KR101050187B1 - Inkjet Printer Heads for Nano Patterning - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an inkjet printer head for nano-patterning, which can improve the printing quality by discharging ink without ink tail during nano-patterning printing.

The main features of the present invention,

An inkjet printer head for nano patterning comprising an ink supply channel containing ink, an ejection chamber in communication with the ink supply channel, and a nozzle portion formed at an end of the ejection chamber,

Applying a positive voltage or a negative voltage to the nozzle part such that ink passing therethrough is charged with a positive charge or a negative charge; Located in the lower portion of the nozzle unit, the aggregation electrode layer to agglomerate the ink discharged from the nozzle by an electric field; A ground electrode layer positioned below the aggregation electrode layer, the ground electrode layer configured to apply a voltage to have a polarity opposite to the polarity of the current applied to the nozzle unit so that the ink is induced and discharged by mutual magnetic force with the ink; It further includes a module.

Nano patterning, inkjet printer, head

Description

Inkjet printer head for nano patterning {Ink-jet printer head}

The present invention relates to an inkjet printer head for nano patterning.

More particularly, the present invention relates to an inkjet printer head for nano-patterning, which can improve printing quality by discharging ink without an ink tail during patterning printing.

As is well known, the inkjet printing method is largely divided into a heating method and a piezoelectric element method.

The heating method uses heat to inject ink. When an electrical signal is applied to the resistance of the ink cartridge head, the heating is rapidly heated to generate bubbles, and the ink is pushed out of the head and printed on the printed object. When the bubble shrinks, new ink is supplied to the head to fill the ink.

The advantage of this product is its very simple head structure. The heater portion capable of transferring heat is positioned in the middle of the ink chamber and the portion where the head is, that is, above the head. Ink is ejected by using the force of bubbles generated by heating the heater above the head. This method is similar to the bubble jet method, and even if air bubbles enter the ink chamber, they are easily released together with the ink, and the ink is less clogged. In addition, the simple structure has the advantage that it is easy to increase the number of nozzles. On the other hand, since only a certain size of ink is ejected for each nozzle, the printing speed decreases as the ink is ejected to the same place repeatedly for several times.

Piezo Actuator (Piezo Actuator) is a method of spraying using a piezo piezoelectric (Piezo Electric), a method of spraying ink at a mechanical pressure using a piezoelectric element (Piezo Actuator). When the printer sends an electric signal to the piezoelectric element, the piezoelectric element vibrates and ink is pushed out of the nozzle hole by the pressure of the vibration. The escaped part is filled by the phenomenon of Moses and the law of inertia.

The piezoelectric element method has an advantage in that ink ejection can be precisely controlled by current control. By adjusting the time for controlling the current of the piezoelectric element when the ink bubble swells, it is possible to control the size of the ink ink to be pushed out. As a result, the nozzle is large and ink droplets can be made small, and the multi-size dot function of making ink droplets of various sizes with one nozzle can be realized. This multi-size dot function can be used to adjust the size of the dot according to the printed body, which helps in speed improvement.

The disadvantage is that the size of the nozzle is large, it is difficult to increase the number of nozzles and the nozzles are often clogged. In order to solve this problem, air is discharged by cleaning before printing, but it is not a fundamental problem solving method.

In addition, the ink used in the piezoelectric element method has a viscosity of about 12 to 15 cps, so if the ink is not continuously heated, the ink easily coagulates, which causes nozzle clogging.

In addition, as mentioned above, the ink used in the piezoelectric element method has a predetermined viscosity so that the ink should be discharged in the form of droplets when the dot printing is cut off, but in reality, the ink tail is long and the ink drops are generated due to the influence of the viscosity. (Same phenomenon as the drooping phenomenon) The size of the printed dot is not fixed, which causes a problem of poor print quality.

On the other hand, the electrospray deposition (ESD) method to be applied in the present invention was developed to control the electrostatic field to deposit proteins or charged nanoparticles on a specific area of the conductive substrate, the size of the droplet, The amount of deposition can be controlled by concentration, injection time, etc., and various patterns can be deposited at the same time.

The principle of electrostatic induction deposition is briefly described through the conceptual diagram of FIG. 1. As shown in the figure, a nozzle 1 having a fine diameter for discharging ink is located on the upper side, and a ground 2 is located directly under the nozzle. At this time, when the positive (+) or (-) voltage is applied to the nozzle 1 and the negative electrode (-) or (+) voltage, which is the opposite electrode, is applied to the nozzle (1) The ink is charged to the same pole as the nozzle, so that the conductive ink is printed on the printed object (not shown) on the ground 2 by the attraction force (magnetic force) with the ground 2 of the counter electrode. Such electrostatic induction deposition has the advantage of eliminating the nozzle clogging phenomenon in the previous piezoelectric element method.

