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

Claim 9:
10. A method of operating an aerosol jet printer of the type having:
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; and
a droplet field camera system resolving print liquid droplets in the jet as it moves toward the substrate; the method including:
(a) analyzing a set of images from the droplet field camera system to determine distribution of print liquid droplet properties; and
(b) controlling at least one of the carrier gas flow and shield gas flow according to at least one of a mass and velocity distribution of print liquid droplets.