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US 7,441,876 B2Granted
Inkjet printhead with suspended heater elements
AssigneeSilverbrook Research Pty Ltd
InventorKia Silverbrook
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A printhead has a plurality of micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangements. Each nozzle arrangement includes a substrate, side walls and a nozzle plate which together define a chamber. The substrate defines a fluid inlet and the nozzle plate defines a nozzle. Each chamber has a heater element suspended therein. In use, when the chamber contains printing fluid, activation of the heater element produces a vapor bubble in the fluid. This, in turn, produces a pressure increase in the chamber which ejects a drop of printing fluid via the nozzle onto a printing medium.
Claims7
An inkjet printhead comprising
- a plurality of micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangements having an areal density of at least 40,000 nozzles per square centimetre on a printing surface of the printhead, wherein each nozzle arrangement comprises
- a substrate;
- side walls extending from the substrate and supporting a nozzle plate to define a fluid chamber, the substrate defining a fluid inlet to said chamber, and the nozzle plate defining a nozzle from the chamber terminating in the printing surface;
- and
- at least one heater element suspended in the fluid chamber operatively containing a printing fluid supplied via the inlet, wherein activation of the heater element forms a vapour bubble in the fluid leading to a pressure increase in the chamber thereby ejecting the fluid via the nozzle, said heater element configured so that a point of collapse of the bubble is spaced from the heater element.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.