However, even if the electrostatic induction evaporator is used, it is difficult to fundamentally control the ink tail and thus does not solve the problem of poor print quality.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, a voltage is applied to the nozzle 1 so that a positive pulse is formed, whereas a voltage is not applied to the ground 2 so that the pulse width P1 between the nozzles 1 is increased. ) Should be increased. Accordingly, a relatively high voltage of 3 to 4kv should be applied to the nozzle 1, which causes a large power consumption problem.

In addition, the conventional electrostatic induction evaporator is pushing the ink at a constant pressure by a piston (not shown) in order to forcibly discharge the ink in the nozzle (1), this piston is difficult to precisely control the amount of ink discharge difficult There was this.

In addition, the conventional electrostatic induction evaporator is also pointed out that the nozzle (1) and the ground (2) are configured separately, so that positioning and assembly between them is inconvenient.

Accordingly, the present invention has been proposed to solve the conventional problems as described above, the object of the present invention 1 constitutes a cohesive electrode layer for agglomerating the viscous ink discharged from the nozzle unit when the ink tail is discharged To provide an inkjet printer head for nano-patterned to be discharged in drops of a standard size without.

The objective 2 of the present invention is to apply a positive voltage having a lower voltage to the nozzle unit to form a positive pulse, and to apply a negative voltage to the ground electrode layer so that a negative pulse is formed. The present invention provides an inkjet printer head for nano patterning which can reduce power consumption.

An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printer head for nano-patterning in which a predetermined amount of ink is discharged by maintaining a constant pressure in the nozzle chamber by pneumatic pressure.

An object 4 of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printer head for nano patterning in which an aggregation electrode layer, a ground electrode layer, and several insulating layers are integrated.

The object of the present invention described above,

An ink supply printer head for nano patterning comprising an ink supply channel containing ink, an ejection chamber communicating with the ink supply channel, and a nozzle portion formed at an end of the ejection chamber,

Applying a positive voltage or a negative voltage to the nozzle part such that ink passing therethrough is charged with a positive charge or a negative charge; Located in the lower portion of the nozzle unit, the aggregation electrode layer to agglomerate the ink discharged from the nozzle by an electric field; A ground electrode layer positioned below the aggregation electrode layer, the ground electrode layer configured to apply a voltage to have a polarity opposite to the polarity of the current applied to the nozzle unit so that the ink is induced and discharged by mutual magnetic force with the ink; It is achieved by an inkjet printer for nano patterning, characterized in that it further comprises a module.

Here, the injection guide module further includes an intermediate insulating layer stacked between the aggregation electrode layer and the ground electrode layer.

In addition, the injection induction module further includes an upper and a lower insulating layer stacked on an upper portion of the aggregation electrode layer and a lower portion of the ground electrode layer.

In addition, the intermediate insulating layer and the outer insulating layer is preferably made of epoxy glass.

In addition, the upper insulating layer is preferably provided with a fitting portion to which the nozzle portion is fitted.

In addition, the upper insulating layer and the nozzle unit may be integrally formed.

In addition, the aggregation electrode layer and the ground electrode layer is preferably made of copper or aluminum.

In addition, the positive electrode or the negative voltage is applied to the cohesive electrode layer so that the same electric field is generated along the wall surface of the ink outlet formed so as to penetrate in the thickness direction of the coherent electrode layer, so that the ink passing through the ink outlet is the same. It is desirable to allow the poles to repel in the direction of the center of the ink discharge port due to the repulsive force.

In addition, the ink supply channel is preferably such that a constant pressure is always maintained by the pneumatic pressure provided from the pneumatic generating means.

Here, the pneumatic generating means is more preferably a pneumatic pump.

In addition, it is preferable to apply a positive voltage to the nozzle unit to form a positive pulse, and to apply a negative voltage to the ground electrode layer to form a negative pulse so that the potential difference between the nozzle unit and the ground electrode layer is increased.

As described above, the present invention does not generate an ink tail during dot printing by the aggregation electrode layer, thereby improving printing quality.

In addition, the present invention increases the potential difference between each other by applying a negative voltage to the ground electrode, which is a counter electrode, instead of applying a low voltage to the nozzle part, thereby halving the amount of voltage consumption compared to the conventional one, while not impairing the functionality of discharging ink to a certain size. Can be reduced.

In addition, by keeping the pressure in the nozzle chamber constant, it is possible to precisely control the discharge of ink constantly.

In addition, it is easy to assemble by modularizing the aggregation electrode layer, the ground electrode layer, and the insulating layer, it is possible to significantly reduce the operation failure rate compared to the separated configuration.

