Element substrate, printhead, and printing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9688067-B2
Application number	US-201614993428-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Aug 27, 2013
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

An element substrate capable of suppressing occurrence of electromagnetic noise upon driving printing elements on an element substrate with long wiring lengths, preventing an operation error, and printing a high-quality image is provided. In the element substrate, plural element substrates each including printing elements are arrayed in an arrayed direction of the printing elements. Each element substrate including a wiring for supplying a driving power to drive the printing elements, and a ground wiring from the printing elements is configured as follows. Each element substrate includes a delay circuit for delaying a heat enable signal to drive the printing elements and supplying it to each printing element, and a switchover circuit for switching over, in accordance with a control signal, a delay sequence when supplying the heat enable signal to each printing element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An element substrate comprising:
a plurality of printing elements configured to generate energy to be used to discharge liquid;
a first delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which a heat enable signal to be used to drive the printing element is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits;
a second delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which the heat enable signal is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits in a direction different from an arrayed direction of the plurality of buffer circuits of the first delay buffer group; and
a switchover circuit configured to switch over, in accordance with a control signal, a delay sequence in a case where using the heat enable signal to drive each of the plurality of printing elements by switching over between the first delay buffer group and the second delay buffer group.

2. The element substrate according to claim 1 , wherein a logic level of the control signal is inverted every time a predetermined time elapses, and
the switchover circuit switches over the delay sequence every predetermined time based on the control signal.

3. The element substrate according to claim 2 , wherein the predetermined time is a time necessary for a printing element array formed by the plurality of printing elements to print one line.

4. The element substrate according to claim 1 , wherein the element substrate comprises:
at least two printing element arrays, each formed from the plurality of printing elements, and
a plurality of delay circuits and a plurality of switchover circuits in correspondence with the at least two printing element arrays.

5. The element substrate according to claim 4 , further comprising an inverter circuit configured to invert a logic level of the control signal.

6. The element substrate according to claim 5 , wherein the control signal changes, for each of the plurality of printing element arrays, the delay sequence of the printing elements included in the printing element array.

7. The element substrate according to claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of transistors configured to drive the plurality of printing elements,
wherein the heat enable signal is transferred from one of the first delay buffer group and the second delay buffer group to the plurality of transistors.

8. The element substrate according to claim 7 , further comprising:
a gate group, comprised of a plurality of gates, configured to control the plurality of transistors; and
a selection circuit configured to time-divisionally activate the plurality of gates in the gate group,
wherein the heat enable signal is transferred from one of the first delay buffer group and the second delay buffer group to the plurality of transistors via the gate group.

9. A printhead that uses an element substrate, wherein the element substrate comprises:
a plurality of printing elements configured to generate energy to be used to discharge liquid;
a first delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which a heat enable signal to be used to drive the printing element is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits;
a second delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which the heat enable signal is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits in a direction different from an arrayed direction of the plurality of buffer circuits of the first delay buffer group; and
a switchover circuit configured to switch over, in accordance with a control signal, a delay sequence in a case where using the heat enable signal to drive each of the plurality of printing elements by switching over between the first delay buffer group and the second delay buffer group, and
the printhead performs printing by a plurality of printing elements by using the heat enable signal to drive the plurality of printing elements.

10. The printhead according to claim 9 , wherein the printhead comprises a full-line printhead having a print width corresponding to a width of a printing medium.

11. The printhead according to claim 10 , wherein the full-line printhead comprises an inkjet printhead configured to print an image by discharging ink to the printing medium.

12. A printing apparatus that performs printing using an inkjet printhead configured to print an image by discharging ink to a printing medium,
wherein the inkjet printhead is a full-line printhead having a print width corresponding to a width of the printing medium,
the full-line printhead uses an element substrates, and
the element substrates comprises:
a plurality of printing elements configured to generate energy to be used to discharge liquid;
a first delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which a heat enable signal to be used to drive the printing element is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits;
a second delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which the heat enable signal is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits in a direction different from an arrayed direction of the plurality of buffer circuits of the first delay buffer group; and
a switchover circuit configured to switch over, in accordance with a control signal, a delay sequence in a case where using the heat enable signal to drive each of the plurality of printing elements by switching over between the first delay buffer group and the second delay buffer group, and

the full-line printhead performs printing by the plurality of printing elements by using the heat enable signal to drive the plurality of printing elements.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein a control signal is supplied for each printing operation of one line of the inkjet printhead.

14. A printhead comprising:
a first element substrate, wherein a plurality of printing elements configured to generate energy to be used to discharge liquid are integrated on the first element substrate; and
a second element substrate, wherein a first delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which a heat enable signal to be used to drive the printing element is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits, a second delay buffer group formed by series-connecting a plurality of buffer circuits in which the heat enable signal is transferred while being delayed by the plurality of buffer circuits in a direction opposite from an arrayed direction of the plurality of buffer circuits of the first delay buffer group, and a switchover circuit configured to switch over, in accordance with a control signal, a delay sequence in a case where using the heat enable signal to drive each of the plurality of printing elements by switching over between the first delay buffer group and the second delay buffer group are integrated on the second element substrate.

15. The printhead according to claim 14 , wherein a plurality of the first element substrates are integrated, and a plurality of the second element substrates are integrated.

16. The printhead according to claim 14 , wherein the one first element substrate and the one second element substrate are integrated.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Umeda Kengo
• Hirayama Nobuyuki

Classifications

• B41J2/04541 Primary

  Specific driving circuit · CPC title

• B41J2/1601

  Production of bubble jet print heads (B41J2/1606, B41J2/162 take precedence) · CPC title

• B41J2/04585

  controlling heads based on thermal bent actuators · CPC title

• B41J2/04573

  Timing; Delays · CPC title

• B41J2/2146

  for line print heads · CPC title