An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different print head/substrate scan offsets, offsets between print heads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. Optionally, patterns of fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate observable line effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many other possible applications.

A repeatable manufacturing process uses a printer to deposits liquid for each product carried by a substrate to form respective thin films. The liquid is dried, cured or otherwise processed to form from the liquid a permanent layer of each respective product. To perform printing, each newly-introduced substrate is roughly mechanically aligned, with an optical system detecting sub-millimeter misalignment, and with software correcting for misalignment. Rendering of adjusted data is performed such that nozzles are variously assigned dependent on misalignment to deposit droplets in a regulated manner, to ensure precise deposition of liquid for each given area of the substrate. For example, applied to the manufacture of flat panel displays, software ensures that exactly the right amount of liquid is deposited for each “pixel” of the display, to minimize likelihood of visible discrepancies in the resultant display.

A drive signal generator includes a drive signal generator that generates a drive signal for driving a capacitive load. In the drive signal generator, a set of a first MOSFET and a second MOSFET which are electrically connected in series between a wire of a high potential and a wire of a low potential is arranged in plurality in series. A part or all of the first MOSFETs and the second MOSFETs in the plurality of sets have different sizes from each other.

A liquid ejecting device includes: an ejecting section group that includes a plurality of ejecting sections that receive a drive signal and eject a liquid; an ejection state check section that checks a state of a check target ejecting section that is an ejecting section among the plurality of ejecting sections; and a check target designation data management section that manages check target designation data that designates the check target ejecting section, the check target designation data management section including a first data-holding section and a second data-holding section, and having a first management mode in which the check target designation data management section updates data held by the first data-holding section and data held by the second data-holding section, and a second management mode in which the check target designation data management section updates the data held by the second data-holding section without updating the data held by the first data-holding section.

A drive waveform generating device includes a plurality of waveform generating units each configured to generate and output a drive waveform to a corresponding one of a plurality of pressure generators that are provided corresponding to a plurality of nozzles of a liquid discharge head. Each of the plurality of waveform generating units includes a detector and a waveform generator. The detector is configured to detect data associated with a type of the drive waveform to be applied to at least one pressure generator of the plurality of pressure generators corresponding to at least one adjacent nozzle to a target nozzle. The waveform generator is configured to change a waveform shape of the drive waveform to be applied to one pressure generator of the plurality of pressure generators corresponding to the target nozzle in accordance with the data detected by the detector.

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes an ejecting unit that ejects liquid when a drive signal is supplied to the ejecting unit, a drive signal output unit that outputs the drive signal, a cooling unit that cools the drive signal output unit, and a power supply unit that supplies power to the cooling unit. The liquid ejecting apparatus has a first mode in which the drive signal output unit outputs a first drive signal of a first frequency, and a second mode in which the drive signal output unit outputs a second drive signal of a second frequency lower than the first frequency. An amount of power supplied by the power supply unit to the cooling unit in the first mode is larger than an amount of power supplied by the power supply unit to the cooling unit in the second mode.

An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a recording head to discharge a liquid on a recording medium while scanning in a main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction relative to the recording medium. The recording head includes a first nozzle array and a second nozzle array. The first nozzle array discharges the liquid in a first discharge amount per unit time per unit length in a longitudinal direction. The second nozzle array discharges the liquid in a second discharge amount per unit time per unit length in the longitudinal direction. The second nozzle array is shorter than the first nozzle array in the longitudinal direction and disposed not overlapped with the first nozzle array in the main scanning direction. The second discharge amount is larger than the first discharge amount.

An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different printhead/substrate scan offsets, offsets between printheads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. These combinations can be based on repeated, rapid droplet measurements that develop understandings for each nozzle of means and spreads for expected droplet volume, velocity and trajectory, with combinations of droplets being planned based on these statistical parameters. Optionally, random fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate Mura effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many possible applications.

An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different printhead/substrate scan offsets, offsets between printheads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. These combinations can be based on repeated, rapid droplet measurements that develop understandings for each nozzle of means and spreads for expected droplet volume, velocity and trajectory, with combinations of droplets being planned based on these statistical parameters. Optionally, random fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate Mura effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many possible applications.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: an modulation circuit that generates a modulated signal by pulse-modulating a source signal through self-oscillation; a transistor that amplifies the modulated signal to generate an amplified modulated signal; a low-pass filter that includes an inductor and a capacitor and smoothes the amplified modulated signal to generate a drive signal; a feedback circuit that allows the drive signal to return to the modulation circuit; a piezoelectric element that is displaced by application of the drive signal thereto; a cavity that is filled with a liquid inside and has an internal volume which changes when the piezoelectric element is displaced; and a nozzle that is provided to discharge the liquid inside the cavity in response to the change of the internal volume of the cavity. In this configuration, a self-resonant frequency of the capacitor is higher than a frequency of the self-oscillation.