Positionally stable array of abutting integrated chips on a printhead

1. A printhead for an ink jet printer, the printhead comprising:

a support member;

an array of integrated chips mounted thereto, each of the integrated chips comprising:

rows of unit cells, each unit cell having an ink ejection nozzle; and,

at least one side surface with a non-linear profile for nesting against a complementary side surface of an adjacent integrated chip to restrict any relative lateral movement of the integrated chips within the array; and,

biasing means at one or both ends of the array of integrated chips for maintaining a force through the array that causes the end surfaces of the integrated chips to remain abutted.

2. A printhead according to claim 1 wherein the unit cells of each row are positioned such that the ink ejection nozzles is equally spaced along the row.

3. A printhead according to claim 1 comprising twelve rows of unit cells.

4. A printhead according to claim 3 wherein the twelve rows of unit cells are made up of six pairs of rows, each pair printing ink of one color.

5. A printhead according to claim 1 wherein a pair of the unit cells rows is dedicated to one color in one of the integrated chips is longitudinally aligned with a pair of the unit cell rows of an adjoining integrated chip printing a different color.

6. A printhead according to claim 5 wherein there is a dimension between end-most nozzles across abutting end surfaces of the chips that is equivalent to double a dimension between the nozzles along any row of one of the integrated chips.

7. A printhead according to claim 1 wherein the non-liner profile of the side of each integrated chip is a zig-zag formation.

8. A printhead according to claim 7 wherein the zig-zag formation includes a sequence of angled portions and a sequence of aligned longitudinal portions interspersed therewith.