US3979757A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Electrostatic display system with toner applied to head
Assignee: Individual
•
Filing: 1975-01-15
•
Granted: 1976-09-07
•
Expires: 1995-01-15
Abstract
Abstract An electrostatic imaging system is disclosed having an imaging head characterized by a plurality of discretely chargeable areas. The charge on each discrete area is controlled by a separate binary circuit. The imaging head is preferably a monocrystalline semiconductor substrate with the discretely chargeable areas being either metallized plates or regions of one conductivity type that are individually isolated by regions of the other conductivity type. The binary circuit associated with each chargeable area is formed in the semiconductor substrate using conventional integrated circuit technology. One embodiment of the imaging head is used in an electrostatic line printer programmed by the output from a digital system to produce matrix type characters. Another embodiment of the imaging head may also be used in an electrostatic half tone facsimile system. Still another embodiment of the imaging head is used in electrostatic systems for producing high quality characters in high or low speed electrostatic systems which are geometrically programmed using light coupling, capacitive coupling, or resistive coupling to the imaging head. The imaging heads may also be used in temporary display systems in which visible particles are attracted to selectively activated, separated by chargeable areas each controlled by a programmable bistable circuit.
Inventors
- 👤 Jack S. Kilby
- 👤 Jay W. Lathrop
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-25 11:55
CPC Classifications
G; G03; G03G; G03G15/00; G03G15/22; G03G15/32; G03G15/321; G06; G06K; G06K15/00; G06K15/02; G06K15/14; H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/23; H04N1/29; H10; H10B; H10B20/00
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 50
Claim 1
Independent Claim
179 words
A system for producing an image of charged particles, comprising in combination: an imaging head having an array of discretely chargeable electrode areas positioned and charged to receive and attract in an image pattern particles charged opposite the charge on said chargeable electrode areas, individual circuit means associated with each discretely chargeable electrode area for selectively establishing at least one of two different electrical charges on the respective discretely chargeable electrode areas wherein the interconnections between said circuit means and said electrode areas are buried below the surface defined by said electrode areas so that an effective particle attracting field will be established only at said electrode areas and not by said circuit means, means for applying directly to the surface of said imaging head a uniformly distributed supply of charged particles which are attracted to the charges on the head to collect in accordance with a non-uniform image pattern for transfer therefrom in said non-uniform image pattern, means for transferring the particle image from the plates to a surface, and means for fixing the image on the surface.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
179 words
A system for producing an image of charged particles, comprising in combination: an imaging head having an array of discretely chargeable electrode areas positioned and charged to receive and attract in an image pattern particles charged opposite the charge on said chargeable electrode areas, individual circuit means associated with each discretely chargeable electrode area for selectively establishing at least one of two different electrical charges on the respective discretely chargeable electrode areas wherein the interconnections between said circuit means and said electrode areas are buried below the surface defined by said electrode areas so that an effective particle attracting field will be established only at said electrode areas and not by said circuit means, means for applying directly to the surface of said imaging head a uniformly distributed supply of charged particles which are attracted to the charges on the head to collect in accordance with a non-uniform image pattern for transfer therefrom in said non-uniform image pattern, means for transferring the particle image from the plates to a surface, and means for fixing the image on the surface.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
18 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the discrete plates are arrayed to provide at least one character matrix.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
50 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the plates are arrayed in a plurality of rows and columns to provide a line of character matrices, and the circuit means includes a plurality of shift registers, the electrical charge on each field plate being controlled by a bit of a shift register.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
37 words
The system of claim 3 wherein there is a shift register for each row of plates and each plate is controlled by a bit of the shift register for the row in which the plate is located.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
79 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the head is fixedly mounted, the means for applying toner to the plates is a magnetic member for transporting the particles past the print head, and the means for transferring the toner image to a surface includes means for positioning a sheet of paper adjacent the head after the toner has been transported past the head and for applying a potential to cause the toner to transfer from the head to the paper.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the circuit means is formed as part of an integrated circuit and the electrostatic plates are formed at a surface of the integrated circuit.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
33 words
The system of claim 6 wherein the electrostatic plates are formed by a plurality of semiconductor regions of one conductivity type separated one from the other by regions of the other conductivity type.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
33 words
The system of claim 7 wherein the integrated circuit has two generally parallel faces and the electrostatic plates are disposed on one face and the circuit means is formed on the other face.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
16 words
The system of claim 7 wherein the electrostatic plates are metallized areas on the integrated circuit.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
31 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the circuit means comprises an individual circuit for controlling the state of each electrostatic plate and each individual means has two alternatively selectable stable states.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
34 words
The system of claim 10 wherein at least a portion of the individual circuit means are interconnected to form a shift register in which the individual circuit means form stages of the shift register.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system of claim 10 wherein the electrostatic plates are arrayed in at least one row, and the individual circuit means for the discretely chargeable plates in said at least one row are interconnected to form a shift register in which the individual circuit means form stages of the shift register.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
34 words
The system of claim 12 wherein there are at least five rows of electrostatic plates to form matrix characters and at least five parallel shift registers, one for each row of discretely chargeable areas.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 13 further characterized by circuit means for shifting binary data into the parallel shift registers representative of matrix characters.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
40 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the electrostatic plates are arranged in sets, each set occupying an area of approximately the same size, each set including a plurality of discretely chargeable areas having different sizes one relative to the other.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
18 words
The system of claim 15 wherein the electrostatic plates in each set have sizes in a binary progression.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
40 words
The system of claim 15 wherein the circuit means is comprised of an individual circuit means for controlling each electrostatic plate and each individual circuit means has two stable states and are interconnected to form at least one shift register.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
40 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the circuit means is comprised of an individual circuit means for controlling each electrostatic plate and at least a portion of the individual circuit means are controlled by light striking a light sensitive device.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
