Claims
- 1. A page wide ink jet printhead containing a reservoir of ink comprising:
- a page-wide printhead substrate having a first dimension defining a printhead width, the printhead having a plurality of groups of orifices formed therein to incrementally encompass the width of the printhead;
- a plurality of groups of heater elements mounted on the substrate, each heater element for vaporizing ink disposed proximate a corresponding orifice to eject the ink therefrom;
- a plurality of printhead circuit elements mounted on the substrate, each circuit element associated with a group of heater elements for selectively energizing a heater element from the group; and
- means for serially interconnecting the printhead circuit elements, said interconnecting means providing an address and an associated command to a printhead circuit element, the address specifying a printhead circuit element that the command is addressed to, and the command specifying which of the heater elements in the addressed printhead circuit element are to be actuated.
- 2. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of printhead circuit elements comprises:
- a first row of printhead elements mounted on the substrate, each element in the first row having a right and a left side and a row of nozzles parallel to the first row of elements for ejecting ink; and
- a second row of printhead elements mounted on the substrate, each element in the second row having a right and a left side and a row of nozzles parallel to the second row of elements for ejecting ink;
- the second row of printhead elements mounted parallel to and offset from the first row such that a leftmost distal nozzle of a second row element is opposed to a rightmost distal nozzle of a first row element, and a rightmost distal nozzle of a second row element is opposed to a leftmost distal nozzle of a first row element.
- 3. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 2 wherein
- the second row of printhead elements is mounted parallel to and offset from the first row such that two leftmost distal nozzles of a second row element are opposed to two rightmost distal nozzles of a first row element, and two rightmost distal nozzles of a second row element are opposed to two leftmost distal nozzles of a first row element.
- 4. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 2 wherein the elements of the first and second row have a bottom row of nozzles parallel to the top row of nozzles such that each of the bottom row nozzles is equidistant from two top row nozzles.
- 5. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 1 wherein the means for serially interconnecting the printhead circuit elements comprises a plurality of conductors extending widthwise of the printhead including an address bus and a data bus coupled to each printhead element.
- 6. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 5 wherein the plurality of printhead circuit elements comprises:
- a first row of printhead elements mounted on the substrate, each element in the first row having a right and a left side and a row of nozzles parallel to the first row of elements for ejecting ink;
- a second row of printhead elements mounted on the substrate, each element in the second row having a right and a left side and a row of nozzles parallel to the second row of elements for ejecting ink; and
- address and data busses connects serially between a first row element and then to each of the second row elements.
- 7. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 5 wherein the plurality of printhead circuit elements comprises:
- a first row of printhead elements mounted on the substrate, each element in the first row having a right and a left side and a row of nozzles parallel to the first row of elements for ejecting ink;
- a second row of printhead elements mounted on the substrate, each element in the second row having a right and a left side and a row of nozzles parallel to the second row of elements for ejecting ink; and
- address and data busses connects serially between the first row elements and the second row elements alternating between the first and second rows of elements.
- 8. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 1 including electric circuit addressing means coupled to each of the circuit elements for assigning a unique circuit element address to each element.
- 9. A page wide ink jet printhead according to claim 8 wherein the addressing means comprises a plurality of chip define lines coupled to each circuit element, each chip define line coupled to one of a first supply voltage representing a first binary state and a second supply voltage representing a second binary state, the chip define lines encoding a binary address corresponding to the circuit element coupled thereto.
- 10. A page wide ink jet printhead containing a reservoir of ink comprising:
- a page-wide printhead substrate having a first dimension defining a printhead width, the printhead having a plurality of groups of orifices formed therein to incrementally encompass the width of the printhead;
- a plurality of groups of heater elements mounted on the substrate each heater element for vaporizing ink disposed proximate a corresponding orifice to eject the ink therefrom;
- a plurality of printhead circuit elements mounted on the substrate, each circuit element associated with a group of heater elements for selectively energizing a heater element from the group;
- means coupled to each of the circuit elements for assigning a unique circuit element address to each element, wherein the addressing means comprises a memory within each of the circuit elements for storing an assigned address uniquely corresponding to the position of the element in the array; and
- means for serially interconnecting the printhead circuit elements.
