Laser beam scanning image forming apparatus having two-dimensionally disposed light emitting portions
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsNozomu Inoue, Kyu Takada, Hajime Kurihara, Yoshiro Koga
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Abstract
A laser beam scanning unit (53) adapted for scanning laser beams on a surface of a charged image bearing member (5) is provided. The laser beam scanning apparatus (53) comprises a semiconductor laser array (21) having a plurality of light emitting portions (21a) and a rotating polygon mirror (3) adapted for deflecting laser beams emitted from the light emitting portions to the image bearing member (5). The light emitting portions (21a) are disposed two-dimensionally on a surface of the semiconductor laser array. The lighting and the amount of light of the light emitting portions (21a) are discretely controlled by a control unit (60).
Claims5
In an image forming apparatus, comprising:
- an image bearing member (5) having a surface for forming a static latent image thereon;
- and
- means comprising a laser beam scanning unit (53) for scanning said surface of said image bearing member (5) with a plurality of laser beams to form said static latent image;
- the improvement wherein said laser beam scanning unit (53) comprises:
- an array (21) of light emitting portions (21a) of one semiconductor substrate (22) for emitting laser beams from a surface of said semiconductor substrate and means for controlling lighting and amount of light emission of each of said light emitting portions (21a) individually;
- means comprising a deflecting unit (3) for deflecting said laser beams emitted from said light emitting portions (21a) to said surface of said image bearing member (5);
- wherein said light emitting portions (21a) are disposed two-dimensionally on said surface of said semiconductor substrate, each of said laser beams has a corresponding spot of a plurality of spots (6) different from each other, said spots are disposed two-dimensionally on said surface of said image bearing member (5) and each of said spots (6) runs along a scanning line on said surface of said image bearing member (5) which is different from scanning lines of others of said spots (6);
- and
- wherein each of said light emitting portions (21a) of said semiconductor laser array (21) has an optical axis substantially perpendicular to said surface of said device substrate.
A laser beam scanning unit, comprising:
- an array (21) of light emitting portions (21a) of one semiconductor substrate for emitting laser beams from a surface of said semiconductor substrate and means for controlling lighting and amount of light emitting portions (21a) individually;
- and
- means comprising a deflecting unit (3) for deflecting said laser beams emitted from said light emitting portions (21a);
- wherein said light emitting portions (21a) are disposed two-dimensionally on said surface of said semiconductor substrate, each of said laser beams has a corresponding spot of a plurality of spots different from each other, said spots are disposed two-dimensionally on a scanned surface, and each of said spots runs along a scanning line which is different from scanning lines of others said spots;
- and
- wherein each of said light emitting portions has an optical axis substantially perpendicular to said surface of said semiconductor substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.