JPH11342615A - Ink jet printer head and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink jet printer head having a small electrostatic capacity and a good dimension precision. SOLUTION: A laminated body is so constituted that plate type piezoelectric members 2, 3 each being polarized in a direction of the face and a plate member 4 which is made of a material different from the piezoelectric members 2, 3 are alternately laminated to be bonded by aligning the polarizing directions. The laminated body is sliced in a desired thickness. The two slices of the laminated body are bonded with the polarizations of the piezoelectric members 2, 3 opposed with each other, a plurality of desired grooves 9 are formed on one of the faces thereof and conductive films 11 are formed on the inner walls of the grooves 9, thereby forming a laminated substrate 5. This ink jet printer head is comprised of the laminated substrate 5, a top plate 6 bonded to one of the faces of the laminated substrate 5 and a nozzle plate 7 that has ink ejection nozzles 14 provided corresponding to each of the groves 9 and is bonded to the laminated substrate 5 at opening sides of the grooves 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an ink jet printer head used for a printer, a copy machine, a facsimile machine and the like, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet printer head using a shear mode (shear mode) of a piezoelectric material has been described.
For example, it is disclosed in JP-A-63-247051. In this type of ink jet printer head, as pointed out in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-101056, most of the ink jet printer heads have fine grooves formed as a pressure chamber formed by a diamond blade, and PZT (lead zirconate titanate) is used. For example, since the representative piezoelectric material is a ferroelectric material, a portion that does not participate in ink ejection also has a large capacitance, and thus has a problem of low energy efficiency.

[0003] As a solution to such a problem,
The above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-101056 is disclosed. That is, as shown in FIG. 10, a piezoelectric member 23 and a low dielectric constant member 24 are arranged on a base member 25, and a plurality of grooves 30 having an R-shaped groove 31 are formed on these members. An ink jet printer head is formed by covering with a top plate 26 having an ink supply port 27 and a nozzle plate 28 having an ink discharge port 29. Then, a portion of the piezoelectric member 23 in the groove 30 is defined as an effective channel 32,
The portion of the low dielectric member 24 is a common liquid chamber 33. Therefore, the portion not involved in the ejection of the ink is made a low dielectric constant member 24 to reduce the capacitance.

[0004]

However, when two piezoelectric members are used as disclosed in the above-mentioned JP-A-63-247051, the ratio between the upper and lower piezoelectric members is uniform. Since there is a need to use
It is difficult to adopt the method shown in FIG.

Although not disclosed in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-101056, there are variations in the thickness of the material and the protrusion of the adhesive. Need to be flush. For this purpose, processing such as polishing is required, but at this time, the ratio of the thickness of the upper and lower piezoelectric members may change depending on the amount of polishing. Further, even when one piezoelectric member is used, there is no disclosure of a means for removing a large number of pieces from the substrate, which is poor in mass productivity.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A lamination joining step of forming a laminate by alternately laminating and joining a plate-shaped piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-shaped piezoelectric member, with the polarization directions being aligned; Forming a laminated substrate block by slicing the substrate into a desired thickness, and bonding the sliced two laminated substrate blocks so that the polarization of their piezoelectric members is opposed to each other to form a laminated substrate. A laminated substrate forming step, a groove forming step of forming a plurality of desired grooves on one surface of the laminated substrate, a conductive film forming step of forming a conductive film on at least the inner wall of the groove, and the groove is formed. A top plate joining step of joining a top plate to a laminated substrate; a head base forming step of cutting the laminated substrate to which the top plate is joined at a desired position to form a head substrate; With groove opening And a nozzle plate bonding step of bonding a nozzle plate to a surface that is a method of manufacturing become more ink jet printer head and a wiring step for connecting for applying a voltage to the conductive film.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. The laminated body was sliced to a desired thickness, and two pieces were joined so that the polarization of the piezoelectric member was opposed, and a plurality of desired grooves were formed on one surface, and a conductive film was formed on the inner wall of these grooves. An inkjet printer head comprising a laminated substrate, a top plate joined to one surface of the laminated substrate, and a nozzle plate having an ink discharge port formed for each groove and joined to the opening side of the groove.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laminated body in which a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in a plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. Forming a laminated substrate block by slicing the laminate to a desired thickness to form a laminated substrate block, and laminating the sliced laminated substrate block or the laminated substrate block to another substrate. Forming a plurality of desired grooves on one surface of the member, forming a conductive film on at least the inner wall of the groove, and bonding a top plate to the laminated substrate on which the groove is formed. A top plate joining step, a head substrate forming step of cutting the laminated substrate to which the top plate is joined at a desired position to form a head substrate, and a nozzle on a surface of the cut surface of the head substrate having a groove opening. plate And a nozzle plate bonding step of bonding a method of manufacturing become more ink jet printer head and a wiring step for connecting for applying a voltage to the conductive film.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. A plurality of desired grooves are formed on one surface of a laminated substrate block formed by slicing the laminated body to a desired thickness or a member obtained by bonding the laminated substrate block to another substrate, and forming these grooves. A laminated substrate having a conductive film formed on the inner wall;
An ink jet printer head includes a top plate bonded to one surface of the laminated substrate, and a nozzle plate having ink discharge ports formed for each of the grooves and bonded to the opening side of the groove.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printer head, wherein the dielectric constant of a different material laminated on the plate-shaped piezoelectric member is smaller than the dielectric constant of the plate-shaped piezoelectric member.

