JPH10128984A - Manufacture of ink jet printer head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to facilitate and quicken the bonding of a top board, and to ensure uniform quality. SOLUTION: Ink pressurizing chambers are formed by forming a protective layer on every groove and the surface of the substrate 1, and then joining a prescribed top board 8 covering the entirety of the grooves after multiple ink channel grooves 2 and dummy grooves 3 are formed alternately in the substrate 1 made up of a single piezoelectric board and electrode layers are provided inside the grooves 2, 3. After the top board 8 is bonded, the top board separation process by which incisions of a prescribed slit state are given in the dummy grooves 3 of the top board 8 along the dummy grooves 3 and then the nozzle plate is mounted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an ink-jet printer head, and more particularly to a method of operating a piezoelectric element to deform a pressurizing chamber, thereby increasing the pressure in the pressurizing chamber and causing ink to flow from a nozzle hole. The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head that discharges droplets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-56150, a plurality of ink cavity grooves are first formed in a piezoelectric material, and each ink cavity groove is provided. A slit is formed between them, and a cover plate (top plate) is joined so as to cover the groove. Thereby, an ink cavity (a pressure chamber) is formed. Electrodes are further provided inside the ink cavity and on the back surface of the ink cavity, and by applying a voltage between the electrodes, a pressure wave is generated in the ink cavity to discharge the ink. At this time,
The cover plate has a long hole corresponding to each slit,
This suppresses interference between the ink cavities (pressurizing chambers) and eliminates crosstalk.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since a cover plate (top plate) having a long hole is joined to eliminate crosstalk, it is the same as an ink nozzle. The cover plate having the long holes arranged at the fine pitch has significantly lower rigidity than the cover plate having no long holes. For this reason, it is difficult to handle, and since the area of the portion to be joined becomes extremely small, it takes a lot of time and effort to perform the positioning work. For this reason, the joining work of the cover plate requires much time and labor, and at the same time, the yield is poor. There has always been the disadvantage of requiring a lot of skill to ensure quality uniformity.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the prior art, and in particular to make the joining process of the top plate easy and quick without any special skill, and to improve the uniformity of the quality of the ink jet printer head. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head which can ensure the above.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of rows of ink flow grooves and dummy grooves are alternately formed on a substrate made of a single piezoelectric material, and each of the grooves is formed. After applying an electrode layer to the inner surface of the groove, a protective layer is formed on each groove and the surface of the substrate, and thereafter, a predetermined top plate is joined so as to cover the entire groove and pressurize the ink between the dummy grooves. Form a chamber. Thereafter, the process shifts to a top plate separating step of forming a slit-like separation cut in the dummy groove portion of the top plate along the dummy groove, and thereafter, a nozzle plate is mounted.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
Since the top plate is handled without slit-shaped separation notches, the completed print head not only can effectively reduce the crosstalk between the ink pressurizing chambers, but also In the process,
Since the top plate separation process is provided after the top plate bonding process, bonding to the substrate is performed without any cuts formed in the top plate itself. And the joining process of the top plate can be performed quickly and with high accuracy.

The invention according to claim 2 adopts a configuration in which the above-mentioned top plate separating step is performed using a dicing saw. Therefore, according to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to functioning in the same manner as the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to quickly and surely execute the slit-shaped separation cut in the top plate.

[0008] The invention according to claim 3 employs a configuration in which the above-mentioned top plate separating step is performed using an excimer laser. Therefore, according to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to functioning equivalently to the above-described second aspect of the present invention, the top plate separating step can be executed quietly and quickly.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
7 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, FIGS. 1 to 3 show the shape of the substrate 1 and the shape and the positional relationship of the top plate 8, and FIGS. 4 to 6 show the processing process of the top plate 8 and the mounting process of the nozzle plate 10. . Also, in FIG.
5 shows an example of another processing step.

First, in FIGS. 1 to 6, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate made of a single plate of a piezoelectric material. This substrate 1 has a predetermined thickness and is formed in a square shape. Substrate 1 has
A plurality of rows of ink flow grooves 2 and dummy grooves 3 are formed alternately, and U-shaped electrode layers 2A and 3A (see FIG. 3) are individually attached to the inner surface of each groove as shown in FIG. Have been. Here, the ink flow channel 2 is formed to be longer than the dummy groove 3 corresponding to an ink supply port 8A formed in the top plate 8 described later. The elongated portion of the ink flow channel 2 constitutes the ink inlet 2a (see FIG. 2).

Reference numeral 2B denotes a layered lead electrode for individually applying a drive voltage signal to each of the electrode layers 2A of the plurality of ink flow grooves 2 from the outside. Reference numeral 3B denotes a layered lead electrode for simultaneously applying a driving voltage signal to each of the electrode layers 3A of the plurality of dummy grooves 3 from the outside. Of these, each electrode layer 3A and the layered lead electrode 3B of the dummy groove 3 are connected to the bonding pad 5
Are linked by And each of these electrode layers 2A,
A predetermined voltage is simultaneously applied between the electrodes 3A via the respective layered lead electrodes 2B and 3B.

