Compliant headland design for thermal ink-jet pen

An ink-jet pen cartridge, comprising:

• a frame structure including a ridge plastic frame member formed of a first plastic material having a first coefficient of thermal expansion and a relatively high first elastic modulus characteristic, said frame member defining a headland region;
• a printhead assembly including a dielectric support layer member and a printhead, said dielectric layer having a second coefficient of thermal expansion which is different from said first coefficient of thermal expansion;
• a mass of a second plastic material covering a portion of said headland region and attached to said rigid plastic frame member, said mass of said second plastic material forming one or more compliant beams at said headland region, wherein said second plastic material is an elastomeric material having a relatively low second elastic modulus characteristic, said one or more compliant beams secured to said first plastic material;
• and
• means for attaching said dielectric layer member to said one or more compliant beams, wherein as said pen is subjected to temperature extremes, and the first plastic material expands or shrinks at a different rate than said dielectric material, said one or more compliant beams flex, reducing stresses which can lead to pen failures.