Drop formation with reduced stimulation crosstalk

1. A method of operating a jetting module comprising:

providing a jetting module including a nozzle and a drop forming mechanism;

providing a liquid to the jetting module under pressure sufficient to cause a liquid stream to jet from the nozzle;

providing a small drop waveform that causes the liquid stream to break up into a small volume drop, the small drop waveform including a pulse having a pulse energy E S , the small drop waveform having a period X S , where X S ≈1/f R , and where f R is the Rayleigh frequency of the liquid;

providing a large drop waveform that causes the liquid stream to break up to form a large volume drop, the large drop waveform having a period X L , where X L =NX S , the large volume drop being N times the volume of the small volume drop, the large drop waveform including a first pulse having a pulse energy E L1 , where E L1 ≧E S , the large drop waveform including a second pulse occurring within a time period X 2 , where X 2 ≦X S , of an initial pulse of a subsequent small drop waveform or a subsequent large drop waveform, the second pulse having a pulse energy E L2 , where E L2 <E S ; and

activating the drop forming mechanism using a sequence including a combination of at least one small drop waveform and at least one large drop waveform.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse energy E L2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is within a range of 0.01(E L1 +E L2 )<E L2 <0.4(E L1 +E L2 ).

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the time period X 2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is within a range of 0.05X S <X 2 <0.9X S .

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the time period X 2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is X 2 <(f R /f C )X S , where f C is the cut off frequency of the liquid.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time period X 2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is within a range of 0.05X S <X 2 <0.9X S .

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time period X 2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is X 2 <(f R /f C )X S , where f C is the cut off frequency of the liquid.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse energy E L2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is within a range of 0.05(E L1 +E L2 )<E L2 <0.3(E L1 +E L2 ).

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the time period X 2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is within a range of 0.05X S <X 2 <0.9X S .

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the time period X 2 of the second pulse of the large drop waveform is X 2 <(f R /f C )X S , where f C is the cut off frequency of the liquid.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drop forming mechanism comprises:

a first drop forming transducer; and

a second drop forming transducer.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein activating the drop forming mechanism comprises:

providing the first pulse of the large drop waveform to the first drop forming transducer; and

providing second pulse of the large drop waveform to the second drop forming transducer.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

providing a catcher;

providing a deflection mechanism;

deflecting one of the large volume drop and the small volume drop using the deflection mechanism;

collecting one of the large volume drop and the small volume drop using the catcher.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drop formation device is associated with one of the liquid chamber, the nozzle, and the liquid jet.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the drop formation device is one of a thermal device, a piezoelectric device, a MEMS actuator, and an electrohydrodynamic device, an optical device, an electrostrictive device, and combinations thereof.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse energy E L1 of the first pulse of the large drop waveform is <2E S .