Fluid ejection dies may eject fluid drops via nozzles thereof. Nozzles may include fluid actuators that may be actuated to thereby cause ejection of drops of fluid through nozzle orifices of the nozzles. Some example fluidic dies may include sensors. Some example fluid ejection dies may be printheads, where the fluid ejected may correspond to ink.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and the size of some parts may be exaggerated to more clearly illustrate the example shown. Moreover, the drawings provide examples and/or implementations consistent with the description; however, the description is not limited to the examples and/or implementations provided in the drawings.
Examples of fluidic dies may comprise fluid actuators. The fluid actuators may include a piezoelectric membrane based actuator, a thermal resistor based actuator, an electrostatic membrane actuator, a mechanical/impact driven membrane actuator, a magneto-strictive drive actuator, or other such elements that may cause displacement of fluid responsive to electrical actuation. Fluidic dies described herein may comprise a plurality of fluid actuators, which may also be referred to as an array of fluid actuators. The fluid actuators may be arranged in respective sets of fluid actuators, where each such set of fluid actuators may be referred to as a “primitive” or a “firing primitive.”
Fluidic dies, as used herein, may correspond to a variety of types of integrated devices with which small volumes (e.g., picoliter volumes, nanoliter volumes, microliter volumes, etc.) of fluid may be pumped, mixed, analyzed, ejected, etc. Such fluidic dies may include fluid ejection dies, such as printheads, additive manufacturing distributor components, digital titration components, and/or other such devices with which volumes of fluid may be selectively and controllably ejected. Other examples of fluidic dies in include fluid sensor devices, lab-on-a-chip devices, and/or other such devices in which fluids may be analyzed and/or processed.
In example fluidic dies, a fluid actuator may be disposed in a fluid chamber, where the fluid chamber may be fluidically coupled to a nozzle. The fluid actuator may be actuated such that displacement of fluid in the fluid chamber occurs and such displacement may cause ejection of a fluid drop via an orifice of the nozzle. Accordingly, a fluid actuator disposed in a fluid chamber that is fluidically coupled to a nozzle may be referred to as a fluid ejector. Moreover, the fluidic component comprising the fluid actuator, fluid chamber, and nozzle may be referred to as a “drop generator.”
Some example fluidic dies comprise microfluidic channels. Microfluidic channels may be formed by performing etching, microfabrication (e.g., photolithography), micromachining processes, or any combination thereof in a substrate of the fluidic die. Some example substrates may include silicon based substrates, glass based substrates, gallium arsenide based substrates, and/or other such suitable types of substrates for microfabricated devices and structures. Accordingly, microfluidic channels, chambers, nozzles, orifices, and/or other such features may be defined by surfaces fabricated in the substrate of a fluidic die. Furthermore, as used herein a microfluidic channel may correspond to a channel of sufficiently small size (e.g., of nanometer sized scale, micrometer sized scale, millimeter sized scale, etc.) to facilitate conveyance of small volumes of fluid (e.g., picoliter scale, nanoliter scale, microliter scale, milliliter scale, etc.). Example fluidic dies described herein may comprise microfluidic channels in which fluidic actuators may be disposed. In such implementations, actuation of a fluid actuator disposed in a microfluidic channel may generate fluid displacement in the microfluidic channel. Accordingly, a fluid actuator disposed in a microfluidic channel may be referred to as a fluid pump.
In example fluidic dies described herein, fluidic sensors may be disposed proximate fluid actuators such that the fluidic sensors may be used to sense fluid characteristics in chambers or microfluidic channels in which the fluid actuators are disposed. For example, some fluidic dies may include a fluidic sensor disposed proximate a fluid actuator, such that the fluidic sensor may be used to detect formation and collapse of a vapor bubble caused by the fluid actuator. In other examples, a fluidic sensor may be disposed proximate a fluid actuator, and the fluidic sensor may be sued to measure concentration of a pigment or other compound in a carrier fluid. In such examples, sensing various characteristics of fluids may be performed by electrical stimulation of a given fluidic sensor, and signal characteristics output by the given fluidic sensor may be measured and analyzed. Characteristics of fluid proximate the sensor (such as in contact with a surface of the sensor) may be determined based on the signal characteristics output by the fluidic sensor.
