Thermal ink jet printer having printhead transducers with multilevelinterconnections
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsWilliam G. Hawkins, Stephen F. Pond
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermal ink jet printer utilizes a printhead whose electrical connections to the heating elements used to expel the ink droplets has been modified to reduce the effects of parasitic resistance of the common return when a number of resistors are simultaneously addressed. The common return, formed in the same substrate level as the resistor elements, has been modified by forming and interconnecting a second common return. The resistor is connected to an input source by a low resistance connection which is formed to cross-over, or under, the second common.
Claims11
An ink jet printhead of the type having a plurality of channels, each channel being supplied with ink and having an opening which serves as an ink droplet ejecting nozzle a heating element being positioned in each channel, ink droplets being ejected from the nozzles by the selective application of current pulses to the heating elements in response to data signals from a data signal source, the heating elements transferring thermal energy to the ink causing the formation and collapse of temporary vapor bubbles that expel the ink droplets, said printhead further comprising a first and second electrically conductive common return, said common returns interconnected by leads extending between said heating elements, said heating elements connected between said first common return and said data signal source by a low resistance connection which is formed beneath or above said second common return.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.