Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
  • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
  • B41J2/01—Ink jet
  • B41J2/135—Nozzles
  • B41J2/16—Production of nozzles
  • B41J2/1621—Manufacturing processes
  • B41J2/1623—Manufacturing processes bonding and adhesion
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
  • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
  • B41J2/01—Ink jet
  • B41J2/135—Nozzles
  • B41J2/14—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads
  • B41J2/14016—Structure of bubble jet print heads
  • B41J2/14088—Structure of heating means
  • B41J2/14112—Resistive element
  • B41J2/14129—Layer structure
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
  • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
  • B41J2/01—Ink jet
  • B41J2/135—Nozzles
  • B41J2/16—Production of nozzles
  • B41J2/1601—Production of bubble jet print heads
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
  • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
  • B41J2/01—Ink jet
  • B41J2/135—Nozzles
  • B41J2/16—Production of nozzles
  • B41J2/1621—Manufacturing processes
  • B41J2/1626—Manufacturing processes etching
  • B41J2/1628—Manufacturing processes etching dry etching
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
  • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
  • B41J2/01—Ink jet
  • B41J2/135—Nozzles
  • B41J2/16—Production of nozzles
  • B41J2/1621—Manufacturing processes
  • B41J2/1631—Manufacturing processes photolithography
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
  • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
  • B41J2/01—Ink jet
  • B41J2/135—Nozzles
  • B41J2/16—Production of nozzles
  • B41J2/1621—Manufacturing processes
  • B41J2/164—Manufacturing processes thin film formation
  • B41J2/1646—Manufacturing processes thin film formation thin film formation by sputtering

