Patent ID: 6929349

Claim:
An ink jet printhead for an ink jet printer comprising a nozzle plate attached to a heater chip, the heater chip including a semiconductor substrate, a resistive layer deposited on the substrate, a dielectric layer deposited on the resistive layer, a cavitation layer for contact with ink, and an adhesion layer between the dielectric layer and cavitation layer, wherein the dielectric layer is selected from the group consisting of silicon carbidelsilicon nitride (SiC/SiN), diamond-like carbon (DLC), and doped DLC, the cavitation layer is selected from the group consisting of tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), and platinum (Pt), and the adhesion layer is selected from the group consisting of tantalum nitride (TaN), tantalum oxide (TaO), silicon nitride (SiN), and titanium nitride (TiN), provided the adhesion layer and cavitation layer are selected so that the adhesion layer has no elemental component in common with the cavitation layer when the dielectric layer is comprised of SiC/SiN.