Patent Grant
7491911
The invention relates to MEMS devices and in particular MEMS devices that vaporize liquid to generate a vapor bubble during operation.
The following applications have been filed by the Applicant simultaneously with the present application:
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following US patents/patent applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention:
Some micro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices process or use liquids to operate. In one class of these liquid-containing devices, resistive heaters are used to heat the liquid to the liquid's superheat limit, resulting in the formation of a rapidly expanding vapor bubble. The impulse provided by the bubble expansion can be used as a mechanism for moving liquid through the device. This is the case in thermal inkjet printheads where each nozzle has a heater that generates a bubble to eject a drop of ink onto the print media. In light of the widespread use of inkjet printers, the present invention will be described with particular reference to its use in this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to inkjet printheads and is equally suited to other devices in which vapor bubbles formed by resistive heaters are used to move liquid through the device (e.g. some ‘Lab-on-a-chip’ devices).
The time scale for heating a liquid to its superheat limit determines how much thermal energy will be stored in the liquid when the superheat limit is reached: this determines how much vapor will be produced and the impulse of the expanding vapor bubble (impulse being defined as pressure integrated over area and time). Longer time scales for heating result in a greater volume of liquid being heated and hence a larger amount of stored energy, a larger amount of vapor and larger bubble impulse. This leads to some degree of tunability for the bubbles produced by MEMS heaters. Controlling the time scale for heating to the superheat limit is simply a matter of controlling the power supplied to the heater during the nucleation event: lower power will result in a longer nucleation time and larger bubble impulse, at the cost of an increased energy requirement (the extra energy stored in the liquid must be supplied by the heater). Controlling the power may be done by way of reduced voltage across the heater or by way of pulse width modulation of the voltage to obtain a lower time averaged power.
While this effect may be useful in controlling e.g. the flow rate of a MEMS bubble pump or the force applied to a clogged nozzle in an inkjet printer (the subject of a co-pending application referred to by Ser. No. 11/544,770, the designer of such a system must be wary of ensuring bubble stability. A typical heater heating a water-based liquid will generate unstable, non-repeatable bubbles if the time scale for heating is much longer than 1 microsecond (see
Accordingly the present invention provides a MEMS vapour bubble generator comprising:
a chamber for holding liquid;
a heater positioned in the chamber for thermal contact with the liquid; and,
drive circuitry for providing the heater with an electrical pulse such that the heater generates a vapour bubble in the liquid; wherein,
the pulse has a first portion with insufficient power to nucleate the vapour bubble and a second portion with power sufficient to nucleate the vapour bubble, subsequent to the first portion.
If the heating pulse is shaped to increase the heating rate prior to the end of the pulse, bubble stability can be greatly enhanced, allowing access to a regime where large, repeatable bubbles can be produced by small heaters.
Preferably the first portion of the pulse is a pre-heat section for heating the liquid but not nucleating the vapour bubble and the second portion is a trigger section for nucleating the vapour bubble. In a further preferred form, the pre-heat section has a longer duration than the trigger section. Preferably, the pre-heat section is at least two micro-seconds long. In a further preferred form, the trigger section is less than a micro-section long.
Preferably, the drive circuitry shapes the pulse using pulse width modulation. In this embodiment, the pre-heat section is a series of sub-nucleating pulses. Optionally, the drive circuitry shapes the pulse using voltage modulation.
In some embodiments, the time averaged power in the pre-heat section is constant and the time averaged power in the trigger section is constant. In particularly preferred embodiments, the MEMS vapour bubble generator is used in an inkjet printhead to eject printing fluid from nozzle in fluid communication with the chamber.
Using a low power over a long time scale (typically >>1 μs) to store a large amount of thermal energy in the liquid surrounding the heater without crossing over the nucleation temperature, then switching to a high power to cross over the nucleation temperature in a short time scale (typically <1 μs), triggers nucleation and releasing the stored energy.
Optionally, the first portion of the pulse is a pre-heat section for heating the liquid but not nucleating the vapour bubble and the second portion is a trigger section for superheating some of the liquid to nucleate the vapour bubble.
Optionally, the pre-heat section has a longer duration than the trigger section.
Optionally, the pre-heat section is at least two micro-seconds long.
Optionally, the trigger section is less than one micro-section long.
Optionally, the drive circuitry shapes the pulse using pulse width modulation.
Optionally, the pre-heat section is a series of sub-nucleating pulses.
Optionally, the drive circuitry shapes the pulse using voltage modulation.
Optionally, the time averaged power in the pre-heat section is constant and the time averaged power in the trigger section is constant.
