Claims
- 1. A microfluidic printing apparatus comprising:
- a) at least one ink reservoir;
- b) a structure defining a plurality of chambers arranged so that the chambers form an array with each chamber of said plurality of chambers being arranged to form an ink pixel;
- c) a plurality of microchannels connecting said at least one ink reservoir to a chamber of said plurality of chambers;
- d) a plurality of microfluidic pumps each being associated with a single microchannel of said plurality of microchannels for supplying ink from said at least one ink reservoir through a microchannel of said plurality of microchannels for delivery to a particular chamber of said plurality of chambers;
- e) means for providing an electrical signal representing an orientation of the printing apparatus; and
- f) control means responsive to the electrical signal and for controlling the microfluidic pumps to compensate for changes in the orientation of the printing apparatus for causing an array of pixels to be printed when the microfluidic pumps supply said ink through the microchannels to the chambers so that a correct amount of ink is delivered into each chamber of said plurality of chambers.
- 2. The printing apparatus of claim 1 wherein the electrical signal indicates that the orientation of the printing apparatus is in an unsuitable printing position, the control means prevents the microfluidic pumps from supplying said ink to said plurality of chambers.
- 3. The printing apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control means includes a sensor for producing the electrical signal which indicates that the orientation of the printing apparatus is out of a printable range for preventing the microfluidic pumps from supplying said ink to said plurality of chambers.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present invention is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/868,426 filed Jun. 3, 1997, entitled "Continuous Tone Microfluidic Printing" to DeBoer, Fassler, and Wen; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/868,416 filed Jun. 3, 1997 entitled "Microfluidic Printing on Receiver", to DeBoer, Fassler, and Wen; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/868,102 filed Jun. 3, 1997 entitled "Microfluidic Printing with Ink Volume Control" to Wen, DeBoer, and Fassler; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/868,477 filed Jun. 3, 1997 entitled "Microfluidic Printing with Ink Flow Regulation" to Wen, Fassler, and DeBoer, all assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The disclosure of these related applications is incorporated herein by reference.
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