Parallel beam to beam power correction
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorShahriar Vazan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electro-optical system for adjusting beam to beam power non-uniformity in a multi-beam scanning system is disclosed. The electro-optical system consists of N×M array of light beams and N×M array of photodetectors wherein optical means deflect the light beams onto a photodetector array. A circuit consisting of N×M array of programmable laser drivers programmed with uniformity values for each light beam and having an N×M array of feedback loops is used to adjust the power intensity of each beam through the programmable laser drivers wherein each programmable laser driver uses the photodetector array summed with non-linearity inputs to adjust for beam to beam power uniformity correction.
Claims20
A multi-beam scanning system, comprising:
- an array of light sources each having a programmable driver programmed with calibrated uniformity values for producing a corresponding light beam;
- an array of photodetectors;
- a beam splitter for deflecting said light beams onto said photodetector array;
- and
- an array of feedback loops for simultaneously adjusting beam power intensity in a fast/slow scan direction using said programmable drivers for each said light beam wherein each said programmable driver uses said photodetector array as a reference source summed with non-linearity inputs to adjust for parallel beam to beam power correction produced by said array of light sources.
A method, comprising:
- generating a plurality of light beams from an array of light sources using predetermined calibration values stored in programmable drivers;
- splitting said plurality of light beams through a beam splitter for receipt on a photodetector plane having an array of photodetectors;
- measuring output power for each light beam using a photodetector;
- and
- adjusting an intensity for each said light beam simultaneously in a fast/slow scan direction through an array of feedback loops using said programmable drivers wherein each programmable driver uses said photodetector array as a reference source summed with non-linearity inputs to adjust for beam to beam power correction produced by said array of light sources.
A printer, comprising:
- an N×M array of laser sources each having a programmable laser driver programmed with uniformity values for producing a light beam;
- an N×M array of photodetectors;
- optical means to deflect said light beams onto said photodetector array;
- and
- an N×M array of feedback loops to simultaneously adjust an intensity for each beam in parallel in a fast/slow scan direction through each said programmable laser driver wherein each programmable laser driver uses said photodetector array summed with non-linearity inputs to correct for beam to beam power correction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.