Patent ID: 6366384
Filing Date: 2002-04-02
Classification: B41J,G02B,Y10S

Abstract:
A multi-beam scanning apparatus comprising:n number of semiconductor laser array units, each of the n number of semiconductor laser array units having m number of light emitting points, where n is greater than 1 and m is greater than 1; at least one coupling lens arranged to couple beams emitted from the light emitting points of the laser semiconductor array units; a beam synthesizing device arranged to synthesize the coupled beams to obtain mÃ—n number of beams; an optical deflector arranged to deflect the mÃ—n number of beams at substantially the same time such that the deflected beams are impinged on a scanning surface; and an image forming optical system which is arranged between the at least two light emitting points and the scanning surface and which is arranged to condense the beams from the light emitting points on the scanning surface as beam spots separated from each other in the sub scanning direction, wherein a lateral magnification of the image forming optical system is A, a scanning line pitch of the mÃ—n number of scanning lines on the scanning surface is L, an interval between the light emitting points of the semiconductor laser array units is p, the number of the semiconductor laser array units is n, and the lateral magnification and the scanning line pitch L are set such that when n is 3, {(pÃ—|&bgr;|)/L} is equal to 1 or 3.