PURPOSE: To increase the heat resistance of a water-resistant film and obtain a thermal head which is not cracked under high-speed printing conditions, by providing a wear-resistant film at a portion of the thermal head at which it comes in slide contact with a recording paper, the wear-resistant film being made of a mixture of tantalum pentaoxide and silicon dioxide.
CONSTITUTION: On a glazed alumina substrate 1 having a glaze 2 with a thickness of about 70μm, a tantalum nitride film with a thickness of about 0.05μm is formed as a resistor 3. On the resistor 3, a pattern of a conductor 4 is formed by employing a three-layer configuration of NiCr-Au-Cr having a thickness of about 0.4μm. As an oxidation-resistant film 5, a silicon dioxide film with a thickness of about 1μm is formed by sputtering. On the film 5, as a wear-resistant film 6, a mixture of tantalum pentaoxide and silicon dioxide having a thickness of about 4μm is formed by sputtering. The thermal head thus obtained has no possibility of cracking of its wear-resistant film even when it is driven under high-speed printing conditions.
SATOU KIYOSHI
SUZUKI TAKUMI
