Laser addressable thermal transfer imaging element with an interlayer
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsJeffrey C. Chang, John S. Staral, William A. Tolbert, Martin B. Wolk, Claire A. Jalbert, Hsin-hsin Chou
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Abstract
A thermal transfer donor element is provided which comprises a support, a light-to-heat conversion layer, an interlayer, and a thermal transfer layer. When the above donor element is brought into contact with a receptor and imagewise irradiated, an image is obtained which is free from contamination by the light-to-heat conversion layer. The construction and process of this invention is useful in making colored images including applications such as color proofs and color filter elements.
Claims25
A thermal transfer element comprising:
- a substrate;
- a thermal transfer layer;
- a light-to-heat conversion light disposed between the substrate and the thermal transfer layer;
- and
- an interlayer coated between the light-to-heat conversion layer and the transfer layer,
- wherein the interlayer does not visibly distort or chemically decompose at temperatures below 150° C. and the light-to-heat conversion layer absorbs imaging radiation to convert the radiation into heat to enable imagewise transfer of the thermal transfer layer to a receptor without transferring significant portions of the interlayer.
A process for transferring an image onto a receptor comprising the steps of:
- providing on a substrate a light-to-heat conversion layer, a thermal transfer layer and an interlayer coated between the light-to-heat conversion layer and the thermal transfer layer, wherein the interlayer does not visibly distort or chemically decompose at temperatures below 150°;
- placing the thermal transfer layer in contact with a surface of the receptor;
- and
- irradiating the light-to-heat conversion layer in an imagewise pattern with a light source to thermally transfer portions of the thermal transfer layer corresponding to the imagewise pattern to the receptor without transferring significant portions of the interlayer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.