36 words
The system of claim 18 wherein the light sensitive device and the electrostatic plate associated with the circuit controlled by the light sensitive device are formed in adjacent relationship on the same face of the head.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
50 words
The system of claim 18 wherein the individual circuit means controlled by light comprise a bistable circuit means including the lifht sensitive device which is set to a first state in response to light striking the light sensitive devvice and is set to a second state by an electronic signal.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
52 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the circuit means is comprised of an individual circuit means for controlling each electrostatic plate and each individual circuit means is a bistable circuit which can be set to at least one logic state in response to a voltage applied to the respective discretely chargeable area.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
27 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the discrete electrostatic plates are formed on a semiconductor substrate and the circuit means are formed on the same semiconductor substrate.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
116 words
The system for producing an image which comprises: a head for holding an electrostatic image having a two dimensional array of discrete chargeable plates formed on the surface of a semiconductor substrate and each controlled by a separate bistable circuit formed in said semiconductor substrate, means for moving the head to a programming station, a developing station, and a print station, programming means at the programming station for establishing an electrostatic image on the head in response to electronic signals defining the image, developing means at the developing station for transferring charged particles to the electrostatic image, and print means at the print station for transferring the developed image of charged particles to a recording surface.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
116 words
The system for producing an image which comprises: a head for holding an electrostatic image having a two dimensional array of discrete chargeable plates formed on the surface of a semiconductor substrate and each controlled by a separate bistable circuit formed in said semiconductor substrate, means for moving the head to a programming station, a developing station, and a print station, programming means at the programming station for establishing an electrostatic image on the head in response to electronic signals defining the image, developing means at the developing station for transferring charged particles to the electrostatic image, and print means at the print station for transferring the developed image of charged particles to a recording surface.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
79 words
The system of claim 23 wherein the head is adapted to hold a line of characters, and the programming means includes at least one font of characters which may be moved past at least one character position, and means for selectively activating each character of the font as it is positioned adjacent the character position to set the bistable circuits associated with a selected set of plates defined by the character of the font to a predetermined stable state.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system of claim 24 wherein the font is moved transversely of the line of characters on the head.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
24 words
The system of claim 25 wherein a single font of characters is moved to at least a plurality of character positions on the head.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system of claim 24 wherein the font is moved longitudinally of the line of characters on the head.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
38 words
The system of claim 24 wherein the bistable circuits are set to the predetermined state in response to light, and the font means projects a light image of the selected characters onto the character positions on the head.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
41 words
The system of claim 24 wherein the bistable circuits are set to the predetermined state in response to a voltage coupled to the respective plate, and the font produces a voltage image of the selected character at the respective character positions.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
42 words
The system of claim 24 wherein the programming means include at least one font of characters. the head is successively moved past each character of the font and a selected character is activated while the head is positioned adjacent the selected character.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system of claim 30 wherein the head has a line of character positions disposed transversely of the font.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system of claim 31 wherein there is a font for each character position on the line of characters.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 23 wherein the bistable circuits are formed as part of an integrated circuit and the chargeable plates are formed at a surface of the integrated circuit.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
33 words
The system of claim 33 wherein the chargeable plates are formed by a plurality of semiconductor regions of one conductivity type separated one from the other by regions of the other conductivity type.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
33 words
The system of claim 34 wherein the integrated circuit has two generally parallel faces and the chargeable plates are disposed on one face and the bistable circuits are formed on the other face.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
16 words
The system of claim 33 wherein the chargeable plates are metallized areas on the integrated circuit.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
16 words
The system of claim 23 wherein each individual circuit means has two alternatively selectable stable states.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
31 words
The system of claim 37 wherein at least a portion the bistable circuits are interconnected to form a shift register in which the bistable circuits form stages of the shift register.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
37 words
The system of claim 37 wherein the chargeable plates are arrayed in at least one row, and the bistable circuits for the chargeable plates in said at least one row are interconnected to form a shift register.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
34 words
The system of claim 39 wherein there are at least five rows of chargeable plates to form matrix characters and at least five parallel shift registers, one for each row of discretely chargeable areas.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 40 further characterized by circuit means for shifting binary data into the parallel shift registers representative of matrix characters.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
40 words
The system of claim 23 wherein the chargeable plates are arranged in sets, each set occupying an area of approximately the same size, each set including a plurality of discretely chargeable areas having different sizes one relative to the other.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system of claim 42 wherein the discretely chargeable areas in each set have sizes in a binary progression.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
24 words
The system of claim 42 wherein the individual circuit means have two stable plates and are interconnected to form at least one shift register.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 23 wherein at least a portion of the bistable circuits are controlled by light striking a light sensitive device.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
39 words
The system of claim 45 wherein the light sensitive device and the discretely chargeable areas associated with the bistable circuits controlled by the light sensitive device are formed in adjacent relationship on the same face of the imaging head.
Claim 49
Dependent Claim
39 words
The system of claim 45 wherein the bistable circuits controlled by light are set to a first state in response to light striking the respective light sensitive device and are set to a second state by an electronic signal.
Claim 50
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 23 wherein each bistable circuit can be set to at least one logic state in response to a voltage applied to the respective discretely chargeable area.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1979-09-07 | 1980-03-08 | 1980-09-07 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1983-09-07 | 1984-03-08 | 1984-09-07 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1987-09-07 | 1988-03-08 | 1988-09-07 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |