Image recorder and optical fiber array unit
AssigneeDainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
InventorEiichi Tamaki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Optical fibers are arranged into staggered matrix. Spacer substrates are inserted between rows of the staggered matrix and cover substrates are attached on the top and bottom of the staggered matrix. All fibers are arranged at a constant pitch P/N in a subscanning direction Y without any overlapping therebetween, where the number P is the pitch of the optical fibers in each row and is the number of the staggered matrix. Photo-beams modulated in response to image signals are emitted from light-emitting ends of the optical fibers onto an objective surface. The spacer substrates reduce the arrangement pitch of the optical fibers in the direction Y, facilitating fine image recording.
Claims8
An image recorder for scanning an objective surface with a plurality of photo-beams in a main scanning direction and a subscanning direction to record an image on said objective surface, comprising:
- a light source for generating light;
- an optical fiber array unit comprising
- a plurality of optical fibers arranged into a plurality of optical fiber rows for receiving said light and emitting a plurality of photo-beams, and
- a plurality of spacer substrates inserted between said plurality of said optical fiber rows, said spacer substrates having a top holding means, formed on top surface thereof, for holding ones of said optical fiber rows and bottom holding means, formed on a bottom surface thereof, for holding other ones of said optical fiber rows;
- and
- an optical system for transmitting said plurality of photo-beams from said optical fiber array unit onto said objective surface,
- wherein said plurality of spacer substrates are stacked such that said top holding means of one spacer substrate is aligned with said bottom holding means of another spacer substrate,
- wherein said top holding means are formed in parallel with said bottom holding means, and both said holding means are staggered in said subscanning direction by an integer multiple of an amount P/N, wherein
- P is a fiber arrangement pitch in each of the optical fiber rows and is substantially equal to a diameter of each optical fiber in each of the optical fiber rows, and
- N is the number of optical fiber rows included in said optical fiber array unit.
A fiber array unit, comprising:
- a plurality of optical fibers arranged into a plurality of optical fiber rows for receiving light and emitting a plurality of photo-beams, and
- a plurality of spacer substrates inserted between said plurality of said optical fiber rows, said spacer substrates having top holding means, formed on a top surface thereof, for holding ones of said optical fiber rows and bottom holding means, formed on a bottom surface thereof, for holding other ones of said optical fiber rows,
- wherein said plurality of spacer substrates are stacked such that said top holding means of one spacer substrate is aligned with said bottom holding means of another spacer substrate,
- wherein said top holding means are formed in a parallel with said bottom holding means, and both said holding means are staggered in a row direction by an integer multiple of an amount P/N, wherein
- P is a fiber arrangement pitch in each of the optical fiber rows and is substantially equal to a diameter of each optical fiber in each of the optical fiber rows, and
- N is the number of optical fiber rows included in said optical fiber array unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.