Acoustophoretic printing apparatus and method
AssigneePresident and Fellows of Harvard College
InventorsDaniele Foresti, Dimos Poulikakos, Manish Kumar Tiwari
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention contains a printing apparatus and a method, e.g., for ejecting inks (i.e. pure liquids, mixtures, colloids, etc.) for a very broad range of physical properties (such as viscosity). Acoustic forces 3a may be generated by an emitter 1 and a reflector 2 to detach droplets 10 from a nozzle 6. The ink may be advanced through the nozzle 6 by a standard back pressure system 5. A reflectorless chamber 7 may enhance acoustic forces 8a and the droplets 10 may be ejected at a bottom 9 of said chamber 7, so that droplets 10 may be deposited on any substrate 11.
Claims15
A printing apparatus comprising
- an emitter arranged within a first fluid and configured to oscillate for generating an acoustic field in said first fluid;
- a nozzle with a nozzle tip placed at a predetermined position within said acoustic field;
- a second fluid within the nozzle, and
- a driving means configured to drive a predetermined volume of the second fluid out of the nozzle.
A method for ejecting a second fluid from a nozzle which is arranged within a first fluid, comprising the step of
- forming a droplet at a nozzle tip by driving the second fluid out of the nozzle tip that is arranged within an acoustic field generated by an oscillating emitter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.