The present invention relates generally to fluid ejection devices, and more particularly to forming an electrical connection for a fluid ejection device.
There are known and available commercial printing devices such as computer printers, graphics plotters and facsimile machines which employ inkjet technology, such as an inkjet pen. An inkjet pen typically includes an ink reservoir and an array of inkjet printing elements, referred to as nozzles. The array of printing elements is formed on a printhead. Each printing element includes a nozzle chamber, a firing resistor and a nozzle opening. Ink is stored in an ink reservoir and passively loaded into respective firing chambers of the printhead via an ink refill channel and ink feed channels. Capillary action moves the ink from the reservoir through the refill channel and ink feed channels into the respective firing chambers. Conventionally, the printing elements are formed on a common substrate.
For a given printing element to eject ink a drive signal is output to such element's firing resistor. Printer control circuitry generates control signals which in turn generate drive signals for respective firing resistors. An activated firing resistor heats the surrounding ink within the nozzle chamber causing an expanding vapor bubble to form. The bubble forces ink from the nozzle chamber out the nozzle opening. A nozzle plate adjacent to the barrier layer defines the nozzle openings. The geometry of the nozzle chamber, ink feed channel and nozzle opening defines how quickly a corresponding nozzle chamber is refilled after firing. To achieve high quality printing ink drops or dots are accurately placed at desired locations at designed resolutions. It is known to print at resolutions of 300 dots per inch and 600 dots per inch. Higher resolution also are being sought. There are scanning-type inkjet pens and non-scanning type inkjet pens. A scanning-type inkjet pen includes a printhead having approximately 100-200 printing elements. A non-scanning type inkjet pen includes a wide-array or page-wide-array printhead. A page-wide-array printhead includes more than 5,000 nozzles extending across a pagewidth. Such nozzles are controlled to print one or more lines at a time.
In fabricating wide-array printheads the size of the printhead and the number of nozzles introduce more opportunity for error. Specifically, as the number of nozzles on a substrate increases it becomes more difficult to obtain a desired processing yield during fabrication. Further, it is more difficult to obtain properly sized substrates of the desired material properties as the desired size of the substrate increases.
A method of forming an electrical connection for a fluid ejection device including a fluid channel communicating with a first side and a second side of the fluid ejection device and an array of drop ejecting elements formed on the first side of the fluid ejection device includes forming a trench in the second side of the fluid ejection device, depositing a conductive material in the trench, forming a first opening in the fluid ejection device between the first side of the fluid ejection device and the conductive material in the trench, depositing a conductive material in the first opening, and forming a conductive path between the conductive material in the first opening and a wiring line of one of the drop ejecting elements.
Overview
Referring to
The carrier substrate 20 is made of silicon or a multilayer ceramic material, such as used in forming hybrid multichip modules. The substrate 20 preferably has a coefficient of thermal expansion matching that of silicon, is machinable to allow formation of an ink slot, is able to receive solder and interconnect layers, and is able to receive mounting of integrated circuits.
Each printhead die 18 includes an array of printing elements 24. Referring to
In one embodiment one or more of the printhead dies 18 is a fully integrated thermal inkjet printhead formed by a silicon die 52, a thin film structure 54 and an orifice layer 56. In an exemplary embodiment, the silicon die 52 is approximately 675 microns thick. Glass or a stable polymer are used in place of the silicon in alternative embodiments. The thin film structure 54 is formed by one or more passivation or insulation layers of silicon dioxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, tantalum, poly silicon glass, or another suitable material. The thin film structure also includes a conductive layer for defining the firing resistor 40 and the wiring lines 46. The conductive layer is formed by aluminum, gold, tantalum, tantalum-aluminum or other metal or metal alloy.
In an exemplary embodiment the thin film structure 54 is approximately 3 microns thick. The orifice layer 56 has a thickness of approximately 7 to 30 microns. The nozzle opening 38 has a diameter of approximately 10-50 microns. In an exemplary embodiment the firing resistor 40 is approximately square with a length on each side of approximately 10-30 microns. The base surface of the nozzle chamber 36 supporting the firing resistor 40 has a diameter approximately twice the length of the resistor 40. In one embodiment a 54.7° etch defines the wall angles for the opening 38 and the refill slot 42. Although exemplary dimensions and angles are given such dimensions and angles may vary for alternative embodiments.
In an alternative embodiment one or more of the printhead dies 18 is formed by a substrate within which are formed firing resistors and wiring lines. A barrier layer overlays the substrate at the firing resistors. The barrier layer has openings which define nozzle chambers. An orifice plate or flex circuit overlays the barrier layer and includes the nozzle openings. An ink refill slot is formed in the substrate by a drilling process.
Upon activation of a given firing resistor 40, ink within the surrounding nozzle chamber 36 is ejected through the nozzle opening 38 onto a media sheet. Referring to
Referring to
In one embodiment a daughter substrate 52 is mounted to the carrier substrate. The logic circuits 29 and drive circuits 30 are mounted to such daughter substrate. The daughter substrate interconnects the logic circuits 29 and drive circuits 30 to each other, and interconnects the drive circuits 30 to the carrier substrate interconnects 50. In an alternative embodiment the logic circuits 29 and drive circuits 30 are mounted directly to the carrier substrate 20.
