Printhead wafer with individual ink feed to each nozzle
View Patent ↗An inkjet printhead with an array of nozzles formed on one side of a wafer substrate, an array of corresponding ink inlets formed in the other side of the wafer, each of the ink inlets individually associated with one of the nozzles and, a fluid path extending between each of the ink inlets and each of the ejection apertures respectively. With individual ink feed channels to each of the nozzles, there is a high level of fluidic drag that eliminates any ink pressure cross talk between adjacent nozzles.
1. A printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a silicon wafer substrate with an ink ejection side and an opposing ink inlet side;
an array of nozzles formed on the ink ejection side, each nozzle having an ejection actuator and an ejection aperture for ejecting ink drops towards a media substrate;
an array of ink inlets formed in the ink inlet side, each of the ink inlets individually associated with one of the nozzles; and,
a plurality of ink channels having silicon walls defined through said silicon wafer substrate and extending between each of the ink inlets and each of the ejection actuators respectively,
wherein each of the ink channels is longer than 100 microns and has a length through the substrate which is longer than its widest diameter, and
wherein the array of ink inlets is in registration with the ejection apertures such that the ink channel is normal to the plane of the wafer substrate, thereby defining a linear fluid path between each ink inlet and each ejection actuator.
2. A printhead according to claim 1 further comprising CMOS drive circuitry for controlling the actuation of the ejection actuators.
3. A printhead according to claim 1 wherein the printhead has more than 30000 nozzles per cm 2 of the wafer substrate.
4. A printhead according to claim 1 wherein the printhead is a pagewidth printhead with a resolution greater than 1000 d.p.i.
5. A printhead according to claim 1 wherein the ejection actuator is a thermal bend actuator for displacing ink within the nozzle to eject a drop through the ejection aperture.