Pattern printing system and data processing method thereof

Abstract

A pattern printing system and data processing method thereof are disclosed, which are suitable for printing patterns on printed circuit boards or data format rearrangement printing used in displays. The pattern printing method includes a process for interpreting scription data into matrix data, a procedure for modulating the print head resolution and the printing resolution, a procedure for interpreting and transmitting data commands, a procedure for rearranging memory data, and a procedure for firing data synchronously so as to achieve high-resolution printing and to continuously modulate any print data.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a conventional method for fabricating printed circuit board.

FIGS. 2A˜2B are diagrams illustrating a conventional method for improving the printing quality of light weight coated pattern.

FIGS. 3A˜3C illustrate a conventional light weight coated pattern system, wherein FIG. 3A illustrates the pattern to be printed, FIG. 3B illustrates the predetermined printing positions of the print head based on nozzles, and FIG. 3C illustrates that the print head can print according to a mask generated by a mask generating apparatus.

FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating a pattern printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B is a diagram illustrating a pattern printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5A illustrates that an image file to be printed is converted into a binary image array data through an optimized algorithm according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5B illustrates an image of an image file conventionally printed.

FIG. 5C illustrates an image of an image file printed after being calculated with the optimized algorithm in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5D illustrates that lines of different resolutions (dot pitches) are printed through a single nozzle and the diffusion degrees thereof are observed to set up a database of resolutions corresponding to diffusions.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for adjusting print head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 7A˜7B are diagrams illustrating a method for aligning nozzles and raster data resolutions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8A is a diagram illustrating storing an image into memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8B is a diagram illustrating printing swath data in swath by swath pattern after an image is divided into swath data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8C is a diagram illustrating printing swath data in interlace patterning manner after an image is divided into swath data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8D is a diagram illustrating the correspondence between the swath data and the print heads after an image is divided into swath data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8E is a detailed diagram illustrating the correspondence between the swath data and the print heads after an image is divided into swath data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the method of calculating each swath data based on the number of print heads and nozzles besides the method of calculating print head angle based on printing resolution according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 10A˜10C are diagrams of a method for rearranging the image data according to an embodiment of the present invention, which illustrate the process of taking out nozzle data corresponding to swaths from an image file to be integrated into an array, and rearranging the data according to the rotating angle of the print head.

FIGS. 11A˜11C are diagrams illustrating a print head driving method according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate the driving timing when the print head enters a printing area after the print head rotates an angle, and FIG. 11C is a diagram of a print head driving module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating the method of adjusting the nozzles of the print head to trigger printing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. A pattern printing system, comprising: a pattern recognition module, converting an image file into image array data, correcting the image array data according to the process parameters based on characteristics of surface hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of a substrate;a data calculation module, calculating the rotating angle of the print head module according to the image array data and the position of the print head module and the disposition of a plurality of nozzles of the pattern printing system to perform swath printing;a print data memory writing module, writing the swath data of the image file into a memory after rearranging the swath data; anda print head driving module, used for driving the print heads and nozzles of the pattern printing system in a printing area according to the rearranged print data so as to print an image corresponding to the image file.

2. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a print data transmission module used for transmitting the print data through a bus.

3. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image file to be printed is a Gerber format image file, and the image array data converted from the image file is a raster data of raster-based data format.

4. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 3, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles includes considering the resolution parameter of the raster data, the spacing parameter between the adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module, and the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed.

5. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 4, wherein a trigger density count parameter is further considered.

6. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 4, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles includes considering: while the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data being divided by the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being 0,while the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data being divided by the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being not 0,while the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being greater than the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data being divided by the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being 0,while the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being greater than the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data being: divided by the space parameter between adjacent nozzles being not 0,respectively generating different rotating angles of the print head module.

7. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 6, wherein while the space parameter between adjacent nozzles is smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data being divided by the space parameter between adjacent nozzles is 0, the data in the swath image row corresponding to the mth pixel is printed through firing control if the distance between the data and the corresponding nth nozzle before printing is started satisfies the following equation: Pixel position (n, m)=(the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed+(n−1)×spacing distance between adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module+(m−1)×resolution parameter of the raster data.

8. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 6, wherein while the spacing between the two adjacent nozzles is smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing parameter between the two adjacent nozzles is 0, the data in the swath image row corresponding to the mth pixel is printed through firing control if with the trigger density count parameter taken into consideration, the distance between the data and the corresponding nth nozzle before printing is started satisfies the following equation: Pixel position (n, m)=(the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed+(n−1)×spacing distance between adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module+(m−1)×resolution parameter of the raster data)/trigger density count parameter.

9. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head module according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles thereof includes considering the number of print heads and the number of nozzles in the print head module.

10. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein performing swath printing includes dividing the image file into a plurality of swaths, and printing the swaths in a swath by swath pattern.

11. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein performing swath printing includes dividing the image file into a plurality of swaths, and printing the swaths in an interlace patterning manner.

12. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to each swath in the image file is taken out from the image file and integrated into an array, and then the array data is rearranged according to the rotating angle of the print head module.

13. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein if the number of nozzles is m, and the image file is divided into n swaths, the characteristic of the method of rearranging the swath data of the image file by the print data memory writing module is that, every time the 1st, (n+1)th, (2n+1)th . . . (mn+1)th row of the image data is transmitted, and in total m rows of image data are combined into the content of the first memory swath to be printed sequentially. Next time the image data of the 2nd, (n+2)th, (2n+2)th . . . (mn+2)th row is transmitted, and in total m rows of image data are combined into the content of the second memory swath to be printed sequentially. Accordingly, n swaths of data are saved into the memory.

14. The pattern printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the print data memory writing module rearranging the swath data of the image file and saving the swath data into the memory is that the spacing between the nozzles is calculated according to different inputted rotating angles of the print head and the print data parallel to the printing direction is level shifted.

15. A data processing method for pattern printing, comprising: performing an image data conversion procedure, converting an image data into an array of raster data;performing a print head rotating modulation and printing parameter adjustment procedure, rotating a print head, selecting one or multiple driven nozzles, correcting variations of print head parameters caused by differences in the characteristics of the substrate, setting the driving waveform of the print head;performing an image data arrangement procedure, copying the data image into an array to form an image data;performing an image data dividing and rearranging procedure in the printing direction, after dividing the image data, saving a print data into a memory module, saving the swath data of the image file into a memory after rearranging the swath data;performing a command interpreting and transmitting procedure, defining the command transmitting instruction and a transmission path;performing a memory data rearrangement procedure, saving the rearranged image data into the memory; andentering a synchronous triggering printing procedure, used for receiving a trigger signal and then starting printing.

16. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein The characteristic of the memory data rearrangement procedure is that the memory data is arranged in the horizontal timing sequence of the printing movement according to the selected nozzle data and the converted swath data, the memory data is a m*N memory swath, wherein N is the number of selected nozzle data, m is memory data arranged in the horizontal timing sequence of the printing movement, and having the number of triggering signals or the multiple thereof. In particular, the data printed by the foregoing m*N matrix data presents a parallelogram data structure because of the rotating angle of the print head, and the parallelogram data is related to the number of selected nozzles and trigger signals.

17. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles regarding the print head rotating modulation includes considering the resolution parameter of the raster data, the spacing parameter between the adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module, and the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed.

18. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein regarding the print head rotation modulation, calculating the rotating angle of the print head module according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles includes considering: while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being 0,while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being not 0,while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being greater than the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being 0,while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being greater than the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being not 0, respectively creating different rotating angles of the print head module.

19. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is 0, the data in the swath image row corresponding to the mth pixel is printed through firing control if the distance between the data and the corresponding nth nozzle before printing is started satisfies the following equation: Pixel position (n, m)=the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed+(n−1)×spacing distance between adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module+(m−1)×resolution parameter of the raster data.

20. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein regarding the image data, while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is 0, the data in the swath image row corresponding to the mth pixel is printed through firing control if with the trigger density count parameter taken into consideration, the distance between the data and the corresponding nth nozzle before printing is started satisfies the following equation: Pixel position (n, m)=(the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed+(n−1)×spacing distance between adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module+(m−1)×resolution parameter of the raster data)/trigger density count parameter.

21. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head module according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles thereof includes considering the number of print heads and the number of nozzles in the print head module.

22. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein performing swath printing includes dividing the image file into a plurality of swaths, and printing the swaths in a swath by swath pattern.

23. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein performing swath printing includes dividing the image file into a plurality of swaths, and printing the swaths in an interlace patterning manner.

24. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the data corresponding to each swath in the image file is taken out from the image file and integrated into an array, and then the array data is rearranged according to the rotating angle of the print head module.

