Patent ID: 7287833

Claim:
An inkjet printhead assembly comprising: a nozzle system including: an ink chamber configured to receive liquid ink at ambient temperature, the ink being in a liquid state at the ambient temperature such that the ink need not be heated to enter the liquid state, an orifice layer comprising at least one orifice from which ink contained in the ink chamber can be ejected, and a heating layer comprising an electronic heating element configured to heat the liquid ink in the ink chamber from the ambient temperature to a first threshold temperature that is higher than the ambient temperature and a photon absorption layer configured to convert incident photon energy into heat; and a laser system configured to selectively emit laser energy at the photon absorption layer of the nozzle system to heat the liquid ink in the ink chamber from the first threshold temperature to a second threshold temperature that is higher than the first threshold temperature and to cause a volume of the liquid ink contained in the ink chamber to be ejected from the at least one orifice of the orifice layer.