JPH0349956A - Liquid jet recording head and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a recording head used in a liquid jet printer (commonly known as an inkjet printer).

[Conventional technology]

Conventional liquid jet recording heads use, for example, glass as a base material for forming flow channels. This method of bonding glasses is as follows: As shown in FIG. 4(a), the base glass 11 has grooves 1 formed as liquid flow paths in advance by photolithography, and the base glass 11 as shown in FIG. 4(b) The thin glass sheets 12 to be bonded facing each other are stacked as shown in FIG.
The sheet glass 12 is then heated to near the melting point of the glass sheet 12 to be melted and pressed. [Problems and Objectives to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the heating temperature is close to the melting point of glass and the clamping load of the jig is large, resulting in problems as shown in the cross-sectional view of the flow path in Fig. 5. The shape of the liquid flow path 6 may be deformed,
The thin glass 3 breaks. The depth of this liquid channel is 1
00 μm, and the amount of deformation varies up to about 25 μm, so there is a large variation in the volume of liquid flying from each liquid jet port, and the flight time from each liquid jet port also varies, which tends to cause printing misalignment. Quality deteriorates. Furthermore, since the influence increases as the printing speed increases, there is a problem that high-speed printing cannot be achieved. Also,
Since it goes through a heating and cooling process up to about 600°C, the manufacturing lead time becomes long. Furthermore, there is a problem in that precision control of the clamping jig must be strictly controlled, and setting the clamping jig on the jig also takes time. The present invention is intended to solve these problems, and its purpose is to eliminate deformation of the liquid flow path when bonding the base of a liquid jet recording head, improve printing quality, and enable high-speed printing. It's there. Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid jet recording head that eliminates cracking and chipping of the substrate during manufacture, has a high yield, has a short manufacturing lead time, and is easy to work with, and a method for manufacturing the same. [Means for Solving the Problems] The liquid jet recording head of the present invention joins two or three substrates to form a liquid channel, applies compressive force to the liquid channel, and uses the compressive force to eject the liquid. The liquid jet recording head that performs recording is characterized in that a silicon substrate is used as the base material. Further, the method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head of the present invention includes forming a low melting point glass on one of the bonding surfaces of two or three silicon substrates by sputtering or vapor deposition, and then overlapping the bonding surfaces to form the low melting point glass. It is characterized by applying a negative voltage to the silicon substrate side and bonding. [Example] FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the manufacturing process of a liquid jet recording head in an example of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1(a), a first substrate 2 made of a silicon substrate with a groove 1 formed as a liquid flow path formed therein by photolithography is bonded to a second substrate 3 made of a silicon substrate shown in FIG. 1(b). Before the bonding surface 4 of the first substrate 2 or the second substrate 3 is coated with a low melting point glass 5 of 100% by sputtering or vapor deposition.
Formed with a thickness of 0 to 10,000 people. In the case of this embodiment, the low melting point glass 5 having a melting point of about 350° C. was formed on the second substrate side by sputtering. The first substrate 2 and the second substrate 3 are placed facing each other as shown in FIG. 1(C), and a negative voltage of 70 V is applied to the second substrate 3 in an atmosphere of 120° C. By doing this, it is possible to bond in a short time without going through a bonding process at a uniform temperature. A part of the liquid ejecting section that integrally forms the liquid flow path 6 in this way is cut to form a liquid ejecting surface 7 as shown in FIG. 1(d). Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 1(e), a piezoelectric element 8 is attached to a second substrate located on each liquid flow path to obtain a liquid jet recording head 9. Due to the pressure of the piezoelectric element 8, liquid is ejected from the liquid jet port 1o and printed on the recording paper. The cross section of the liquid flow path portion of the liquid jet recording head obtained in this way is
As shown in the figure, the groove shape formed on the first substrate before bonding remains unchanged and is not deformed. In addition, the applied load was only about 1/10 that of the conventional method, and there was no cracking or chipping of the second base. FIG. 3 shows another embodiment, which is an embodiment of a liquid jet recording head using two first substrates 2 and second substrates 3. In FIG. In this case, one of the first base plate 2 and the second base plate 3 is once bonded by the above-described bonding method, and then the other second base plate 3 is bonded once again to make the three base plates into one body. As mentioned above, by using the bonding method described above, it is possible to reduce the variation in the cross-sectional area of the flow path after bonding, which reduces the variation in the time it takes for the liquid flying from each liquid jet port to reach the printing surface. This eliminates printing misalignment and enables high-quality printing. Furthermore, in order to increase the printing speed, the scanning speed of the liquid jet recording head is further increased, so variations in the time it takes for the liquid flying from the individual liquid jet ports to reach the printing surface further affects the print quality. Therefore, reducing this variation enables high-speed printing with an inkjet printer. Note that, since it is not held at high temperatures for a long period of time, there are no particular restrictions on the jig for stacking the first substrate and the second substrate and applying a negative voltage as long as it is a conductor. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when a first substrate and a second substrate are bonded together in a liquid jet recording head, a low melting point glass is formed on one of the bonding surfaces, and the glass is overlaid. Since bonding can be achieved by applying a negative voltage to the side on which the melting point glass is formed, it is possible to obtain a liquid jet recording head with excellent printing quality without deterioration of printing quality due to variations in the size of the liquid flow path or sticking. This has the effect of increasing printing speed. In addition, there is no cracking or chipping of the glass, and the yield is high, and the manufacturing lead time is short, and the work at the time of bonding is simplified, resulting in a reduction in manufacturing costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a liquid jet recording head and a method for manufacturing the same according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the liquid flow path section of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a liquid jet recording head according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a conventional liquid jet recording head and its manufacturing method. FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the liquid flow path section of FIG. 4. 1...Groove serving as a liquid flow path 2...First substrate 3...Second substrate 4...Joint surface 5...Low melting point glass 6...Liquid flow path 7...Liquid injection Surface 8...Piezoelectric element 9...Liquid injection recording spatula 0...Liquid injection port 1...Base glass 2...Thin plate glass or higher

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a liquid jet recording head that connects two or three substrates to form a liquid flow path, applies compressive force to the liquid flow path, and records by causing the liquid to fly due to the compressive force, the base material is A liquid jet recording head characterized by using a silicon substrate. (2) After forming low melting point glass on one of the joint surfaces of two or three silicon substrates by sputtering or vapor deposition,
A method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head, characterized in that bonding is performed by applying a negative voltage to the silicon substrate side on which the low melting point glass is formed by overlapping bonding surfaces.