Micromachined acoustic-wave liquid ejector

Author

Huang, Dai ; Kim, Eun Sok

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Hawaii Univ., Honolulu, HI, USA

Volume

10

Issue

3

fYear

2001

fDate

9/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

442

Lastpage

449

Abstract

This paper describes the design and performance of micromachined, self-focusing acoustic-wave liquid ejector (AWLE) that requires no heat, nozzle, nor acoustic lens. The AWLE has a very simple device structure and is easy to fabricate. Three versions of AWLE have been designed, fabricated, and tested for an ink-jet printing application. Also developed are computer simulation and design aids that take into account the acoustic loss in water and the two-time wave reflections at the water-air and water-transducer interfaces. The AWLE has been observed to eject water droplets of about 5 μm in diameter with radio frequency (RF) pulses of 5 μs pulsewidth. Overall, the AWLE has been shown to be capable of improving the printing resolution and speed of ink-jet printing significantly

Keywords

bulk acoustic wave devices; ink jet printers; micromachining; self-focusing; 5 micron; 5 mus; AWLE; RF pulses; acoustic loss; computer simulation; design aids; ink-jet printing application; printing resolution; self-focusing acoustic-wave liquid ejector; two-time wave reflections; water droplets; water-air interface; water-transducer interface; Acoustic devices; Acoustic pulses; Acoustic testing; Acoustic waves; Application software; Computer simulation; Ink jet printing; Lenses; Optical design; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/84.946804

Filename

946804