Inkjet printhead with filter structure at inlet to ink chambers

Abstract

An inkjet printhead that has an array of droplet ejectors supported on a printhead integrated circuit (IC). Each of the droplet ejectors has a nozzle aperture and an actuator for ejecting a droplet of ink through the nozzle aperture. Each of the droplet ejectors has a chamber in which the actuator is positioned, the chamber having an inlet for fluid communication with an ink supply. A filter structure in positioned the inlet to inhibit ingress of contaminants into the chamber.

Description

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 525,857 filed 25 Sep. 2006, which is in turn a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 064,011 filed on Feb. 24, 2005, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 717,8903 which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 893,380 filed on Jul. 19, 2004, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,938,992, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 307,348 filed on Dec. 2, 2002, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,166, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 113,122 filed on Jul. 10, 1998, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,977, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.[0002]The following Australian provisional patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference. For the purposes of location and identification, US patents / patent applications identified by their US patent / patent application serial numbers (USSN) are listed al...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020]an array of droplet ejectors supported on a printhead integrated circuit (IC), each of the droplet ejectors has a nozzle aperture and an actuator for ejecting a droplet of ink through the nozzle aperture and, each of the droplet ejectors has a chamber in which the actuator is positioned, the chamber having an inlet for fluid communication with an ink supply, and a filter structure in the inlet to inhibit ingress of contaminants into the chamber.

[0056]Increasing the speed of the media substrate relative to the printhead, whether the printhead is a scanning or pagewidth type, reduces the time needed to complete printjobs.

Problems solved by technology

Accurate registration between the thermal actuators and the nozzles can be problematic.

These problems effectively restrict the size of the nozzle array in any one monolithic plate and corresponding actuator substrate.

Furthermore, differential thermal expansion between the nozzle plate and the actuator substrate create greater misalignments as the array sizes increase.

Given these limits on nozzle array size, pagewidth printheads using this two-part design are impractical.

The complexity of this arrangement makes such printers commercially unrealistic.

Each technology may have its own advantages and disadvantages in the areas of cost, speed, quality, reliability, power usage, simplicity of construction operation, durability and consumables.

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