Scanning optical apparatus having beam scan controller
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKazuo Minoura, Isamu Shimoda, Masayuki Suzuki, Yoshinobu Shiraiwa, Osamu Hoshino
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Abstract
A scanning optical apparatus comprises a light source unit, scanning means for deflecting a beam from said light source unit and scanning a scanning surface with the beam, means for detecting the beam scanned on said scanning surface and control means for controlling the beam scanned on said scanning surface in a direction perpendicular to said scanning surface on the basis of a magnitude and a change as a function of time of a signal output from said detecting means.
Claims6
A scanning optical apparatus comprising:
- a light source unit;
- scanning means for scanning a scanned surface with a beam from said light source unit;
- dividing means, disposed between said scanning means and said scanned surface, for dividing a part of the beam to be scanned on said scanned surface into a divided beam;
- detecting means having a plurality of detecting elements provided in a scanning direction of the beam and extending by a length corresponding to an effective scanning length of the beam to be scanned on said scanned surface, said detecting means for detecting the divided beam;
- and
- control means for controlling the beam scanned on the scanned surface in a subscanning direction perpendicular to the scanning direction on the basis of signals output from said plurality of detecting elements.
A recording apparatus comprising:
- a light source unit;
- a recording medium;
- scanning means for scanning said recording medium with a light beam from said light source unit;
- dividing means, disposed between said scanning means and said recording medium, for dividing a part of the light beam to be scanned on said recording medium into a divided beam;
- detecting means for detecting the divided light beam, said detecting means having a plurality of detecting elements provided in a scanning direction of the light beam and extending by a length corresponding to an effective scanning length of the light beam scanned on the recording medium;
- and
- control means for controlling the light beam while the light beam is being scanned on said recording medium in a subscanning direction perpendicular to the scanning direction on the basis of signals output from said plurality of detecting elements.
A method for adjusting a scanning position of a light beam in a scanning optical apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:
- scanning a surface of a recording medium with the light beam;
- dividing a part of the light beam scanned on the surface of the recording medium into a divided beam;
- detecting the divided light beam by a plurality of detecting means arranged in the scanning direction of the light beam and extending by a length corresponding to an effective scanning length of the light beam scanned on the recording medium;
- and
- controlling the light beam while the light beam is being scanned on the surface of the recording medium in a subscanning direction perpendicular to the scanning direction on the basis of a signal output from said plurality of detecting means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.