A thermal inkjet printhead with a monolithically fabricated nozzle plate and self-aligned ink feed hole

Author

Lee, Jae-Duk ; Yoon, Jun-Bo ; Kim, Jae-Kwan ; Chung, Hoon-Ju ; Lee, Choon-Sup ; Lee, Hi-Deok ; Lee, Ho-Jun ; Kim, Choong-ki ; Han, Chul-Hi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Taejon, South Korea

Volume

8

Issue

3

fYear

1999

fDate

9/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

229

Lastpage

236

Abstract

A monolithic thermal inkjet printhead has been developed and demonstrated to operate successfully by combining monolithic growing of a nozzle plate on the silicon substrate and electrochemical etching of silicon for an ink feed hole. For the monolithic fabrication, a multiexposure and single development (MESD) technique and Ni electroplating are used to form cavities, orifices, and the nozzle plate. Electrochemical etching, as a back-end process, is applied to form an ink feed hole through the substrate, which is accurately aligned with the frontside pattern without any backside mask. The etch rate is nearly proportional to the current density up to 50 μm/min. Experiments with a 50-μm-diameter nozzle show ink ejection up to the operating frequency of 11 kHz with an average ink dot diameter of about 110 μm for 0.3-A, 5-μs current pulses

Keywords

electroplating; etching; ink jet printers; micromachining; nozzles; thermal printers; 11 kHz; MESD technique; Ni; Ni electroplating; Si; electrochemical etching; monolithic fabrication; nozzle plate; photoresist mold; self-aligned ink feed hole; silicon substrate; thermal inkjet printhead; Colored noise; Costs; Etching; Fabrication; Feeds; Ink; Printers; Printing; Resists; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/84.788625

Filename

788625