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US 6,655,770 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for printing with showerhead groups
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsDaryl E. Anderson, Mark S. Hickman, Michael J. Barbour, George H. Corrigan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ink jet printer (101) print head having multiple, redundant ink energizing elements arranged into clusters or groups (812), each of which attempts to expel ink onto media in a predetermined sequence. The effects of an ink energizing element failure are mitigated by using redundant elements, each of which fires in response to the same data.
Claims13
A printhead comprising:
- a substrate having a first and second groups of ink firing chambers;
- an N-bit print data register having a serial input and N data outputs;
- a first group of N ink energizing elements, each element having:
- a print data input coupled to a corresponding one of said N data outputs,
- a first control input;
- and
- a resistive element in thermal contact with fluid in a corresponding ink firing chamber;
- a second group of N ink energizing elements redundant of the first group of N ink energizing elements, each element having:
- a print data input coupled to a corresponding one of said N data outputs and redundant of a corresponding one or said print data inputs of the first group,
- a second control input;
- and
- a resistive element in thermal contact with fluid in a corresponding ink firing chamber;
- and
- a nozzle firing controller having a first output coupled to said first control inputs and a second output coupled to said second control inputs wherein the nozzle firing controller first enables activation of the resistive elements in the first group of N ink energizing elements and then sequentially enables activation of the resistive elements in the second group of N ink energizing elements for redundant printing of each bit of print data in an N-bit print data input.
11 more elements
A method comprising the steps of:
- transferring N-bit print data to at least one group of N data latches, each latch having an output coupled to the inputs of a plurality of redundant ink energizing elements that are arranged into N clusters, each ink energizing element having a nozzle logic circuit controlling the ejection of ink;
- transferring each bit of said N-bit print data from each of said N data latches to said plurality of redundant ink energizing elements such that each ink energizing element in each of said N clusters receives a redundant bit of print data;
- and
- sequentially enabling each of the nozzle logic circuits in each cluster with signals from a nozzle controller such that the redundant ink energizing elements in each cluster sequentially eject ink corresponding to said redundant bit of print data.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.