Nozzle layouts for printheads

#Inkjet technology is widely used for precisely and rapidly dispensing small quantities of fluid. Inkjets eject droplets of fluid out of a nozzle by creating a short pulse of high pressure within a firing chamber. During printing, this ejection process can repeat thousands of times per second. Ideally, each ejection would result in a single ink droplet that travels along a predetermined velocity vector for deposition on the media. In practice, however, the ejection process may create a number of very small droplets that remain airborne for longer than ideal periods of time and are not depositing at the desired location on the media. This non-ideal ejection process can affect the printing process differently, depending what is printed, such as text, lines, or graphics.

#Some embodiments of the invention are described with respect to the following figures:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ink jet printer according to an example implementation.

#FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed view of a printhead according to an example implementation.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ink jet printer 102 according to an example implementation. The ink jet printer 102 includes a print controller 106 and a printhead 108. The print controller 106 is coupled to the printhead 108. The print controller 106 receives printing data representing an image to be printed to media (media not shown for clarity). The print controller 106 generates firing data for activating drop ejectors on the printhead 108 to eject ink onto the media and produce the image. The print controller 106 provides the firing data to the printhead 108 based on the printing data.

#The print controller 106 includes a processor 120, a memory 122, input/output (IO) circuits 116, and various support circuits 118. The processor 120 can include any type of microprocessor known in the art. The support circuits 118 can include cache, power supplies, clock circuits, data registers, and the like. The memory 122 can include random access memory, read only memory, cache memory, magnetic read/write memory, or the like or any combination of such memory devices. The IO circuits 116 can by coupled to the printhead module 110. The IO circuits 116 can also be coupled to external devices, such as a computer 104. For example, the IO circuits 116 can receive printing data from an external device (e.g., the computer 104), and provide firing data to the printhead 108 using the IO circuits 116.

#The memory 120 can include a print processing function 124. The print processing function 124 can include machine-readable instructions executable by the processor 120 to perform various functions, including processing printing data and generating firing data for the printhead 108. The print processing function 124 can be stored in any portion of the memory 120, for example, in a non-volatile portion of the memory 120 (e.g., as “firmware” for the printer 120). The print processing function 124 and the memory 120 together comprise a computer-readable medium having machine-readable instructions executable by the processor 120 to perform various functions described below.