Drive apparatus and method of light emission element array

Abstract: In a drive apparatus of a self-scanning type light emission element array, a first bit light emission thyristor is surely set into an ON state, thereby stabilizing shift of a light emitting operation from the first bit light emission thyristor. In the light emission element array drive apparatus which drives a light emission element array having plural light emission thyristors arranged in array and plural shift thyristors arranged in array (each gate of shift thyristors is connected to each gate of light emission thyristors), the apparatus comprises: a generation unit for generating a shift signal to sequentially shift ON states of the shift thyristors; and a generation unit for generating a start signal to start drive of the light emission element array, wherein a gate voltage of the first light emission thyristor is supplied according to the start signal without setting the first shift thyristor into an ON state according to the shift signal.

Description: The present invention relates to light emission element array drive apparatus and method for sequentially setting at least one or more light emission thyristor groups arranged in array, into a lighting state. Conventionally, a self-scanning type light emission element array (SLED) has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 1-238962, 2-208067, 2-212170, 3-20457, 3-194978, 4-5872, 4-23367, 4-296579 and 5-84971; "Proposal of Light Emission Element Array For Optical Printer Integrating Drive Circuits" JAPAN HARD COPY, 1991 (A-17); "Proposal Of Self-Scanning Type Light Emission Element (SLED) Using PNPN Thyristor Structure" THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS, March 5, 1991; and the like. Such the SLED has been widely noticed as a recording light emission element. Fig. 1 shows an example of a SLED 100 as a light emission element array according to document US-A-6,002,420. In the conventional art, Fig. 2 is a timing chart of various control signals externally transmitted to the SLED 100 to control the SLED 100 shown in Fig. 1, and indicates an example of a case where all the light emission elements are driven. In Fig. 1, a VGA 101 corresponding to a power supply voltage of the SLED 100 is connected to diodes 141, 142, 143, 144 and 145. These diodes 141, 142, 143, 144 and 145 are cascade connected to a start pulse S 145 respectively through resistors 102, 103, 104, 105 and 106. As shown in Fig. 1, the SLED 100 is composed of a group in which shift thyristors S1', S2', S3', S4' and S5' are arranged in array as control elements, a group in which light emission thyristors S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 are arranged in array as light emission elements, and the like. Gate signals of the light emission thyristors and the shift thyristors are connected to each other. For example, the gate signal of the first light emission thyristor S1 is connected to the gate signal of the first shift thyristor S1', and further connected to a signal input section Va to which the start pulse S 145 is transmitted. The gate signal of the second light emission thyristor S2 is connected to the gate signal of the second shift thyristor S2', and further connected to a cathode Vb of the diode 141 which is connected to the terminal Va to which the start pulse S 145 is transmitted. The gate signal of the third light emission thyristor S3 is connected to the gate signal of the third shift thyristor S3', and further connected to a cathode Vc of the diode 142. Similarly, the gate signal of the fifth light emission thyristor S5 is connected to the gate signal of the fifth shift thyristor S5', and further connected to a cathode Ve of the diode 144. Hereinafter, a driving method of the SLED 100 will be described with reference to the timing chart shown in Fig. 2. In Fig. 2, initially, voltage of the start pulse S 145 is varied from 0V to 5V. By varying the voltage of the start pulse S 145 to 5V, a voltage of the Va becomes 5.0V, a voltage of the Vb becomes 3.6V (forward direction voltage down is 1.4V), a voltage of the Vc becomes 2.2V, a voltage of the Vd becomes 0.8V, voltages of the Ve and the following become 0V. Then, voltage of the gate signals of the shift thyristors S1' and S2' are varied from 0V to 5.0V and 3.6V respectively. In this state, by varying voltage of a shift pulse 1 135 from 5V to 0V, potentials of anode, cathode and gate of the shift thyristor S1' become 5V, 0V and 5.0V respectively. Thus, the thyristor becomes an ON condition, whereby the shift thyristor S1' becomes an ON state. In this state, even if the voltage of the start pulse S 145 is set at 0V, since the shift thyristor S1' is in the ON state, the voltage of the Va becomes 5V (e.g., 4.8V in Fig. 2). This is because the pulse is applied through the resistor 102, concerning the start pulse S 145, and the potential difference between the anode and gate becomes almost zero upon setting the thyristor into an ON state. Therefore, even if the voltage of the start pulse S 145 is set at 0V, the ON state