The Device Modeling team works closely with business divisions of Seiko-Epson to develop sophisticated software tools for the modeling, analysis, and simulation of a wide range of devices in different electronic and electrical products. Our current research subjects include solid mechanics, fluid dynamics, and umerical methods. We also have extensive collaboration with universities, national labs, and other companies. We expect that the research subjects of this group will be expanded to areas like electronic packaging and semiconductor devices.

Piezoelectric Print Head Modeling

The piezoelectric inkjet print head, as you can find in the award-winning Epson printers, is a complicated device with electric circuits, ink (fluid), and piezoelectric elements. The analysis of the print head as a whole is very difficult because the interactions of electricity, solids, and fluid. The use of new pigment-based ink also increases the complexity. The goal of the project is to develop a modern CFD code and numerically simulate the ink jetting and pumping processes. Currently we have a finite-difference code based on the projection method and level set algorithm for incompressible fluid flows with free surface. Here is an example of the fluid simulation result.