A droplet ejection apparatus, a method of using the same

摘要

A droplet ejection apparatus for supplying one or more kind of liquid material of a predetermined color onto a base in the form of droplets includes: a head unit (103) provided with a plurality of droplet ejection heads for ejecting the droplets of the one or more kind of liquid material onto the base, each of the droplet ejection heads including at least one nozzle array constituted from a plurality of nozzles linearly aligned, the nozzle arrays of the plurality of droplet ejection heads being parallel to each other in a first direction, the liquid material being adapted to be ejected through the plurality of nozzles in the form of droplets; a stage including two major surfaces, one of the two major surfaces of the stage facing the plurality of droplet ejection heads of the head unit(103), and the base being supported on the one major surface of the stage; a moving mechanism for mutually moving the stage with respect to the head unit (103); and a control unit for controlling operation of the head unit (103) and the moving mechanism so that each of the plurality of the droplet ejection heads of the head unit ejects droplets of the liquid material onto the base while mutually moving the stage with respect to the head unit (103) in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The base has an area to which the liquid material of the same color is adapted to be ejected from the plurality of droplet ejection heads in the form of droplets by one mutual movement of the head unit (103) with respect to the stage, the area including a plurality of sub-areas which are positioned in the first direction, and each of the sub-areas has a plurality of ejection regions for forming pixels. The plurality of droplet ejection heads are arranged on the head unit so that the ejection regions of each of the plurality of sub-areas are adapted to always receive the liquid material in the form of droplets from the nozzles of a different combination of two or more droplet ejection heads in the plurality of droplet ejection heads.