- 11. A page wide ink jet printhead element for ejecting ink through ink-jet nozzles mounted on the array, comprising:
- a heater array including a plurality of heater elements, each element in communication with an individual ink-jet nozzle;
- means coupled to the heater array for actuating the heater array, the actuating means having a clock input for receiving a clock input signal and a fire strobe input for receiving a fire strobe pulse to synchronize the generation of an actuation pulse, which energizes a heater element such that ink is ejected from a corresponding nozzle;
- an address pass-through network including an address bus for sending and receiving addresses to and from a previous printhead element in the array and an address pass-through bus for selectively sending addresses to a subsequent printhead element in the array;
- a data pass-through network including a data bus for sending and receiving data to and from a previous printhead element and a data/command pass-through bus for selectively sending data to a subsequent printhead element; and
- means for controlling the printhead element coupled to the address pass-through network, the data pass-through network, and the actuating means, the control means having control input lines for receiving control signals.
- 12. A printhead element according to claim 11 in which the controlling means comprises:
- a sequencer for executing micro-instructions;
- a nonvolatile memory coupled to the sequencer for storing and retrieving the micro-instructions; and
- a read-write memory coupled to the sequencer for providing temporary storage for the sequencer.
- 13. A printhead element according to claim 12 in which the read-write memory comprises:
- a random access memory for temporary storage;
- a stack coupled to the random access memory for storing current operands used by the sequencer;
- a stack pointer coupled to the stack for pointing to the current level of the stack;
- control registers for storing command information coupled to the sequencer control means; and
- control logic coupled to the control lines for controlling the address and data busses.
- 14. A printhead element for ejecting ink through ink jet nozzles comprising;
- a heater array including a plurality of heater elements, each element in communication with an individual ink jet nozzle;
- means coupled to the heater array for actuating the heater array, the actuating means having a clock input for receiving a clock input signal and a fire strobe input for receiving a fire strobe pulse to synchronize the generation of an actuation pulse, which energizes a heater element such that ink is ejected from a corresponding nozzle;
- an address pass-through network including an address bus for sending and receiving addresses to and from a previous printhead element in the array and an address pass-through bus for selectively sending addresses to a subsequent printhead element in the array, wherein the address pass-through network includes
- an address decoder for identifying an address corresponding to the printhead element and
- address storage registers for storing addresses received on the address bus;
- a data pass-through network including a data bus for sending and receiving data to and from a previous printhead element and a data/command pass-through bus for selectively sending data to a subsequent printhead element; and
- means for controlling the printhead element coupled to the address pass-through network, the data pass-through network, and the actuating means, the control means having control input lines for receiving control signals.
- 15. A printhead element for ejecting ink through ink jet nozzles comprising:
- a heater array including a plurality of heater elements, each element in communication with an individual ink jet nozzle;
- means coupled to the heater array for actuating the heater array, the actuating means having a clock input for receiving a clock input signal and a fire strobe input for receiving a fire strobe pulse to synchronize the generation of an actuation pulse, which energizes a heater element such that ink is ejected from a corresponding nozzle;
- an address pass-through network including an address bus for sending and receiving addresses to and from a previous printhead element in the array and an address pass-through bus for selectively sending addresses to a subsequent printhead element in the array;
- a data pass-through network including a data bus for sending and receiving data to and from a previous printhead element and a data/command pass-through bus for selectively sending data to a subsequent printhead element, wherein the data pass-through network includes
- a command decoder for decoding command data received on the data bus and
- data storage registers for storing data received on the data bus; and
- means for controlling the printhead element coupled to the address pass-through network, the data pass-through network and the actuating means the control means having control input lines for receiving control signals.
