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:
Nov. 19, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 24, 2000
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Nagoya, JP;
Abstract
A multibeam scanner capable of scanning an image forming area with constant beam amounts of laser beams. The multibeam scanner of the invention performs automatic power control (APC) on each of a plurality of beam emitting points one by one during corresponding time durations, respectively, in a non-image forming area. The laser beam emitted last among the plurality of laser beams is controlled to reach a predetermined beam detecting position within the corresponding time duration. Before scanning the image forming area, the multibeam scanner determines a scan start timing upon the detection of the laser beam emitted at the beam detecting position, which has been stabilized during APC. This arrangement allows the laser diode to avoid wasting time again and again, as rise time for stabilizing the laser beam for performing APC and for identifying the scan start timing, and to secure the time durations as long as possible. It is therefore possible to perform APC against the laser diodes properly during the sufficient time durations and, at the same time, possible to determine the scan start timing precisely by detecting the stabilized laser beam.