Granted Patent B2

US 7,748,824 · App. 10/965,005 · Granted Jul 6, 2010

Abstract

Claims (26)

1. An ejecting apparatus, comprising:

a stage;

a plurality of heads movable in a Y-axis direction relatively with respect to said stage, said plurality of heads being adjacent to each other in said Y-axis direction; and

a head driving portion, wherein:

each of said plurality of heads includes a first nozzle array and a second nozzle array both extending in an X-axis direction;

in each of said plurality of heads, DA equals a distance between said first nozzle array and said second nozzle array;

a distance between said second nozzle array in one arbitrary head of said plurality of heads and said first nozzle array in another head adjacent to said arbitrary head is substantially equal to an integer multiple of DA;

said X-axis direction and said Y-axis direction intersect with each other at a right angle;

said head driving portion generates a driving signal including a plurality of ejection waveforms that are repeated in predetermined ejection periods and supplies an ejection signal with each of said plurality of heads based on said driving signal;

said driving signal is common to all the nozzle arrays of said plurality of heads;

said plurality of heads are arranged in a first head group and a second head group, the heads in the first head group at least partially overlapping each other in the Y-axis direction, the heads in the second head group at least partially overlapping each other in the Y-axis direction, the heads in the first head group each in a non-overlapping position with respect to the heads in the second head group in the X-axis direction;

a plurality of nozzles are placed in said first nozzle array and said second nozzle array such that a first nozzle pitch between the nozzles of the first and second nozzle arrays of the same head in said X-axis direction has a specific value for each of said plurality of heads;

said first head group includes heads;

a second nozzle pitch between the nozzles of said first nozzle array of said arbitrary head of said heads and said first nozzle array of said other head adjacent to said arbitrary head in said X-axis direction is substantially equal to 1/N of said specific value; and

a distance between a last nozzle of said first nozzle array of a first head of said first head group and a first nozzle of said first nozzle array of a first head of said second head group is substantially equal to a third nozzle pitch between the nozzles of said first nozzle array of said arbitrary head of said N heads in said X-axis direction.

2. The ejecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:

said stage holds a base body having a target portion; and

said plurality of heads move in said Y-axis direction relatively with respect to said stage such that said first nozzle array and said second nozzle array in any one of said plurality of heads enter a region corresponding to said target portion and eject a liquid material from corresponding nozzles at a time interval substantially equal to an integer multiple of an ejection period.

3. The ejecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:

said stage holds a base body having a plurality of target portions aligned at predetermined pitches in said Y-axis direction; and

said plurality of heads move in said Y-axis direction relatively with respect to said stage such that one of said first nozzle array and said second nozzle array in any one of said plurality of heads enters regions respectively corresponding to said plurality of target portions and eject a liquid material from corresponding nozzles at time intervals substantially equal to integer multiples of an ejection period.

4. The ejecting apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein:

a plane image of each of said plurality of target portions is a rectangular shape determined by long sides and short sides; and

said stage holds said base body such that a direction of said long sides is parallel to said X-axis direction and a direction of said short sides is parallel to said Y-axis direction.

5. The ejecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:

a fourth nozzle pitch between said first nozzle of said first nozzle array of said arbitrary head in said first head group and all other first nozzles of said first nozzle array of the other heads in said first head group is substantially equal to j/N of said specific value, where j is a natural number from 1 to (N−1).

Assignments (7)