Metal-insulator resistive ribbon for thermal transfer printing

摘要

A resistive ribbon printing technique is described in which the ribbon includes a resistive layer comprised of a metal-wide bandgap insulator combination. The ribbon also includes a support layer, where the support function can be provided by the resistive layer, and a fusible ink layer. Electrical current through the resistive layer produces heat which locally melts the ink for transfer to an adjacent receiving medium. The wide bandgap insulator of the resistive layer must have a bandgap of at least three volts. Many different metals and insulators can be used, where the relative amounts of metal and insulator are chosen to provide a desired resistivity for any type of resistive ribbon printing application.