JP2006272687A - Liquid ejection head and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a sealing material infilled around a recording element from being diffused on the surface of a recording element substrate. <P>SOLUTION: The periphery of the recording element substrate 20, which is mounted in a device hole 10a of an electric wiring substrate 10, is sealed with a first sealing material 51 with fluidity. An electric connection part, which is composed of a lead 11 of the substrate 10 and an electric connection pad 22 of the substrate 20, is sealed with a second sealing material 52 for protecting the lead etc. A recess 23 is provided on the outer periphery of the substrate 20 so as to prevent the sealing material 51 with fluidity from running onto the surface of the substrate 20 and stretching out toward the nozzle 21. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid discharge head mounted on a recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging a liquid such as ink and a method for manufacturing the same.

  In general, a liquid discharge type recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer is a recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging a recording liquid from a nozzle (discharge port) to a recording medium, and forms droplets discharged from the nozzle. The recording head is a liquid discharge head, and a supply system for supplying a recording liquid to the recording head. Such a recording apparatus is a so-called non-impact recording system recording apparatus, and is characterized by being capable of high-speed recording and recording on various recording media, and having almost no noise during recording. It is widely used as a device that bears a recording mechanism such as a word processor, a facsimile machine, and a copying machine.

  As a typical liquid ejection method, there is a method using an electrothermal conversion element, and this method provides an electrothermal conversion element in a pressurization chamber provided in the vicinity of a nozzle, which becomes a recording signal. Recording is performed by ejecting a recording liquid from a minute nozzle using the pressure of bubbles (boiling) by applying an electric pulse.

  In the recording liquid ejection method described above, a method (edge shooter) for ejecting the recording liquid in parallel to the recording element substrate on which the electrothermal conversion elements are arranged, and a recording element on which the electrothermal conversion elements are arranged. There is a method (side shooter) in which the recording liquid is ejected perpendicularly to the substrate.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a general recording head 1001, and as shown in FIG. 2A, a tank holder 1003 holding a recording element unit 1002 and a plurality of ink tanks for multicolor printing. Have As shown in FIG. 2B, the recording element unit 1002 includes an electric wiring board 1110 having a terminal portion 1110b for external connection and a device hole 1110a, and a recording element mounted in the device hole 1110a of the electric wiring board 1110. A support plate 1130 having a supply port 1131 for supporting the substrate 1120, the electric wiring substrate 1110 and the recording element substrate 1120 and supplying ink (recording liquid) to the substrate 1120, and the support plate 1130 and the electric wiring substrate 1110 are interposed. And an auxiliary plate 1140.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a plurality of recording element substrates 1120 are electrically connected to the electrical wiring substrate 1110. A plurality of nozzles 1121 for ejecting ink are provided on the surface of the recording element substrate 1120 facing the recording medium, and a supply port for supplying ink to each nozzle 1121 on the back surface side is approximately the length of the nozzle row. It is provided with an opening having an equal length. The leads 1111 of the electric wiring board 1110 for applying an electric pulse for ejecting ink to each recording element substrate 1120 are connected to the electrical connection pads 1122 provided on the recording element substrate 1120 by the TAB mounting technique. Thus, the recording element unit 1002 is formed.

  As disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, the recording element unit 1002 includes a sealing material 1152 for protecting the electrical connection pads 1122 and the leads 1111 from corrosion caused by ink and disconnection due to external force. It has been applied.

  Note that the wiring of the electrical wiring board 1110 is provided on the back surface side, and is held and fixed to the support plate 1130 via the auxiliary plate 1140. Since the support plate 1130 and the auxiliary plate 1140 serve as a heat radiating member that releases the heat generated by the recording element substrate 1120, it is common to use a material with good heat radiating properties such as aluminum or ceramic. Yes. Since these may be corroded depending on the ink, it is necessary to protect the ink from filling the recording element substrate 1120 with a fluid sealing material 1151 around the recording element substrate 1120.

