A method of forming a feature by dispensing a metallic nanoparticle composition from an ink-jet print head is disclosed. A jetting waveform is applied to piezoelectric actuator to dispense droplets of the metallic nanoparticle composition through nozzle opening. The droplets range in volume between 0.5 picoliter and 2.0 picoliter. The jetting waveform includes an intermediate contraction waveform portion, a final contraction waveform portion after the intermediate contraction waveform portion, and an expansion waveform portion after the final contraction waveform portion. During the intermediate contraction waveform portion, an applied voltage increases from an initial low voltage to an intermediate voltage and then is held at the intermediate voltage. During the final contraction waveform portion, the applied voltage increases from the intermediate voltage to maximum voltage and then is held at the maximum voltage. During the expansion waveform portion, the applied voltage decreases from the maximum voltage to a final low voltage.

A printing apparatus comprises: a plurality of printing elements; driving circuits that have at least one source follower transistor and correspond to each of the plurality of printing elements; and a control unit configured to, in a case where a number of printing elements driven simultaneously does not exceed a predetermined number, perform a first control for driving the at least one source follower transistor by a fixed pulse width irrespective of the number of printing elements driven simultaneously, and, in a case where the number of printing elements driven simultaneously exceed the predetermined number, perform a second control for changing a pulse width to drive the at least one source follower transistor based on the number of printing elements driven simultaneously.

A controller for a print head of an inkjet printing device is described that is configured to generate a virtual timing signal during a printing pause of the printing device, and to use the virtual timing signal for the generation of pre-ejection pulses in order to produce a reliable regeneration of the nozzles of the print head during the printing pause.

According to one or more embodiments, the inkjet head includes an actuator and a driver. The actuator causes a pressure chamber to expand or contract. The driver applies an ejection pulse to the actuator to eject ink from the pressure chamber. The ejection pulse includes an expansion pulse having a width of 0.75 to 1.25 times a pressure propagation time of the pressure chamber, a rest period after the expansion pulse, and a contraction pulse after the rest period.

A wide array printhead module includes a plurality of printhead die, each of the printhead die includes a number of nozzles. The nozzles form a number of primitives. A nozzle firing heater is coupled to each of the nozzles. An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) controls a number of activation pluses that activate the nozzle firing heaters for each of the nozzles associated with the primitives. The activation pulses are delayed between each of the primitives via internal delays and external delays to reduce peak power demands of the printhead die. The ASIC determines the internal delays within each printhead die.

Disclosed is a liquid discharge method of discharging liquid with a liquid discharge head having a heating surface that contacts and heats the liquid and a discharge port that faces the heating surface and discharges the liquid. The method includes heating the liquid through the heating surface to generate a bubble such that the bubble communicates with an atmosphere, thereby discharging the liquid. The liquid that is being discharged from the discharge port includes a trailing portion. The trailing portion moves toward the heating surface in response to a reduction in volume of the bubble and contacts the heating surface. The method further includes heating the trailing portion through the heating surface while the trailing portion is in contact with the heating surface, thereby generating a bubble.

Thermal inkjet printing wherein a printhead has ink ejection elements which are energizable by electrical pulses of a given energy with fire pulses of an amplitude (V) and a fire pulse width (fp). A printer controller sends commands to the printhead to spit ink drops, one or more temperature sensors coupled to the printhead measure a temperature of the printhead, and a calibration component coupled to the temperature sensor variably adjusts the fire pulse energy provided to the having ink ejection elements of the printhead. The calibration component initiates calibrating the printhead, spitting a number (X) of ink drops at a frequency (Y) by the electrical pulses, reading and storing printhead temperature, varying the fire pulse energy by repeating spitting ink drops and reading and storing printhead temperature, finding minimum temperature from the stored printhead temperatures, and deriving an operational fire pulse (fp.sub.op) from a fire pulse (fp.sub.on) that has produced the minimum temperature, wherein the printer controller uses the operational fire pulse (fp.sub.op) for printing.

A method for ink-jet recording comprising recording an image on a recording medium using an ink-jet recording apparatus including a recording head equipped with a heat generation unit which generates thermal energy for discharging aqueous ink by discharging the aqueous ink from the recording head based on image data by action of the thermal energy, wherein the aqueous ink is discharged once by applying a single pulse waveform voltage to the heat generation unit in the recording, and wherein the aqueous ink includes silver particles.

In an example, a print head comprises a nozzle to be activated by a delayed fire pulse that is delayed from an initial fire pulse, a sensor to measure an impedance of the nozzle, and a detector to determine a first time instant following the delayed fire pulse for registering a first impedance measurement by the sensor.

Methods and systems are described herein for driving droplet ejection devices with multi-level waveforms. In one embodiment, a method for driving droplet ejection devices includes applying a multi-level waveform to the droplet ejection devices. The multi-level waveform includes a first section having at least one compensating edge and a second section having at least one drive pulse. The compensating edge has a compensating effect on systematic variation in droplet velocity or droplet mass across the droplet ejection devices. In another embodiment, the compensating edge has a compensating effect on cross-talk between the droplet ejection devices.