During operation, the wide-array printhead 12 receives printer control signals from off the substrate 20. Such signals are received onto the substrate 20 via a connector 34. The logic circuits 29 and drive circuits 30 are coupled directly or indirectly to such connector 34. The printhead dies 18 are coupled to the drive circuits 30.
Method of Mounting the Printheads
Each printhead die has a first surface 58 and a second surface 60, opposite the first surface 58. The nozzle openings 38 occur in the first surface 58. Ink refill slots 42 occur in the second surface 60. The silicon die 52 has one or more dielectric layers 62 (e.g., nitride or carbide layers) at the second surface 60. During fabrication of the printhead die 18 an interconnect metal 66 and a wetting metal 68 are deposited onto the second surface 60 at prescribed locations. The interconnect metal is deposited onto the dielectric layer(s) 62, and the wetting metal is applied onto the interconnect metal. In one embodiment photolithographic processes are used to define a precise location, size and shape of the wetting metal 68. Such processes enable accurate placement of the wetting metal to within 1 micron.
The carrier substrate 20 also includes a first surface 70 and a second surface 72 opposite the first surfaces 70. The printhead die 18 is mounted to the carrier substrate 20 with the printhead second surface 60 facing the carrier substrate 20 as shown in FIG. 5. The spacing between the printhead die 18 and carrier substrate 20 is exaggerated for purposes of illustration. Like the printhead dies 18, a dielectric layer 75 (e.g., nitride layer) is applied to the surface 70, 72, and an interconnect metal 74 and wetting metal 76 (also referred to herein as metal pads or wetting pads) are deposited onto the nitride layer 72 at prescribed locations. In one embodiment photolithographic processes are used to define a precise location, size and shape of the wetting metal 68. Such processes enable accurate placement of the wetting metal to within 1 microns. In preferred embodiments the wetting metals 76 on the substrate 20 are formed in locations corresponding to the wetting metals 66 of the printheads. Specifically, there is a one to one correspondence between the wetting metal locations on the carrier substrate 20 and the printhead dies 18.
Solder bumps are deposited onto the wetting metal of either the printhead die 18 or carrier substrate 20. To mount a printhead die 18, the printhead die 18 is pressed to the carrier substrate so that the wetting metals of each line up. The wetting metals 68, 76 are separated by the solder bumps 78. The solder is then heated liquefying the solder. The solder then flows along the wetting pads 68, 76 and pulls the printhead die 18 into precise alignment with the carrier substrate 20. More specifically the solder 78 pulls the printhead wetting pad 68 into precise alignment with the corresponding carrier substrate metal pad 76. It has been demonstrated that solder reflow forces align the respective wetting metals 68, 76 to within 1 micron. Thus, it is by precisely locating the wetting metals 68, 76 using the photolithographic and other deposition processes, that the printhead dies 18 are able to be precisely placed and aligned on the carrier substrate 20 to within desire tolerances.
According to an aspect of the invention, the solder also forms a fluid barrier. As described above the printheads include one or more refill slots 42 and the carrier substrate includes one or more refill channels 32. Each refill slot 42 is to be in fluidic communication with a refill channel 32. As shown in
Interconnect Method Coupling Printhead and Carrier Substrate
As described above, the printing elements 24 with wiring lines 46 are formed toward the first surface 58 of the printhead. Because the carrier substrate is adjacent to the second surface 60 of the printhead die 18, an electrical interconnect is to extend from the first surface 58 to the second surface 60 of the printhead die 18.
The interconnect 80 connects to an interconnect metal layer 82 and a wetting metal layer 84 at the second surface 60. Solder 78 then completes the electrical connection to an interconnect 90 at the carrier substrate. A wetting metal layer 86 and an interconnect metal 88 are located on the carrier substrate between the solder 78 and the interconnect 90. In the embodiment shown the interconnect 90 extends through the carrier substrate to an interface with a drive circuit 30. In another embodiment the interconnect 90 extends along a first surface 70 of the carrier substrate to an interface with a drive circuit 30. For drive circuits 30 mounted to the second surface 72 of the substrate 20, a solder connection also is established, although an alternative electrical coupling scheme may be used.
To form the interconnect 80 extending through the printhead 18 a trench 92 is etched in the underside (e.g., second surface 60) of the die 52 for one or more interconnects 80. In one embodiment a tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide etch is performed. A hard mask covers portions of the die 52 undersurface not to be etched. The hard mask is then removed by wet etching. A plasma carbide or nitride layer 62 and an Au/Ni/Au layer 96 are deposited on the undersurface as shown in
Referring to
Method of Fabricating Through-Interconnects and Refill Slot in Carrier Substrate
Referring again to
Referring to
Alternative Interconnect Method Coupling Printhead and Carrier Substrate
Rather than form an interconnect extending through the die 52 of the printhead die 18, in an alternative embodiment a wire bond is formed external to the printhead. Referring to
Meritorious and Advantageous Effects
One advantage of the invention is that a scalable printhead architecture is achieved wherein different numbers of printhead dies are attached to a carrier substrate to define the size of the printhead.
Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, various alternatives, modifications and equivalents may be used. Therefore, the foregoing description should not be taken as limiting the scope of the inventions which are defined by the appended claims.
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/521,872 filed on Mar. 8, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,536 which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09521872 | Mar 2000 | US |
Child | 10318430 | US |