Image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, comprising:

• an image bearing member having a surface for forming a static latent image thereon;
• and
• means comprising a laser beam scanning unit for scanning said surface of said image bearing member with a plurality of laser beams to form said static latent image;
• the improvement wherein said laser beam scanning unit comprises:
• an array of light emitting portions of one semiconductor substrate for emitting said 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 individually,
• a collimator lens having a focal length fc for collimating said laser beam;
• and
• means comprising a deflecting unit for deflecting said collimated laser beams to said surface of said image bearing member;
• wherein said light emitting portions are disposed two-dimensionally on said surface of said semiconductor substrate, whereby said laser beams provide respective spots that are disposed two-dimensionally on said surface of said image bearing member and run along respective scanning lines;
• and
• wherein a distance between a most spaced two of said plurality of light emitting portions is δ max, fc/δ max being 25 or more.