Fluid ejection device
AssigneesSTMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorsTeck Khim Neo, Mauro Pasetti, Franco Consiglieri, Luca Molinari, Andrea Nicola Colecchia, Simon Dodd
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to a microfluidic die that includes ejection circuitry and one time programmable memory with a minimal number of contact pads to external devices. The die includes a relatively large number of nozzles and a relatively small number of contact pads. The die includes decoding circuitry that utilizes the small number of contact pads to control the drive and ejection of the nozzles and the reading/writing of the memory with the same contact pads.
Claims13
A device, comprising:
- a microfluidic die that includes:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a plurality of contact pads in the semiconductor substrate;
- a first plurality of chambers in the semiconductor substrate;
- a first plurality of nozzles;
- a first plurality of heaters in the semiconductor substrate;
- a first plurality of driving circuits configured to provide driving signals to the first plurality of heaters, the first plurality of driving circuits positioned between the first plurality of nozzles and the plurality of contact pads, each driving circuit of the first plurality of driving circuits including at least a transistor in the semiconductor substrate and coupled to one of the plurality of contact pads;
- and
- a first memory in the semiconductor substrate including a first plurality of one time programmable memory bits, each respective one time programmable memory bit of the first plurality of one time programmable memory bits being associated with a respective one of the driving circuits of the first plurality of driving circuits.
A device, comprising:
- a microfluidic die including:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a plurality of chambers on the semiconductor substrate;
- a plurality of nozzles on the semiconductor substrate, the plurality of nozzles corresponding to the plurality of chambers;
- a plurality of fluid ejection elements on the semiconductor substrate, the plurality of ejection elements corresponding to the plurality of chambers;
- a memory on the semiconductor substrate, the memory including a plurality of memory bits;
- a plurality of contact pads on the semiconductor substrate, the plurality of contact pads including:
- a plurality of first selection contacts configured to select at least one of the plurality of chambers and at least one of the plurality of memory bits;
- and
- a plurality of second selection contacts configured to select between a mode of the device, the plurality of first selection contacts and the plurality of second selection contacts being aligned with each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.