Invalidity dossier
US 6616268
Power distribution architecture for inkjet heater chip
Current assignee: Funai Electric Co Ltd
Added 9/23/2026, 9:54:25 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,616,268 B2
Title: Power distribution architecture for inkjet heater chip
Patent number / application: US 6,616,268 B2; application US 09/833,887
Inventor: George Keith Parish
Original assignee: Lexmark International, Inc. Current assignee listed: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
Dates: Filed 2001-04-12; priority 2001-04-12; published as US 2002/0149632 A1 on 2002-10-17; granted 2003-09-09; anticipated expiration 2021-04-12. Status: Expired – Lifetime.
Purpose (from the supplied text): The invention addresses a drawback of conventional inkjet heater chip power distribution architectures, which require two or more layers of metallization on the silicon substrate to connect heating elements and driving circuitry. Multiple conductive layers require an intervening dielectric layer to prevent traces from contacting one another, adding cost and process complexity. The stated aim is an improved inkjet heater chip architecture in which a single layer of metallization is used for the interconnecting circuitry.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied text): The prior-art discussion describes a heater chip with an elongate ink via traversing the chip, heaters, power bond pads, ground bond pads, and driving elements, where the power and ground bond pads are necessarily on the same side of the chip, requiring overlapping electrical connections across multiple metallization layers. The described invention concerns a printhead heater chip for an inkjet printer having a printer controller. The chip includes a substrate with a substrate surface and an opposite device surface; the device surface has a power side and a ground side in opposing relation; and a plurality of transistor devices is located on the device surface. The excerpt does not supply the claims, so the precise claimed scope cannot be stated.
What this excerpt does not establish: It does not show the claims, the full written description, drawing content, or any prosecution history. No litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, or prior-art conclusions are drawn here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:33:57 PM
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Litigation summary
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PTAB challenges
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
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