A monolithic thermal inkjet printhead utilizing electrochemical etching and two-step electroplating techniques

Author

Lee, Jae-Duk ; Lee, Hi-Deok ; Lee, Ho-Jun ; Yoon, Jun-Bo ; Han, Ki-Ho ; Kim, Jae-Kwan ; Kim, Choong-ki ; Han, Chul-Hi

Author_Institution

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

fYear

1995

Firstpage

601

Lastpage

604

Abstract

An integrated fabrication method for a monolithic thermal inkjet printhead is proposed. It utilizes silicon micromachining techniques, such as electrochemical etching to form the main ink feedthrough and two-step nickel electroplating to form the ink cavities and nozzles. The main ink feedthrough is formed by etching the substrate from the back side and the etched hole is automatically aligned with the pattern defined on the front side. The cavity and nozzles are formed sequentially on the silicon substrate by a two-step electroplating. The monolithic batch process provides accurate control in the dimensions of the nozzle and the main ink feedthrough. The fabricated inkjet printhead shows the droplet size of 100 μm in diameter and stable ejection of ink droplets of more than 180 million

Keywords

electroplating; elemental semiconductors; etching; ink jet printers; micromachining; micromechanical devices; silicon; thermal printers; 100 micron; Si; droplet size; electrochemical etching; etched hole; ink cavities; ink feedthrough; micromachining techniques; monolithic batch process; nozzle dimensions; stable ejection; thermal inkjet printhead; two-step electroplating techniques; Colored noise; Costs; Etching; Heating; Helium; Ink; Printing; Resistors; Silicon; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1995. IEDM '95., International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

0163-1918

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2700-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1995.499293

Filename

499293