Integrated circuit (IC) incorporating rows of proximal ink ejection ports
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to an ink ejection integrated circuit (IC) for a printhead. The IC includes rows of elongate nozzle arrangements. Each nozzle arrangement defines an ink ejection port at one end and has an internal cantilevered actuator anchored at the other end so that the actuator can move to eject ink out though the ink ejection port. The rows are arranged in pairs with the ports of one of the rows being proximally located to the ports of the other row, for each pair.
1. An ink ejection integrated circuit (IC) for a printhead, the IC comprising:
a plurality of elongate nozzle arrangements arranged in a plurality of rows, each nozzle arrangement defining an ink ejection port at a first end and having a cantilevered actuator anchored at a second end opposite the first end, the cantilevered actuator extending from the second end to the first end to attach with the ink ejection port; and
a plurality of ink inlet channels for feeding each elongate nozzle arrangement with ink, each ink inlet channel being defined in-line with one ink ejection port in a direction of ink ejection, wherein
the plurality of rows of elongate nozzle arrangements are arranged in pairs, the ink ejection ports of the elongate nozzle arrangements of a first row of a pair being adjacent to the ink ejection ports of the elongate nozzle arrangements of a second row of the pair, and
the actuators of the elongate nozzle arrangements of the first row extend away from the actuators of the elongate nozzle arrangements of the second row.
2. An ink ejection IC as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the ink ejection ports in the first row form a first straight line, the ink ejection ports in the second row form a second straight line parallel to the first straight line, and the first straight line and the second straight line are staggered with respect to each other.
3. An ink ejection IC as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a CMOS drive circuitry layer in electrical communication with each actuator.
4. An ink ejection IC as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the rows of each pair share a common dividing wall.