- 16. A printhead element for ejecting ink through ink jet nozzles mounted on the array, comprising:
- a heater array including a plurality of heater elements each element in communication with an individual ink jet nozzle;
- means coupled to the heater array for actuating the heater array, the actuating means having a clock input for receiving a clock input signal and a fire strobe input for receiving a fire strobe pulse to synchronize the generation of an actuation pulse, which energizes a heater element such that ink is ejected from a corresponding nozzle, wherein the actuating means includes
- skew adjust and storage drive means coupled to the control means for controlling the skew of the actuation pulse,
- a drive pulse generator coupled to the skew adjust and storage drive means for determining a pulse width of the actuation pulse, and
- a power control logic block coupled to the drive pulse generator for supplying current needed to energize the heater elements;
- an address pass-through network including an address bus for sending and receiving addresses to and from a previous printhead element in the way and an address pass-through bus for selectively sending addresses to a subsequent printhead element in the array;
- a data pass-through network including a data bus for sending and receiving data to and from a previous printhead element and a data/command pass-through bus for selectively sending data to a subsequent printhead element; and
- means for controlling the printhead element coupled to the address pass-through network, the data pass-through network, and the actuating means, the control means having control input lines for receiving control signals.
- 17. A printhead element for ejecting ink through ink jet nozzles mounted on the array, comprising:
- a heater array including a plurality of heater elements, each element in communication with an individual ink jet nozzle;
- means coupled to the heater array for actuating the heater array, the actuating means having a clock input for receiving a clock input signal and a fire strobe input for receiving a fire strobe pulse to synchronize the generation of an actuation pulse, which energizes a heater element such that ink is ejected from a corresponding nozzle, wherein the actuating means includes
- skew adjust and storage drive means coupled to the control means for controlling the skew of the actuation pulse,
- a drive pulse generator coupled to the skew adjust and storage drive means for determining a pulse width of the actuation pulse, and
- a power control logic block coupled to the drive pulse generator for supplying current needed to energize the heater elements;
- an address pass-through network including an address bus for sending and receiving addresses to and from a previous printhead element in the array and an address pass-through bus for selectively sending addresses to a subsequent printhead element in the array;
- a data pass-through network including a data bus for sending and receiving data to and from a previous printhead element and a data/command pass-through bus for selectively sending data to a subsequent printhead element; and
- means for controlling the printhead element coupled to the address pass-through network, the data pass-through network, and the actuating means, the control means having control input lines for receiving control signals, wherein the control means includes a drive pulse shape register coupled to the drive pulse generator for storing drive pulse shape data.
- 18. A printhead element according to claim 11 further including thermal sense analysis circuits coupled to the control means.
- 19. A printhead element according to claim 18 further including thermal sense elements coupled to the thermal sense analysis circuits for detecting the ambient temperature of the printhead element.
- 20. A printhead element for ejecting ink through ink jet nozzles mounted on the array, comprising:
- a heater array including a plurality of heater elements, each element in communication with an individual ink jet nozzle;
- means coupled to the heater array for actuating the heater array, the actuating means having a clock input for receiving a clock input signal and a fire strobe input for receiving a fire strobe pulse to synchronize the generation of an actuation pulse, which energizes a heater element such that ink is ejected from a corresponding nozzle;
- an address pass-through network including an address bus for sending and receiving addresses to and from a previous printhead element in the array and an address pass-through bus for selectively sending addresses to a subsequent printhead element in the array;
- a data pass-through network including a data bus for sending and receiving data to and from a previous printhead element and a data/command pass-through bus for selectively sending data to a subsequent printhead element;
- means for controlling the printhead element coupled to the address pass-through network, the data pass-through network and the actuating means the control means having control input lines for receiving control signals; and
- print media velocity analysis circuits coupled to the control means.
- 21. A printhead element according to claim 20 further including print media velocity elements coupled to the velocity analysis circuits for detecting the velocity of print media relative to the printhead element.
