Thermal head

A thermal head comprising:

• a substrate;
• a plurality of driver integrated circuits (ICs) arranged in a main scanning direction on the substrate;
• a heater element including a heat storage layer formed on the substrate, a heating resistor layer made of a plurality of pairs of effective heating portions formed on the heat storage layer as a heating resistor, and an electrode layer patterned to supply electricity to the heating resistor layer;
• and
• a protective layer configured to cover a surface of the heater element,
• wherein the electrode layer is provided with a folded electrode which is connected with the pair of the effective heating portions at an end thereof in a sub-scanning direction perpendicular to a main scanning direction, a separate electrode which is connected with one effective heating portion of the pair of the effective heating portions at the other end thereof in the sub-scanning direction and connected to a corresponding driver IC, and a common electrode which is connected with the other effective heating portion of the pair of the effective heating portions at the other end thereof in the sub-scanning direction, and
• wherein the folded electrode is formed by adjusting an area thereof such that a heat distribution of each heating resistor becomes uniform.