Patent ID: 7101007
Filing Date: 2006-09-05
Classification: B41J,G06K

Abstract:
1. A printhead comprising: a plurality of thermal printing elements for printing, said plurality of thermal printing elements being arranged in a plurality of arrays; a block selection circuit that outputs a selection signal for selecting a block comprising a plurality of printing elements; a plurality of printing control circuits, corresponding to the plurality of arrays, which respectively output a driving signal for selectively driving said printing elements, together with the selection signal, to each of said printing elements in correspondence with image data; and an input portion, which receives external image data to be input to said printing control circuits, wherein said input portion is adapted to receive the image data in a bus format of a plurality of parallel bits, each data bit instructing whether or not to drive a single thermal printing element, said input portion including a plurality of serially connected shift registers, corresponding to the plurality of arrays, for sequentially shifting the received image data with the same number of bits as the bus format.