Laser beam scanning system.

摘要

A laser beam scanning system includes a laser beam generator (8), a modulating unit (14) and a deflecting system (16). The laser beam generated in the generator (8) is divided in the modulating unit (14) into two or more scan beams which are scanned by the deflecting system (16) over a surface (18). The intensity of each scan beam is modulated in the modulating unit (14).
<??>The scan beams are scanned over the surface (18) in a plurality of parallel scan lines, equally spaced apart. The area covered by each scan beam is wider than the distance between adjacent scan lines so these areas overlap.
<??>In order to avoid interference between adjacent scan beams the modulating unit (14) and the deflecting system (16) are arranged so that adjacent scan beams do not actually overlap during the scanning along the scan lines.