Patent ID: 7321378

Claim:
An optical multi-beam scanning device which forms a plurality of latent images, the device comprising: a first plurality of laser diodes which are arranged while junction surfaces of the laser diodes are inclined toward the same direction with respect to a sub-scanning direction; a second plurality of laser diodes whose junction surfaces are inclined toward the opposite direction to the inclined direction of the junction surfaces of the first laser diodes while the inclined angle of the junction surfaces of the second laser diodes is equal to the inclined angle of the junction surfaces of the first laser diodes; and an optical path combining optical element which has polarization beam splitter surfaces for combining all the light beams, wherein the light beams emitted from the first laser diodes are incident to one of the polarization beam splitter surfaces with different heights in the sub-scanning direction in each light beam which forms a different latent image, the light beams emitted from the second laser diodes are incident to the different surface of the polarization beam splitter surfaces with different heights in the sub-scanning direction in each light beam which forms the different latent image, and polarized directions of the light beams which are adjacent to one another on the polarization beam splitter surface and form the different latent images are different from one another.