Thermal inkjet printheads play a dominating role in drop-on-demand printhead technology. Improvements of efficiency and lifetime are an ongoing challenge for research and development in this field. Commonly used micro heaters are based on refractory metal alloys. Therefore, a complex stack of various materials is necessary to protect the heater against oxidation and mechanical strains which limit the performance of such micro heaters.Here, a novel thermal inkjet heater based on diamond is presented. In contrast to conventional micro actuator systems for the diamond inkjet passivation layers are not necessary. This reduces the manufacturing costs and increases the thermal efficiency of the micro heater. In addition, the excellent mechanical properties of diamond guarantee protection against cavitation damages. The new thermal inkjet heater has been tested successfully and its advantages are demonstrated by experiments using high speed cinematography.In conclusion, the first prototype of the new thermal inkjet heater based on diamond is superior to common systems in regard to heating efficiency and resistance against mechanical strains.
E.P. Hofer, C. Maier, C. Rembe, S. aus der Wiesche, E. Kohn, M. Adamschik, P. Gluche, "A New Diamond Micro Heater for Inkjet Printheads" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP14), 1998, pp 72 - 75, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.1998.14.1.art00017_1