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:
Dec. 04, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 05, 1998
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo-To, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a laser beam scanning unit adapted for scanning laser beams on a surface of a charged image bearing member (,). The laser beam scanning unit (,) comprises a semiconductor laser array (,) having a plurality of light emitting portions (,) and a rotating polygon mirror adapted for deflecting laser beams emitted from the light emitting portions to the image bearing member (,). The light emitting portions (,) are disposed two-dimensionally on a surface of the semiconductor laser array. The lighting and the amount of light of the light emitting portions (,) are discretely controlled by a control unit. The scanning unit further includes a collimator lens having a focal length fc, where a distance between a most spaced two of the plurality of light emitting portions is .delta. max, and fc/.delta. max is 25 or more.