Patent ID: 7252776

Claim:
A method for fabricating a thermal bubble inkjet head equipped with heaters and a rapid ink refill mechanism comprising the steps of: providing a silicon substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface; forming a first insulating material layer of at least 1000 Å thick on said top surface; forming a second insulating material layer of at least 1000 Å thick on said bottom surface; reactive ion etching an opening for a manifold in said second insulating material layer on said bottom surface; wet etching a funnel-shaped manifold in said silicon substrate; forming two spaced-apart heaters on said first insulating material layer on said top surface; depositing and patterning two interconnects with a conductive metal each in electrical communication with one of said two spaced-apart heaters; depositing a third insulating material layer on top of said two spaced-apart heaters and said first insulating material layer; spin-coating a first photoresist layer of at least 2000 Å thick on top of said third insulating material layer; patterning by UV exposure a primary and an auxiliary ink chamber in fluid communication with each other in said first photoresist layer; depositing a metal seed layer on said first photoresist layer and patterning an inkjet orifice in said metal seed layer; spin-coating a second photoresist layer of at least 2000 Å thick on said metal seed layer and patterning said inkjet orifice; removing said developed second photoresist layer except on top of said inkjet orifice; electroplating Ni on top of said metal seed layer encapsulating said second photoresist layer on top of said inkjet orifice; stripping away said second photoresist layer on top of said inkjet orifice; reactive ion etching away said second insulating material layer on said bottom surface of the silicon substrate and said first insulating material layer exposed in said manifold; and stripping away said first photoresist layer from said primary and auxiliary ink chambers.