SGIA Journal Graphic November/December 2016 - 28

Memjet Printhead - Full-Shot Angle

Memjet Printhead - Full-Width

Memjet

Silverbrook Research labs in Australia
originated Memjet* technology with
the mission of finding a better way to
print color documents. The company
developed over 3,500 international patents
and a number of printhead designs.
Silverbrook Research formed a business
partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company and MEMS
fabricated and tested over 1,000 nozzle
designs. The resulting MEMS TIJ
printer design envisioned a page-wide
single-pass system using MEMS built
inkjet printheads. It targeted 1600 dpi
resolution because its image quality would
be photographic and beyond the human
eyes ability to perceive the pixel artifacts
of the print process. The printhead design
proposed generating 1-pl volume drops
and a minimum of 54,400 ink nozzles per
A4/letter sized printhead.
In Ma rch of 20 07, t he g roup
demonstrated a Memjet printing system
that integrated printheads, controller
chips, ink and software. Since Memjet
does not manufacture printers, but does
make the printheads, controllers, ink and
software, in 2009 it began licensing its
technology to OEM printer manufacturers
that began bringing Memjet powered
label and office printers to the market in
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2011 and wide-format printers in 2012.
OEM companies offering printer using
the Memjet technology include Xante*,
Colordyne, Afinia*, Canon, Canon Oce,
Xerox*, Rena, Gongzheng Group, Rigoli
s.r.l. , Beiren, Delphax, Digikett GmbH,
Halm Industries, IPT digital LLC,
New Solution, Super Web Digital, and
Trojanlabel.
Funai

On April 1, 2013, Funai Electric Co. Ltd.
of Japan announced its acquisition of
Lexmark's inkjet related technology and
patents, primarily concerning thermal inkjet,
and its production facility in the Philippines.
Consequently, Funai manufactures TIJ
heads with MEMS micro-machined nozzle
plates like those on Lexmark TIJ heads.
Funai research has continued to develop
and advance its TIJ technology and has
filed a number of patents related to inkjet
printheads. Funai Electric also manufactures
Televisions for Philips, Magnavox, Emerson,
Sanyo and inkjet printers for Kodak. It
manufactures the Kodak Verité line
of desktop color TIJ printers that print
documents and photos, copy and scan. The
Verité line offers resolution up to 4800 x
1200 dpi and prints with dye-based inks for
its CMY process colors and pigmented ink
for black.

November/December 2016

Canon

Canon is generally credited with having
invented the TIJ printhead, which it
called the Bubble Jet. It subsequently
cross licensed its patented TIJ intellectual
property with HP that had also developed
a TIJ system soon after Canon. Canon
uses thin film and MEMS techniques to
fabricate its TIJ printhead nozzle plates.
It also offers inkjet printers using Memjet
MEMS fabricated printheads.
Epson

Epson's PrecisionCore MEMS built PIJ
printhead resulted from two decades of
printhead development and subsequent
adoption of MEMS microfabrication
techniques to machine submicron
part features. Epson manufactures its
MicroTFP print chips at its Suwa Minami
Plant, in Nagano prefecture, Japan,
and assembles its PrecisionCore heads
at its two fully robotically automated
manufacturing lines at Tohoku and
Akita, Japan. Epson describes its process
as follows, "Three silicon chips - a
TFP actuator, an ink channel and a
nozzle plate - are bonded together. Ink
that enters through the ink flow path
of the ink channel is ejected from the
nozzles by pump-like action of the TFP
actuator. Epson's innovative thin-film
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