Methods of fabricating fit firing chambers of different drop wights on a single printhead
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorNaoto Kawamura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Inkjet printheads capable of printing smaller and larger drop-weight quantities of ink, and methods of manufacturing the inkjet printheads, are disclosed. The inkjet printhead includes a substrate. One or more portions of the substrate may be etched such that the substrate might have different thicknesses. In one example embodiment, an orifice layer can by applied to the substrate that has orifice areas with different orifice thicknesses.
Claims10
A method of manufacturing a printhead capable of printing smaller and larger drop-weight quantities of ink, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a substrate;
- etching the substrate in order to define at least two substrate areas with different substrate thicknesses;
- applying a thin-film layer that contains at least one ink-energizing element in each of the substrate areas;
- etching a plurality of ink-supplying conduits in the thin-film layer;
- etching at least one ink-supplying trench in the substrate, said ink-supplying trench in fluid communication with at least some of the ink-supplying conduits;
- applying an orifice layer to the substrate, the orifice layer having an exterior-orifice-layer surface that is substantially planar such that there are at least two orifice areas with different orifice thicknesses that correspond to said two substrate areas with different substrate thicknesses, the at least two orifice areas being formed with different volumes to contain different drop-weight quantities of ink;
- and
- forming at least one firing chamber in each of said at least two orifice areas.
A method of manufacturing a printhead capable of printing smaller and larger drop-weight quantities of ink, the method comprising:
- providing a substrate;
- etching the substrate in order to define at least two substrate areas with different substrate thicknesses;
- applying a thin-film layer that contains at least one ink-energizing element aligned with one of the substrate areas;
- etching a plurality of ink-supplying conduits in the thin-film layer;
- etching at least one ink-supplying trench in the substrate, said ink-supplying trench in fluid communication with at least some of the ink-supplying conduits;
- applying an orifice layer to the substrate, the orifice layer having an exterior-orifice-layer surface that is substantially planar such that there are at least two orifice areas with different orifice thicknesses that correspond to said two substrate areas with different substrate thicknesses;
- and
- forming a first firing chamber in a first area of said at least two orifice areas and a second firing chamber in a second area of said at least two orifice areas.
A method of manufacturing a printhead capable of printing smaller and larger drop-weight quantities of ink, the method comprising:
- providing a substrate;
- etching the substrate in order to define at least two substrate areas with different substrate thicknesses;
- applying a thin-film layer that contains at least one ink-energizing element aligned with one of the substrate areas;
- etching a plurality of ink-supplying conduits in the thin-film layer;
- etching at least one ink-supplying trench in the substrate, said ink-supplying trench in fluid communication with at least some of the ink-supplying conduits;
- applying an orifice layer to the substrate, the orifice layer having an exterior-orifice-layer surface that is substantially planar such that there are at least two orifice areas with different orifice thicknesses that correspond to said two substrate areas with different substrate thicknesses;
- and
- forming a first firing chamber in a first area of said at least two orifice areas and a second firing chamber in a second area of said at least two orifice areas;
- wherein the a first firing chamber is formed having a first volume;
- and
- wherein the second firing chamber is formed having a second volume that is greater than the first volume.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.