[54] IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS FORMING AN IMAGE ON A RECORDING MEDIUM USING JUMPING DEVELOPER
[75] Inventor: Kazuya Masuda, Nara, Japan
[73] Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, Japan
[21] Appl. No.: 09/034,389
[22] Filed: Mar. 4, 1998
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Mar. 28, 1997 [JP] Japan 9-077625
[51] Int. C I. B41J 2/06
[52] U.S. C I 347/55
[58] Field of Search 347/55
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,478,510 10/1984 Fujii et al. .
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 0 720 072 A2 7/1996 European Pat. Off. .
In an image forming apparatus having a control electrode including gates for allowing toner to pass through them, an image is formed by allowing or disallowing the toner to jump from the toner support to the opposing electrode whilst controlling the electric field near the control electrode elements by applying either 300 V or 0 V to the control electrode from the control electrode voltage source in accordance with image data. Virtual capacitance arising between interconnections associated with the control electrode is limited to or below a predetermined level much lower than the capacitance of the control electrode while the consumed current is maximized under the predetermined conditions.
5 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets
