US 2001/0017869 A1Published application

Semiconductor laser driving apparatus and method and image-forming apparatus

AssigneeFuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.

InventorTakuya Takata

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Abstract

A compact, low-cost semiconductor laser driving apparatus which can assuredly prevent the influence of mode-hopping noise, a semiconductor laser driving method and an image forming apparatus are provided. Automatic Temperature Control and Automatic Power Control are performed and then the temperature of a laser diode (LD) is raised in small increments (0.1° C.). At each temperature level, the LD is driven in accordance with predetermined image data and an LD light amount is detected for each of a predetermined number of image lines. When the proportion of these line light amounts that are outside a range of tolerance is less than a predetermined proportion (5%) for a predetermined number of consecutive temperature levels, the temperature is stored to serve as a control temperature of the LD during actual optical scanning. This process is performed for all LDs.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A semiconductor laser driving apparatus that drives a semiconductor laser that emits laser light for optical scanning, the apparatus comprising:

a light amount detecting section which detects a light amount of a laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser;
a temperature detecting section which detects a laser section temperature, which is one of a temperature of a light-emitting section of the semiconductor laser and a temperature of a vicinity of the semiconductor laser;
a temperature adjusting section which adjusts the laser section temperature;
a light amount control section which, while the semiconductor laser is driven in a manner the same as for actual optical scanning, controls driving of the semiconductor laser such that a light amount detected by the light amount detecting section becomes equal to a predetermined target light amount;
and
a temperature deciding section that, while control is performed by the light amount control section, causes the laser section temperature to be altered by the temperature adjusting section, and, if a light amount detected by the light amount detecting section is within a predetermined error span, decides on the laser section temperature as a setting temperature for optical scanning of the semiconductor laser.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.