Back side relief on thermal ink jet die assembly

摘要

A method of dicing a printhead wafer containing a plurality of individual print elements into discreet elements. A back side relief feature is formed on the bottom front edge of a thermal ink jet print element from a heater side during a first dicing cut, followed by a second dicing cut from a channel side of the wafer to form a front face nozzle. The back cut feature enables front face maintenance by a wiper blade or other maintenance operation, provides a pocket for excess die bonding adhesive during manufacture, and reduces front face chipping during dicing caused by the saw blade contacting the die wafer mounting media and becoming contaminated. The relief feature may be a square step feature or a beveled back cut feature and may additionally be located on a top front edge of the print element.