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US 2004/0104955 A1Published application
Inkjet printhead with non-uniform width ink supply passage to nozzle
AssigneeSilverbrook Research Pty Ltd
InventorKia Silverbrook
Life of this patent
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AssigneeSilverbrook Research Pty Ltd
InventorKia Silverbrook
Estimating the term…
An inkjet printhead with nozzles 4 and liquid passages 31, 32 leading to each nozzle. The nozzles, ejection actuators 14, associated drive circuitry 22 and liquid passage 31, 32 being formed on and through a wafer 21 using lithographically masked etching technique, such that the wafer has a droplet ejection side and a liquid supply side. Each of the liquid passages is formed by etching a hole 31 partially through the wafer 21 from the droplet ejection side, and etching a passage from the liquid supply side of the wafer 21 to the hole 31. Etching a hole 31 into the wafer 21 from the droplet ejection side means the ink supply passage 32 can stop short of the interface between the dielectric 23 and the wafer 21. The plasma does not get the opportunity to track along the interface and damage the drive semiconductors. By making the liquid supply passage 32 wider than the hole 31 to account for the inherent tolerances of the etching process, a suitable fluid connection is assured. As the hole etched from the ejection side is relatively shallow, the removal of the resist is not overly difficult. This permits a more compact overall design and higher nozzle packing density.
An inkjet printhead comprising:
A method of ejecting drops of an ejectable liquid from an inkjet printhead, the printhead comprising a plurality of nozzles, a plurality of liquid passages leading to each nozzle respectively, droplet ejection actuators and associated drive circuitry corresponding to each nozzle respectively, the nozzles, ejection actuators, associated drive circuitry and liquid passage being formed on and through a wafer using lithographically masked etching techniques, such that the wafer has a drop ejection side and a liquid supply side, and, each of the liquid passages is formed by etching a hole partially through the wafer from the drop ejection side, subsequently filling the hole with resist then etching a passage from the liquid supply side of the wafer to the resist before stripping the resist from the hole, wherein the width of the supply passage exceeds the width of the hole by an amount that will ensure that a fluid connection with the hole is established having regard to the tolerances of the etching process, the method of ejecting drops comprising the steps of:
A method of fabricating inkjet printheads, the printhead comprising a plurality of nozzles, a plurality of liquid passages leading to each nozzle respectively for providing ejectable liquid to the associated the nozzle, drop ejection actuators and associated drive circuitry corresponding to each nozzle respectively, the method comprising the steps of:
A printer system incorporating an inkjet printhead comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.