As a specific example, a fluidic sensor may measure a fluid property concurrent with activation of an associated fluid actuator. In examples where a fluid actuator is a thermal based fluidic actuator, the fluidic sensor may be used to sense a fluid property during formation and collapse of a vapor bubble caused by the fluid actuator. In other examples where the fluid actuator is a piezoelectric membrane based fluid actuator, the fluidic sensor may be used to sense a fluid property during actuation of the piezoelectric membrane that causes ejection or other movement of a quantity of fluid. In some examples, a fluidic sensor may include an impedance sensor to measure variations in the impedance associated with a fluid actuator. Based on the measured impedances, some examples may determine a condition of a nozzle and/or chamber associated with the fluid actuator. In other examples, other types of sensors can be used to measure characteristics associated with fluid actuators, chambers, or other flow structures due to formation of a vapor bubble or generation of a pressure wave.
In such examples, the fluidic sensors may be electrically connected to current or voltage sources with which to electrically stimulate the fluidic sensors when a measurement is desired. As described above, many components and features of a fluidic die may be formed via microfabrication processes at different locations of a fluidic die. As a result, such fluidic sensors and the conductive traces, nodes, and logic connecting the fluidic sensors to an electrical source (e.g., a current source) may exhibit variances in electrical characteristics. Accordingly, measurements made using the fluidic sensors of such fluidic dies may exhibit variances due to the noted variances in electrical characteristics.
Therefore, examples provided herein include fluidic sensor test logic for sets of fluidic sensors. Using the fluidic sensor test logic described herein, such examples may measure electrical characteristics of the conductive traces, nodes, and logic for respective sets of fluidic sensors. Based on such electrical characteristics, examples may determine scaling characteristics for sets of fluidic sensors, and such scaling characteristics may be used when determining fluid actuator characteristics using the fluidic sensors.
Turning now to the figures, and particularly to
As shown, a respective current source 18 for a respective set 16 of fluidic sensors 14 may be connected to each fluidic sensor 14 through switch logic 20, such that each fluidic sensor 14 of the set 16 may be selectively connected to the respective current source 18 through the respective switch logic 20. Furthermore, for each respective set 16 of fluidic sensors 14, the fluidic die 10 includes respective fluidic sensor test logic 22 connected to the respective current source 18 of the set 16. The fluidic sensor test logic 22 of each respective set 16 is further connected to a fluidic sensor test node 24 of the fluidic die 10.
Accordingly, for the example fluidic die 10 illustrated in
Furthermore, in
In
In this example, the fluidic die 50 further includes fluid chambers 58 formed in the fluidic die 50, and the fluidic die 50 comprises nozzles 60 formed in the die 50, where each respective fluid chamber 58 may be fluidically coupled to a respective nozzle 60. As shown, a respective fluid actuator 52 is disposed proximate a respective fluid chamber 58. Accordingly, actuation of the respective fluid actuator 52 may cause displacement of fluid in the respective fluid chamber 58 such that a drop of fluid may be ejected via the respective nozzle 60. Furthermore, as shown in this example, the fluidic sensor 54 corresponding to each respective fluid actuator 52 is disposed as a layer over the fluid actuator 52.
The fluidic die 50 includes a die current source 62 that is connected to respective current sources 64 for each respective set 56. Accordingly, the respective current source 64 of each respective set 56 may correspond to a scaling current mirror that may output a scaled current based on a current output by the die current source 62. Accordingly, each die current source 62 may be referred to as a local sensing current source that corresponds to a respective set of fluidic sensors. The die current source 62 may further be referred to as a global current source. In turn, the respective current source 64 of each set 56 is connected to the respective fluidic sensors 54 via respective switch logic 66. In this example, it may be noted that the respective switch logic 66 comprises at least one field effect transistor (FET). Other examples may include other types of switch logic 66 to facilitate selectively connecting the respective current source 64 to a respective fluidic sensor 54 of the set 56.
