Features of Thermal Printheads

Introducing Kyocera's unique thermal print head technology.

Heater size can be formed at the level of several tens of μm

Kyocera's proprietary technology makes it possible to form heaters as fine as several tens of microns.
Several hundred heaters (dots) can be installed within an inch（25.4mm).
By providing many heaters in one inch (high resolution), it is possible to print microscopic characters, 2D codes, and sharp photographs.

The heater heats up to several hundred degrees Celsius in an instant in the order of microseconds.
Thermal printheads need to heat the print media while feeding it, so it is essential to raise the temperature to a high level instantaneously in a short period of time.

Heating => cooling => heating => cooling... can be repeated by turning on/off the heater in microsecond order.
Heater design and heating control allows control of any temperature.
The thermal print head forms (prints) images and characters based on digital data one line at a time while conveying the print media.
Because the reproducibility of the print dots from digital data is required, it is essential to turn the heater on and off in a short period of time.

All heaters installed are independent of each other, and heating control allows individual heaters to generate heat or not.
Thermal printheads achieve thermal control of heaters in response to external signals by using a dedicated driver IC.
It is necessary to selectively heat any heater to form (print) images and characters.

Download Documents for Kyocera's Thermal Printheads

This document summarizes the detailed mechanism and structure of thermal printheads.