An Epson White Paper

Epson Micro PiezoTM Print Head Technology

Epson South & Southeast Asia
Updated September 2010

What is an Epson Micro Piezo print head?

Micro Piezo is the name of the multi award-winning, proprietary piezoelectric technology that is
used in the print heads of all Epson inkjet printers which has made them renowned for their high quality
output and reliability, as well as low running cost. Since the introduction of the technology in 1993 till
today, Epson has been and remains the only company that uses piezoelectric technology throughout
its inkjet printing device range from the smallest personal photo printer, to the largest industrial press.

History of Epsons Micro Piezo Print Head

Epson began research into using the piezoelectric effect on ceramics for printing in the late 1970s.
Subsequently, the company introduced its first printer that used piezoelectric technology for its print
heads in October 1984: the Epson SQ-2000. This printer featured a pioneering piezoelectric print head
that was made of glass and had vertical-firing piezoelectric elements.
In 1990, a special team comprising of 80 of the Epsons most talented engineers, headed by Minoru
Usui (who is the current president of Epson), was assembled to develop an advanced piezoelectric
inkjet head for future generations of Epson printers. Its mission was to develop a print head that could
outperform laser and thermal inkjet formats in terms of both cost and quality and that could eventually
be developed to print in color and at much faster speeds.
The teams effort and refinement of Epsons piezoelectric print head technology finally resulted in the
Micro Piezo print head that was first used in the Epson Stylus 800 which was launched in March
1993. This new generation print head employed a high-output, high-response multi-layer piezoelectric
head as an actuator and became the basis for all future Epson inkjet print heads up to today, and for
the foreseeable future.

1984 The Epson Stylus SQ-2000 was Epsons first

printer to use a piezo electric print head. Modern Epson
inkjet printers using Epsons Micro Piezo print heads
share the same basic structure and many of the same
technical principles that were pioneered in the
Epson SQ-2000.

1993 The Epson Stylus 800 introduced in 1993 was

the first printer to use the advanced Epson Micro
Piezo print head that has been featured in every
Epson inkjet printer that came after it.

How does an Epson Micro Piezo print head work?

Epsons Micro Piezo printing technology is based on the phenomenon of piezoelectricity where
materials like crystals and ceramics (known as piezoelectric materials) change shape when an
electrical charge is applied to them.
In an Epson inkjet Micro Piezo print head, microscopic piezoelectric ceramic elements are built
behind the print nozzles. When an electrical charge is applied to them, these ceramic piezoelectric
elements bend backward, drawing precise amounts of ink from the ink chamber into the firing chamber.
When the electrical pulse is changed, the piezoelectric elements bend the opposite way very rapidly,
propelling the ink out of the nozzles at high speed
Diagram 1: How an Epson Micro Piezo print head works
Ink

Print nozzle

Piezoelectric
Element

Meniscus

Pull

Ink is drawn from main

ink chamber
Stage 1: An electrical pulse is applied to the piezoelectric element behind each nozzle. This causes the element to bend,
creating a negative pressure that draws ink from the main ink chamber into the firing chamber.

Ink droplet is propelled out at great speed when

piezoelectric element is bent the other way

Piezoelectric element returns to original shape

after cycle is complete

Push

Stage 2: The electrical charge is altered, causing the piezoelectric element to rapidly push in the opposite direction,
propelling the ink droplet out.

Using piezoelectric technology, the amount of ink pulled into and expelled out of the nozzles can be
very accurately controlled by varying the electrical charge given to the piezoelectric elements which in
turn, varies the degree to which they bend; so the print head can eject ink droplets in a range of
precisely controlled sizes. The meniscus control of the system also helps to produce perfectly spherical
dots and manages the degree of droplet impact.

Epsons Variable Sized Dot Technology (VSDT)

Epsons Micro Piezo print head technology allows extremely accurate control over the size of ink
droplets that are ejected from the print head nozzles by varying the electrical charge given to the
piezoelectric elements. This enables Epsons printers to achieve variable sized ink droplets as small as
1.5 picoliters what Epson calls Variable Size Droplet Technology (VSDT). Epson Micro PiezoTMs
ability to achieve such superior precision results in sharp, rich, and virtually grain-free text and images key qualities strongly associated through the years with Epsons renowned photo-quality prints.
A very common trade-off in inkjet technology is the trade off between speed and precision. Large ink
droplets enable faster print speeds but lower print quality because the larger ink droplets result in
poorer print resolutions and grain. Very small ink droplets increase the detail in the print, but slow down
the printing time because the print head must deliver many ink droplets to cover a small area.
However, Epsons Micro PiezoTM print head technology
with Variable Size Dot technology (VSDT) enables the
print head to deliver a drop size that is optimized to the
fine details in the print.
Harnessing VSDT, the Epson print head delivers very
small droplets when printing micro details in images, and
larger droplets when printing smooth gradations and large
areas of solid color. In this way, VSDT optimises speed
with as little compromise on speed as possible.

