Claims
- 1. An inkjet printhead comprising:
a substrate having an ink feed slot formed in the substrate; drop generators, each drop generator having a nozzle and a vaporization chamber; ink feed channels, wherein at least one ink feed channel is fluidically coupled to each vaporization chamber and is fluidically coupled to the ink feed slot; a thin-film structure supported by the substrate and defining a first portion of each ink feed channel; and an orifice layer supported by the substrate, defining the nozzles and the vaporization chambers in the drop generators, and defining a second portion of each ink feed channel.
- 2. The inkjet printhead of claim 1 wherein the orifice layer comprises a polymer.
- 3. The inkjet printhead of claim 1 wherein the orifice layer comprises SU8.
- 4. The inkjet printhead of claim 1 wherein each drop generator includes a firing resister formed in the thin-film structure.
- 5. The inkjet printhead of claim 1 wherein the ink feed slot has a first side and second side along a vertical length of the ink feed slot, wherein a first column of drop generators are formed along the first side of the ink feed slot, and a second column of drop generators are formed along the second side of the ink feed slot.
- 6. The inkjet printhead of claim 5 further comprising:
a second ink feed slot formed in the substrate, wherein the second ink feed slot has a first side and second side along a vertical length of the second ink feed slot; a third column of drop generators formed along the first side of the second ink feed slot; and a fourth column of drop generators formed along the second side of the second ink feed slot.
- 7. The inkjet printhead of claim 5 wherein nozzles within the first column of drop generators are vertically offset from nozzles within the second column of drop generators.
- 8. The inkjet printhead of claim 6 wherein nozzles within the first and second columns of drop generators are vertically offset from nozzles within the third and fourth columns of drop generators.
- 9. The inkjet printhead of claim 5 wherein the nozzles within each column of drop generators are staggered horizontally along a scan axis.
- 10. The inkjet printhead of claim 5 wherein the ink feed slot has an inside edge, the first columns of drop generators have varying distances from the inside edge, and the ink feed channels have varying opening geometries to offset the varying distances.
- 11. The inkjet printhead of claim 10 wherein the ink feed channels have substantially constant cross-sectional areas.
- 12. The inkjet printhead of claim 10 wherein the ink feed channels each include a leading edge and a distance from the leading edge to a center of a corresponding nozzle is substantially constant for each of the drop generators.
- 13. The inkjet printhead of claim 1 wherein the first column of drop generators is arranged in subgroups, wherein the orifice layer fluidically isolates each subgroup from other subgroups on a top of the substrate but the subgroups are commonly fluidically coupled to the first ink feed slot on a bottom of the substrate.
- 14. The inkjet printhead of claim 13 wherein the subgroups are arranged to minimize fluidic cross-talk between nozzles if the drop generators within a subgroup never fire sequentially.
- 15. An inkjet printhead assembly comprising:
at least one printhead, each printhead including:
a substrate having an ink feed slot formed in the substrate; drop generators, each drop generator having a nozzle and a vaporization chamber; ink feed channels, wherein at least one ink feed channel is fluidically coupled to each vaporization chamber and is fluidically coupled to the ink feed slot; a thin-film structure supported by the substrate and defining a first portion of each ink feed channel; and an orifice layer supported by the substrate, defining the nozzles and the vaporization chambers in the drop generators, and defining a second portion of each ink feed channel.
- 16. The inkjet printhead assembly of claim 15 wherein the at least one printhead includes multiple printheads.
- 17. An inkjet printing system comprising:
at least one printhead, each printhead including:
a substrate having an ink feed slot formed in the substrate; drop generators, each drop generator having a nozzle and a vaporization chamber; ink feed channels, wherein at least one ink feed channel is fluidically coupled to each vaporization chamber and is fluidically coupled to the ink feed slot; a thin-film structure supported by the substrate and defining a first portion of each ink feed channel; and an orifice layer supported by the substrate, defining the nozzles and the vaporization chambers in the drop generators, and defining a second portion of each ink feed channel.
- 18. A method of forming inkjet printhead on a substrate comprising:
forming an ink feed slot in the substrate; forming a thin-film structure on the substrate including defining a first portion of each of a plurality of ink feed channels fluidically coupled to the ink feed slot; and forming an orifice layer on the substrate including defining nozzles and vaporization chambers, and defining a second portion of each of the plurality of ink feed channels fluidically coupled to the ink feed slot, wherein at least one ink feed channel is fluidically coupled to each vaporization chamber.
- 19. The method of claim 18 wherein the orifice layer comprises a polymer.
- 20. The method of claim 18 wherein the orifice layer comprises SU8.
- 21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:
forming firing resisters in the thin-film structure.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This Non-Provisional Patent Application is related to the following commonly assigned U.S. Patent Applications: Ser. No. 09/798,330, filed on Mar. 2, 2001, entitled “PROGRAMMABLE NOZZLE FIRING ORDER FOR INKJET PRINTHEAD ASSEMBLY,” with Attorney Docket No. 10991450-1; Ser. No. 09/876,470, filed on Jun. 6, 2001, entitled “PRINTHEAD WITH HIGH NOZZLE PACKING DENSITY,” with Attorney Docket No. 100061611-1; Ser. No. 09/876,506 filed on Jun. 6, 2001, entitled “BARRIER/ORIFICE DESIGN FOR IMPROVED PRINTHEAD PERFORAMNCE” with Attorney Docket No. 10006598-1; Serial No. ______ filed on MM/DD/YY, entitled “INKJET PRINTHEAD ASSEBMLY HAVING VERY HIGH DROP RATE GENERATION” with Attorney Docket No. 10006538-1; Serial No. ______ filed on MM/DD/YY, entitled “INKJET PRINTHEAD ASSEBMLY HAVING VERY HIGH NOZZLE PACKING DENSITY” with Attorney Docket No. 10018681-1, all of which are herein incorporated by reference.