Thermal head and system including the same

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a thermal head which can be inexpensively produced with an increased concentration of pressure at the heating section and thus with an improved printing efficiency.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermal head which is improved in efficiency and can be excellently separated from the ink ribbon.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a thermal head which is improved in efficiency and where the patterning process is simplified.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of inexpensively producing a thermal head with an improved printing efficiency.
The present invention provides a thermal head which comprises a dielectric substrate, a glaze layer formed on the dielectric substrate, a resistive film layer formed on the glaze layer, common and individual electrodes formed on the resistive Film layer at positions spaced apart from each other by a desired gap to form a heating section at the gap and a protecting film layer formed over the heating section, common electrode and individual electrode, said heating section being positioned at the corner portion of said glaze layer.
In this thermal head, the heating section is formed so as to cover the top and side faces of the glaze layer and also to cover the corner portion which is an intersection between the top face of the glaze layer and the slope of the same.
Therefore, pressure will not be unnecessarily dispersed to the portions of the glaze layer and substrate that are out of the heating section.
The pressure will be fully focused onto the heating section during operation.
The glaze substrate is half-cut such that the substrate will be moved directly to the subsequent step such as film formation or patterning without full division.
Thus, thermal heads can be mass-produced with a reduction in the cost for one thermal head.
In accordance with the present invention, the glaze layer includes a slope portion having its thickness gradually decreased toward the edge thereof, the heating section being located at the slope portion