Abstract: An alloy that is suitable for coating a nickel orifice plate of an ink-jet printhead so as to allow the orifice plate to adhere to an intermediate layer of the ink-jet printhead and to improve the non-wetting characteristics of the nickel orifice plate is disclosed. This alloy is made up of a precious metal and a polymer material. According to a one embodiment, the precious metal is gold and the polymer is Teflon. An orifice plate for an ink-jet pen that can be coated with the alloy typically has a plate that has an inner surface and an outer surface. The orifice plate has an orifice that extends through the plate between the inner surface and outer surface. At least a portion of the outer surface surrounding the orifice is coated with the precious metal-polymer alloy.

Abstract: A process for forming an orifice plate for a thermal inkjet printhead involves the use of a photoimageable polymer and photolithography for forming a plastic orifice plate having a defined pattern of orifices therein. A substrate is used to support a photoimageable polymer layer (which ultimately becomes the orifice plate) during the photolithographic steps, which preserves the structural integrity of the polymer layer. The process allows high accuracy in the dimensioning, spacing and shaping of the orifices. A thermal inkjet print head assembly is also disclosed which involves bonding the plastic orifice plate to a polymer barrier layer of a thin film resistor heater structure using heat and pressure.