Fabricating an inkjet printhead with grouped nozzles
View Patent ↗A method of construction of an inkjet printhead having a large array of inkjet nozzle arrangements by defining a single inkjet nozzle arrangement for the ejection of ink from a single nozzle and utilizing a series of translations and rotations of the single inkjet nozzle arrangement to form all the inkjet nozzles of the inkjet print head. The utilizing step can comprise: initially forming those nozzles in a pod; forming a group of pods corresponding to each color utilized in the print head; forming a firing group of pods; forming a segment of the printhead; forming each segment of the print head. The inkjet nozzle arrangements can include a series of layers deposited and etch utilizing a mask.
1. A method of construction of an inkjet printhead that prints a plurality of inks, said method comprising:
forming a single inkjet nozzle arrangement so as to have a single ink ejection nozzle and an actuator element for the ejection of ink from the single ink ejection nozzle; and
replicating the single inkjet nozzle arrangement by performing a series of translations and rotations of said single inkjet nozzle arrangement to form an array of the inkjet nozzles thereby constructing said inkjet print head;
said replicating step including;
forming a plurality of pods of nozzles, each pod consisting of a plurality of contiguous nozzles, the nozzles of a pod configured to print the same ink.
2. The method of claim 1 further including:
forming a group of pods, each group configured to print the same ink;
forming a plurality of said groups of pods into a firing group;
combining firing groups forming a segment of said printhead, and
forming each segment together to form said printhead.
3. The method of claim 1 including forming the nozzles of a pod to share a common ink supply.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said inkjet nozzle arrangements include a series of layers deposited and etched utilizing a mask.
5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein said layers include conductive layers which are etched utilizing said mask so as to form a series of conductive interconnections.
6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said conductive interconnections include interconnections with adjacent versions of said inkjet nozzle arrangement which comprise translated and/or rotated copies of said inkjet nozzle arrangement.
7. The method of claim 1 including configuring the printhead, whereby in use, at least one nozzle arrangement of each pod is activated at a different time to at least one other nozzle arrangement of the pod.
8. A method as in any of the previous claims, in which said printhead is constructed from a series of segment replications.