ROHM has developed a thermal print head capable of high-speed, clear printing with a single lithium-ion battery, achieving a compact, lightweight, and low-power thermal print head.


ROHM announced on the 9th that it has developed a new thermal print head 'KR2002-Q06N5AA' that drives a single lithium-ion battery cell (3.6V) and achieves high-performance printing and about 30% lower power consumption.

The new product has fundamentally improved the structure of the thermal print head.

The design of the glaze, which serves as the heat storage layer, was optimized, and a special low-resistance heating element was adopted, while the structure of the protective film on the heating element was also modified.

Accordingly, the generated heat can be transferred with high efficiency to printing media such as thermal paper and transfer ribbons.

In addition, printing efficiency was improved by converting the power supplied to the device into high-efficiency thermal energy through improvements in the driver IC and wiring structure. By simultaneously pursuing high efficiency in heating and power, low power consumption was also achieved.

Through these improvements, printing speed and print quality equivalent to that of a conventional product with a 2-cell (7.2V) lithium-ion battery drive type have been achieved with a 1-cell lithium-ion battery.

In addition, compared to existing 1-cell driven thermal print heads, it succeeded in reducing the applied energy required for printing by about 30%.

Accordingly, this contributes to the miniaturization, lightweighting, and low power consumption of thermal printer devices.

Mass production of the new product began in December 2023 with a production capacity of 50,000 units per month. The production base is ROHM Electronics Dalian Co., Ltd. (China).