JPS63239067A - Electrode head and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily prepare an electrode head capable of performing high quality printing through the stable printing of a clean dot with high density and with high accuracy, by respectively laminating at least two or more electrode needles from among a large number of the electrode needles, which are formed in a stripe form at a predetermined pitch by processing a metal plate, to form a recording electrode. CONSTITUTION:An insulating material 2 is processed in a micron order using a dicing apparatus for processing a semiconductive layer to form grooves 4 thereon. Next, etching processing is applied to the insulating material 2 so as to leave a frame 5 in order to hold electrode needles 1a in the manner to arrange the same at a predetermined pitch without generating irregular arrangement. Subsequently, the electrode needles 1a and electrode needles 1b are laminated in two stages to be embedded in the grooves 4 formed on the insulating material 2. Three or more electrode needles may be laminated. Next, a plate-shaped insulating material 2 is allowed to cover the grooves 4 having the electrodes 1a, 1b embedded therein and the insulating materials 2 are mutually adhered to fix the electrode needles 1a, 1b in the insulating materials 2 and, at last, the electrode needles are connected to lead wires 3, and the excessive parts of the electrode needles protruding from the insulating materials and the frame are cut off to perform molding.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrode head of an electric transfer recording method used in printers and the like that record image information, character information, etc. of electrical signals as visible images, and a method of manufacturing the same. It is something.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, electronic computers, personal computers, and the like have become more sophisticated, and printers, which are terminal devices for these devices, are in high demand and require high performance. Various recording methods are known, but among them, electrical transfer recording is superior in terms of recording speed.

The electrode head of the conventional iJ1 electrotransfer recording method described above will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a principle diagram of a conventional electrical transfer recording system, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional electrode head. In FIG. 6, 8 is a recording sheet, and a resistance layer 9. Conductive layer 10. Ink layer 1
It consists of 3N of 1. 7 is paper. 1 is a plurality of recording electrodes, 2 is an insulating material that fixes the recording electrodes 1, and these constitute an electrode head. FIG. 7 shows an electrode head in which the recording electrodes 1 are arranged in a staggered arrangement. The recording electrodes 1 are each connected to a drive circuit 12, and are brought into contact with the resistance layer 9 of the recording sheet 8 to which a signal voltage is applied.

Further, a return electrode 6 is connected to the drive circuit 12 and is in contact with the resistance layer 9 of the recording sheet 8 . When a signal voltage is applied from the drive circuit 12 to the U electrode 1, a current flows as shown by the arrow in the figure, and the resistance layer 9 directly below the recording electrode 1 generates heat, and the ink further below melts and is transferred to the paper 7. be done. Next, a conventional method of manufacturing the electrode head shown in FIG. 7 will be described. Electrode heads are conventionally used, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-65675.
As shown in the Publication Law, first, a wire that will become a recording electrode is wound around a roller, a part of it is hardened with a resin that is an insulating material and a fixing material, and the wire section is removed from the roller. They were remolded to manufacture electrode heads. Furthermore, conventional manufacturing methods cannot increase the density of the recording electrodes, which makes the driving method complicated, such as staggered arrangement.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, with the above configuration, the electrode head had problems such as low resolution and precision, poor printing quality, and difficulty in manufacturing for the reasons described below. 6 In other words, in a configuration where the wires are lined up, if the head density is 8 to 10 wires/dragon, the wire diameter is Q, l+n
Thereafter, the pitch had to be set to Q, about 1 mm, which caused problems in insulation between wires, pitch accuracy, etc. For example, if you try to arrange wires accurately and pour insulating resin to harden them, the wires tend to move when the resin is poured, and it is difficult to ensure that enough resin flows between the wires to maintain insulation. Also, remove the wire from the roller,
Reshaping the wire so that it is straight is time-consuming and difficult.

On the other hand, in a method of forming a conductor on a printed circuit board by chemical means such as etching, the thickness cannot be made much thicker than the width of a single conductor. Machining to make it thicker takes a lot of time, and it is difficult to maintain accuracy, making it difficult to process. The same applies to the case where electrode needles are processed by etching a metal plate to leave a conductor. If the etching process were to be performed completely, it would only be possible on thin pieces. Even if an electrode head was made using the electrode needle, the area of electrical contact with the recording sheet was small, making it difficult to print clean dots.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an electrode head that can stably print clean dots and high-quality printing, and allows such an electrode head to be easily manufactured with high density and high precision. be.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the electrode head of the present invention processes a metal plate to form a plurality of strip-shaped electrode needles with a predetermined pitch, and each of the electrode needles has at least one Two or more recording electrodes are laminated to form one recording electrode, which is fixed and held using klThu material. Further, in the method for manufacturing an electrode head of the present invention, the electrode needles are buried in grooves of an insulating material, and at least two or more electrode needles are stacked.