Advantages and features of the present invention, and methods of achieving them will become more apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Attached Figure 3 is an assembly view of the inkjet printer head for nano patterning according to the present invention, Figure 4 is a detailed cross-sectional view of the jet induction module in the inkjet printer head for nano patterning according to the present invention, Figure 5 is a patterning according to the present invention Fig. 1 shows pulse shapes of the nozzle portion and the ground electrode in the inkjet printer head.

According to the above drawings, the nano-patterned inkjet printer head of the present invention includes an ink supply channel 20 in which ink is accommodated, an injection chamber 30 in communication with the ink supply channel 20, and the injection chamber 30. It has a body 10 consisting of one or more nozzles 40 formed at the distal end of the. Here, the nozzle unit 40 is applied with a positive voltage or a negative voltage so that the ink discharged through the nozzle unit 40 is charged with a positive or negative charge. At this time, it will be obvious that the ink must be a conductive ink in order for the ink to be charged.

The present invention further includes an injection guide module 50 positioned below the nozzle unit 40 to induce ink injection.

The injection guide module 50 has an upper insulating layer 51 coupled to the nozzle unit 40. The upper insulating layer 51 serves to prevent the current of the aggregation electrode layer 52, which will be described later, from leaking to the outside, and has a flat plate shape made of an insulating material such as epoxy glass.

The upper insulating layer 51 has a fitting portion 51a to which the nozzle portion 40 is fitted to a predetermined portion thereof, and an expansion pipe 51b having a larger diameter than the fitting portion at the lower portion of the fitting portion 51a. ) Are formed successively.

The expansion portion 51b has a diameter slightly larger than that of the ink drop, and is formed to be slightly enlarged compared to the diameter of the fitting portion so that ink can be smoothly discharged without contacting the wall surface of the expansion portion 51b.

As described above, the upper insulating layer 51 and the nozzle unit 40 may be fitted together, but they may be formed in a single body.

In addition, the injection guide module 50 has a cohesive electrode layer 52 stacked below the upper insulating layer 51.

The aggregation electrode layer 52 serves to agglomerate the ejected ink by a magnetic field so that the size of the ink droplets is as large as possible. The aggregation electrode layer 52 is made of a conductive material such as copper or aluminum and has a flat plate shape.

The cohesive electrode layer 52 is formed such that at least one ink discharge port 52a having the same or similar diameter as that of the expansion part 51b of the upper insulating layer 51 penetrates up and down at a predetermined portion thereof.

Only the current of one pole selected from the positive or negative currents is applied to the aggregation electrode layer 52. As a result, the aggregation electrode layer 52 forms a positive or negative magnetic field. As a result, a magnetic field of the same pole is formed on the wall surface of the ink discharge port 52a so that the same poles push each other. do.

 Therefore, when ink passes through the ink discharge port 52a, the ink is agglomerated in the direction of the center of the ink discharge port 52a by the above repulsive force so that the size of the ink droplets is uniformly formed and the ink tail is cut by the magnetic field. The effect is to remove the ink tail. As a result, the size of the ink droplets can be standardized, thereby improving print quality when printing dots.

In addition, the injection guide module 50 has an intermediate insulating layer 53 stacked below the aggregation electrode layer 52.

The intermediate insulating layer 53 serves to insulate between the cohesive electrode layer 52 and the ground electrode layer 54 to be described later, which is also made of an insulating material such as epoxy glass as the upper insulating layer 51. It takes the form of a flat plate.

The intermediate insulating layer 53 has an ink discharge port 53a communicating with the ink discharge port 52a of the aggregation electrode layer 52 at a predetermined portion thereof.

In addition, the injection guide module 50 has a ground electrode layer 54 stacked below the intermediate insulating layer 53.

The ground electrode layer 54 has the opposite polarity of the (conductive) ink and serves to draw ink down by magnetic field force. The ground electrode layer 54 is made of a conductive material such as copper or aluminum and has a flat plate shape.

The ground electrode layer 54 is formed such that at least one ink discharge port 54a communicating with the ink discharge port 53a of the intermediate insulating layer 53 passes through the predetermined portion.

Here, the diameter of the ink outlet 54a is larger than the diameter of the ink outlet 53a of the intermediate insulating layer 53. The reason for this is to make the cohesive force weaken as the ink coagulated in the cohesive electrode layer 52 drops, so that the diameter of the ink droplets is slightly increased, so that the larger ink droplets are smoothly discharged without contacting the wall surface.

In addition, the injection guide module 50 has a lower insulating layer 55 stacked below the ground electrode layer 54.

