Patent ID: 6800845
Filing Date: 2004-10-05
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
A multi-beam scanning device comprising:a semiconductor laser array having a plurality of light emitting parts emitting multiple laser beams, wherein the multiple laser beams emitted by the light emitting parts of the semiconductor laser array are focused on a scanned surface to form a plurality of beam spots on the scanned surface, wherein the semiconductor laser array is configured such that the light emitting parts are arrayed along a line that is at an inclination angle &phgr; to a sub-scanning direction, the inclination angle &phgr; being measured in degrees and meeting the conditions 0&lE;&phgr;<90, and that a scanning line pitch P, an array pitch &rgr; of the light emitting parts of the semiconductor laser array and a parameter K defined by the equation K=0.82 &lgr;/&ohgr;z, where &lgr; is a wavelength of the emitted laser beams and &ohgr;z is a target beam spot diameter in the sub-scanning direction, satisfy the following conditions: 0.01/(&rgr;Â·cos &phgr;)<0.30 0.011