Patent ID: 8104170

Claim:
A method for fabricating a charge plate for an ink jet printhead, wherein the method comprises the steps of: providing a dimensionally stable dielectric substrate, the dimensionally stable dielectric substrate including a coating of conductive material on a first conductive face, a charging face, a third face, and a first edge located between the first conductive face and the charging face; removing portions of the conductive material coating from the dimensionally stable dielectric substrate using ablation to form at least a first electrode and a second electrode on the first conductive face with a first space between the first electrode and second electrode; removing portions of the conductive material coating from the dimensionally stable dielectric substrate to form a first electrode extension on the charging face which engages the first electrode and form a second electrode extension on the charging face which engages the second electrode, the first and second electrode extensions being electrically isolated from each other; forming a first third face electrode and a second third face electrode on the third face with a fourth space between the first third face electrode and the second third face electrode on the dimensionally stable dielectric substrate and forming a third edge between the third face and the charging face by removing a portion of the conductive material coating deposited on the third face forming a fourth space, and wherein a non patterned conductive region is formed between the fourth space and the third edge; forming on the charging face a first third face electrode extension which engages the first third face electrode and a second third face electrode extension which engages the second third face electrode by removing a portion of the continuous conductive coating deposited on the charging face to form a fifth space on the charging face between the at least two third face electrode extensions, and wherein the first third face electrode extension is electrically isolated from the second third face electrode extension; and removing a portion of the first third face electrode and the second third face electrode to extend the fourth space to form a continuous connected space with fifth space on the charging face.