Method of manufacture of a gear driven shutter ink jet printer
View Patent ↗This patent describes a method of manufacturing a gear driven shutter ink jet print head wherein an array of nozzles are formed on a substrate utilising planar monolithic deposition, lithographic and etching processes. Multiple ink jet heads are formed simultaneously on a single planar substrate such as a silicon wafer. The print heads can be formed utilising standard VLSI/ULSI processing and can include integrated drive electronics formed on the same substrate. The drive electronics preferably being of a CMOS type. In the final construction, ink can be ejected from the substrate substantially normal to the substrate plane.
1. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead which includes:
providing a substrate;
etching said substrate to form a nozzle chamber of a nozzle;
depositing a first sacrificial layer in said nozzle chamber;
depositing a plurality of permanent and further sacrificial layers on the substrate;
etching the permanent layers to create a shutter for opening and closing said nozzle chamber and a gear drive assembly in driving engagement with said shutter for opening and closing the shutter on demand for controlling ejection of ink from a nozzle opening of the nozzle; and
removing said sacrificial layers, thereby forming said printhead.
2. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 1 wherein multiple ink jet printheads are formed simultaneously on the substrate.
3. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 1 wherein said substrate is a silicon wafer.
4. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 1 wherein integrated drive electronics are formed on the same substrate.
5. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 4 wherein said integrated drive electronics are formed using a CMOS fabrication process.
6. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 1 wherein ink is ejected from said substrate normal to said substrate.
7. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 1 which includes fabricating, on the substrate, a drive means for driving at least one gear of the gear drive assembly.
8. A method of manufacturing an ink jet printhead as claimed in claim 7 in which the drive means is a Lorenz force actuator.