Patent ID: 6873445

Claim:
An optical multi-beam scanning device comprising: three or more light sources; a pre-deflection optical unit for providing a predetermined characteristic for each of light beams emitted from the light sources and being disposed so that a height of an optical path in a sub-scanning direction differs, each said pre-deflection optical unit corresponding to each of said light sources; within-set combining means, in order to adjust the optical paths in a main-scanning direction of at least two out of the three or more light beams, for separating the light beams from all of the light sources for which the predetermined characteristics are provided by said pre-deflection optical unit and whose heights of the optical paths in the sub-scanning direction are different into a plurality of sets having light beams components whose positions in the sub-scanning direction in the optical paths are unadjacent, so that the optical paths in the main-scanning direction of the light beams is adjusted with respect to each set including two or more light beams; and a light deflection unit for deflecting all of the light beams which are via the within-set combining means in the main-scanning direction by reflection of a same surface.