Definitions

• FIGS. 1A to IC are cross sectional views schematically showing a side shooter type head
• FIGS. ID to IF are cross sectional views schematically showing a roof shooter type head.
• a heating resistor 2 is formed on a silicon substrate 1 , and an orifice plate 3 faces the silicon substrate 1.
• a reference numeral 4 denotes a nozzle.
• the heating resistor 2 is connected to electrodes (not shown), and a gap between the silicon substrate 1 and the orifice plate 3 forms an ink path 5 to which ink is always supplied.
• the thermal ink-jet printer requires a heating resistor which satisfies the following conditions: 1) Resistivity — Not typical resistivity that the metal resistor has, that is, large resistivity equal to or greater than 4 m ⁇ cm, more preferably, equal to or greater than 5m ⁇ cm. 2) Anti-Heat Stability — Alteration rate of resistivity by heat is equal to or smaller than 0.05 %/°C, more preferably, close to 0 %/°C. 3) Cavitation Resistance — Withstand over 100,000,000 pulses through the open pool test.
• resistivity in a case where a maximum current for driver's transistor is approximately 100mA with electrical power of IW per pulse, required resistance value may be 100 ⁇ .
• Most of the heating resistors are metal resistors, therefore, ordinary resistivity is equal to or smaller than lm ⁇ cm.
• the thermal ink -jet printer usually employs square heating resistors. If resistor's resistivity is equal to or smaller than lm ⁇ cm, the square heating resistor is required to have its thickness approximately 100 nm in order to emit desired thermal energy. 100 nm thick is too thin to keep resistor's life long.
• the heating resistor may comprise amorphous structure, wherein broad peak angle of X-ray diffraction strength appearing in X-ray diffraction is equal to or smaller than 37.5 degrees, and resistivity is equal to or greater than 4m ⁇ cm.
• FIG. 17 is a cross sectional view schematically showing the structure near a heating area in a print head of a thermal ink-jet printer according to one embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 19 is a graph showing relationships each between annealing temperature and increase rate of sheet resistivity after annealing under four different conditions.
• FIG. 11 is a graph showing results of another opened water pool test of a sample which was formed in the same chamber where sample No. 2 shown in FIG. 4 was formed.
• a horizontal axis of the graph shown in FIG. 11 represents the number of applied pulses, while a vertical axis thereof represents resistance value ( ⁇ ).
• FIG. 1 1 shows a case where the pulses were applied to the sample until lines are broken. Of nine heating elements (chOO to ch64), first line break was found after applying pulses 200,000,000 times, as shown in FIG. 11.
• FIG. 14 is a diagram which is prepared based on the graph shown in FIG. 7 (relationship between peak angle and resistivity) but further shows results of the characteristics in the materials Nos. 4 to 11.
• black dots represent results of the materials which passed the pulse resistance test
• white dots represent the materials which failed the pulse resistance test.
• the resistivity of the non-annealed material increases as time goes by.
• the resistivity of the annealed material shows 20 to 30% increase caused by the annealing, however, the line “g" shows constant resistivity regardless of time lapse.
• FIG. 16 is a graph showing results of the SST of the annealed and non- annealed materials.
• a horizontal axis of the graph represents energy ( ⁇ j) of applied pulses (2 ⁇ sec. pulse at 10kHz), while a vertical axis thereof represents alteration rate of resistivity (%).
• the annealed film has the thickness of 360 nm, while the thickness of the non-annealed film is 700 nm. Both annealed and non-annealed films are 25 micrometers square.
• black circle dots along a line "i” represent results of annealed film, while black square dots along a line "j" represent results of the non-annealed film.
• the range of the energy of applied pulse was set to approximately 1.2 ⁇ J to
• FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the insulation film structure according to another embodiment of the present invention.
• the heating area 13 of the heating resistor 12 is also covered with the insulation film.
• the Ta-Si-O-N heating resistor film without a protection film shows excellent cavitation resistance, however, the covered structure shown in FIG.
• Steps of forming such the heating element on which the insulation protect film is formed will now be described with reference to FIGS. 18A to 18C.
• the lower adherence film 22, the electrode film 23, and the upper adherence film 24 are deposited onto the heating resistor film 12 which has been deposited on the chip substrate 11 (FIG. 18A).
• patterning the lower adherence film 22, the electrode film 23, and the upper adherence film 24 to form the heating area 13, the individual electrode 14, and the common electrode 15 FIG. 18B. Further patterning the heating resistor film 12 to form the heating element.
• FIG. 19 is a graph showing resistivity increase rates of heating resistor films which are annealed but under different atmosphere conditions (atmosphere (the air) indicated by black circles, N 2 gas indicated by black triangles, Ar gas indicated by white triangles, the air after the Ta-Si-O oxide insulation film was formed and patterned (hereinafter, referred to as "the air with protection film) indicated by crossings).
• a horizontal axis of the graph represents temperature for annealing (°C), while a vertical axis represents sheet resistivity increase rate of the heating resistor film.
• process time for the annealing is 10 minutes.
• the increase rates of sheet resistivity increase linearly in a temperature range of 200 to 400 degrees Celsius regardless of the atmosphere conditions. Then, the increase rates decrease gently after the temperature exceeds 400 degrees Celsius. Even the increase rate decreases, resistivity itself continuously increases. The results reveal that resistivity stabilizing effect caused by annealing depends only on heat not atmosphere conditions.
• the heating resistor should be annealed at least at 350 degrees Celsius, because the heating resistor emits heat equal to or greater than 300 degrees Celsius when it is driven in the printer.
• effect brought by the annealing is not shown if the resistor was annealed at equal to or smaller than 300 degrees Celsius.
• annealing temperature which is greater than 600 degrees Celsius deteriorates cavitation resistance.
• a temperature range for annealing the heating resistor to be used in the monolithic thermal ink-jet printer should be 350 to 450 degrees Celsius.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Particle Formation And Scattering Control In Inkjet Printers (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (5)

Publications (1)

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ID=26467693

Family Applications (1)

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Family Cites Families (7)

• 2000
  • 2000-05-09 EP EP00922999A patent/EP1098770A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-05-09 CN CN 00800849 patent/CN1201933C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2000-05-09 WO PCT/JP2000/002950 patent/WO2000069635A1/en not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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