Patent ID: 11890872
Assignee: WISCONSIN ALUMNI RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 7:
8. An aerosol jet printer comprising:
a print liquid reservoir holding a liquid to be printed;
an atomizer receiving a carrier gas and the liquid to be printed to provide an aerosol of the print liquid having print liquid droplets in the carrier gas;
a substrate;
a print nozzle movable with respect to the substrate and receiving the aerosol and a shield gas, the print nozzle directing the aerosol toward a substrate as a jet as enveloped by the shield gas;
a droplet field camera system resolving print liquid droplets in the jet as it moves toward the substrate; and
a control system controlling a flow of aerosol and shield gas and the movement of the print nozzle with respect to the substrate and receiving a set of images from the droplet field camera system to determine the distribution of print liquid droplet properties to permit control of at least one of the carrier gas flow and shield gas flow according to the distribution of print liquid droplets;
further including a particle-loading camera system resolving print liquid droplets in the jet as it moves toward the substrate to determine particle loading in the droplets;
wherein the control system determines a distribution of particle loading of droplets in the jet providing a count of droplets within a set of different particle-loading ranges to permit control of at least one of the carrier gas flow and shield gas flow according to the distribution of print liquid droplets;
further including a particle-loading camera system resolving print liquid droplets in the jet as it moves toward the substrate to determine particle loading in the droplets; and
wherein the control system determines a distribution of particle loading of droplets in the jet providing a count of droplets within a set of different particle-loading ranges to permit control of at least one of the carrier gas flow and shield gas flow according to the distribution of print liquid droplets.