- 22. A method of printing using a page wide ink jet printer where the printer includes a printhead having a row of nozzles capable of depositing an ink droplet on a plurality of pixels of a print medium and a printer controller for specifying the particular nozzles to be actuated to form a desired image on the print media, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a first number of printer elements, each element including a second number of heater elements;
- arranging the printer elements on the printhead so that each heater element is coupled to a corresponding printhead nozzle;
- assigning a unique address to each printer element;
- issuing a print command to a printer element address specifying which of the printer elements the print command is addressed to, the print command indicating the nozzle within the addressed printer element to be actuated;
- selecting the nozzles indicated in the print command; and
- ejecting ink droplets from the selected nozzles.
- 23. A method of printing using a page wide ink jet printer where the printer includes a printhead having a row of nozzles capable of depositing an ink droplet on a plurality of pixels of a print medium and a printer controller for specifying the particular nozzles to be actuated to form a desired image on the print media, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a first number of printer elements, each element including a second number of heater elements;
- arranging the printer elements on the printhead so that each heater element is coupled to a corresponding printhead nozzle, wherein the arranging step includes overlapping nozzles coupled to a printer element with nozzles coupled to two adjacent printer elements;
- assigning a unique address to each pixel location in a row;
- initializing each printer element so that each nozzle is assigned a corresponding address location;
- issuing a print command to the printer elements, the print command indicating the nozzle addresses to be actuated;
- selecting the nozzles indicated in the print command; and
- ejecting ink droplets from the selected nozzles.
- 24. A method of printing according to claim 23 wherein the initializing step comprises:
- printing a known image on the print media;
- reassigning the addresses corresponding to the pixel locations having overlapping nozzles to one of the two printer elements between which the nozzles overlap.
- 25. A method of printing according to claim 22 wherein the step of issuing a print command comprises transmitting the print command to the print elements simultaneously.
- 26. A method of printing according to claim 25 wherein the step of transmitting the print command to the print elements simultaneously includes:
- interconnecting the printer elements by a parallel bus; and
- transmitting the print command over the parallel bus to the printer elements.
- 27. A method of printing according to claim 22 wherein the step of issuing a print command comprises transmitting the print command to the print elements serially.
- 28. A method of printing according to claim 27 wherein the step of transmitting the print command to the print elements serially includes:
- interconnecting the printer elements by a serial bus; and
- transmitting the print command over the serial bus to the printer elements.
- 29. A method of printing according to claim 28 wherein the step of transmitting the print command over the serial bus to the printer elements includes:
- transmitting the print command to a first printer element; and
- forwarding the print command to a second printer element.
- 30. A method of printing according to claim 29 wherein the step of forwarding the print command to a second printer element includes:
- decoding the print command by the first printer element; and
- transmitting the print command to the second printer element only if the print command is not addressed to the first printer element.
- 31. A method of printing according to claim 22 wherein the step of assigning a unique address to each printer element includes encoding a unique identifier for each printer element on an interconnect circuit connecting the printer elements.
- 32. A method of printing according to claim 22 wherein the step of assigning a unique address to each printer element includes:
- assigning a first address to a first printer element;
- transmitting the first address to the first printer element;
- incrementing the first address to form a second address; and
- transmitting the second address to a second printer element, wherein the second printer element is adjacent to the first printer element.
- 33. A method of printing according to claim 22 wherein the step of assigning a unique address to each printer element includes:
- transmitting a first address to a first printer element;
- incrementing the first address to form a second address; and
- transmitting the second address to a second printer element, wherein the second printer element is adjacent to the first printer element.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation-in-part of commonly assigned, application U.S. Ser. No. 07/864,890 filed Apr. 2, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,199, entitled Wide Inkjet Printhead, incorporated herein by reference.
US Referenced Citations (9)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
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0034060 |
Feb 1981 |
EPX |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
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Parent |
864890 |
Apr 1992 |
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