Patents by Inventor Tsutomu Nishiwaki

Tsutomu Nishiwaki has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6013970
    Abstract: A piezoelectric thin-film device includes: a substrate and a piezoelectric thin film formed on the substrate, wherein a thickness of the piezoelectric thin film is 1 to 10 .mu.m, a crystal grain size of the piezoelectric thin film is 0.05 to 1 .mu.m, and a surface roughness (Rmax) of the piezoelectric thin film is no more than 1 .mu.m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2000
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tsutomu Nishiwaki, Kouji Sumi, Masami Murai, Masato Shimada
  • Patent number: 5922218
    Abstract: In an ink jet head having: a nozzle plate in which a plurality of nozzle openings are formed; a flow path substrate comprising a reservoir to which ink is externally supplied, and a plurality of pressure chambers which are connected to the reservoir via an ink supply port and which respectively communicate with the nozzle openings; an elastic film which pressurizes ink in the pressure chambers; and driving means located at a position opposing the respective pressure chambers for causing the elastic film to conduct flexural deformation, the pressure chambers are arranged in a single-crystal silicon substrate of a (110) lattice plane and along a <112> lattice orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 13, 1999
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshinao Miyata, Tsutomu Nishiwaki
  • Patent number: 5754205
    Abstract: In an ink jet head having: a nozzle plate in which a plurality of nozzle openings are formed; a flow path substrate comprising a reservoir to which ink is externally supplied, and a plurality of pressure chambers which are connected to the reservoir via an ink supply port and which respectively communicate with the nozzle openings; an elastic film which pressurizes ink in the pressure chambers; and driving means located at a position opposing the respective pressure chambers for causing the elastic film to conduct flexural deformation, the pressure chambers are arranged in a single-crystal silicon substrate of a (110) lattice plane and along a <112> lattice orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 19, 1998
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshinao Miyata, Tsutomu Nishiwaki
  • Patent number: 5363131
    Abstract: An ink jet recording head, in which a vibrating element includes electrodes disposed on both surfaces of at least one of its edge portions at a dot forming pitch. A gap forming member is disposed so as to form a gap suitable for producing ink mist on a surface confronting a vibrating surface of the vibrating element. Since the ink is retained in this gap by surface tension, upon application of an alternate voltage to the vibrating element to produce an edge-mode vibration, the vibration produced at a piezoelectric body substrate is transmitted to the ink, propagating through the ink. The vibration propagated up to an interface between the ink and the air is transformed into a surface wave, thereby misting the ink.The thus produced ink mist, having vibrational kinetic energy, splashes in the air and thus forms a dot on a recording sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1991
    Date of Patent: November 8, 1994
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kaoru Momose, Tsutomu Nishiwaki, Masanori Tanizaki, Hajime Mizutani
  • Patent number: 5298328
    Abstract: A packing material for sealing electronic devices having improved, higher thermal conductivity than amorphous silica-containing packing material. The packing material comprises a thermosetting resin and a filler particle comprising a core inorganic particle and an amorphous silica coating on the core particle. The core particle is made from material having a thermal conductivity higher than that of amorphous silica, for example, a metal nitride such as aluminum nitride or silicon nitride, or a metal oxide such as aluminum oxide, or crystalline silicon dioxide. The amorphous silica coating may be formed by hydrolysis of alkoxysilane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 1991
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1994
    Assignee: Toshiba Ceramics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hajime Abe, Tsutomu Nishiwaki, Yoji Nagano
  • Patent number: 5179394
    Abstract: In a nozzleless ink jet printer, a plate-shaped propagation element for propagating a surface acoustic wave is fixedly mounted on a substrate which is arranged along the platen and has an ink pooling groove, and the ink led to the edge of the propagation element from the ink pooling groove by surface tension is caused to jet in the form of ink mist by surface acoustic waves generated by excitation of comb-shaped interleaved electrodes so as to record images such as characters and patterns on a recording sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 12, 1993
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masaru Hoshino, Masanori Tanizaki, Tsutomu Nishiwaki
  • Patent number: 4684960
    Abstract: An electrothermal transfer printing apparatus employing an electrothermal transfer film having an ink layer and a resistive layer is used with a print head having a substrate which carries recording electrodes. The recording electrodes are fabricated on the substrate by thick film printing process so as to have a hardness which is controlled relative to that of the substrate. The print head is held in sliding contact with the resistive layer in the transfer film to effect selective heating of the resistive layer for the transfer of ink to a recording body. The angle at which the print head contacts the recording body depends upon the relative hardnesses of the substrate and the electrodes. The print head is cleaned after a predetermined travel of the transfer film over the print head, so that clarity of printing is maintained in spite of the passage of long lengths of electrothermal transfer film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1987
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tsutomu Nishiwaki
  • Patent number: 4556891
    Abstract: A printing apparatus and method for printing on a record medium utilizing an electric thermo-transfer process. The apparatus includes an ink sheet having an ink layer with heat-fusable ink thereon facing the record medium, and a resistive layer. A print head having at least a pair of opposed electrodes is in contact with the resistive layer. A driving circuit is coupled to the pair of opposed electrodes for applying a voltage to the pair of opposed electrodes. The applied voltage causes a current to flow in the ink sheet to heat the ink layer. A pulse width setting circuit controls the pulse width of the voltage applied to the electrodes to control the position and amount of heating of the ink. The system provides full-color printing on the record medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 1984
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1985
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Suwa Seikosha
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Matsushita, Masaki Takei, Masatoshi Yonekubo, Tsutomu Nishiwaki