JPH06234220A - Manufacture of ink jet recording head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prvide the manufacturing method of an ink jet recording head, which is capable of preventing the invasion of Si fine particles or dust from an ink supplying port which is the reason of clogging of a nozzle in dicing process. CONSTITUTION:A heater substrate 1, on which a heat generating resistance body, a common electrode, an individual electrode, a driving control circuit and the like are formed, is bonded to a channel substrate 2, on which ink passages and an ink reservoir are formed, as shown by a diagram (B) and, thereafter, a mask 14 is applied on the ink supplying port of the channel substrate 2. A mask 14 is made by a method wherein a light sensitive dry film is laminated and, thereafter, an area, cut by dicing, is removed employing photolithography technique as shown in a diagram (C). Subsequently, the substrate is cut and separated into individual heads employing a dicing blade and, thereafter, the mask 14 is removed employing separating solution.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a heater substrate having a heating resistor and a channel substrate having an ink flow path, an ink reservoir, and an ink supply port are composed of Si substrates, and the two substrates are bonded together and then dicing is performed. Accordingly, a method of manufacturing a large number of uniform inkjet recording heads has been adopted, which is a very useful method in mass production, cost reduction, and quality stabilization.

Regarding this manufacturing method, JP-A-61-2
This method has already been proposed in Japanese Patent No. 30954 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-166965. As a technique common to these proposals, a large number of recording heads are manufactured on a Si substrate and cut into individual head chips by dicing.

However, in the dicing process, when a dicing blade is used to bond two Si substrates, a large amount of Si fine particles and dust are scattered, and the scattered Si fine particles and dust are supplied to the ink. Penetrates the recording head via the mouth. Invaded Si
Since the fine particles and dust block the ink reservoir and the ink flow path, there is a problem that the nozzle is clogged.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and in the dicing process,
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head, which can prevent Si fine particles and dust from entering from an ink supply port, which causes nozzle clogging.

[0006]

The present invention provides a heater substrate having a heating resistor, an ink flow path, an ink reservoir,
In a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head in which a channel substrate having an ink supply port is joined and then separated into individual recording heads by dicing, in a dicing blade, the ink supply port on the channel substrate is touched with a dicing blade before dicing. It is characterized by applying a mask of a non-specific size.

[0007]

According to the present invention, by masking the ink supply port on the channel substrate before dicing, Si fine particles and dust scattered during dicing can be prevented from entering through the ink supply port. can do.
Further, by making the mask a size that does not touch the dicing blade, it is possible to prevent abrasion of the dicing blade due to contact with the mask portion.

[0008]

EXAMPLE FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an example of an ink jet recording head manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a heater substrate, 2 is a channel substrate, 3 is a pit layer, 4 is a heating resistor, 5 is a common electrode, and 6
Is an individual electrode, 7 is a drive control circuit, 8 is a bonding pad, 9 is a pit opening, 10 is a nozzle, 11 is an ink flow path, 12 is an ink reservoir, and 13 is an ink supply port.

As the heater substrate 1, a Si substrate is used,
A heating resistor 4, a common electrode 5 for supplying a driving current to the heating resistor 4, and an individual electrode 6 are formed. Further, a drive control circuit 7 that outputs a drive pulse signal to each heating resistor 4 according to image information is formed on the heater substrate 1, and
Bonding pads 8 for electrically connecting the drive control circuit 7 to the outside are also formed. The heating resistor 4 is formed by arranging a resistance layer made of Poly-Si at a predetermined pixel density (for example, 300 dpi), and is integrally formed with the heater substrate 1 in the LSI process together with the common electrode 5 and the individual electrode 6. Has been done.

The pit layer 3 is made of photosensitive polyimide. A pit opening 9 is formed in the pit layer 3 at a position corresponding to the heating resistor 4 to limit a heating area of the ink.

As the channel substrate 2, a Si substrate is used similarly to the heater substrate, and the ink channel 11 and the ink reservoir 12 are formed by anisotropic etching. The opening of the ink flow path 11 becomes the nozzle 10. Further, the opening of the ink reservoir 12 becomes the ink supply port 13.

The heater substrate 1 and the channel substrate 2 are bonded together to form a recording head.

