Compact high-performance, high-density ink jet printhead

Abstract

A compact monochrome ink jet printhead having a staggered high-density arrangement of ink drop generators for high-performance printing. The present invention provides a high-performance design that enable high-resolution and high-speed printing while reducing cost due to an efficient use of printhead space. In particular, the compact, high-performance printhead of the present invention includes several thermally-efficient aspects that allow a large number of ink drop generators to be placed on a compact printhead while minimizing problems such as thermal excursions. In a preferred embodiment, the ink drop generator density on the compact printhead exceeds 10 ink drop generators per square millimeter and the compact printhead contains at least 350 nozzles. The ink drop generators are arranged in at least four parallel rows. Each row is staggered (or offset) relative to an adjacent row to provide a greater effective pitch that a non-staggered arrangement. The ink drop generators of the present invention include high resistance resistors and a thin passivation to increase thermally efficiency. Further thermal control is achieved by ejecting low-weight ink drops from the thermally-efficient ink drop generators at a high ejection frequency that exceeds 12 kHz.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.