The VSDT is an exclusive feature of Epson Micro PiezoTM print heads that allows ultra-high resolution
printing of up to 5,760 by 1,440 dots-per-inch (dpi), and fast print speeds of up to 38 pages per minute
(ppm) through an astonishing 40,000 droplets a second.

Epsons Micro PiezoTM Advantage

Inkjet printers print by firing tiny droplets of ink onto a medium. The two most commonly used systems
in the market are the thermal system and Epsons Micro PiezoTM system.
In an Epson Micro PiezoTM system, ink is fired using mechanical pressure. On the other hand, thermal
inkjet technology works by electrifying microscopic resistors in tiny ink chambers behind the print
heads nozzles to rapidly create an intense heat that, for a nanosecond, is close to a million degrees
centigrade hotter than the surface of the sun! This violent and sudden increase in temperature
vaporizes ink to create a bubble that expands so rapidly, the ink literally explodes out of the nozzle onto
the paper. When the bubble cools and contracts, the resulting vacuum pulls more ink into the print
head from the cartridge.
Diagram 2: How a thermal inkjet print head works

Heating
resistor

Ink drawn in from

main chamber

Stage 1: A resistor rapidly heats

the ink in the firing chamber until it
boils and starts to form an air
bubble

Stage 2: In a micro second, the air

bubble grows until it explodes the
ink out through the nozzle and onto
the medium

Stage 3: After propelling the ink out, the

bubble cools, contracts, and collapses,
and the resulting vacuum draws more
ink in from the main ink chamber to
repeat the cycle

The following table depicts the key differences between both systems and the advantages of Epsons
Micro Piezo system:
Epson Micro Piezo System

Thermal System

Ejection
Mechanical pressure exerted by
Ink ejected by creating and exploding an air
Method
piezoelectric element
bubble by boiling the ink
Performance Ink motion controlled by voltage for precise Achieves higher speeds by increasing nozzle
and variable droplet size & high speed
count
ejection
Resolution Micro Piezo print heads allow for
Thermal inkjet printers can achieve at most
precisely and variably sized drops of ink of two droplet sizes by using print heads with
up to five different sizes to be ejected onto nozzles of different sizes
the medium, resulting in sharper, grain-free
photo prints with smoother tonal transitions
Ink
The low temperature operation of Epson
Limited ink options due to extreme heat
Compatibility Micro Piezo print heads make them
involved. UV and Solvent inks as they are too
compatible with a wide range of inks,
volatile for use in the high heat operation of
including dye and pigment types, solvent conventional thermal inkjet printers
inks, and ultraviolet cure inks
Durability
Epson Micro Piezo print heads run much
Thermal inkjet print heads need to be changed
cooler than thermal inkjet ones and can
regularly because of the extreme heat involved
provide reliable operation for the life span in their operation that will damage them with
of the printer
prolonged use. Therefore, expensive new print
heads are usually built into ink cartridges and
are replaced with every cartridge change

2008 Reengineered Epson Micro Piezo Print Head

By capitalizing on its semiconductor expertise, Epson reengineered its world-renowned Micro PiezoTM
inkjet print head in 2008, making it capable of producing 360 dots per inch, doubling the density of its
current print head. This is the industrys highest density for a print head based on piezoelectric
technology to date.

To achieve this, Epsons researchers found

inspiration in photolithography the same
production process used to create infinitely
small patterns that make up the circuits
crammed into semiconductor chips.
Applying photolithographic techniques to a
thin film of piezo material, Epson has created
microscopically small piezo elements (made of
micro-sized ceramic / quartz chips), just 1
micron in thickness.
Despite its minuteness, the new element has
been designed to enable Epsons Micro PiezoTM
to produce even greater change of dimensions in
the piezo material than the current print element.
The greater the distortion produced in the
materialand here Epson has achieved the
industrys highest levelthe greater the
displacement of ink in the chamber, which in turn
creates larger ink droplets.

The result is that with a piezo unit

measuring almost half the effective
area of the current unit, Epson has
been able to double the number of
nozzles on the print head, all while
maintaining the same size of ink
droplet.

Revolutionizing the Future of Digital Printing

Testament to the superior performance of Epsons Micro PiezoTM print head technology is the rapid
proliferation of Epsons acclaimed inkjet printers across the spectrum of user groups from
multinational corporations and micro businesses to professional graphic artists and photography
enthusiasts. Globally, Epson inkjets command 19% market share to date (1) and also leads in categories
which demand the highest standard in quality prints, like the professional graphic arts and digital
proofing industries.

The top-of-the-line Epson Micro Piezo print

head used in the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900
large format graphic arts / photo printers. To date,
it is the only print head in the world capable of
firing up to 10 separate ink colours simultaneously
and is the worlds highest resolution 1-inch wide
inkjet print head with 360 nozzles per channel.

Citations:
(1)

IDC (2009) Inkjet HCP data (India + ASEAN), IDC Q1 Q4, CY09