The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that the conductive film is formed by electroless plating.

The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that the lamination joining step of forming the laminate is performed in a vacuum atmosphere.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the step of forming the laminated substrate for forming the laminated substrate is performed in a vacuum atmosphere.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, as shown in FIG. 1, the ink jet printer head 1 according to the present embodiment is a member in which a lower piezoelectric member 2 and an upper piezoelectric member 3 using a piezoelectric material such as PZT (lead zirconate titanate) are laminated. And a base member 4 as a plate member using a material having a lower dielectric constant than those of the piezoelectric members 2 and 3, and a top plate 6 is laminated on the laminated substrate 5 by bonding or bonding. After forming the head body,
A nozzle plate 7 having a thickness of about 10 to 100 μm is integrally bonded to the head body.

Thus, the laminated substrate 5 is formed by the two piezoelectric members 2 and 3 made of PZT whose polarization directions in the vertical direction are opposite to each other. A large number of grooves 9 are formed which reach inside and are open at the front and closed at the rear. These grooves 9 are formed by being ground in parallel by a diamond wheel or the like of a dicing saw used for cutting an IC wafer or the like. Further, the strut 10 between the grooves 9 serves as a driving unit of the pressure generating means 8. The size of these grooves 9 varies depending on the specifications of the ink jet printer head 1 and the like.
1mm, groove width 20 ~ 200μm, groove 9 length 1 ~
It is about 50 mm.

An electrode 11 is formed on the inner surface of the groove 9 by electroless nickel plating. The electrode 11 extends from the rear part of the groove 9 to the upper surface of the base member 4 and simultaneously forms a wiring pattern 12 by electroless plating. With the electroless plating method, a metal film can be easily formed even in such a fine groove 9. Here, nickel was used, but gold,
It may be formed of copper or the like, or a stack of two or more of these metal films may be used.

The top plate 6 has a hollow portion as shown in FIG. 1, and this hollow portion serves as an ink reservoir communicating with the rear end of the groove 9 of the laminated substrate 5. By bonding a top plate 6 to the laminated substrate 5 with an adhesive or the like to form a head body, and integrally bonding a nozzle plate 7 to the front surface of the head body with an adhesive,
The groove 9 whose front surface and upper surface are blocked by the nozzle plate 7 and the top plate 6 is a pressure chamber 13 which also acts as an ink flow path, and supplies ink through an ink reservoir. The ink reservoir may be adhered to a lid plate having an opening through which ink can be introduced from the outside, or may be a top plate 6 shaped to cover the ink reservoir in advance. Then, since the rear portion of the upper surface of the laminated substrate 5 is exposed behind the top plate 6, a drive circuit can be connected to the wiring pattern 12 located here by an FPC or the like.

In such a configuration, in the ink jet printer head 1, in a state where ink is supplied to the pressure chambers 13 of the head main body, the supporting columns 10 located on both sides of the driven pressure chambers 13 are made of piezoelectric members whose polarization directions are opposite to each other. Two, three
The ink droplets are ejected from the ink ejection openings 14 of the nozzle plate 7 by bending and gradually moving away from each other by the shear mode deformation, rapidly returning this to the initial position, and pressurizing the ink in the pressure chamber 13. At this time, in order to prevent crosstalk, the columns 1 of the pressure generating means 8 press the even-numbered pressure chambers 13 and the odd-numbered pressure chambers 13 alternately.
Drive 0. In addition, in the ink jet printer head 1, since the ink discharge port 14 is formed so that the rear part is widened and the front part is tapered, it is possible to efficiently discharge the ink pressurized in the pressure chamber 13. it can.