25. The data processing method as claimed in claim 15, wherein if the number of nozzles is m, and the image file is divided into n swaths, the characteristic of the method of rearranging the swath data of the image file by the print data memory writing module is that, every time the 1st, (n+1)th, (2n+1)th . . . (mn+1)th row of the image data is transmitted, and in total m rows of image data are combined into the content of the first memory swath to be printed sequentially. Next time the image data of the 2nd, (n+2)th, (2n+2)th . . . (mn+2)th row is transmitted, and in total m rows of image data are combined into the content of the second memory swath to be printed sequentially. Accordingly, n swaths of data are saved into the memory.

26. A data processing method for pattern printing, comprising: performing an image data conversion procedure, converting an image data into an array of raster data;performing a print head rotating modulation and printing parameter adjustment procedure, rotating a print head, selecting one or multiple driven nozzles, correcting variations of print head parameters caused by differences in the characteristics of the substrate, setting the driving waveform of the print head;performing an image data dividing and rearranging procedure in the printing direction, after dividing the image data, saving a print data into a memory module, saving the swath data of the image file into a memory after rearranging the swath data;performing a command interpreting and transmitting procedure, defining the command transmitting instruction and a transmission procedure;performing a memory data rearrangement procedure, saving the rearranged image data into the memory; andentering a synchronous triggering printing procedure, used for receiving a trigger signal and then starting printing.

27. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein The characteristic of the memory data rearrangement procedure is that the memory data is arranged in the horizontal timing sequence of the printing movement according to the selected nozzle data and the converted swath data, the memory data is a m*N memory swath, wherein N is the number of selected nozzle data, m is memory data arranged in the horizontal timing sequence of the printing movement, and having the number of triggering signals or the multiple thereof. In particular, the data printed by the foregoing m*N matrix data presents a parallelogram data structure because of the rotating angle of the print head, and the parallelogram data is related to the number of selected nozzles and trigger signals.

28. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles regarding the print head rotating modulation includes considering the resolution parameter of the raster data, the spacing parameter between the adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module, and the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed.

29. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein regarding the print head rotation modulation, calculating the rotating angle of the print head module according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles includes considering: while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being 0,while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being not 0,while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being greater than the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being 0,while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being greater than the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles being not 0,respectively creating different rotating angles of the print head module.

30. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is 0, the data in the swath image row corresponding to the mth pixel is printed through firing control if the distance between the data and the corresponding nth nozzle before printing is started satisfies the following equation: Pixel position (n, m)=the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed+(n−1)×spacing distance between adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module+(m−1)×resolution parameter of the raster data)/trigger density count parameter.

31. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein while the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is smaller than or equal to the resolution parameter of the raster data, and the remainder of the resolution parameter of the raster data divided by the spacing between the adjacent nozzles is 0, the data in the swath image row corresponding to the mth pixel is printed through firing control if with the trigger density count parameter taken into consideration, the distance between the data and the corresponding nth nozzle before printing is started satisfies the following equation: Pixel position (n, m)=(the count of the distance from the first nozzle to the first position to be printed+(n−1)×spacing distance between adjacent nozzles after rotating the print head module+(m−1)×resolution parameter of the raster data)/trigger density count parameter.

32. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein calculating the rotating angle of the print head module according to the position of the print head module and the disposition of the nozzles thereof includes considering the number of print heads and the number of nozzles in the print head module.

33. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein performing swath printing includes dividing the image file into a plurality of swaths, and printing the swaths in a swath by swath pattern.

34. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein performing swath printing includes dividing the image file into a plurality of swaths, and printing the swaths in an interlace patterning manner.

35. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein the data corresponding to each swath in the image file is taken out from the image file and integrated into an array, and then the array data is rearranged according to the rotating angle of the print head module.

36. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein if the number of nozzles is m, and the image file is divided into n swaths, the characteristic of the method of rearranging the swath data of the image file by the print data memory writing module is that, every time the 1st, (n+1)th, (2n+1)th . . . (mn+1)th row of the image is transmitted, and in total m rows of image data are combined into the content of the first memory swath to be printed sequentially. Next time the image data of the 2nd, (n+2)th, (2n+2)th . . . (mn+2)th row is transmitted, and in total m rows of image data are combined into the content of the second memory swath to be printed sequentially. Accordingly, n swaths of data are saved into the memory.

37. The data processing method as claimed in claim 26, wherein the characteristic of the print data memory writing module rearranging the swath data of the image file and saving the swath data into the memory is that the spacing between the nozzles is calculated according to different inputted rotating angles of the print head and the print data parallel to the printing direction is level shifted.