of the first shift thyristor S1' is maintained and a first shifting operation terminates. In this state, if voltage of a light emission thyristor drive clock I 110 is varied from 5V to 0V, since the light emission thyristor S1 comes to have the same condition as that in which the shift thyristor S1' becomes the ON state, the light emission thyristor S1 becomes an ON state and the first light emission thyristor S1 is lighted. At the first light emission thyristor S1, the potential difference between an anode and a cathode of the light emission thyristor S1 becomes zero by returning the voltage of the light emission thyristor drive clock I 110 to 5V. Thus, since a minimum maintaining current for the light emission thyristor S1 can not be flowed, the light emission thyristor S1 becomes an OFF state, thereby lighting off the thyristor S1. Subsequently, transfer of the ON state of the thyristor from the shift thyristor S1' to the shift thyristor S2' will be explained. Even if the light emission thyristor S1 becomes the OFF state, the voltage of the shift pulse 1 135 is still 0V. Thus, also the shift thyristor S1' is still in the ON state, the gate voltage Va of the shift thyristor S1' is 5V (e.g., 4.8V in Fig. 2) and the voltage of the Vb is 3.6V. In this state, by varying voltage of a shift pulse 2 120 from 5V to 0V, anode, cathode and gate voltages of the shift thyristor S2' become 5V, 0V and 3.6V respectively, whereby the shift thyristor S2' becomes an ON state. After the shift thyristor S2' becomes the ON state, by varying the voltage of the shift pulse 1 135 from 0V to 5V, the shift thyristor S1' becomes an OFF state in the manner similar to that the light emission thyristor S1 became the OFF state. Thus, the ON state of the shift thyristor is transferred from the shift thyristor S1' to the shift thyristor S2'. Then, the light emission thyristor S2 can be selectively lighted by varying the voltage of the light emission thyristor drive clock I 110 from 5V to 0V. Hereinafter, the reason of lighting only the light emission thyristor of which corresponding shift thyristor is in the ON state will be explained. Since gate voltages of thyristors other than the neighboring, i.e. flanking thyristors (e.g., S1' and S3') of the ON state thyristor (e.g., S2') are 0V, the thyristors do not become the ON state. Also, as to the neighboring shift thyristors (e.g., S1' and S3'), since potential of the drive clock I 110 becomes 3.6V (forward direction voltage down at each light emission thyristor) due to the fact that the shift thyristor (e.g., S2') becomes the ON state, the neighboring thyristors (e.g., S1' and S3') become such a state as the potential difference between the gate and the cathode is minimized and a minimum maintaining current for the thyristors can not be flowed. Therefore, it is impossible to set the neighboring shift thyristors (e.g., S1' and S3') into an ON state. As described above, conventionally, when the voltage 5V of the start pulse S 145 is supplied, the first bit shift thyristor S1' is set into an ON state by varying the voltage of the shift pulse 1 135 (acting as drive signal for odd-number shift thyristors S1' and S3') to 0V, and the gate voltage of the light emission thyristor S1 is maintained at 5V. Thereafter, the voltage of the light emission thyristor drive clock I 110 for the light emission thyristor S1 is set at 0V, thereby lighting the light emission thyristor S1. However, shift speed of sequentially shifting the gate voltage of the shift thyristor being a characteristic of the SLED is changed according to a manufacturing condition of semi-conductive wafers which form the SLED. Therefore, in a case where shifting and light emitting operations are performed at high speed, the shifting of the gate voltage of the shift thyristor is sometimes delayed. That is, there occurs such a phenomenon as the light emission thyristor intended to be lighted is not lighted but another thyristor of which gate voltage is in a most high level is lighted. As a result, the shifting of light emitting operation becomes unstable. Especially, when the first bit light emission thyristor is lighted, the gate voltages of the shift thyristors other than the first bit tend to become such a state as the voltage can not completely become 0V because of high speed shifting. In this state, in a case where the voltage of the start pulse S 145 is set at 5V and the first bit shift thyristor is set into an ON state, if the gate voltage of another shift thyristor is higher than that of the first bit shift thyristor, the first bit shift thyristor does not become an ON state but the shift thyristor of which gate voltage is high becomes an ON state. Therefore, if the voltage of the light emission thyristor drive clock I 110 is set at 0V intending to set the first bit light emission thyristor into an ON state, the light emission thyristor, of which bit corresponds to that of the above another shift thyristor of which gate voltage is high becomes ON state, is to be lighted. As a result, there occurs such a problem as a lighting state of