The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 08, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 29, 1996
Tsuyoshi Iwamoto, Kyoto, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An optical deflector which has a waveguide, an interdigital transducer which is provided on the waveguide to convert a high-frequency signal to excite surface acoustic waves, a light incidence section for making a light beam incident to the waveguide and a light emergence section for making a light beam progressing in the waveguide emergent therefrom, and a scanning optical system provided with the optical deflector. The interdigital transducer is a chirp type and has finger electrodes which are so designed that an emergent light beam from the optical deflector will have a substantially fixed intensity in a deflection range. More specifically, the finger electrodes of the interdigital transducer are overlap-weighted so that an emergent light beam from the optical deflector will have a substantially fixed intensity in a deflection range. It is possible that the finger electrodes of the interdigital transducer have fixed widths and intervals thereamong at a portion which excites surface acoustic waves with a end frequency portion of a frequency band. Also, the interdigital transducer may have smaller variation in intervals of the finger electrodes at a portion which excites surface acoustic waves with a end frequency portion of a frequency band than at a portion which excites surface acoustic waves with a central frequency portion of the frequency band.