow Path Forming Material 4 Ink Supply Port 5 Liquid Flow Path 6 Liquid Chamber 7 Processed Substrate 8 Photosensitive Resin Layer 9 Mold Material 10 Mold Material 11 Curable Resin Material 12 Silicon-Containing Resist 13 Ink Supply Port 14 Discharge port (orifice)

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. In an edge shooter type ink jet head, (1) a mold material occupying at least a liquid flow path and a liquid chamber is formed on a substrate to be processed having a liquid discharge energy generating portion, and (2) A curable material that covers this mold material is laminated and cured. (3) A silicon-containing resist is coated on the curable material that covers this mold material, and a portion that will become an ink supply port is formed above the mold material that becomes the liquid chamber portion. Patterning treatment is performed so that (4) a hole reaching the mold material that occupies the liquid chamber portion is formed by dry etching, and (5) the mold material that occupies the liquid channel and the liquid chamber is dissolved and removed. A method of manufacturing an inkjet recording head, comprising: 2. An ink jet recording head manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1. 3. The ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein the curable material is an active energy ray curable material. 4. The ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein the curable material is a thermosetting material. 5. The ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein the liquid ejection energy generating section is an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy. 6. The ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein the ink jet recording head is a full line type in which a plurality of ejection openings are provided over the entire width of the recording area of the recording medium. 7. The ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein the multi-color ejection ports are integrally formed. 8. An ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein a discharge port for discharging ink is provided so as to face a recording surface of the recording medium, and a member for mounting the head. An inkjet recording apparatus comprising: