Patent ID: 7050238

Claim:
An optical system, comprising: a plurality of separate light sources that are separately arranged as an array with a number M of the light sources arranged in a first direction and a number N of the light sources arranged in a second direction where M>N, and M, N>1, each of the light sources having an asymmetric light emission area; a collimator optical element that converts the light beams from the light sources into parallel beams, the light sources being arranged so that a light beam passing said collimator optical element has a beam width in the first direction greater than a beam width in the second direction; an anamorphic optical element that is arranged to have a beam-size reduction rate in the first direction greater than a beam-size reduction rate in the second direction so as to convert the plurality of light beams from the light sources into a light beam having a symmetric beam cross-section; and a light-condensing optical element that condenses the light beam having the symmetric beam cross-section into a light receiving element, wherein the anamorphic optical element includes an array of a number of prisms integrally arranged.