Multi-beam optical system using lenslet arrays in laser multi-beam printers and recorders

摘要

A multi-beam laser printer for printing on light-sensitive thermal media where a monolithic array of independently modulated diode lasers (13) is used to reduce the size of the printer. A closely spaced array of printing spots (26) is produced from the separate diode lasers using two lenslet arrays (21,34) having power in the array direction. To correct for non-straightness of the laser array, an optical arrangement is used to conjugate the far field of the lasers in a direction perpendicular to the array direction of the printing plane so that the laser array produces a straight line of printing spots on the light-sensitive medium. The second lenslet array avoids vignetting. $$