A light modulator with a laser array for exposing image data

Abstract: A light modulator for use with a laser or laser diode array such that the light from the laser is imaged on a light modulator having a row of light modulating elements, either of the reflectance or transmittance type. The light modulator is imaged onto a light-sensitive material and the image is scanned line by line on the light-sensitive material. Control circuitry is provided to control the relative movement between the light modulator and the light-sensitive material that may be either in planar form or wrapped out the circumference of cylindrical drum.

Description: Technical Field of the Invention This invention relates to printing systems capable of developing an image and, more particularly, to a light modulation and exposure system for exposing light sensitive material with image data. Background of the Invention In a typical laser printer, radiation from laser is shaped, and imaged onto the film plane to produce the desired spot size. The spot forms the smallest element of the image, called "pixel". The laser radiation is modulated in an imagewise fashion to create right image density, pixel by pixel. The laser spot is scanned in line and page directions to create a two-dimensional image. If a continuous wave (CW) type gas or solid state laser is used, an external modulator of Acousto-Optic or Electro-Optic type is favored; for semiconductor diode lasers, laser radiation is modulated by varying the current input to the laser. For printers using high sensitivity media such as silver halide, electrophotoconductor, etc., high throughput is obtained by scanning the laser beam in the line direction by a rotating polygonal mirror, a galvanometer or a hologonal diffractive element, also called "flying spot" printers. For low sensitivity media printer such as a laser thermal printer, higher power lasers are used and exposure requirements of the order of 0.5 joules/cm 2 are met by scanning the laser beam slowly in both line and page directions. One way to achieve this is to configure the printer like a "lathe", where line scan is obtained by a rotating drum which holds the film and page scan by translating the laser or drum in the direction along the axis of rotation. For higher throughput, higher power levels are required which cannot be met by a single laser technologically. Many discrete lasers are then ganged together to form multiple spots on the film plane. Multiple pixels are written simultaneously to increase the throughput. An architecture of such a printer using many discrete lasers coupled to optical fibers is suggested in Patent No. 4,911,526 and assigned to the same assignee. The cost of discreet lasers and loss of efficiency in coupling to fibers has prompted yet another improvement on this basic concept of multiple lasers, which uses a monolithic array of lasers. The elements of the array are imaged directly on the film to produce multiple spots. Elements of the array are individually modulated to obtain pixel densities. An architecture of such a device is suggested in Patent No. 4,804,975 and assigned to the same assignee. The problem with such a device is the complexity of fabricating an array where elements can be individually modulated and the need to modulate high current input to each element at fairly high speeds. The current driver electronics becomes expensive and difficult. High laser power capacity of each element makes it more susceptible for thermal and electrical cross-talks, which create image artifacts. Schemes to eliminate thermal and electrical cross-talks are difficult and expensive. Failure of even one element in the array makes it useless. Planarity and accurate mutual configuration of these elements are essential for use of reasonable optical system and artifact free images. United States Patent No. 5,132,723 is directed to a method and apparatus for controlling exposure using light valves. The light valve is being imaged onto an object, for example, a sheet of light-sensitive material and the image is scanned along the object either by moving the object or the image. Such an arrangement allows for the correction of exposure and/or compensation for any dead sites. However, such a practice clearly reduces the total throughput of data and requires complicated, individualized calibration techniques to compensate and adjust the exposure for each site in the array. United States Patent No. 5,049,901 relates to a light modulator that uses large area light sources such as an arc lamp to image onto a two-dimensional light valve, preferably of the deformable mirror type. The light valve is imaged onto a light-sensitive material and the image is scanned along the light-sensitive material. Because the light source is a broad spectrum source, the light valve will absorb energy near the fringes that will result in elevating the operating temperature of the light valve. Because the medium has a limited absorption band energy in that band, it will be used for writing, but a substantial portion of that energy will be absorbed by the light valve. The preferred way of operation requires that a substantial amount of the energy available in a light source should be used for writing purposes and not to raise the temperature of the equipment and surroundings. United States Patent No. 5,208,818 is directed to a laser system for recording data patterns on a planar substrate. A deformable mirror spatial light modulator is used together with a waveguide-type excimer laser to record a large number of data bits with each laser pulse. This is an ultraviolet (UV) pulsed excimer laser and uses a medium having a thin ablatable coating on a quartz substrate. Multiple exposures by the pulsed laser is used on the modulator to reduce average power density on the modulator. Such a system can find use in the manufacture of circuit boards using photoresist. Contrary to this technique, the present invention uses a constant wave (CW) source for thermal transfer or removal of thermal dyes to record images. This invention provides solutions which overcome the above-mentioned problems. Laser array is used as the illumination source. A reflective or transmittive modulator is illuminated uniformly by the light from all elements of laser. The elements of the modulator break up the light beam in image elements. Each element of the modulator is subsequently imaged on the film plane to form desired size spots. The modulator can be of a linear or area type with a variety of element densities. Examples of modulators are PLZT, liquid crystal, deflecting, deformable