Lead-free piezo printhead using thinned bulk material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10421277-B2
Application number	US-201916375951-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2019
Priority date	Jun 1, 2017
Publication date	Sep 24, 2019
Grant date	Sep 24, 2019

Abstract

An apparatus for a lead-free piezoelectric ink-jet printhead is disclosed. Piezoelectric printheads, while more expensive are favored because they use a wider variety of inks. The piezoelectric printhead includes a diaphragm, a plurality of piezoelectric actuators comprising a lead-free piezoelectric material, at least one nozzle, at least one ink chamber, a top electrode, and a drive circuit. The deflection of the diaphragm on the body chamber contributes to a pressure pulse that is used to eject a drop of liquid from the nozzle. According to an exemplary embodiment, a lead-free piezoelectric printhead operated at smaller thicknesses and significantly higher electric fields is disclosed, along with methods of making such printheads.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making a piezoelectric ink-jet printhead comprising a lead-free piezoelectric material, the method comprising:
bonding the piezoelectric material to a diaphragm-plus-body assembly, wherein the piezoelectric material is plated with a first electrode material on a first side;
thinning the piezoelectric material to a first thickness;
plating the piezoelectric material on a second side with a second electrode material; and
dicing the piezoelectric material into individual actuators;
wherein the lead-free piezoelectric material comprises bismuth sodium potassium titanate (BNKT) and at least one of bismuth magnesium titanate (BMT) and niobium potassium sodium (KNN).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises plating the piezoelectric material on a first side prior to bonding the piezoelectric material to the diaphragm-plus-body assembly.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first thickness of the piezoelectric material is from about 50 μm to about 300 μm.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second thickness of the piezoelectric material is from about 2 μm to about 50 μm.

5. A method of making a piezoelectric ink-jet printhead comprising a lead-free piezoelectric material, the method comprising:
mounting the piezoelectric material onto a first intermediate substrate, wherein the piezoelectric material is plated on a first side with a first electrode material;
thinning the piezoelectric material to a first thickness;
plating the piezoelectric material on a second side with a second electrode material;
dicing the plated piezoelectric material into individual actuators; and
bonding the diced piezoelectric actuators to a diaphragm;
wherein the piezoelectric material comprises bismuth sodium potassium titanate (BNKT) and at least one of bismuth magnesium titanate (BMT) and niobium potassium sodium (KNN).

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises plating a first side of the piezoelectric material with a first electrode material prior to mounting the piezoelectric material onto a first intermediate substrate.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises:
mounting the plated piezoelectric material onto a second intermediate substrate after plating the piezoelectric material on a second side with a second electrode material; and
unmounting the plated piezoelectric material from the first intermediate substrate.

Assignees

• Xerox Corp
• Univ Brown

Inventors

• Nystrom Peter J
• Redding Gary D
• Kingon Angus Ian
• Kim Seunghyun
• Mostovych Nicholas

Classifications

• B41J2/14201

  Structure of print heads with piezoelectric elements · CPC title

• C04B2235/3236

  Alkaline earth titanates · CPC title

• C04B2235/768

  Perovskite structure ABO3 · CPC title

• C04B2237/68

  Forming laminates or joining articles wherein at least one substrate contains at least two different parts of macro-size, e.g. one ceramic substrate layer containing an embedded conductor or electrode · CPC title

• C04B35/475

  based on bismuth titanates · CPC title