the first bit can not be sequentially shifted to other bits. Document JP-A-09,248,936 discloses a driving circuit and a self-scanning LED array equipped with the same, wherein a pulse signal is output from an output generation part A to the cathode of a thyristor for transfer. The peak of the pulse signal is compared with a standard digital signal in a digital comparator, and when they agree with each other, a coincidence signal is sent to a CPU. The CPU which received the signal acts to increase the bias voltage of a transistor, and as a result, transfer action can be reset. The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and an object thereof is to provide light emission element array drive apparatus and method for surely setting a first bit light emission thyristor into an ON state at first, thereby stabilizing a shift of light emitting operation from the first bit light emission thyristor. The above-mentioned objects are achieved by an apparatus according to claim 1 and by a method according to claim 5. Favorable refinements of the present invention are set out in the dependent claims. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a basic structure of a SLED; Fig. 2 is a timing chart showing conventional control signals and timing thereof; Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a basic structure of a SLED drive control apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 4 is a timing chart showing control signals and timing thereof for controlling the SLED in the embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of the SLED in the embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 3 shows a structure of a drive apparatus for driving a SLED as a light emission element array. Fig. 4 is a timing chart for explaining an operation indicated in Fig. 3. Although an inner structure of the SLED is same as that of the conventional one shown in Fig. 1, the structure will be shown in Fig. 5 to make it sure. In Fig. 5, a VGA 101 corresponds to a power supply voltage of a SLED 100 is connected to diodes 141, 142, 143, 144 and 145 which are cascade connected to a start pulse S 140 through resistors 102, 103, 104, 105 and 106. As shown in Fig. 5, the SLED 100 is composed of a group in which shift thyristors S1', S2', S3' S4' and S5' are arranged in array as control elements, a group in which light emission thyristors S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 are arranged in array as light emission elements, and the like. Gate signals of the light emission thyristors and gate signals of the shift thyristors are connected each other. For example, the gate signal of the first light emission thyristor S1 is connected to the gate signal of the first shift thyristor S1', and further connected to a signal input section Va to which the start pulse S 140 is transmitted. The gate signal of the second light emission thyristor S2 is connected to the gate signal of the second shift thyristor S2', and further connected to a cathode Vb of the diode 141 which is connected to the terminal Va to which the start pulse S 140 is transmitted. The gate signal of the third light emission thyristor S3 is connected to the gate signal of the third shift thyristor S3', and further connected to a cathode Vc of the diode 142. Similarly, the gate signal of the fifth light emission thyristor S5 is connected to the gate signal of the fifth shift thyristor S5', and further connected to a cathode Ve of the diode 144. It should be noted that, in this embodiment, since a start signal and a shift signal have different functions from those of conventional signals, reference numerals thereof are made different from those in Fig. 1, but others parts in Fig. 5 are added with identical numerals and symbols as those in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 3, the drive apparatus is composed of an image data output unit 301 for outputting image data used to form a permanent visible image on a recording medium in an electrophotographic record system, a SLED control unit 303 having a SLED drive circuit 302 for outputting a READ clock 320, which is used for reading out image data 310, to the image data output unit 301 and inputting the image data 310 output from the image data output unit 301 to cause to generate a SLED (LED array) drive signal 305 and a SLED head 304 having the shift thyristors of a SLED to sequentially set a light emitting state and the light emission thyristors. In the SLED head 304, plural pieces of the SLED 100 already explained in the background art are arranged in array as indicated by numerals 100-1 to 100-7 shown in Fig. 3. The SLED (LED array) drive signal 305 contains a signal from a power supply 330, a signal to a GND 335, a shift clock 1 340, a shift clock 2 345, a light emission thyristor drive clock I 350 and a start pulse S 355. Light emission thyristor drive clocks I 1 to I 7, which are parallel signals of 7 bits of which each bit signal responds to the SLED 100-1 to 100-7, are used to selectively light or turn on light emission elements in each of the SLEDs. In a case