Patent ID: 11860180
Assignee: FUNAI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC G

Claim 3:
4. A method for maintaining a fluid droplet ejection cartridge in a digital fluid dispense system, the method comprising:
providing a housing unit and a fluid droplet ejection cartridge disposed in the housing unit, the fluid droplet ejection cartridge containing two or more fluids and being disposed on a fluid cartridge translation mechanism for moving the fluid droplet ejection cartridge back and forth in an X-direction within the housing unit; a substrate holder for holding a substrate below the fluid droplet ejection cartridge during fluid dispensing of the one or more fluids onto the substrate; and a maintenance station disposed in the housing unit remote from the substrate holder and having a removable fluid receptacle, wherein the fluid receptacle is divided into two or more segments with each segment corresponding to one of the two or more fluids of the fluid droplet ejection cartridge;
periodically moving the fluid droplet ejection cartridge to the maintenance station; and
(i) ejecting a first one of the two or more fluids from the fluid droplet ejection cartridge into a first one of the two or more segments for a predetermined period of time,
(ii) indexing the fluid droplet ejection cartridge to a next segment of the fluid receptacle and ejecting a second of the two or more fluids from the fluid droplet ejection cartridge into a second one of the two or more segments for a predetermined period of time, and
(iii) repeating step (ii) until each of the two or more segments are full.