Method of manufacturing orientation film and method of manufacturing liquid discharge head

A method of manufacturing a liquid discharge head having (i) a pressure chamber to be filled with a liquid and defined by a vibrating plate, a partition wall, and a nozzle plate provided with a discharge opening, and (ii) a piezoelectric actuator for vibrating the vibrating plate to discharge the liquid stored in the pressure chamber from the discharge opening, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) forming a film containing a piezoelectric ceramic on a seed substrate, in which crystal orientation is controlled at least on a surface of said seed substrate, by using an aerosol deposition method of injecting powder containing said piezoelectric ceramic toward said seed substrate and depositing the powder on said seed substrate;
• (b) heat-treating the film formed at step (a) to form a piezoelectric ceramic orientation film in which crystal grains contained in said film are oriented;
• (c) forming an electrode on said piezoelectric ceramic orientation film;
• (d) forming the vibrating plate on said electrode;
• (e) forming the partition wall for defining the pressure chamber on said vibrating plate;
• and
• (f) forming the nozzle plate provided with the discharge opening on said partition wall;
• wherein step (a) includes distributing the powder having different particle diameters in said film such that a particle diameter of the powder in said film gradually becomes larger with distance from said seed substrate.