Patent 7470649 was granted and assigned to Konica Minolta on December, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A thermal transfer image receiving sheet containing a substrate having thereon a porous intermediate layer and an image receiving layer in that order, wherein the porous intermediate layer has a void ratio of not less than 30%; the porous intermediate layer contains inorganic microparticles; and the porous intermediate layer and the image receiving layer are formed by a coating method.