Patent ID: 7249829

Claim:
A drop deposition apparatus for laying down a patterned liquid layer on a receiver substrate comprising: a drop emitter containing a positively pressurized liquid in flow communication with a linear array of nozzles for emitting a plurality of continuous streams of liquid having nominal stream velocity v j0 , and wherein the plurality of nozzles have effective nozzle diameters D 0 and extend in an array direction with an effective nozzle spacing L y ; resistive heater apparatus adapted to transfer thermal energy pulses of period τ 0 to the liquid in flow communication with the plurality of nozzles sufficient to cause the break-off of the plurality of continuous streams of liquid into a plurality of streams of drops of predetermined nominal drop volume V 0 ; and relative motion apparatus adapted to move the drop emitter and receiver substrate relative to each other in a process direction at a process velocity S so that individual drops are addressable to the receiver substrate with a process direction addressability, A p =τ 0 S; and wherein the effective nozzle spacing L y is less than 85 microns, the process speed S is at least 1 meter/sec and the addressability, A p , of individual drops at the receiver substrate in the process direction is less than 6 microns.