Patent ID: 7230968

Claim:
A semiconductor laser device, comprising: a laser diode stack array including a plurality of emitters which extend long in a first direction of emission of laser beams, the emitters capable of being arranged linearly in the first direction and situated in a plurality of rows, and the emitter adapted to emit a group of laser beams that have laser beam elements arranged in a two-dimensional array; a first condenser provided in front of the laser diode stack array, the first condenser bending and collimating the group of laser beams for every one of the rows in a second direction substantially at right angles to the first direction; a first beam converter provided in front of the first condenser, the first beam converter configured to receive the group of laser beams collimated in the second direction, and emitting the group of laser beams converted to a substantially ladder rung configuration group of laser beams that extend in the first direction for every one of the rows; a second condenser provided in front of either the first beam converter or a beam first compressor, the second condenser adapted for bending the group of laser beams output from the first beam converter or the first beam compressor, and adapted for using each of the beams with center axes offset by predetermined amounts to generate beams that are emitted from approximately the same object by generating an angular change of the optical axes; the first beam compressor configured for receiving the group of laser beams output from the first beam converter or the second condenser, and emitting the beams converted to a compressed substantially ladder rung configuration group of laser beams with shortened ladder rung intervals and extending in the first direction of the plurality of rows; and a third condenser configured to condense the group of laser beams output from the first beam compressor.