THERMAL HEAD AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT WITH THE HEAD

摘要

PURPOSE:To obtain an energy-saving thermal head compatible with an equipment of an existing type. CONSTITUTION:A decoder 15 of a thermal head 16 decodes inputted 4-bit strobe signals STR1-STR4 to generate 14 strobe signals SR1-SR14. On a thermal head substrate 12, 27 driver ICs 14-1-14-27 are divided into 14 conduction blocks. These strobe signals are successively supplied to the respective conduction blocks. As long as each of the driver ICs is supplied with a corresponding strobe signal, the driver IC electrically drive corresponding heating elements out of 64 elements on a heating element array 13 based on printing data latched by a latch circuit. In this invention, on the strobe signals SR1-SR13, the driver ICs are driven in pairs. On the strobe signal SR14, only one driver IC 14-27 is driven. In this manner, one line printing is completed.