High volume pagewidth printing
View Patent ↗A print assembly ( 14 ) for pagewidth inkjet printing that includes an elongate carrier that is mountable on a support structure ( 12 ) of a printer ( 10 ) in an operative position with respect to a platen ( 106, 108 ) of the printer. A number of printhead chips ( 186 ) are positioned on the carrier. The print head chips together define a print head that is configured to eject at least one billion drops per second into a printing zone defined between the print head and the platen of the printer. Control circuitry is also positioned on the carrier and is configured to control operation of the print head chips.
1. A print assembly for pagewidth inkjet printing, the print assembly comprising
an elongate carrier that is mountable on a support structure of a printer in an operative position with respect to a platen of the printer;
a number of printhead chips positioned on the carrier, the printhead chips each having a plurality of ink ejection nozzle arrangements on a wafer substrate, each nozzle arrangement having an actuator for ejecting ink from an associated nozzle when a resistive element of said actuator is heated by an electrical current supplied by drive circuitry on the wafer substrate; and
a plurality of controllers, each controller mounted on a respective printed circuit board that is positioned on the carrier, each controller being connected to a plurality of the printhead chips via individual flexible printed circuit boards of each printhead chip and to the other controllers, and each controller being configured to control operation of at least 10,000 nozzle arrangements of the connected printhead chips.
2. A print assembly as claimed in claim 1 , in which the printhead chips together incorporate at least one hundred thousand nozzle arrangements.
3. A print assembly as claimed in claim 1 , in which the printhead chips together incorporate at least two hundred thousand nozzle arrangements.
4. A print assembly as claimed in claim 3 , which includes between forty and one hundred printhead chips positioned on the carrier.
5. A print assembly as claimed in claim 1 , in which each printhead chip is the product of an integrated circuit fabrication process.
6. A print assembly as claimed in claim 5 , in which and the drive circuitry is comprised in a CMOS drive circuitry layer positioned on the wafer substrate with the nozzle arrangements positioned on the wafer substrate and the CMOS drive circuitry layer.
7. A print assembly as claimed in claim 6 , in which each nozzle arrangement is electrically connected to the CMOS drive circuitry layer.
8. A print assembly as claimed in claim 7 , which includes a plurality of printhead modules, each printhead module incorporating a printhead chip, the printhead modules being mounted on the carrier.