1 and 2 are explanatory views of a dicing process in one embodiment of the manufacturing method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a heater substrate, 2 is a channel substrate, 13 is an ink supply port, 14 is a mask, and 15 is a cutting line. Figure 1 (A)
Shows the heater substrate 1 and the channel substrate 2. As described in FIG. 4, the heating substrate, the common electrode, the individual electrode, the drive control circuit, the bonding pad, and the like are formed on the heater substrate 1, and the pit layer is formed thereon. In the channel substrate 2, as described in FIG.
An ink reservoir is formed. After bonding the heater substrate 1 and the channel substrate 2 as shown in FIG. 1B, a mask 14 is applied on the ink supply port of the channel substrate 2. As the mask 14, for example, a photosensitive dry film (manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.) having a thickness of 25 μm is laminated, and then the photosensitive dry film is formed by using a photolithography technique, as shown in FIG. The part of the cutting area by dicing is removed. Then, Figure 2
At a cutting line 15 shown in (A), a dicing blade was used to cut and separate into individual heads. Figure 2 (B)
Indicates a head chip that is individually separated. After that, the mask 14 is removed using a stripping solution. The size of the mask 14 was set so as not to contact the dicing blade in the dicing process.

Microscopic observation of the ink supply port of the head chip and its surroundings after dicing revealed that the ink supply port was free of Si fine particles and dust, and was slightly left on the periphery.

FIG. 5 shows the assembly of an ink jet recording head using this head chip. In the figure, 1 is a heater substrate, 2 is a channel substrate, 10 is a nozzle, 12 is an ink supply port, 16 is a head chip, 17 is a heat sink, 1
Reference numeral 8 is an ink manifold, and 19 is an ink supply pipe. The ink jet recording head is arranged so as to cover the heat sink 17, the head chip 16 arranged on the front portion of the upper surface of the heat sink 17, and the side surface on which the ink supply port 12 opening on the upper surface of the head chip 16 is formed. And an ink manifold 18. The head chip 16, the heat sink 17, and the ink manifold 18 are
Their front end faces are formed on the same plane. The intake manifold 18 has an ink supply pipe 19 and is connected to an ink tank (not shown) when incorporated as an inkjet printer. As described above, the head chip 2 is composed of the heater substrate 1 and the channel substrate 2, and the ink supply port 12 formed in the channel substrate 2 communicates with the nozzle 10.

The head chip of the embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 is assembled as described with reference to FIG. 5, and an ink jet test is conducted with an aqueous ink composed of 60 wt% water, 38 wt% diethylene glycol and 2 wt% dye. As a result, a good ink ejection response was obtained and the directionality of the flying ink was also good.

As a first comparative example, after the heater substrate 1 and the channel substrate 2 described in FIG. 1 are bonded as shown in FIG. 1B, a mask is applied on the ink supply port of the channel substrate 2. First, a head chip was manufactured by cutting into individual heads by cutting along the cutting line 15 in FIG. Microscopic observation of the ink supply port and the periphery of the head chip after dicing revealed that many Si fine particles and dust were attached to the ink supply port.

This head was assembled as described with reference to FIG. 5, water 60 wt%, diethylene glycol 38 wt%,
When an ink jet test was conducted using a water-based ink composed of 2% by weight of dye, deterioration of image quality such as deterioration of directionality due to nozzle clogging was caused.

As a second comparative example, after the heater substrate 1 and the channel substrate 2 described in FIG. 1 are bonded as shown in FIG. 1B, a mask is applied on the ink supply port of the channel substrate 2. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
A pressure-sensitive adhesive film of μm (manufactured by Nitto Denko Corporation) was laminated and cut into individual heads along a cutting line 15 shown in FIG. At this time, the pressure-sensitive adhesive film 20 adheres to the cutting blade portion of the dicing blade and causes clogging, resulting in a decrease in dicing ability and a decrease in productivity.

[0020]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture an ink jet recording head in which Si fine particles and dust are prevented from entering from the ink supply port during dicing and the nozzles are not clogged. The effect is that you can.

[Brief description of drawings]

[Figure 1]

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a dicing process in one example of the manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a dicing process in a manufacturing method of a comparative example.

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an example of an inkjet recording head manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an assembled state of an ink jet recording head using this head chip.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 heater substrate, 2 channel substrate, 3 pit layer,
4 heating resistors, 5 common electrodes, 6 individual electrodes, 7 drive control circuit, 8 bonding pads, 9 pit openings,
10 nozzles, 11 ink flow paths, 12 ink reservoirs, 13 ink supply ports, 14 masks, 15 cutting lines, 16 head chips, 17 heat sinks, 18
Ink manifold, 19 ink supply tube.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head in which a heater substrate having a heating resistor and a channel substrate having an ink flow path, an ink reservoir, and an ink supply port are bonded and then separated into individual recording heads by dicing. A method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head, characterized in that, before the dicing, a mask having a size not touching the dicing blade is applied to the ink supply port on the channel substrate.