• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2010

For the industrial printing applications, the stability of the piezo-driven inkjet printhead is a major requirement. In this paper, we focused on the failure modes of the inkjet printhead and realized a method to detect and repair them at high speed. The printhead monitoring is performed by detecting the residual vibration of the actuating plate using the self- sensing capability of the piezoelectric material. To measure the channel acoustics and to identify the malfunctioning nozzle, we devised the bridge sensing circuitry and failure detection algorithm. The residual vibration signals can be affected by the boundary conditions of the channel acoustics, so it is possible to identify the failure causes by analyzing the monitoring signals. Therefore it is also possible to apply a proper restoring process to the defective printhead. The experimental results show that this method is effective in improving the reliability of the industrial printing.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.1 s.256
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• pp.51-61
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• 2007

This paper presents numerical and theoretical studies of acoustic wave interactions in slightly compressible liquids within piezoelectrically driven inkjet print heads. The interconnected flow channels may cause jet crosstalk, resulting in poor printing quality. It should be reduced by modifying the channel structure with the acoustic wave interactions considered. Compressible gas flow driven by the sudden movement of a top wall in the channel is calculated using Flow3D and is validated with the narrow gap theory. Limited compressibility model of the Flow3D is employed to calculate pressure waves of slightly compressible ink flow. It is found that reducing restrictor width can damp out the jet crosstalk by inhibiting the pressure wave propagation. The degree of crosstalk has been quantified using the maximum values of cross-correlations between neighboring channels and a critical channel dimension for acceptable crosstalk has been proposed. This finding is verified by drop visualization experiments using silicon-micromachined piezo inkjet print heads that are fabricated by our group.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2012

Inkjet printing is one of the direct writing technologies and is able to form a pattern onto substrate by dispensing droplets in desired position. Also, by inkjet technology manufacturing time and production costs can be reduced, and procedures can be more efficient. To form a metal pattern, it must be harmonized with conductive nano ink, printing process, sintering, and surface treatment. In this study, micro patterning of conductive line has been investigated using the piezoelectric printhead driven by a bipolar voltage signal is used to dispense $20-40{\mu}m$ diameter droplets and silver nano ink which consists of 50 nm silver particles. In addition, hydrophobic treatment of surface, overlap printing techniques, and sintering conditions with changing temperature and times to achieve higher conductivity.