Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus comprises a liquid ejection portion having an ejection outlet for ejecting ink; and a recording head having a substrate on which are provided an electrothermal transducer for generating heat for the ejection of ink supplied to the ejection portion, at least one functional device electrically connected to the electrothermal transducer, and a laminate. The structure of at least a part of the laminate is identical with the structure of the functional devices and the laminate is useable as a reserve functional device. Such construction of the recording head makes it possible to change the function thereof easily, and, can be copied flexibly with change of design. A portion of the functional device can be formed in a U shape.

Abstract: An increased resolution thermal ink jet printhead construction and method for forming large array heater chips for thermal ink jet printheads is achieved by fabricating a unitary "megachip" in which multiple cells of electrical components are defined in a plurality of columnar patterns in a plane of a silicon wafer. Cells of a first column are vertically offset from cells of an adjacent column so as to overlap the gap between cells in the first column. The megachip is then formed by grouping at least one cell from each of two adjacent columns and dicing the wafer to remove the megachip.

Abstract: A recording head has a substrate on which a plurality of heat generating elements as recording elements are arranged and a plurality of driving integrated circuits (driving ICs) to drive the plurality of heat generating elements are supported. The recording head comprises wirings which are extended from the heat generating elements and pass through a region on the substrate on which the driving ICs are supported and are connected to the driving ICs; signal series wirings which are arranged on the heat generating element side of the substrate, are closer to the heat generating elements than terminals for the wiring connection, and serially connect the driving ICs; and conductors which are formed in a region on the substrate between the adjacent driving ICs and connect recording current to the ground.

Abstract: A recording head comprises electrothermal transducers for jetting ink and functional devices for driving these electrothermal transducers, both of which are arranged on a single substrate plate. The functional devices comprise a pair of major electrode regions such as drain and source regions arranged on the substrate plate, a region comprising control electrode region and surrounding one of electrode regions used to be grounded, an insulating layer arranged on the control electrode region and a control electrode arranged on the insulating layer. The control layer alters the semiconductor types of a boundary surface of the control electrode region by applying a control voltage through the insulating layer and as a result a current flow between major electrode regions, source and drain, is controlled.

Abstract: An ink jet print head includes: a monolithic silicon substrate having a top surface; a plurality of chamber walls for defining a plurality of ink chambers on the top surface of the silicon substrate, the plurality of ink chambers being aligned in a first direction into a row extending along the top surface of the silicon substrate, each of the plurality of ink chambers being filled with ink, each chamber wall having a nozzle portion for defining a nozzle of a plurality of nozzles, each nozzle portion being formed so that each nozzle is in fluid communication with a respective ink chamber, the plurality of nozzles being aligned in the first direction into a row extending parallel to the top surface of the silicon substrate; an integrated circuit provided on the top surface of the silicon substrate and located adjacent to the plurality of ink chambers for outputting pulsed electric current; and a plurality of thermal resistors provided on the top surface of the silicon substrate each being located in a correspo

Abstract: A printer ink cartridge includes a rigid cartridge body containing ink, a plurality of ink orifices, a jet plate, a plurality of electrical conductors and a control and driver circuit. The control and driver circuit is attached to the cartridge body spaced apart from the jet plate, and the plurality of electrical conductors connect the jet plate to the control and driver circuit. The jet plate includes heating elements located proximate to an associated one of the ink orifices to heat a portion of the ink and to expelling the ink from the associated orifice. The control and driver circuit contains a control circuit and a plurality of driver circuits. A portion of the control circuit is connected to the plurality of driver circuits to control when one of the driver circuits is energized. Each of the driver circuits is connected to an associated one of the heating elements.

Abstract: A printhead includes a substrate with an ink feed aperture extending from a first surface to a second surface and a plurality of heater resistors disposed on it. Primitive groupings of the resistors are coupled to associated group power sources. An ink barrier layer is deposited on the substrate to create ink firing chambers for each resistor. One wall of the ink barrier has a constricted opening through which ink is supplied from the ink feed aperture. A plurality of transistors are disposed in the substrate with each transistor output coupled to an associated one of the resistors and each input coupled to one of a plurality of addressing signal lines. The number of addressing signal lines is equal to the number of resistors in a primitive grouping.

Abstract: A recording head comprises a liquid emission member having an orifice through which an ink is emitted, an electro-thermal converter element for generating a thermal energy which is utilized to emit the ink introduced into the liquid emission member, and a functional element disposed on a same substrate on which the electro-thermal converter element is disposed for driving and controlling the electro-thermal converter element.The functional element includes an NPN bipolar transistor for driving the electrothermal converter element and a CMOS transistor composed of an NMOS transistor and a PMOS transisfor for controlling an operation of the bipolar transistor.The NMOS transistor being formed in a P well diffusion layer in an N.sup.- type epitaxial growth layer which is grown on a surface of a P type semiconductor substrate.The PMOS transistor being formed in an N well diffusion layer in the N.sup.- type epitaxial growth layer which is grown on the surface of the P type semiconductor substrate.

Abstract: A device for use with a liquid jet recording head, and such a head, include a substrate having a semiconductor functional element, an electrothermal transducer electrically connected to the semiconductor functional element for generating thermal energy to be utilized to discharge liquid from the liquid jet recording head, and an insulating layer disposed on the semiconductor functional element and having a contact hole. An electrode is disposed within the contact hole and another insulating layer is disposed on the electrode and has a through hole. The transducer is disposed on the other insulating layer and has a resistor layer and a pair of electrodes, and that resistor layer includes a portion disposed between the electrode within the contact hole and one of the pair of electrodes within the through hole.

Abstract: A recording head for discharging ink by using thermal energy comprises a plurality of outlets for discharging ink and a substrate including a common substrate plate of P type, a plurality of electrothermal converting elements and a plurality of functional elements connected to the respective electrothermal converting elements and formed on the common substrate plate as well as the electrothermal converting elements. Each of the functional elements has a first semiconductor region of N type, a second semiconductor region of P type provided within the first semiconductor region and a third semiconductor region of N type provided within the second semiconductor region, so as to form a rectifying junction. The first, second and third semiconductor regions are formed by diffusion of impurity atoms in the common semiconductor substrate plate.

Abstract: A semiconductor device has transistors, each transistor having a first conduction type of a first semiconductor region including a first main electrode region, a second conduction type of second semiconductor region including a channel region which is provided in the first semiconductor region, a second main electrode region provided in the second semiconductor region, a gate electrode on the channel region extending through a gate insulating film between the first and second main electrode regions. A portion of the first main electrode region which contacts the channel region is a high-resistance region. The semiconductor device also has buried-type element isolation regions which prevent the occurrence of latch up and bird's beaks in the device.

Abstract: An integrated circuit for use in the printhead of an ink jet printer includes an array circuit for heating an ink reservoir to produce a pattern of ink jets, the array circuit including a plurality of resistor cells arranged into rows and columns. A corresponding number of row and column lines are coupled to the integrated circuit array for selecting and energizing the resistor cells according to the desired printing pattern. An identification circuit integrated into the same substrate as the array circuit includes one or more programmable paths, the programmable paths corresponding and coupled to each row line. The programmable paths each include the serial combination of a programmable fuse and an active device. The opposite end of the programmable paths are coupled together at a common node, which in turn is coupled to an output circuit for providing a single output signal in response to a polling of the row lines.