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:
Feb. 15, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 24, 1996
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B41J / ; B41J / ; G03G / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
347135 ;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a grating light valve (GLV) optical modulating device for modulating light projected by a monochromatic light source unit so that the light thus modulated is projected onto a photosensitive drum. This arrangement enables printing at a higher speed and high-quality printing using half tone. In the GLV optical modulator, a first GLV element row and a second GLV element row, each having a plurality of GLV elements provided at spaces, each space being smaller than a width of each GLV element, are provided parallel so that GLV elements constituting the first and second element rows are provided in a staggered manner.