Patent ID: 6476846
Filing Date: 2002-11-05
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
A multi-beam scanner, comprising:a light-emitting unit which has a plurality of light emitting portions for emitting a plurality of light beams, the plurality of light emitting portions being separated from one another in a depth direction of the light beams; a scanning unit that deflects the light beams in a main scanning direction in a plurality of lines across a surface of an object to be scanned, the plurality of lines being arranged along an auxiliary scanning direction that is substantially perpendicular to the main scanning direction; and a light converging unit converging the plurality of light beams onto the surface of the object to be scanned, the light converging unit allowing depths of focus of the light beams from all the light emitting portions to overlap on the surface of the object, wherein an amount of a range where depths of focus of the light beams from all the light emitting portions overlap has a positive value at all the scan positions of the surface of the object, wherein the light converging unit has a longitudinal magnification of a value setting the amount of the overlapping range to a positive value at all the scan positions of the surface of the object.