Here, the substrate 1 is made of PZT.
Single veneers are used. The electrode layers 2A and 3A, the layered lead electrodes 2B and 3B, and the bonding pad 5
For example, after Al (aluminum) sputtering is performed on the entire surface, it is processed into a desired shape shown in FIG. 1 by etching.

A protective layer 6 is provided on the inner surfaces of the grooves 2 and 3 of the substrate 1 made of a single piezoelectric material and on the surface of the substrate 1 including the layered lead electrodes 2B and 3B. The protective layer 6 is for directly protecting the electrode layers 2A and 3A from ink, and is formed of a silicon oxide (SiO ₂ ) film on the surface other than the bonding pad 5.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a top plate provided on the substrate 1 so as to cover the entire grooves 2 and 3. The top of each ink flow channel groove 2 and dummy groove 3 described above in FIG. 1 is closed by the top plate 8, and an ink pressurizing chamber 9 is formed between the dummy grooves 3 as shown in FIG. You.

The top plate 8 is formed of a polyimide film in the present embodiment. Reference numeral 8A indicates an ink supply port provided on the top plate 8. The ink supply port 8A is formed on the top plate 8 by punching, for example, so as to cover only the ink flow channel 2 as described above. Thus, the ink from the ink supply port 8A is sent only to the ink flow channel 2 without entering the dummy groove 3 (via the ink inlet 2a as described later).

Subsequently, in the present embodiment, when the top plate 8 is mounted on the substrate 1 as described above, thereafter, the top plate 1 is A top plate separating step for forming a slit-shaped separation cut 8B by separating the portions is performed (see FIG. 4). When processing the slit-shaped separating cut 8B, the dicing saw 101 is used to shift the end point of the groove so that the ink is supplied only to the ink flow path groove 2, and the shifted and extended portion is the ink flow. The entrance 2a is constituted. Then, the nozzle plate 10 having the nozzle holes 10a formed at the same pitch as the above-described ink flow channel 2 is positioned and joined to the opening surface of the ink flow channel 2 as shown in FIGS. Thus, one unit is formed (FIG. 6). Here, the nozzle plate 10 is formed using a polyimide film as a material. As described above, after the top plate joining step of joining the top plate 8 to the surface of the substrate 1, the top plate separation step of providing a cut (slit) in the top plate 1 is set. At the time of joining, the top plate 8 is still provided with the rigidity of the material, so that the joining of the top plate 8 can be performed quickly and reliably without special skill, so that the joining operation can be performed. This facilitates the improvement of the yield, uniformity and stability of the quality, and furthermore, since the space formed by the dummy groove 3 and the slit-shaped separation cut 8B is interposed between the pressurizing chambers, the operation is improved. Crosstalk at the time can be reliably eliminated.

FIG. 7 shows a top plate separating step of forming a cut groove in the top plate 1 on the dummy groove 3 using the excimer laser beam 102. FIG. 7 shows an example of irradiation with excimer laser light 102. The subsequent processing steps and the configuration of each part
5 and 6 are the same as those in the embodiment. Even in this case, the same operation and effect as those of the above-described FIGS. 4 to 6 can be obtained.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, not only the crosstalk between the ink pressurizing chambers can be effectively reduced, but also a separation step of the top plate is provided after the bonding step of the top plate. Since no cuts are formed in the top plate itself, the top plate joining operation can be performed easily and quickly without skill, and the yield is improved and the quality is stabilized. Thus, it is possible to provide an excellent method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head, which has never been achieved before and can improve productivity.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view illustrating a bonding step of a substrate and a top plate, showing a part of an embodiment of a method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a state after the top plate is joined in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a top plate separating step using a dicing saw after bonding the top plate of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a nozzle plate assembling step performed after the top plate separating step in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the ink jet printer head after completion of each step.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing another example of the top plate separating step using excimer laser light after the top plate bonding of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 substrate 2 ink flow channel 2A, 3A electrode layer 2a ink inlet 3 dummy groove 6 protective layer 8 top plate 8A ink supply port 8B slit-shaped separating cut 9 ink pressurizing chamber 10 nozzle plate 101 dicing saw 102 excimer laser light

Claims (3)

[Claims] A plurality of rows of ink flow grooves and dummy grooves are alternately formed on a substrate made of a single piezoelectric material plate, and an inner surface of each groove is provided with an electrode layer. A protective layer is formed, and thereafter, an ink pressurizing chamber is formed between the dummy grooves by bonding a predetermined top plate so as to cover the entire groove, and after the bonding step of the top plate, (C) forming a predetermined slit-shaped separating cut along the dummy groove portion in the dummy groove portion, and then mounting a nozzle plate thereafter. 2. The method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to claim 1, wherein the top plate separating step is performed using a dicing saw. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the top plate separating step is performed using an excimer laser.