Inkjet printheads

摘要

A method of fabricating a printhead for an inkjet printer involves generating ink supply slots (12) in a substrate (10) and depositing thin film circuitry and resistors (16) on a front surface (14) of the substrate, before covering this front surface (including the opening for the ink supply slots) with a conformal tape (28). The ink supply slots are then back-filled with a filler material (32) which hardens to generate a false surface (29a) coplanar with the front surface (14) of the substrate. This false surface allows a thin photoresist layer (34) to be spun across the front surface. The photoresist is selectively exposed to create structures defining both thermal ejection chambers bounding the resistors in a lateral direction and the upper surfaces of these chambers, including ink droplet ejection orifices, thereby obviating the need for a separate nozzle plate and reducing the thickness of the printhead. The method of the invention also substantially reduces the number of processing steps involved in creating a finished printhead.