The present disclosure relates to a flow path member and a liquid discharge head using the same.
A recording device that performs recording by discharging a liquid onto a record medium, such as paper, has a liquid discharge head that includes, for example, a discharge port that discharges a liquid and an energy generating element that generates energy for discharging the liquid. The liquid discharge head further includes a flow path member having a flow path for supplying a liquid to the discharge port and the energy generating element. The flow path member may include a laminate of a plurality of substrates having a groove or a through hole, which becomes the flow path. When the plurality of substrates are laminated by joining them with an adhesive, a part of the flow path may be blocked by excess adhesive flowing into the flow path. Accordingly, a method of suppressing an adhesive from flowing into the flow path by forming a groove (hereunder referred to as “adhesive clearance groove” or “clearance groove”) in joint surfaces between the substrates is known, the groove capable of accommodating excess adhesive.
Accordingly, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-047620, in order to ensure the rigidity of a substrate, a region where a clearance groove is not formed (hereunder referred to as “separation portion”) is provided. Since, due to the separation portion, the thickness of the substrate is not reduced at a portion thereof corresponding to the separation portion, it is possible to ensure the rigidity of the substrate.
Since the separation portion is not effective in accommodating excess adhesive, the adhesive may flow into the flow path by passing the separation portion.
The present disclosure provides a flow path member having a clearance groove capable of ensuring the rigidity of a substrate while suppressing an adhesive from flowing into a flow path; and to a liquid discharge head using the same.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a flow path member includes: a first substrate having a first surface that has a flow path, and a second substrate having a second surface opposing the first surface, wherein, in the flow path member in which the first substrate and the second substrate are joined to each other with an adhesive provided between the first surface and the second surface, a groove is formed in at least one of the first surface and the second surface, wherein, when the first substrate is viewed from a direction orthogonal to the first surface, the flow path is disposed on an inner side of the groove, wherein the groove has a first portion having a first depth and a second portion having a second depth that is shallower than the first depth, and wherein the second portion is that portion of the groove existing inside a region surrounded by an outer edge of the first surface and extension lines of two sides that form a corner of the flow path.
Further features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below.
Liquid Discharge Head
A flow path layer 108 and a discharge port layer 109 are formed on the first substrate 102, and a liquid passes through holes 110 formed in the first substrate 102 and through holes 111 formed in the second substrate 104, and is supplied to the liquid flow layer 108. Then, energy generated by the energy generating elements 106 is applied to eject the liquid from the discharge port 107.
Silicon is suitable as the material of the first substrate 102 and the material of the second substrate 104. Silicon carbide, silicon nitride, various glass (quartz glass, borosilicate glass, non-alkali glass, soda glass), various ceramics (alumina, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, aluminum nitride), or resin can be used as the material of the first substrate 102 and the material of the second substrate 104.
The through holes 110 and the through holes 111 that supply a liquid to the flow path layer 108 are formed in a corresponding one of the first substrate 102 and the second substrate 104. Examples of methods of forming the through holes include dry etching and wet etching. In order to adjust the height of a flow path in a section direction, a member can be made thin by back-grinding or chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) or by dry etching using a reactive gas. A member can also be made thin by wet etching using a medical fluid, such as nitrohydrofluoric acid. Examples of perforation methods include a method of processing from both surfaces of a substrate to perforate the inside of the substrate, a method of processing from one surface of a substrate to perforate an opposite surface of the substrate, and a method of forming a non-through hole from one surface of a substrate and making thin the substrate by back-grinding or CMP mentioned above, to perforate an opposite surface of the substrate.
As the adhesive 105, a material having high adhesiveness with respect to the substrates is suitably used. It is desirable to use a material whose quantity of entering air bubbles or the like is small and having high coatability, or a material allowing the thickness of the adhesive 105 to be easily reduced and having low viscosity. It is desirable that the adhesive 105 include any one of resins selected from the group consisting of epoxy resin, acrylic resin, silicone resin, benzocyclobutene resin, polyamide resin, polyimide resin, and urethane resin. Examples of methods of curing the adhesive 105 include a thermosetting method and an ultraviolet-ray delayed curing method. Note that, when either one of the substrates has transmittance with respect to ultraviolet rays, an ultraviolet-ray curing method can also be used.
An example of a method of applying the adhesive 105 includes an adhesive transfer method using a substrate. Specifically, a transfer base material is prepared, and the transfer base material is uniformly coated with a thin layer of adhesive by spin coating or slit coating. Then, by bringing a bonding surface of the first substrate 102 into contact with the adhesive with which the transfer base material has been coated, the adhesive can be transferred to only the bonding surface of the first substrate 102. It is desirable that the size of the transfer base material be greater than or equal to the size of the first substrate 102. As the base material, silicon, glass, or a film, such as a PET film, a PEN film, or a PI film, is suitably used. Examples of methods of directly forming an adhesive on the first substrate 102 include screen printing and dispense coating.
The first substrate 102 and the second substrate 104 are joined to each other by pressing them with a predetermined pressure for a predetermined period of time after heating the substrates to a predetermined temperature inside a joining device. Parameters for joining these substrates are suitably set in accordance with an adhesive material. It is desirable to join the substrates to each other in a vacuum because air bubbles are suppressed from entering a joint.
When the adhesive 105 is of a thermosetting type, the adhesive 105 may be heated until the adhesive 105 is cured inside the joining device. The curing may be accelerated by, after joining the substrates, taking out a base-plate joined body and, separately, heating the base-plate joined body in, for example, an oven. When the adhesive 105 is of an ultraviolet-ray delayed type, after previously irradiating the adhesive 105 with a prescribed quantity of ultraviolet rays before joining the substrates, the substrates are joined to each other. It is desirable to, after joining the substrates, further heat the base-plate joined body to sufficiently accelerate the curing. When the adhesive 105 is of an ultraviolet curing type, after joining the substrates to each other, the adhesive 105 is irradiated with a prescribed quantity of ultraviolet rays over the substrate having transmittance with respect to the ultraviolet rays, and is cured.
It is desirable to, after joining the substrates to each other, sufficiently accelerate the curing by further heating the base-plate joined body.
The flow path layer 108 and the discharge port layer 109 can include, for example, epoxy resin, acrylic resin, or urethane resin. Examples of epoxy resin include bisphenol A epoxy resin, cresol novolac epoxy resin, and alicyclic epoxy resin. An example of acrylic resin is polymethyl methacrylate. An example of urethane resin is polyurethane.
In the formation method, a dry film resist in which a film base material is coated with a photo-setting resin is adhered to the first substrate 102. Thereafter, by exposing/developing the dry film resist, the flow path layer 108 is subjected to patterning. Next, the discharge port layer 109 is similarly subjected to patterning by using a dry film resist. Lastly, unexposed portions are simultaneously developed to form the flow path layer 108 and the discharge port layer 109. When using the dry film resist in the formation method, in order to increase the rigidity of the dry film resist, it is desirable to add a resin binder to a resin layer. “Resin binder” refers to resin having a molecular weight that is higher than that of a base resin (for example, the epoxy resin above), which is added for the purpose of, by increasing the weight average molecular weight of the resin layer, increasing the cohesion power and the softening point of the film. By increasing the rigidity of the resin layer, when a substrate has a through opening (liquid supply opening), the resin layer can be easily transferred onto the through opening.
The flow path layer 108 and the discharge port layer 109 can be formed before forming the through holes in the first substrate 102, in which case, the flow path layer 108 and the discharge port layer 109 can be formed by directly forming the resin layer on the first substrate 102 by spin-coating.
Further, the timing of forming the flow path layer 108 and the discharge port layer 109 may be either before or after joining the first substrate 102 and the second substrate 104 to each other.
In the present embodiment, as shown in
Further, since the second portion 103B, which is a shallow clearance groove portion, and the first portion 103A, which is a deep clearance groove portion, continuously communicate with each other, when an adhesive that cannot be completely accommodated by the second portion 103B, which is a shallow clearance groove portion, has flowed in, the adhesive flows into the first portion 103A from the second portion 103B. Therefore, even if the shallow second portion 103B exists, the excess adhesive receiving capability of the clearance groove as a whole is not reduced.
Compared with a clearance groove in which all portions have the same depth, the clearance groove according to the present disclosure can ensure the strength of the substrate. This is because a boundary between the first portion 103A and the second portion 103B has the shape of a step, and the strength with respect to external stress is increased.
Formation steps in a section along line VIII-VIII in
A semitransmissive film is provided at the halftone portion, the halftone portion is brought into a half-exposed state, and a resist film remains. In addition to a halftone mask, there exists a gray-tone mask, and the gray-tone mask produces a half-exposed state by a slit providing a resolution less than or equal to an exposure resolution.
After subjecting the mask resist to patterning, the flow paths are formed by dry etching. When, by dry etching, the film thickness of the remaining portion of the resist film is reduced and a surface of the substrate is exposed, etching of the substrate is started.
That is, a groove can be shallower in a portion exposed at the halftone portion than in other portions that are normally exposed.
Examples of adjusting the depth of the clearance groove include adjusting the initial film thickness of the mask resist and adjusting the transmittance of the semitransmissive film of the halftone mask.