mirrors and elastomers, etc. Modulation characteristics of each modulator element enables image pixel density. Attention is also drawn the European patent application 0 385 705 which discloses a digitized video system utilizing a spatial light modulator which includes deformable mirror devices to form an image. The image is projected onto a moving surface which intersects each point within a three dimensional space to allow the display of the three dimensional image. Each mirror cell is capable of projecting an individual beam. The individual beams form one portion of an image. Further attention is drawn to the document WO-A-91 17483, disclosing an illumination device, which is designed to produce patterns or for the direct illumination of electronic elements, wherein the device includes light source and an original generator. In order to shorten the exposure time necessary with a simplified illumination device structure, the original generator includes an optical schlieren system and an active matrix-addressable surface light modulator which has a visco-elastic control film with a reflective surface. Disposed between the schlieren lens and the projection lens in the schlieren system is a mirror which preferably has two functions, not only reflecting the light from the light source to the light modulator but also filtering out undiffracted reflected light. The schlieren lens is located at a distance from the light modulator which is short relative to the focal length of the lens. A positioning table designed to hold the pattern or the electronic element is disposed in such a way that sharp images of areas on the surface of the light modulator can be produced on the pattern or the electronic element. Summary of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the restriction of high power individually addressable diode laser arrays. In this case, the image pixel information comes from the modulator, not the laser. The laser array acts as the uniform high power illumination source. All elements are activated simultaneously with one power supply and provide a CW level power output. This is particularly useful when used for laser thermal printing as it is not possible to obtain such high powers with single elements. In accordance with the present invention a light modulation and exposure system for exposing light sensitive material with image data, as set forth in claim 1, is provided. Preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims. Brief Description of the Drawings Other features and advantages will become apparent upon reference to the following description of the preferred embodiment when read in light of the attached drawings. Figure 1 is a perspective diagrammatic configuration of a preferred embodiment of the inventive recording apparatus, particularly illustrating the component parts thereof used to generate an image; Figure 2 is a perspective diagrammatic configuration of the component parts of another embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Figures 4a and 4b are plane views and elevational views of the embodiment illustrated in Figure 3. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Throughout the drawings, like reference numerals are used to designate like elements for the sake of simplicity of explanation. Referring to Figure 1, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. A plurality of diode lasers S1, S2, S3, S4 ... S10 form a laser array shown generally at 10. The elements of the array are activated simultaneously using a common power supply (not shown) in a CW manner. Use of CW laser and non-individually modulated operation of the laser simplifies the power supply and heat dissipation mechanism which can take a variety of forms generally used in these devices. All elements of the array 10 illuminate a line or area of a specified size on a specified plane. The illumination optics as shown in Figure 1 can take a variety of forms, from conventional discreet elements to binary optics to a combination thereof to achieve a desired line or area illumination on the modulator. In the particular embodiment illustrated in Figure 1, an array of lenslets 12 are positioned in front of the laser array 10 where the light from each laser diode S1-S10 in the laser array 10 passes through its corresponding lenslet 12. The lenslet array 12 has power in the array direction and substantially no power in the cross-array direction. A field lens 14 is used to focus the respective light beams on a modulator 16. Figure 1 shows the use of a transmittive type modulator array 16 with a number of elements configured in modulator array 16. A linear array is shown in Figure 1 and could be a whole print line or only a few elements of the line, an area or a combination thereof. Elements of the modulator array 16 form individual pixels of the image, the diode array could also take the form of a laser bar. Example of modulators are PLZT, liquid crystal type, electro-optics, acousto-optic type, magneto-optic and any other kind which modulates the light transmitted through it. The size and shape of each element is determined by the characteristics of the modulator, characteristics of the image and desired modulation rate. The light beams after passing through elements of the modulator array 16 are imaged by imaging optics 18 on the film plane 20. The elements are magnified or de-magnified in either direction using anamorphic optics 14 and 18, respectively, depending on the spot size requirement of the light beam at the film plane 20. Both the size and the pitch of the spots can be controlled by appropriately configuring the elements in the modulator array 16 in connection with the choice of imaging optics. The elements in the modulator array are individually modulatable and provide the right image density for each pixel. A second embodiment is shown in Figure 2. In this case, a reflective modulator array 22 is used. The mechanism for generating pixels in an image is similar to the one discussed in the first embodiment except that light is reflected instead of transmitted from each element in the modulator array 22. Examples of such reflective modulators include PLZT, liquid crystals, light valves, A-0, and E-0 types. Again, the modulation rate is governed by the characteristics of the modulator array 22. The pixel size and pixel density are dependent upon the array configuration and imaging optics 24. A special kind of reflective modulator array 22 is based on deformable mirror, deflecting mirror, gratings, elastomers, etc. An example of a deformable mirror is manufactured by Texas Instrument, Inc. In this