As the ink that is a recording liquid, a pigment ink having excellent light resistance and weather resistance is used in order to print an image taken with a digital camera or the like instead of a silver salt photograph for file or display. In the pigment ink, the surface (nozzle surface) on which the nozzles of the recording element substrate are provided is not coated with a water repellent having an ink repellent effect and an oil repellent effect for the following reasons. That is, the pigment ink has a higher viscosity and lower surface tension than the dye ink, and the effect of the water repellent cannot be expected so much. In addition, if a water repellent agent is applied to the nozzle surface, especially in the vicinity of the nozzle, the pigment ink concentrates on the area where the water repellency has deteriorated when water repellency unevenness occurs during use, which may cause misalignment or non-ejection. This is because it becomes a serious problem in terms of reliability.
JP 10-44417 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-44412

  However, in a recording head in which the surface of the recording element substrate 1120 is not coated with a water repellent, the recording element substrate 1120 may get on the surface of the recording element substrate 1120 when the sealing material 1151 is filled and cured. There is. Thus, the sealing material 1151 that has reached the surface and hardened becomes non-ejection when it reaches the nozzle 1121, causing a decrease in yield. Furthermore, even if the nozzle 1121 has not been reached, the sealing material 1151 that has run on the nozzle surface obstructs the cleaning of the paper dust or ink that has adhered to the nozzle surface with a wiper during printing, thereby reducing reliability.

  Further, when filling the recording head with ink, a rubber cap is applied to the nozzle surface and the inside is decompressed with a pump to fill the ink in the ink supply system up to the nozzle 1121. In some cases, it may cause leakage during decompression, that is, ink filling failure.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned unsolved problems of the prior art, and is accurately filled with a filler that seals the periphery of an element substrate having discharge means, and has been carried on the surface of the element substrate. An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid discharge head capable of preventing the diffusion of the filler and a manufacturing method thereof.

  In order to achieve the above object, a liquid discharge head according to the present invention includes an element substrate having discharge means for discharging a liquid, an electric wiring substrate electrically connected to an electric connection portion of the element substrate, and the element substrate. And a support plate for supporting the electrical wiring substrate, a sealing portion for sealing the periphery of the element substrate with a filler, and the filler in the sealing portion riding on the surface of the element substrate and diffusing. In order to prevent this, it has diffusion preventing means provided on the outer peripheral portion of the element substrate excluding the electrical connection portion.

  In the step of sealing the periphery of the element substrate with the filler, it is possible to prevent the filler from climbing onto the surface of the element substrate and diffusing to the discharge means, and to accurately fill the periphery of the element substrate. As a result, a highly reliable liquid discharge head with excellent discharge performance can be manufactured at low cost.

  FIG. 1 shows a main part of a recording head which is a liquid discharge head according to an embodiment. An electric wiring substrate 10 having a terminal portion for external connection and a device hole 10a (not shown), and a device hole of the electric wiring substrate 10 are shown. A support plate 30 having a supply port for supporting the recording element substrate 20, which is an element substrate mounted on 10 a, the electrical wiring substrate 10 and the print element substrate 20, and supplying ink as a liquid thereto; And an auxiliary plate 40 interposed between the electrical wiring boards 10.

  The recording element substrate 20 has nozzles 21 as ejection means on the surface thereof, and the surface (nozzle surface) in the vicinity of the nozzles 21 is not subjected to water repellent treatment. The electrical wiring substrate 10 electrically connected to the recording element substrate 20 is fixed to the support plate 30 together with the recording element substrate 20, and the periphery of the recording element substrate 20 is a first sealing material that is a fluid filler. 51 is sealed. The electrical connection pads 22 which are electrical connection portions provided at both ends of the recording element substrate 20 are electrically connected to the leads 11 of the electrical wiring substrate 10 and a second sealing material 52 for protecting the leads 11 and the like. Covered by.

  Diffusion for preventing progression (diffusion) toward the nozzle 21 even when the first sealing material 51 rides on the surface of the recording element substrate 20 on the outer peripheral portion where the electrical connection pads 22 of the recording element substrate 20 are not disposed. A recess 23 is formed as a prevention means.

  In the step of filling the first sealing material 51 around the recording element substrate 20, first, a thermosetting filler is injected into a filler reservoir portion that communicates with a region requiring filling, and is heated. The thermosetting filler injected into the filler reservoir is fluidized and filled around the recording element substrate 20, and then the thermosetting filler is cured.