Next, a method for manufacturing the ink jet printer head 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
In particular, a method for manufacturing the laminated substrate 5 will be described. First,
As shown in FIG. 2, a plate-shaped or block-shaped piezoelectric member 15 such as PZT and a block-shaped low dielectric member 16 are bonded by bonding or the like as shown to form a laminate 17. ). Alumina as low dielectric material,
Ceramics such as zirconia can be used, but relatively soft ceramics such as free-cutting ceramics, magnesium titanate, and boron nitride are easier to process simultaneously because PZT is relatively soft. It is. Also, the PZT naturally has little choice in the dielectric constant because it is mainly selected for its piezoelectric characteristics. However, PZT having a lower dielectric constant than the PZT as a low dielectric member is used.
It is also possible to select ZT.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the laminate A18 is sliced by a wire saw, a slicer or the like at a cut position 19 so as to have a substrate thickness that can meet specifications, thereby forming a thin laminate substrate block A21 ( Block forming step). Here, the thickness of the laminated substrate block A21 depends on the specifications of the ink jet printer head 1, but is half the thickness (0.05 to 0.5 mm) of the depth of the groove 9 to be processed in a later step. Moreover, after slicing with a wire saw or a slicer to a thickness greater than the required thickness, wrapping may be performed to a desired thickness. Similarly, in order to form the laminated substrate block B22, the laminated body B20 is sliced to a required thickness. The thin laminated substrate block A21 thus formed and the thick laminated substrate block B22 are joined by bonding or the like to form the laminated substrate 5 (laminated substrate forming step).

FIGS. 4 to 7 illustrate an example of the subsequent head forming process. As shown in FIG. 4, a groove 9 is formed with a dicing saw or a slicer with the surface of the laminated substrate 5 to which the thin laminated substrate block A21 is bonded as an upper surface (groove forming step). Here, the dimensions of the groove 9 are as described above. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5, an electrode 11 and a wiring pattern 12 as a conductive film are formed by electroless plating (conductive film forming step).
As shown in FIG. 7, the top plate 6 is bonded (top plate joining step), and is divided into four parts to form a head base 1a as shown in FIG. 7 (head base forming step). When the nozzle plate is joined to these head bases 1a, the ink jet printer head 1 is completed (nozzle plate joining step). Then, by providing external wiring to the wiring pattern 12 (wiring step), the wiring pattern 12 can be used.

In the formation of the metal film by the electroless plating method, the metal film can be formed in the fine groove 9 as in the present embodiment, but the groove 9 adjacent to the column 10 is communicated. Even if there are very fine holes, a plating film is deposited in the holes and short-circuits the pattern.
Therefore, the piezoelectric member 23 and the base member 4 must not have pores (pores) larger than the width of the column 10. Usually, etching is performed as a pretreatment of electroless plating. However, the pores are expanded or a plurality of pores communicate with each other due to the etching, and as a result, the pores must not be larger than the width of the column 10. For that purpose, it is necessary to select a material having a sufficiently small pore.

For the same reason, the bonding layer for bonding the piezoelectric member 15 and the low dielectric constant member 16 and the bonding layer for bonding the laminated substrate block A21 and the laminated substrate block B22 must not have pores. In both processes, after applying the adhesive, it is preferable to place in a vacuum atmosphere before bonding the two, and to bond in the atmosphere. The pores of the adhesive layer include air bubbles inside the adhesive and air bubbles that are mixed in during bonding. The former is defoamed by a vacuum atmosphere before bonding, and the latter is not mixed with the adhesive because there is no air at the time of bonding (very rare).
Very small bubbles). The degree of vacuum in the vacuum atmosphere is appropriately set according to the width of the column 10, the viscosity of the adhesive, and the like. The higher the degree of vacuum (closer to vacuum), the smaller the bubbles. However, since the size of the apparatus and the time required are large, it is desirable to appropriately determine the size in accordance with the balance.

Next, another embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the laminated substrate block A21 manufactured in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment is bonded to the non-piezoelectric member 34 to obtain a laminated substrate 35. This bonding is the same as the bonding of the laminated substrate block A21 and the laminated substrate block B22 in the above-described embodiment. Furthermore,
The groove 9 is formed in the same manner. That is, the non-piezoelectric member 34 replaces the laminated substrate block B22 of the above-described embodiment.

