
PRINTHEAD TEMPERATURE CONTROL PART
Introduction
For quality printing, it is necessary to know and
control the temperature of the printhead. Thus,
the latter has a built - in aluminium resistor,
whose value changes slightly with the tempera-
ture. The temperature determination is done by
injecting a constant current in the resistor, and
measuringthe voltagedrop across it. Since high -
end printers have two heads, it must also be pos-
sible to switch quikly the measurement process
from one to the other. The function is foreseen to
be integrated into the head driver, and is de-
scribed hereafter.
Print HeadBlock Diagram (fig.4)
At first we have a constant current source, which
can be disabled by an external pin (ONenable) or
by a control register, described later. The value of
the current can be programmed by an external
resistor,and is given by:
I
CCS
=
V
ref
4
2
R
ext
This current is injected either into the aluminium
resistor of the head A (Ralu. A) or B (Ralu.B), de-
pending of the switch SW3. The alu. resistors are
grounded, and the voltage at their << hot >> side
(Vx) is re-entered via the pins Vxa and Vxb. Us-
ing separatepins from Rxa and Rxb permits to be
more flexible, and a filter can eventuallybe added
as shownin the drawing.
The voltage Vx is amplified by A1 and A2, and
then converted in a digital value. To be compat-
ible with the input range of the A/D converter,it is
necessary to subtract an offset voltage Voffset
from Vx. Moreover, as the initial value of the alu.
resistor is very unprecise. Voffset must be adjust-
able; this is done by means of a 5 bit - D/A con-
verter, giving 32 different values. Finally, the volt-
age at the input of the A/D converteris:
V
CH0
= g1
g2
V
X
- g2
V
OFFSET
or
V
CH0
= g1
g2
Ralu
I
CCS
- g2
V
OFFSET
;
V
OFFSET
= V
REF
/2 + N
V
REF
/32
The reference voltage generator (V
REF
) is inte-
grated, and used for the current source and both
the A/D and D/A converters. In this way, the sys-
tem performance is independent from the preci-
sion of V
REF
; this one should,however, be stable.
Vref is also available on pin #45, and can be
used for low consumption purposes. (The exter-
nal sinkedcurrent has to be a DC current)
The system is under control of a 10 bit register,
CR. CR is accessed serially and has a transpar-
ent latch, which can be used or not (by trying the
latch signal CR latch to V
CC
).
N = 0, 1, ...31
REF
VOLT
VREF
+
g1
A1
g2
-
A
VREF/2
VREF OUT
Va
D/A 5 BIT
A/B
ON/OFF
DA4
DA3
DA2
DA1
DA0
S2
S1
S0
D
VREF
CONTROL
REGISTER
LATCH 10 BIT
SHIFT REG. 10 BIT
CRLATCH
CRCLOCK
CRDATA
A
B
D
C
VREF
A2
Vx
SW1
SW2
SW3
CH0
+
CH1
CH2
CH3
CH4
CH5
ADDATA
ADCK
CONV START
INPUTS
CH0_BUF
REXT
ONENABLE
RXA, RXB
VXA, VXB
RALU B
RALU A
ANALOG GND
Note; the analog ground is separated fromthe digital ground of the remaining part of the driver
D97IN533B
HIGH-SIDE
CONSTANT
CURRENT
SOURCE
VOFFSET
Figure 4. PrintHead Block Diagram
L6452
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