  That is, the filling region of the first sealing material 51 is an area constituted by the support plate 30, the recording element substrate 20, and the electric wiring substrate 10, and the filling material reservoir is a step portion of the support plate 30. 30a is preferably provided at a portion adjacent to the side surface of the recording element substrate 20 where the electrical connection pads 22 are not disposed.

  FIG. 1A is a partial plan view showing the main part of the recording head according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 1B is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.

  The recording element substrate 20 has a silicon substrate 20a on which a recording element is formed as a main body, and has a nozzle member 21a formed thereon, and a flow path communicating with the nozzle 21 is formed in the nozzle member 21a. A recess 23 serving as a diffusion preventing means having a width of 0.05 mm was provided at a position 0.1 mm from the edge of the surface of the recording element substrate 20. Although a groove is formed at the end, the size is such that it does not interfere with the rubber cap to be mounted when the recording head is filled with ink, and wiping does not cause any trouble.

  A method for manufacturing the recording head of this embodiment will be described below. The recording element substrate 20 is separated from the wafer on which the recesses 23 are formed simultaneously with the patterning of the nozzle member 21 a by dicing, and is bonded and fixed to the stepped portion 30 a of the support plate 30 by the adhesive 24. The electrical wiring board 10 is bonded to the upper surface of the support plate 30. Electrical connection between the electrical connection pads 22 of the recording element substrate 20 and the leads 11 of the electrical wiring substrate 10 is performed by ILB mounting.

  The thermosetting filler serving as the first sealing material 51 is applied to the filler reservoir formed by the stepped portion 30a of the support plate 30 by the needle, and the recording element substrate is heated by the heat applied during or after the application. It flows into the side surface on the side where the 20 electrical connection pads 22 are provided and the narrow area between the recording element substrates 20 adjacent to each other, and then hardens. At this time, since the first sealing material 51 that has run on the surface of each recording element substrate 20 flows into the recess 23, it does not flow over the recess 23 toward the nozzle 21.

  After the first sealing material 51 is cured, a second sealing material 52 for protecting the lead 11 and the like is applied and cured.

  The concave portion 23 of the recording element substrate 20 may be formed by cutting with a dicing saw when dicing the individual recording element substrate 20 after patterning the nozzle member 21a on the wafer. You may form by the method of.

1A and 1B show a recording head according to a first embodiment, where FIG. 1A is a partial plan view showing a main part of the recording head, and FIG. 1 shows a recording head according to a conventional example, in which (a) is a perspective view thereof, and (b) is an exploded perspective view showing an exploded recording element unit. FIG. 10 is a partial plan view showing a main part of a recording head according to a conventional example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Electrical wiring board 11 Lead 20 Recording element board | substrate 21 Nozzle 22 Electrical connection pad 23 Recessed part 24 Adhesive 30 Support plate 40 Auxiliary board 51 1st sealing material 52 2nd sealing material

Claims (4)

  An element substrate having discharge means for discharging a liquid; an electric wiring substrate electrically connected to an electric connection portion of the element substrate; a support plate for supporting the element substrate and the electric wiring substrate; A sealing portion that seals the periphery with a filler, and an outer peripheral portion of the element substrate excluding the electrical connection portion in order to prevent the filler of the sealing portion from climbing on the surface of the element substrate and diffusing. And a diffusion preventing means provided.   2. The liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the diffusion preventing means has a recess for capturing the filler that has run on the surface of the substrate. An element substrate having discharge means for discharging a liquid; an electric wiring substrate electrically connected to an electric connection portion of the element substrate; a support plate for supporting the element substrate and the electric wiring substrate; A sealing portion that seals the periphery with a filler, and an outer peripheral portion of the element substrate excluding the electrical connection portion in order to prevent the filler of the sealing portion from climbing on the surface of the element substrate and diffusing. In a method for manufacturing a liquid discharge head having a diffusion preventing means provided,
Injecting a thermosetting filler into the filler reservoir,
Flowing the thermosetting filler injected into the filler reservoir and filling the periphery of the element substrate;
And a step of curing the filled thermosetting filler. A method of manufacturing a liquid discharge head, comprising:   4. The method of manufacturing a liquid discharge head according to claim 3, wherein the filler reservoir is disposed at a step portion of the support plate facing the outer peripheral portion excluding the electrical connection portion of the element substrate.

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