where the number of SLEDs is large, since the bit width of the light emission thyristor drive clock also becomes large, it is desirable to reduce the number of signal lines by properly executing a coding process. Since other signals such as the signal from the power supply 330, the signal to the GND 335, the shift clock 1 340, the shift clock 2 345 and the start pulse S 355 are common to each of SLEDs, the number of signal line of the above each signal may be defined as one. Fig. 4 is a timing chart of the shift pulse 1, the shift pulse 2, the start pulse S and the light emission thyristor drive clock I which is formed by the image data 310 and a light emission clock (not shown). The SLED drive signal 305 is output to the SLED head 304 from the SLED control unit 303 by the SLED drive circuit 302 shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 4, broken line portions in waveforms of the pulse S and the pulse 1 indicate conventional SLED drive signal waveforms, and signal waveforms in this embodiment are indicated by solid lines. In the present invention, an applying time of the start pulse S 140 by the voltage of 5V is extended until such a time as the ON state of the conventional first bit shift thyristor S1' terminates (i.e., time t420), instead of not setting the first bit shift thyristor S1' into an ON state. Thus, a gate voltage of the first bit light emission thyristor S1 is supplied according to the start pulse S 140 to maintain the ON state of the light emission thyristor S1. Since the first bit shift thyristor S1' is not set into an ON state, the shift thyristor (except for first bit) of which gate voltage does not yet become 0V completely is not set into an ON state. Also, a time until the gate voltage of the shift thyristor other than the first bit (e.g., S2') becomes 0V (time from t410 to t420) can be ensured. The gate voltage of the first bit shift thyristor S1' is maintained to 5V according to the start pulse S 140. The gate voltage of the first bit transfer thyristor S1' is maintained at 5V by the start pulse S 140. Thus, the first bit light emission thyristor S1 is surely set into an ON state by supplying the gate voltage of the first bit light emission thyristor S1 with use of the start pulse S 140 of 5V, thereby stabilizing a bit shifting operation from the first bit light emission thyristor S1 to the fifth bit light emission thyristor S5. When the first bit light emission thyristor S1 is in an ON state, the light emission thyristor S1 can be selectively lighted by setting the drive clock I into an ON state. Since the time until the gate voltage of the above shift thyristor (e.g., S2') becomes 0V may be a period from the time t410 to the time t420 shown in Fig. 4, in this case, a time when the light emission thyristor S2 becomes an ON state can be extended to a time t430. A shifting operation to the shift thyristors following the first bit shift thyristor is performed according to the shift signal in the same manner as that in the conventional art. Also, a light emitting operation to each of the light emission thyristors is performed according to the drive clock I in the same manner as that in the conventional art, thereby enabling to selectively light each of the light emission thyristors. In the above description, the five pairs of thyristors are shown in Fig. 5 to simplify the description. However, hundreds pairs of thyristors may be actually arranged. As described above, according to the LED array drive apparatus in the present invention, the applying time of the start pulse S 140 by the voltage of 5V is extended until such the time as the ON state of the conventional first bit shift thyristor S1' terminates, instead of not setting the first bit shift thyristor S1' into the ON state. Thus, the gate voltage of the first bit light emission thyristor S1 is supplied according to the start pulse S 140 to maintain the ON state of the light emission thyristor S1, so that the first bit light emission thyristor S1 is surely set into the ON state. As a result, the shifting operation of the light emission element from the first bit can be stabilized. In a drive apparatus of a self-scanning type light emission element array, a first bit light emission thyristor is surely set into an ON state, thereby stabilizing shift of a light emitting operation from the first bit light emission thyristor. In the light emission element array drive apparatus which drives a light emission element array having plural light emission thyristors arranged in array and plural shift thyristors arranged in array (each gate of shift thyristors is connected to each gate of light emission thyristors), the apparatus comprises: a generation unit for generating a shift signal to sequentially shift ON states of the shift thyristors; and a generation unit for generating a start signal to start drive of the light emission element array, wherein a gate voltage of the first light emission thyristor is supplied according to the start signal without setting the first shift thyristor into an ON state according to the shift signal.