In another aspect the present invention provides a MEMS vapour bubble generator used in an inkjet printhead to eject printing fluid from a nozzle in fluid communication with the chamber.
Optionally, the heater is suspended in the chamber for immersion in a printing fluid.
Optionally, the pulse is generated for recovering a nozzle clogged with dried or overly viscous printing fluid.
Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In a MEMS fluid pump, large, stable and repeatable bubbles are desirable for efficient and reliable operation. To analyse the mechanisms that influence bubble nucleation and growth, it is necessary to consider the spatial uniformity of the heater's temperature profile and then consider the time evolution of the profile. Finite element thermal models of heaters in liquid can be used to show that the heating rate of the heater strongly influences the spatial uniformity of temperature across the heater. This is because since different portions of the heater are heat-sunk to different degrees (the sides of the heater will be colder due to enhanced cooling by the liquid and the ends of the heater will be colder due to enhanced cooling by the contacts). At low powers, where the time scale for heating to the superheat limit is large with respect to the thermal time scales of the cooling mechanisms, the temperature profile of the heater will be strongly distorted by cooling at the boundaries of the heater. Ideally the temperature profile would be a “top-hat”, with uniform temperature across the whole heater, but in the case of low heating rates, the edges of the temperature profile will be pulled down.
The top-hat temperature profile is ideal for maximising the effectiveness of the heater, as only those portions of the heater above the superheat limit will contribute significantly to the bubble impulse. The nucleation rate is a very strong exponential function of temperature near the superheat limit. Portions of the heater that are even a few degrees below the superheat limit will produce a much lower nucleation rate than those portions above the superheat limit. These portions of the heater have much less contribution to the bubble impulse as they will be thermally isolated by bubbles expanding from hotter portions of the heater. In other words, if the temperature profile across the heater is not uniform, there can exist a race condition between bubble nucleation on colder parts of the heater and bubbles expanding from hotter parts of the heater. It is this race condition that can cause the non-repeatability of bubbles formed with low heating rates.
The term “low heating rates” is a relative term and depends on the geometry of the heater and its contacts and the thermal properties of all materials in thermal contact with the heater. All of these will influence the time scales of the cooling mechanisms. A typical heater material in a typical configuration applicable to inkjet printers will begin to manifest the race condition if the time scale for nucleation exceeds 1 μs. The exact threshold is unimportant as any heater will be subject to the race condition and the consequent bubble instability if the heating rate is low enough. This will limit the range of bubble impulse available to the designer.
In
The invention provides a way of avoiding the instability caused by the race condition so that the designer can use low heating rates to generate a large bubble impulse on a heater with fixed geometry and thermal properties.
Ordinary workers in this field will appreciate that there are an infinite variety of pulse shapes that will satisfy the criteria of a relatively low powered pre-heat section and a subsequent trigger section that nucleates the bubble. Shaping the pulse can be done with pulse width modulation, voltage modulation or a combination of both. However, pulse width modulation is the preferred method of shaping the pulse, being more amenable to CMOS circuit design. It should also be noted that the pulse is not limited to a pre-heat and trigger section only; additional pulse sections may be included for other purposes without negating the benefits of the present invention. Furthermore, the sections need not maintain constant power levels. Constant time averaged power is preferred for the pre-heat section and the trigger section, as that is the simplest case to handle theoretically and experimentally.
By switching to a higher heating rate after a pre-heat phase the race is won by bubble nucleation because the time lag between different regions of the heater reaching the superheat limit is reduced.
The bubble size can be increased tremendously using shaped pulses, without suffering the irregularity shown in
A single nozzle device 30 is shown in
With the problem of irregularity or non-repeatability removed, the designer has great flexibility in controlling the bubble size at the design phase or during operation by altering the length of the pre-heat section of the pulse. Care must be given to avoiding accidentally exceeding the superheat limit during the pre-heat section so that nucleation does not occur until the trigger section. If the pulse is pulse width modulated, the modulation should be fast enough to give a reasonable approximation of the temperature rise generated by a constant, reduced voltage. Care must also be given to ensuring the trigger section takes the whole heater above the superheat limit with enough margin to account for system variances, without overdriving to the extent that the heater is damaged. These considerations can be met with routine thermal modelling or experiment with the heater in an open pool of liquid.
The invention has been described herein by way of example only. Ordinary workers in this field will readily recognise many variations and modifications that do not depart from the spirit and scope of the broad inventive concept.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4746937 | Realis Luc et al. | May 1988 | A |
| 5886716 | Heinzl et al. | Mar 1999 | A |
| 6296350 | Cornell et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20080099457 A1 | May 2008 | US |
