Pattern forming apparatus and pattern forming method
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHiroto Sugahara
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pattern forming apparatus which forms a pattern of an electroconductive liquid on a printing medium includes a pattern forming substrate having an insulating substrate, a plurality of electrodes arranged on the insulating substrate, and an insulating layer which covers the electrodes, an electric potential controller which selectively applies an electric potential to the electrodes, and a transferring mechanism which transfers the pattern by bringing the electroconductive liquid formed as a predetermined pattern on the insulating layer, in contact with the printing medium. Accordingly, it is possible to form a fine pattern at a low cost.
Claims25
A pattern forming apparatus which forms a predetermined pattern of an electroconductive liquid on a printing medium, the apparatus comprising:
- a pattern forming substrate which includes an insulating substrate and a plurality of electrodes arranged on the substrate;
- an electric potential applying mechanism which selectively applies a first electric potential and a second electric potential to each of the plurality of electrodes, a first electric potential making overlapping areas, of a surface of the pattern forming substrate, which overlap with the plurality of electrodes respectively, have a first liquid repellent property, and a second electric potential making the overlapping areas to have a second liquid repellent property which is lower than the first liquid repellent property;
- an electric potential controller which controls the electric potential applying mechanism to apply the second electric potential to certain electrodes, among the plurality of electrodes, corresponding to the pattern, and to apply the first electric potential to another electrodes, among the plurality of electrodes, not overlapping with the pattern;
- and
- a transferring mechanism which transfers, to the printing medium, the electroconductive liquid which is arranged to form the predetermined pattern on the surface of the pattern forming substrate, by bringing the electroconductive liquid into contact with the printing medium.
A pattern forming method for forming a pattern of an electroconductive liquid on a printing medium, the method comprising:
- providing a pattern forming substrate which includes a substrate having an insulating property and a plurality of electrodes arranged on the substrate;
- placing the electroconductive liquid on a surface of the pattern forming substrate;
- arranging the electroconductive liquid, placed on the surface of the pattern forming substrate, to form the pattern by selectively applying a second electric potential to certain electrodes, among the plurality of electrodes, corresponding to the pattern and a first electric potential to another electrodes, among the plurality of electrodes, not overlapping with the pattern, the first electric potential making facing areas, of a surface of the pattern forming substrate, facing the plurality of electrodes respectively have a first liquid repellent property and the second electric potential making the facing areas have a second liquid repellent property which is lower than the first liquid repellent property;
- and
- transferring the electroconductive liquid, which is arranged on the surface of the pattern forming substrate to form the pattern, onto the printing medium by bringing the electroconductive liquid into contact with the printing medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.