case, the modulator array 22 takes the form of a series of mirrors or mirror-like devices which are configured in a linear array. The whole modulator array 22 is uniformly illuminated by illumination optics 26 and each mirror in the modulator array 22 which forms a pixel that is imaged on the film plane 28. When a pixel address electrode is energized, each mirror element either deflects or deforms under an electrostatic force that changes the direction of the light being reflected. The reflected light can be captured by a stop 30 and prevented from reaching the film plane 28. The normal state could be the reflection of light to the stop 30 and not having it reach the film plane 28. When a pixel exposure is required, the corresponding mirror element is rotated or deformed for a desired time to expose the film at the film plane 28 and then reverts back to the non-exposure normal state. A gray level of the image can be obtained by timing the exposure of each pixel. This is the equivalent of pulse width modulation of the diode laser device and the response time depends on characteristics of the device. In some cases, the equivalent of amplitude modulation can be achieved by only partially distorting or rotating the mirror. In this way, only a portion of the light makes it to the film plane 28. The gray level can be achieved by controlling the portion of the light making to the film plane. The same type of operational mechanism applies to a grating, an elastomer and other devices. The high reflectivity is obtained by appropriately coating the mirror surface for the right wavelength. Depending upon the configuration of modulator elements in the modulator array 22, a whole line or, alternatively, a few pixels of a line can be written using a linear modulator array of elements; or a whole area of the image or a part thereof can be written using an area array of modulator elements. Other characteristics of the present invention is that the resolution of the image can be zoomed electronically by ganging together of a few elements of the modulator, i.e., supplying them the same pixel data. Effectively a larger pixel size can be achieved this way with the same optical configuration. By shifting modulation operation from the laser to the modulator array, high speed operation can be obtained by easily controlling low levels of voltage and current without any thermal and electrical cross-talk. Also, if any element of laser fails, the overall illumination intensity can be maintained by appropriately increasing the current to another element of the laser. Figure 3 is a perspective view diagrammatic configuration of a preferred embodiment which also serves as a more detailed example. Figure 4 shows elevational and plane view of this configuration. The diode laser bar 40 has 12 emitters with spacing dimension of 200 microns in the array direction and 1 micron in the cross-array direction at 800 microns pitch. A rod lens 42 placed about a mm away from the diode array is used to collect light from the cross-array direction of the laser. A cylindrical lenslet array 44 is used to collimate the laser radiation. The lenslet array 44 is placed about 5mm from the laser array. A field combiner lens 46 is used to combine light from all the emitters of the laser array and illuminate the transmissive modulator 48. The modulator 48 has about 120 channels and is placed about 250mm from the lenslet array 44. The total size of the modulator 48 is about 10mm and the size of each element of the modulator is 80 microns by 40 microns with fill factor of about 80%. The field lens 50 in combination with the printing lens 54 provides the image of modulator 48 on the film plane 56 to create writing spots. The de-magnification is about 16 times and the numerical aperture of the spots is about 0.32. The spot size is about 5 microns by 2.5 microns. Each element of the modulator is modulated in the imagewise fashion to generate the desired image. This invention has been described in detail with particular reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the scope of the invention.

Claims: A light modulation and exposure system for exposing light sensitive material (20, 28, 56) with image data, said system comprising: a linear light modulator (16, 22, 48) having a row of light-modulation elements, said linear light modulator being positioned such that a plurality of laser light sources (S 1 -S 4 ) illuminate light-modulating elements; illumination optics (12, 14, 26, 42, 44, 46), located between said plurality of laser light sources (S 1 -S 4 ) and said linear light modulator (16, 22, 48); and means (18, 24, 50, 54) for focusing light from said linear light modulator (16, 22, 48), characterized in that said illumination optics are comprised of: an array of lenslets (12, 44) and a field lens (14, 26, 46). A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1, further characterized by : means for generating relative motion between the light from said light modulator and the light-sensitive material, with the direction of said motion being substantially perpendicular to the direction of said row of light modulating elements at a rate of one line of image data at a time; and means for transferring into the row of modulating light elements the data to be imaged on said light-sensitive material one line at a time. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the plurality of lenslets are provided to shape each beam of light from the corresponding laser light source. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the light modulator elements are electrically controlled deformable mirrors. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 4 wherein the light modulator is controlled in a manner that only those deformable mirrors activated by the data will result in light reaching a light-sensitive material. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the light modulator is of the liquid crystal type. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the light modulator is of the magneto-optic type. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the light modulator is of the ferro-electric type. A light modulation and exposure system as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the light modulator is a two-dimensional light modulator.

Inventors: SARRAF SANWAL PRASAD, SARRAF, SANWAL PRASAD, SARRAF, SANWAL PRASAD, C/O EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Applicants: EASTMAN KODAK CO, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Application year: 1995
Main classification: G06K15
IPC codes: G06K15, B41J2, H04N1