The lower insulating layer 55 serves to prevent the current of the ground electrode layer 54 from shorting to the outside. The lower insulating layer 55 is made of an insulating material such as epoxy glass and has a flat plate shape.

The lower insulating layer 55 has an ink outlet 55a of the same or similar diameter as the ink outlet 54a of the ground electrode layer 54 at a predetermined portion thereof.

On the other hand, the ink supply channel 20 is preferably such that the constant pressure is always maintained by the pneumatic pressure provided from the pneumatic generating means, such as the pneumatic pump 60. The ink in the ink supply channel 20 is discharged through the nozzle unit 40 only when a certain compression pressure is applied, and thus the pneumatic pump 60 plays this role.

For reference, in order for the ink to be discharged in the form of droplets, a voltage must be applied to form a periodic pulse in the nozzle unit 40. The larger the amplitude of the pulse becomes a condition for eliminating the tail of the ink droplet, but the The large amplitude has a disadvantage of using a high-cost high voltage generator because a large voltage must be applied.

According to the present invention, a positive pulse is formed by applying a positive voltage to the nozzle unit 40 and a negative pulse is formed by applying a negative voltage to the ground electrode layer 54 so as to reduce the applied voltage. The potential difference between the nozzle portion 40 and the ground electrode layer 54 was made large. As a result, a potential difference of a desired level can be obtained while minimizing the magnitude of the voltage.

The embodiments of the present invention described above are disclosed for purposes of illustration, and those skilled in the art having various ordinary knowledge of the present invention may make various modifications, changes, and additions within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Additions should be considered to be within the scope of the following claims.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional inkjet printer head for nano patterning

Figure 2 is a pulse form of the nozzle and the ground of the conventional nano-patterned inkjet printer head

Figure 3 is an assembly view of the inkjet printer head for nano patterning according to the present invention

Figure 4 is a detailed cross-sectional view of the jet induction module in the inkjet printer head for nano patterning according to the present invention

Figure 5 is a pulse form of the nozzle portion and the ground electrode in the inkjet printer head for patterning according to the present invention

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

50: injection module 51: upper insulating layer

52: cohesive electrode layer 53: intermediate insulating layer

54 ground electrode layer 55 lower insulating layer

Claims (11)

An inkjet printer head for nano patterning comprising an ink supply channel containing ink, an ejection chamber in communication with the ink supply channel, and a nozzle portion formed at an end of the ejection chamber, Applying a positive voltage or a negative voltage to the nozzle part such that ink passing therethrough is charged with a positive charge or a negative charge; Located in the lower portion of the nozzle unit, the aggregation electrode layer to agglomerate the ink discharged from the nozzle by an electric field; A ground electrode layer positioned below the aggregation electrode layer, the ground electrode layer configured to apply current to have a polarity opposite to the polarity of the current applied to the nozzle unit so that ink is induced and discharged by mutual magnetic force with the ink; An inkjet printer head for nano patterning, further comprising a module. The method of claim 1, The jet induction module further comprises an intermediate insulating layer stacked between the aggregation electrode layer and the ground electrode layer. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The jet induction module, the ink jet printer head for nano-patterning further comprising an upper and lower insulating layers stacked on the upper portion of the aggregation electrode layer and the lower portion of the ground electrode layer. The method of claim 2, The intermediate insulating layer and the outer insulating layer is inkjet printer head for nano patterning, characterized in that the epoxy glass. The method of claim 3, The upper insulating layer is an inkjet printer head for nano patterning, characterized in that the fitting portion is provided with the nozzle portion is fitted. The method of claim 3, The inkjet printer head for nano patterning, wherein the upper insulating layer and the nozzle unit are integrally formed. The method of claim 1, The aggregation electrode layer and the ground electrode layer is nano-patterned inkjet printer head, characterized in that the copper. The method of claim 1, (+) Or (-) voltage is applied to the cohesive electrode layer to generate the same electric field along the wall surface of the ink outlet formed so as to penetrate in the thickness direction of the coherent electrode layer, so that the ink passing through the ink outlet is the same Inkjet printer head for nano patterning, characterized in that the coagulation in the center of the ink discharge port due to the repulsive force. The method of claim 1, The ink supply channel is nano-patterned inkjet printer head, characterized in that the constant pressure is always maintained by the pneumatic pressure provided from the pneumatic generating means. 10. The method of claim 9, The pneumatic generating means is an inkjet printer head for nano patterning, characterized in that the pneumatic pump. The method of claim 1, wherein a positive voltage is applied to the nozzle unit to form a positive pulse, and a negative voltage is applied to the ground electrode layer to form a negative pulse so that a potential difference between the nozzle unit and the ground electrode layer is increased. An inkjet printer head for nano patterning.

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