SOLID STATE FUSER HEATER AND METHOD OF OPERATION

A fusing apparatus includes a heater that heats a fuser belt at a nip between the fuser belt and a pressure roll through which a sheet is conveyed to permanently fuse an image onto the sheet. The heater has a silicon wafer with a smooth side that contacts and heats the fuser belt at the nip, and circuitry at a second side, with the circuitry generating heat through the silicon wafer to heat the fuser belt. The circuitry may include a plurality of heat producing integrated circuits etched in the silicon wafer, with each heat producing integrated circuit configured to heat the fuser belt. Each integrated circuit may self-control its amount of heat produced to the silicon wafer, for example, by automatically switching back and forth between a heat-on-state and a heat-off-state to maintain a desired temperature within the silicon wafer that heats the fuser belt.