The clearance groove 103 formed as described above has portions having different depths in one continuous clearance groove. The shallow clearance groove portion 103B is a portion of the substrate where a large amount of the substrate remains in a section direction of the substrate, and can have a higher rigidity than that of a clearance groove in which all portions thereof are deep.
From the viewpoint of ensuring the rigidity of the substrate, it is desirable that, when a depth of the first portion 103A is H1 and a depth of the second portion 103B is H2, the depth of the clearance groove be set so that a ratio H2/H1 is ½ or less. In other words, a second depth, which is the depth of the second portion 103B, is less than or equal to half of a first depth, which is the depth of the first portion 103A. Although the ability of the shallow clearance groove portion to receive excess adhesive is reduced, since the deep clearance groove portion is continuously formed, the adhesive that could no longer be received by the shallow clearance groove portion flows into a deep portion, as a result of which the ability of the clearance groove as a whole is not reduced. Further, in the present embodiment, as shown in
A second embodiment is described with reference to
When a portion 103B where the width of a clearance groove portion is narrow and a portion 103A where the width of a clearance groove portion is wide are provided as shown in
A third embodiment is described with reference to
A first substrate 102 having formed thereon energy generating elements 106 like those shown in
Flow paths 110 and a clearance groove 103 were formed in the first substrate 102. As shown in
Next, the flow paths 110 were formed in the first substrate 102 by using a bosch process. The flow paths 110 and the clearance groove 103 were processed at the same time so that the depth of the flow paths 110 became 450 μm. Here, the etching rate with respect to silicon was 7 μm/min, and the processing time was 65 minutes. Since the etching rate of the mask resist is 0.08 μm/min, the mask resist 114 disappears after 40 minutes from the start of the etching, and the etching for a shallow clearance groove portion 103B is started. As a result, the depth of each flow path 110 was 450 μm, and a deep clearance groove portion 103A was formed with a depth of 400 μm and the shallow clearance groove portion 103B was formed with a depth of 150 μm. After peeling/cleaning the mask resist 114, by using the same process, flow paths were formed from an energy generating element formation surface and were made to penetrate through flow paths formed from a clearance groove formation surface.
For a second substrate 104, a 300-μm silicon substrate was prepared; and a protective tape was adhered to a surface opposite to an etching surface, and etching was performed until the substrate was perforated from one surface to form flow paths.
Next, an adhesive transfer base material was prepared, and was spin-coated with a benzocyclobutene solution, serving as an adhesive, up to a thickness of 3 μm. A PET film was used as the transfer base material. After the coating, in order to volatilize the solvent, a baking process was performed for five minutes at a temperature of 100° C. The adhesive formed on the transfer base material was brought into contact with a joint surface (clearance groove formation surface) of the first substrate 102 while heating the adhesive, to thereby transfer the adhesive to the first substrate 102.
Next, by using a joining alignment device, the first substrate 102 and the second substrate 104 were joined to each other by heating them in a vacuum while aligning them. The first substrate 102 and the second substrate 104 were joined to each other at a degree of vacuum of 100 Pa or less and at a temperature of 150° C. After cooling after completing the joining, the joined substrates were taken out from the device, and were heated for one hour at a temperature of 250° C. in an oven in a nitrogen atmosphere; and the adhesive was cured.
Then, a dry film formed by spin-coating the PET film with a substance in which a negative photosensitive resin was dissolved in a PGMEA solvent, and by drying at a temperature of 100° C. in an oven was transferred to the energy generating element formation surface of the first substrate 102 to peel the PET film. After forming the dry film, the flow paths were brought into a latent-image state by performing exposure/PEB. Then, similarly, dry films were laminated, nozzles were formed by exposure/PEB, and the flow paths and the nozzles were simultaneously developed, to thereby complete a liquid discharge head.
In Example 2, the width of a clearance groove is changed and a groove is formed by dry etching, to change the depth.
Specifically, as shown in
In Example 3, a silicon substrate having a (110) plane orientation is used for a first substrate, and a clearance groove 103 is formed by wet etching with an alkali etchant, to thereby change the depth in the clearance groove by a (111) surface that is formed in the clearance groove.
By using TMAH as the alkali etchant, the etching was performed by heating to a temperature of 80° C. A section along line XV-XV of the clearance groove 103 is shown in
According to the present disclosure, it is possible to ensure the rigidity of a substrate while suppressing an adhesive from flowing into a flow path.
While the present disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-135583, filed Aug. 23, 2021, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2021-135583 | Aug 2021 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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9475278 | Rivas | Oct 2016 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2001047620 | Feb 2001 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20230055886 A1 | Feb 2023 | US |