In such a laminated substrate 35, the thickness of the laminated substrate block A21 is made larger than the depth of the groove 9 so that the electrode 36 is substantially half of the groove 9 as described in JP-A-7-101556. By forming the same, a share mode type ink jet printer head having one piezoelectric member as shown in FIG. 9A is obtained. In this case, without using the non-piezoelectric member 34, the laminated substrate block A21 may be formed alone.

Next, if the thickness of the laminated substrate block A21 is made approximately half the depth of the groove 9, and the electrode 11 is formed on the entire surface of the groove 9 in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. A share mode type ink jet printer head having a single piezoelectric member is obtained. In this case, the electrode 11 may be substantially half as in FIG. 9A. Conversely, a similar head can be obtained by making the thickness of the non-piezoelectric member 34 approximately half the depth of the groove 9 and forming the electrode 36 on the entire surface of the groove 9.

[0027]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plate-shaped piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-shaped piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. A lamination joining step for forming a lamination, a block formation step for slicing the lamination to a desired thickness to form a lamination substrate block, and a polarization of a piezoelectric member of the two sliced lamination substrate blocks with respect to each other. Are formed so as to face each other to form a laminated substrate; a groove forming step of forming a plurality of desired grooves on one surface of the laminated substrate; and forming a conductive film on at least an inner wall of the groove. A conductive plate forming step, a top plate joining step of joining a top plate to the laminated substrate having the grooves formed therein, and cutting the laminated substrate joined with the top plate at a desired position to form a head base Head base forming process and An ink jet printer head is manufactured by a nozzle plate joining step of joining a nozzle plate to a surface having a groove opening of a cut surface of the head base, and a wiring step of performing connection for applying a voltage to the conductive film. Therefore, even in a share mode ink jet printer head having two piezoelectric members, it is possible to manufacture a low capacitance ink jet printer head having a high accuracy in the thickness ratio between the upper and lower portions, and it is possible to easily perform a large number of pieces. Can be done.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. The laminated body was sliced to a desired thickness, and two pieces were joined so that the polarization of the piezoelectric member was opposed, and a plurality of desired grooves were formed on one surface, and a conductive film was formed on the inner wall of these grooves. Since it is an inkjet printer head including a laminated substrate, a top plate joined to one surface of the laminated substrate, and a nozzle plate having an ink ejection port formed for each groove and joined to the opening side of the groove. In addition, the accuracy of the thickness ratio between the upper and lower portions of the piezoelectric member can be improved.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laminated body in which a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in a plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. Forming a laminated substrate block by slicing the laminate to a desired thickness to form a laminated substrate block, and laminating the sliced laminated substrate block or the laminated substrate block to another substrate. Forming a plurality of desired grooves on one surface of the member, forming a conductive film on at least the inner wall of the groove, and bonding a top plate to the laminated substrate on which the groove is formed. A top plate joining step, a head substrate forming step of cutting the laminated substrate to which the top plate is joined at a desired position to form a head substrate, and a nozzle on a surface of the cut surface of the head substrate having a groove opening. plate Since the ink jet printer head is manufactured by the nozzle plate joining step of joining and the wiring step of making a connection for applying a voltage to the conductive film, even a share mode ink jet printer head having one piezoelectric member is used. Its fabrication is easy.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member are alternately laminated and joined in the same polarization direction. A plurality of desired grooves are formed on one surface of a laminated substrate block formed by slicing the laminated body to a desired thickness or a member obtained by bonding the laminated substrate block to another substrate, and forming these grooves. A laminated substrate having a conductive film formed on the inner wall;
Since the ink jet printer head includes a top plate bonded to one surface of the laminated substrate and a nozzle plate having ink discharge ports formed for each groove and bonded to the opening side of the groove, the piezoelectric member 1 It is easy to produce even a single-share-mode inkjet printer head.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printer head wherein the dielectric constant of a different material laminated on the plate-shaped piezoelectric member is smaller than the dielectric constant of the plate-shaped piezoelectric member. It is possible to reduce the capacitance of a portion not involved in the ejection.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the conductive film is formed by electroless plating, an electrode can be easily formed on the entire surface of the groove.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since the laminating and joining step of forming the laminate is performed in a vacuum atmosphere, bubbles in the adhesive layer are eliminated, and electroless plating is deposited in the bubbles and short-circuits. The fear can be eliminated.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, since the step of forming the laminated substrate for forming the laminated substrate is performed in a vacuum atmosphere, an electric short circuit between adjacent grooves can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, in which an inkjet printer head is partially cut away.

