Acoustic ink printing

Author

Hadimioglu, B. ; Elrod, S.A. ; Steinmetz, D.L. ; Lim, M. ; Zesch, J.C. ; Khuri-Yakub, B.T. ; Rawson, E.G. ; Quate, C.F.

Author_Institution

Xerox Palo Alto Res. Center, CA, USA

fYear

1992

Firstpage

929

Abstract

An acoustic beam focused on a free liquid surface is used to eject discrete ink droplets of controlled diameter. The liquid surface, adjusted to be at the focal plane of a suitable focusing element, is excited with a burst of acoustic energy. Spherical lead zirconate titanate (PZT) shells, acoustic microscope lenses, spherical lenses etched in silicon, and Fresnel acoustic lenses are used successfully to eject droplets. Droplet diameter scales directly with the focal spot size, and inversely with the acoustic frequency. Droplet formation is experimentally demonstrated over the frequency range of 5 to 300 MHz, with corresponding droplet diameters from 300 to 5 μm. This droplet ejection process is successfully utilized for a printing application by using ink as the liquid medium. Acoustic ink printing with a single lens and with an array of lenses is described

Keywords

acoustic devices; drops; focusing; printing; ultrasonic applications; 300 to 5 micron; 5 to 300 MHz; Fresnel acoustic lenses; PbZrO3TiO3; acoustic frequency; acoustic ink printing; acoustic microscope lenses; array of lenses; controlled diameter; discrete ink droplets; droplet ejection process; focal spot size; free liquid surface; single lens; spherical PZT shells; spherical Si lenses; Acoustic arrays; Acoustic beams; Etching; Frequency; Ink; Lenses; Microscopy; Printing; Silicon; Titanium compounds;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ultrasonics Symposium, 1992. Proceedings., IEEE 1992

Conference_Location

Tucson, AZ

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0562-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ULTSYM.1992.275823

Filename

275823