Manufacturing method of thermal print head

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11642894-B2
Application number	US-202117470953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2021
Priority date	Sep 23, 2020
Publication date	May 9, 2023
Grant date	May 9, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a thermal print head. The method includes: forming an electrode layer on a substrate; and forming a resistor layer including a plurality of heat generating portions connected to the electrode layer. The electrode layer includes a plurality of individual electrodes including a plurality of first striped portions extending in a secondary scan direction and spaced apart in a main scan direction, and a common electrode including a plurality of second striped portions extending in the secondary scan direction. The forming of the resistor layer includes: a coating process of applying a resistor paste in a stripe that overlaps the first striped portions and the second striped portions; a firing process of firing the resistor paste to form a resistor film; and a removal process of removing a removal region in the resistor paste or the resistor film.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing a thermal print head, comprising:
forming an electrode layer on a substrate; and
forming a resistor layer including a plurality of heat generating portions connected to the electrode layer, wherein the electrode layer comprises:
a plurality of individual electrodes including a plurality of first striped portions extending in a secondary scan direction and spaced apart in a main scan direction; and
a common electrode including a plurality of second striped portions extending in the secondary scan direction and arranged opposite to the plurality of first striped portions in the secondary scan direction, and wherein
the forming of the resistor layer includes:
a coating process in which a resistor paste is applied in a stripe that overlaps the plurality of first striped portions and the plurality of second striped portions and extends in the main scan direction;
a firing process for firing the resistor paste to form a resistor film; and
a removal process for removing a removal region in the resistor paste or the resistor film, the removal region comprising:
a first region located between adjacent two of the plurality of first striped portions in the main scan direction;
a second region located between adjacent two of the plurality of second striped portions in the main scan direction; and
a third region located between the first region and the second region in the secondary scan direction.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the removal process removes the removal region of the resistor film after the firing process.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a laser beam is used in the removal process.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein in the removal process, the laser beam is scanned to traverse the resistor film along the secondary scan direction.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the laser beam is an infrared laser.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the laser beam is a pulse laser having a pulse width of 1 picosecond to 25 picoseconds.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein in the removal process, the removal region is removed using a rotary blade that rotates around a rotation axis extending in the main scan direction.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein in the removal process, the rotary blade is moved in the secondary scan direction.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a sacrificial layer forming step forming a sacrificial layer in the first region, the second region and the third region before the step of forming the resistor layer,
wherein the first region is located between adjacent two of the plurality of first striped portions in the main scan direction, the second region is located between adjacent two of the plurality of second striped portions in the main scan direction, and the third region located between the first region and the second region in the secondary scan direction, and
wherein in the coating process, the resistor paste is applied to cover the sacrificial layer, and
wherein the removal process is performed by collectively removing the sacrificial layer and the resistor paste covering the sacrificial layer in the firing process.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the sacrificial layer comprises a plurality of linear portions extending along the secondary scan direction.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein a dimension of the linear portion in the secondary scan direction is greater than a distance between the first striped portion and the second striped portion in the secondary scan direction.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein in the coating process, a dimension of the resistor paste after being coated in the secondary scan direction is less than the dimension of the linear portion in the secondary scan direction.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the sacrificial layer is made of a resin.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a base material and a glaze layer formed on the base material.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrode layer comprises gold (Au), silver (Ag) or copper (Cu).

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the resistor layer comprises ruthenium oxide.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of forming the electrode layer comprises:
coating a conductive paste on the substrate;
firing the conductive paste to form a conductive film; and
patterning the conductive film.

Assignees

• Rohm Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakatani Goro

Classifications

• B41J2/3351 Primary

  Electrode layers · CPC title

• B41J2/3359 Primary

  Manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B23K26/362

  Laser etching · CPC title

• B41J2/335 Primary

  Structure of thermal heads · CPC title

• B41J2/3353

  Protective layers · CPC title