FIG. 2 shows a lamination joining process for forming a laminate.
(a) is a perspective view showing a state before lamination, and (b) is a perspective view of a laminated body in a laminated and joined state.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a laminated substrate forming step of forming a laminated substrate.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a groove forming step.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a conductive film forming step.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a top plate joining step.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a head base forming step of forming a head base.

8A and 8B show another embodiment, in which FIG. 8A is a perspective view showing a process of forming a laminated substrate, and FIG. 8B is a perspective view showing a groove forming step.

9A and 9B show a state in which a conductive film is formed, in which FIG. 9A is an enlarged view of a groove portion in which a conductive layer is formed up to half of the groove, and FIG. It is an enlarged view of the groove part of a state.

FIG. 10 is a side view showing an example of the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Plate-shaped piezoelectric member 3 Plate-shaped piezoelectric member 4 Plate member 5 Laminated substrate 7 Nozzle plate 9 Groove 11 Conductive film 14 Ink ejection port

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A laminating joining step of alternately laminating and joining a plate-shaped piezoelectric member polarized in the surface direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-shaped piezoelectric member in the same polarization direction. And a block forming step of slicing the laminate to a desired thickness to form a laminated substrate block; and joining the two sliced laminated substrate blocks so that the polarization of their piezoelectric members is opposed to each other. A laminated substrate forming step of forming a laminated substrate; a groove forming step of forming a plurality of desired grooves on one surface of the laminated substrate; a conductive film forming step of forming a conductive film on at least an inner wall of the groove; A top plate joining step of joining a top plate to the grooved laminated substrate; a head substrate forming step of cutting the laminated substrate joined with the top plate at a desired position to form a head substrate; Substrate And a nozzle plate bonding step of bonding the nozzle plate to the surface having the groove opening cross-section, a wiring process for connecting for applying a voltage to the conductive film, method of manufacturing an inkjet printer head characterized by comprising more. 2. A laminated body formed by alternately laminating and joining a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member in the same polarization direction. A laminated substrate obtained by slicing to a thickness and joining two piezoelectric members so that the polarizations of the piezoelectric members are opposed to each other, forming a plurality of desired grooves on one surface, and forming a conductive film on inner walls of these grooves; An ink jet printer head comprising: a top plate joined to one surface of a substrate; and a nozzle plate having an ink discharge port formed for each groove and joined to the opening side of the groove. 3. A lamination joining step of alternately laminating and joining a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the surface direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member in the same polarization direction. A block forming step of slicing the laminate to a desired thickness to form a laminated substrate block; and one surface of the sliced laminated substrate block or a member obtained by bonding this laminated substrate block to another substrate. A groove forming step of forming a plurality of desired grooves, a conductive film forming step of forming a conductive film on at least the inner wall of the groove, and a top plate bonding step of bonding a top plate to the laminated substrate having the groove formed therein. A head substrate forming step of cutting the laminated substrate to which the top plate is bonded at a desired position to form a head substrate; and a nozzle plate for bonding a nozzle plate to a cut surface of the head substrate having a groove opening. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head, comprising: a rate bonding step; and a wiring step of performing connection for applying a voltage to the conductive film. 4. A laminated body formed by alternately laminating and joining a plate-like piezoelectric member polarized in the plane direction and a plate member made of a material different from the plate-like piezoelectric member in the same polarization direction. A plurality of desired grooves are formed on one surface of a laminated substrate block formed by slicing to a thickness or a member obtained by attaching the laminated substrate block to another substrate, and a conductive film is formed on inner walls of these grooves. A laminated plate, a top plate joined to one surface of the laminated substrate, and a nozzle plate having an ink discharge port formed for each groove and joined to the opening side of the groove. Inkjet printer head. 5. The ink jet printer head according to claim 2, wherein the dielectric constant of a different material laminated with the plate-shaped piezoelectric member is smaller than the dielectric constant of the plate-shaped piezoelectric member. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the conductive film is formed by electroless plating. 7. The method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to claim 1, wherein the lamination joining step of forming the laminate is performed in a vacuum atmosphere. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of forming the laminated substrate is performed in a vacuum atmosphere.