Function The present invention has the above-described structure, and when processing electrode needles from a metal plate, the thickness must be thin in order to enable high-density and high-precision processing. Even if the electrode head is made by forming needles, at least two or more electrode needles are laminated to function as one recording electrode, so the electrical contact area with the recording sheet is large and high quality printing is possible. It becomes possible. In addition, the method for manufacturing an electrode head of the present invention allows electrode needles to be stacked and easily held in an insulating material without disturbing the pitch accuracy of the electrode needles due to the above-described configuration.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an electrode head according to an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an electrode head in one embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 1, l is the recording electrode;
1a and 1b are electrode needles each formed by etching a single metal plate. These two sets of electrode needles are stacked in two layers. 2 is an insulating material made of a sintered body of hexagonal boron nitride. 3 is a lead wire. The recording electrodes 1 have a thickness of, for example, 40 μm, a radius of 50 μm, and are arranged at a pitch of 100 μm, that is, at a high density of IO lines/circle.

In the electrode head of the present invention, electrode needles are made by etching a metal plate. If you are processing electrode needles of the same pitch and width using two metal plates of different thickness, if the thickness is too thick, the processing will be incomplete or inaccurate, but if the thickness is too thick, it will be easier to process. It is also easy to achieve accuracy. However, the same pitch.

Even if the width is the same, thicker electrode needles tend to have a larger contact area between the recording sheet and the electrode needles when used to create rads for the electrodes, resulting in more stable dots and better print quality when printing. There is. In order to balance these contradictory tendencies, the electrode head of the present invention is made by processing the electrode needles from a metal plate with a thickness that allows for high-density and high-precision processing. Since the thickness is thin, at least two or more electrode needles are laminated,
A plurality of electrode needles are configured to function as one recording electrode. This increases the electrical contact area between the recording electrode and the recording sheet.

In addition, in this example, a material made of macrogonal boron nitride was used as the insulating material, but the insulating material is not limited to this, and any material that has insulating properties and can be grooved may be used. However, hexagonal boron nitride has excellent workability, allows for highly accurate groove machining, and has excellent insulation and heat resistance, so it is suitable as an insulating material and a fixing material for recording electrodes. There is. Furthermore, the material of the metal plate that is the material of the electrode needle is not limited;
q, nickel, tungsten, stainless steel, etc. may also be used.

Next, a method for manufacturing an electrode head according to an embodiment of the present invention will be explained step by step. Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view of an insulating material with grooves formed therein, Figure 3 is a perspective view of a plurality of electrode needles formed by etching a metal plate, and Figure 4 shows electrodes in grooves of the insulating material. FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view showing a state in which the needle is embedded. FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view showing a state in which the electrode needle is fixed with an insulating material.

First, a groove is machined on the insulating material. In FIG. 2, 4 is a groove. The grooves 4 are formed on the insulating material 2 made of a plate-shaped sintered body of hexagonal boron nitride to have a predetermined width, depth, and pitch. Considering the number and size of electrode needles to be buried in one groove, the width and depth should be slightly larger than the electrode needles. To process this groove, if a dicing machine for processing semiconductor wafers is used, the process can be performed in micron units, so a 9th electrode needle is processed with very high accuracy.

In this example, two electrode needles are stacked and buried in one groove, so the electrode needles have a thickness of 20 μm and a width of 50 μm.

Processing was performed at a pitch of 100 μm. At this time, the length of the electrode needle is longer than the length of the groove. Furthermore, one end of the electrode needles is sized and pitched so that it can be mounted on a lead wire. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 5 denotes a frame, which is etched to keep the electrode needles 1a lined up at a predetermined pitch without falling apart. If the electrode needles 1a can be maintained at a predetermined pitch by removing the frame, there is no need to attach a frame.

With this etching process, it is possible to freely create a frame and widen the pitch and width of the electrode needles for mounting. In addition, when stacking two electrode needles, the number of electrode needles formed from one metal plate is greater than the number of grooves, and the two metal plates are processed to form two sets of electrode needles. Form an electrode needle. If the number of grooves is large, it is sufficient to make several sets of electrode needles. Next, the electrode needle and insulating material are combined. As shown in FIG. 4, electrode needles 1a and electrode needles 1b are stacked and buried in two layers in the groove 4 of the insulating material 2. As described above, in this embodiment, two electrode needles are stacked, but three or more electrode needles may be used. Of course, the number of electrode needles buried in one groove is determined by each groove being open. Furthermore, when embedding electrode needles in a groove, multiple electrode needles are buried in the groove at once, but if the electrode needles are lined up accurately at a predetermined pitch and are equal to the pitch of the groove, the electrode needles can be buried easily. . After this, the electrode needle is fixed in the insulating material. As shown in FIG. 5, the plate-shaped insulating material 2 is
The insulating materials 2 are bonded together by covering the grooves 4 in which the insulating materials 2 are buried. In this way, the electrode needle 1a.

