Inkjet technology has recently emerged as one of the most powerful patterning tools for electronic devices. To be a reliable patterning tool, the jetting status of the inkjet dispenser needs to be monitored to immediately detect any malfunction. We present a low cost and high speed monitoring module to monitor the jetting condition of a piezo-driven multi-nozzle inkjet head. The developed self-sensing method can detect non-jetting conditions as well as poor jetting conditions such as jetting speed reduction and poor jet strightness. We are testing the long term reliability of the proposed monitoring techniques by comparing the self-sensing signal and vision droplet image.
Kye-Si Kwon, Yun-Sik Choi, Dae-Yong Lee, "Development of Inkjet Monitoring System via Piezo Self-Sensing" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication (NIP27), 2011, pp 101 - 104, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2011.27.1.art00026_1