Design and Fabrication of Electrostatic Inkjet Head using Silicon Micromachining Technology

Abstract

This paper presents design and fabrication of optimized geometry structure of electrostatic inkjet head. In order to verify effect of geometry shape, we simulate electric field intensity according to the head structure. The electric field strength increases linearly with increasing height of the micro nozzle. As the nozzle diameter decreases, the electric field along the periphery of the meniscus can be more concentrated. We design and fabricate the electrostatic inkjet heads, hole type and pole type, with optimized structure. It was fabricated using thick-thermal oxidation and silicon micromachining technique such as the deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) and chemical wet etching process. It is verified experimentally that the use of the MEMS inkjet head allows a stable and sustainable microdripping mode of droplet ejection. A stable micro dripping mode of ejection is observed under the voltages 2.5 kV and droplet diameter is 10 ㎛.