Power distribution for inkjet printheads
View Patent ↗An inkjet printhead having a series of nozzles for the ejection of ink wherein each said nozzle has a rim formed by the deposition of a rim material layer over a sacrificial layer and a subsequent planar removal of at least said rim material layer so as to form said nozzle rim.
1. An inkjet printhead assembly, including:
a longitudinally extending inkjet printhead, including a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart power supply points and a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart ground supply points;
at least one longitudinally extending power busbar;
at least one longitudinally extending ground busbar; and
at least one double-sided tape automated bonded (TAB) film configured to connect a plurality of said power supply points to said at least one power busbar and a plurality of said ground supply points to said at least one around busbar, said double-sided TAB film having
power and ground interconnect means on a first side of the TAB film, the power and ground interconnect means connecting said busbars and their corresponding power and ground supply points; and control line interconnect means on the other side of the TAB film, the control line interconnect means being configured to provide the inkjet printhead with control data from a print controller, wherein
the TAB film is configured such that it need only be connected to said printhead along one edge thereof.
2. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said busbars extend parallel to said inkjet printhead and said interconnect means extend generally transversely between the busbars and the respective power and ground supply points.
3. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said TAB film electrically connects with said busbars by means of correspondingly sized noble metal deposited strips formed on said TAB film.
4. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said interconnect means also includes a plurality of control lines configured to provide the inkjet printhead with control data from a print controller.
5. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 4 , wherein the inkjet printhead is in the form of a plurality of printhead; chips manufactured by a MEMS processing technique.
6. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , including an associated ink supply unit for delivering ink to ink supply passages formed in said printhead.
7. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 6 , said ink supply unit including: a slot for insertion of said printhead and a series of elongated chambers for the storage of separate color inks, said chambers being interconnected with said slot for the supply of ink to said printhead, wherein said busbars are disposed along said ink supply unit and the interconnect means take the form of a tape automated bonding (TAB) strip similarly disposed along an outside of said ink supply unit, the TAB strip including a series of control lines along one surface thereof for mating with a corresponding external series of control lines for receiving control signals from a print controller, said TAB strip further having a repeating series of interconnects to said inkjet printhead, said interconnects connecting said control lines and said busbars to said printhead.
8. An inkjet printhead assembly according to 7 , wherein said ink supply unit includes a series of positioning protuberances for accurately locating the power supply busbars and/or interconnect means therewith.
9. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said interconnect means is in the form of one or more printed circuit boards connected directly to said busbars, with wire bonds connecting the printed circuit boards to said printhead.
10. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said inkjet printhead has a plurality of nozzle arrangements, each of which includes a thermal bend actuator device for ejection of ink from a corresponding nozzle.
11. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein each of said busbars comprises a mechanically stiff conductive rail.
12. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , wherein said interconnect means includes a flexible portion that connects with said inkjet printhead.
13. An inkjet printhead assembly according to claim 1 , comprising at least two of the power supply point, wherein the inkjet printhead comprises at least two printhead chips, the inkjet printhead assembly being configured such that each of the at least two power supply points is supplied with power from a different one of the pow supply points.