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:
Jul. 11, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 26, 1998
Kenji Takeshita, Toyokawa, JP;
Nobuo Kanai, Toyohashi, JP;
Hiroki Kinoshita, Toyokawa, JP;
Satoshi Iwasaki, Toyokawa, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
In a scanning optical system in which a plurality of light beams emitted from a plurality of light sources are, after being formed into beams converging in a predetermined manner, deflected by a single deflector and are then shone, through scanning lens systems provided one for each light beam, onto a scanned surface so that the scanned surface is scanned by the light beams for image formation, at least one of the scanning lens systems satisfies the condition 0<-{(L-HH')+k}/k.ltoreq.0.2, where L represents the distance from the point of deflection of the light beam to the scanned surface, HH' represents the distance from the front-side principal point to the rear-side principal point of the scanning lens system, and k (k<0) represents the constant of proportionality defined by the formula y'=k.theta., where y' represents the image height on the scanned surface in the main scanning direction, and .theta. represents the angle of deflection, that is, the angle that the light beam, after being deflected by the deflector, forms with respect to the optical axis of the scanning lens system.