Similar to other examples, the fluidic die 50 comprises respective fluidic sensor test logic 70 for each respective set 56, where the fluidic sensor test logic 70 is connected to the respective current source 64 of the respective set 56. In addition, the respective fluidic sensor test logic 70 of each respective set 56 is connected to a fluidic sensor test node 72 of the fluidic die 50. As shown in this example, the fluidic sensor test logic 70 may comprise at least one switch that may selectively connect the respective current source 64 of each respective set 56 to the fluidic sensor test node 72. In other examples, the fluidic sensor test logic 70 may comprise other arrangements of logical components to selectively connect a respective current source with the fluidic sensor test node 72.
Moreover, the fluidic die 50 includes, for each respective set 56, respective amplification logic 76. In this example, the amplification logic 76 may be coupled to the respective current source 64. Furthermore, the die 50 includes a current sink 80 coupled to the respective current source 64 via switch logic 78 in the form of a FET. In some examples, the current sink 80 may be a diode. The respective current source 64 may be selectively connected to the current sink 80, and the current sink 80 may generate a voltage that may be input into an amplifier 82 of the amplification logic 76. The output of the amplifier 82 may be coupled to an amplification test node 90. The output of the amplification logic 76 measured at the amplification test node 90 may be used to determine variation of the respective current source 64 and/or variation of the amplification logic 76.
Turning now to
In this example, the fluid ejection device comprises an actuation evaluation engine 170. The evaluation engine 170 may be any combination of hardware and programming to implement the functionalities, processes, and/or sequences of operations described herein. In some examples, the combinations of hardware and programming may be implemented in a number of different ways. For example, the programming for the engine 170 may be processor executable instructions 172 stored on a memory 174 in the form of a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, and the hardware for the engine may include a processor 176 to process and execute those instructions, Moreover, a process used to implement engines may comprise a processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a specialized controller, and/or other such types of logical components that may be implemented for data processing.
In addition, similar to the example of
Turning now to
The current output at the fluidic sensor test node may be measured (block 204). The measured current at the output may be used to determine evaluation scaling characteristics corresponding to the selected set of fluidic sensors based at least in part on the current measured at the fluidic sensor test node (block 206).
Turning now to
For example, a thermal resistor based fluid actuator may be actuated, thereby causing a vapor bubble to form proximate the fluid actuator. Concurrent with actuation of the thermal resistor based fluid actuator, examples may measure an impedance with a fluidic sensor proximate the thermal resistor. The measured impedance may change during the formation and collapse of the vapor bubble. Based on the measured impedance, and the measured changes thereof, the example die may determine a condition of the fluid actuator. For example, a fluid actuator characteristic to be determined may be whether the fluid actuator is operating or non-operating. As another example, a fluid actuator characteristic to be determined may be whether the fluid actuator is generating a desired vapor bubble size or whether the fluid actuator is causing a vapor bubble to form at a correct time.
In some examples, evaluation scaling characteristics for an example set of fluidic sensors may be determined based at least in part on the following equation:
In this example, offfset{isrcprim[i]} corresponds to the measured offset current of the local sensing current source for the respective set of fluidic sensors and the ideal value may be zero. Furthermore, slope{isrcprim[i]} corresponds to the measured slope of the local sensing current source for the set of fluidic sensors and the ideal value is the 1:n ratio of the local sensing current mirror biased by the global current source. Moreover, isrctop{meas} corresponds to the measured current provided by the global biasing current source, where this value depends on the setting.
Accordingly, examples provided herein facilitate adjustments of fluidic sensors measurements to account for variations of components corresponding to the fluidic sensor sets. The preceding description has been presented to illustrate and describe examples of the principles described. This description is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit these principles to any precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the description. In addition, while various examples are described herein, elements and/or combinations of elements may be combined and/or removed for various examples contemplated hereby. For example, the operations provided herein in the flowcharts of
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2018/040512 | 6/30/2018 | WO | 00 |