Patent ID: 6930812

Claim:
A multi-beam light scanning optical system comprising: n (n≧2) light source means having m (m≧2) light emitting points; beam synthesizing means for synthesizing n×m light beams emitted by said n light source means; deflecting means for deflecting n×m light beams from said beam synthesizing means; an imaging optical system for imaging the n×m light beams from said deflecting means on a surface to be scanned, wherein the surface to be scanned is scanned in a main scan direction with n×m light beams by a deflection scanning operation of the deflecting means; an aperture stop provided between said beam synthesizing means and said deflecting means, wherein principal rays of the n×m light beams are intersected at a position of said aperture stop, and the light beams which are adjacent to each other in a sub-scan direction on the surface to be scanned are the beams emitted from different ones of said n light source means.