Although lb is fixed in the insulating material 2, an insulating adhesive may be poured into the gap between the electrode needles 1a and lb and the insulating material 2 to fix the electrode needles 1a and lb.

Finally, although not shown in the figure, the electrode head is completed by connecting the electrode needle and the lead wire, cutting off the excess portion of the electrode needle protruding from the insulating material and the frame, and molding.

By the way, in order to embed multiple electrode needles in one groove, it is only necessary to deepen the bone conduction, and since the width of the groove is only slightly larger than the width of the electrode needles, it is necessary to stack the electrode needles in the groove. Even if the electrode needle is buried in the groove, the electrode needle can be buried in the groove with almost no displacement. Therefore, two or more electrode needles can be used as one recording electrode without distorting the cross-sectional shape and with a large electrical contact area.
You can make LfM heads.

In this example, when forming the electrode needle, the metal plate was formed by etching, but the processing method is not limited to this, and laser processing etc. may also be used. The cross-sectional shape of the electrode needle is rectangular, and this shape is easy to process both when machining the groove and when machining the electrode needle, and it is easy to process the electrode needle in the groove. is also easy. Moreover, the laminated electrode needles can be brought into close contact with each other, and since the electrode needles fit into the grooves with almost no gaps, the electrode needles do not move within the grooves, which is convenient.

As described above, when printing was performed on the electrode of this example using 7 dots, stable dots could be printed and good print quality could be obtained. In addition, by the manufacturing method of this example, high density,
Five highly accurate electrodes were easily manufactured.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention processes a metal plate to form a plurality of striped electrode needles at a predetermined pitch, and stacks at least two of each of the electrode needles to form a recording electrode in an insulating material. Since the electrode needles are held fixedly, when processing the electrode needles from the metal plate, the thickness must be thin in order to enable high-density and high-precision processing. Even if an electrode head is formed, the area of electrical contact with the recording sheet is increased and stable dots can be printed. Furthermore, since the electrode needles can be formed from a thin metal plate, the head density can be further increased and highly accurate processing is possible. As described above, printing with an electrode head having high density, high precision, and a large area of electrical contact with the recording sheet has the effect that excellent print quality can be obtained.

Further, by using a material containing hexagonal boron nitride as the insulating material, processing becomes easy with high accuracy, and an electrode head having excellent heat resistance and insulation properties can be manufactured.

Furthermore, by making the cross-sectional shape of the groove and the electrode needle rectangular, processing becomes easier, and when the electrode needle is buried in the groove, there is almost no gap, so the electrode needle does not wobble. This has the effect of not disturbing the pitch.

In the method for manufacturing an electrode head of the present invention, since the electrode needles can be processed with high precision, there is an effect that a large number of electrode needles can be easily buried in the groove at once. Furthermore, since the grooves are pre-processed at a precise pitch, it is possible to manufacture high-precision electrode heads without disturbing the pitch even when the electrode needles are fixed and held in the insulating material by embedding them in the grooves. There is also this effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electrode head according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a plurality of electrode needles formed by etching a metal plate, and Fig. 4 shows the electrode needles embedded in the grooves of the insulating material. FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view showing the state in which the electrode needle is fixed with an insulating material, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the principle of current transfer recording, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional electrode head. 1... Electrode needle, la, Lb... Electrode needle formed by etching from a single metal plate, 2.
...Insulating material, 3...Lead wire, 4...
...Groove, 5...Frame. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao (Figure 1) Fa, Ib, I7. #4 stone ξp ascending point τσ work 1;

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) Consisting of a plurality of recording electrodes and an insulating material that fixes and holds the recording electrodes, each of the recording electrodes has at least two electrode needles formed in stripes at a predetermined pitch by processing a metal plate. An electrode head characterized in that the above layers are laminated to form a recording electrode. (2) The electrode head according to claim (1), wherein the cross section of the groove and the cross section of the electrode needle are rectangular. (3) The electrode head according to claim (1) or (2), wherein the insulating material is made of a material containing hexagonal boron nitride. (4) forming a plurality of grooves at a predetermined pitch on a plate-shaped insulating material; processing a metal plate to form a plurality of striped electrode needles at a predetermined pitch; burying the electrode needles in the grooves; and, after burying the electrode needles, placing a plate-shaped insulating material over the grooves and fixing the electrode needles to the insulating material, burying the electrode needles in each groove. A method for manufacturing an electrode head, characterized in that in the step, at least two or more electrode needles are stacked by embedding the electrode needles in each groove.