Claims: A light emission element array drive apparatus which drives a self-scanning type light emission element array having plural light emission thyristors (S1 - S5) arranged in array having first current terminals connected to a supply, second current terminals connected to a control line (110); plural shift thyristors (S1' - S5') arranged in array, having first current terminals connected to a supply, second current terminals of neighbouring shift thyristors being connected alternatingly to different first and second shift control lines (120, 135), each gate of a shift thyristor being connected to the gate of a light emission thyristor, forming a gate pair, each gate pair being further connected to the next gate pair by a diode (141 - 145) and to ground by a resistance (102 - 106), said diodes and resistances forming a voltage dividing ladder; said apparatus comprising: first generation means for generating first and a second shift signals (1 - 2) applied to said first and second shift control lines ( 120 , 135) to sequentially shift ON states of the shift thyristors; second generation means for generating a drive start signal ( S ) to start drive of the light emission element array by supplying a gate voltage; third generation means arranged to generate a light emission signal ( I ) applied to the control line (110) of the plural light emission thyristors to sequentially shift ON states of the light emission thyristors, the first and second shift signals (1 - 2) acting with the start signal ( S ) and the light emission signal ( I ) to sequentially shift ON states of the plural light emission thyristors ( S1 - S5 ) and shift thyristors ( S1 ' - S5 '), characterized in that a start pulse of said start signal ( S ) is extended: for setting together with the light emission signal ( I ) the first thyristor ( S1 ) of the plurality of light emission thyristors into an ON state, and to maintain with first and second shift signals ( 1 - 2 ) the first thyristor ( S1' ) of the plurality of shift thyristors from setting into an ON state, until after a selective light emission of the first light emission thyristor. An apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the start signal ( S ) for supplying the gate voltage of the first light emission thyristor ( S1 ) is maintained at high potential until the second shift thyristor ( S2' ) becomes an ON state and is set at low potential before the second light emission thyristor ( S2 ) becomes an ON state. An apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the first shift signal ( 1 ) is connected to each of the cathodes of the odd-number shift thyristors ( S1', S3', S5' ) and the second shift signal ( 2 ) is connected to each of the cathodes of the even-number shift thyristors ( S2 ', S4 '). An apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein a power supply voltage is supplied to each of the anodes of the light emission thyristors ( S1 to S5 ) and the shift thyristors ( S1' to S5' ). A light emission element array drive method for driving a self-scanning type light emission element array having plural light emission thyristors (S1 - S5) arranged in array having first current terminals connected to a supply, second current terminals connected to a control line (110); plural shift thyristors (S1' - S5') arranged in array, having first current terminals connected to a supply, second current terminals of neighbouring shift thyristors being connected alternatingly to different first and second shift control lines (120, 135), each gate of a shift thyristor being connected to the gate of a light emission thyristor, forming a gate pair, each gate pair being further connected to the next gate pair by a diode (141 - 145) and to ground by a resistance (102 - 106), said diodes and resistances forming a voltage dividing ladder; said method comprising: a first generation step for generating first and second shift signals ( 1 - 2) applied to said first and second shift control lines (120, 135) to sequentially shift ON states of the shift thyristors; a second generation step for generating a drive start signal ( S ) to start drive of the light emission element array by supplying a gate voltage; a third generation step for generating a light emission signal (I) applied to the control line ( 110 ) of the plural light emission thyristors to sequentially shift ON states of the light emission thyristors, the first and second shift signals (1 - 2) acting with the start signal (S) and the light emission signal (I) to sequentially shift ON states of the plural light emission thyristors ( S1 - S5) and shift thyristors ( S1' - S5' ), characterized in that a start pulse of said start signal ( S ) is extended: for setting together with the light emission signal ( I ) the first thyristor ( S1 ) of the plurality of light emission thyristors into an ON state, and to maintain with first and second shift signals (1 - 2) the first thyristor (S1') of the plurality of shift thyristors from setting into an ON state, until after a selective light emission of the first light emission thyristor. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the start signal (S) for supplying the gate voltage of the first light emission thyristor ( S1 ) is maintained at high potential until the second shift thyristor ( S2 ') becomes an ON state and is set at low potential before the second light emission thyristor ( S2 ) becomes an ON state. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the first shift signal ( 1 ) is connected to each of the cathodes of the odd-number shift thyristors ( S1 ', S3', S5 ') and the second shift signal ( 2 ) is connected to each of the cathodes of the even-number shift thyristors ( S2 ', S4' ).

Inventors: SEKIYA TOSHIYUKI, SHIRAISHI MITSUO, SEKIYA, TOSHIYUKI, SHIRAISHI, MITSUO
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1998
Main classification: H05B33
IPC codes: B41J2, H01L27, G09F9, H01L33