JP2015096977A - Laser driving device, optical scanner, and image formation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a laser driving device that can output a laser beam in the same optical waveform even when an amount of light of the laser beam is changed, and to provide an optical scanner and an image formation apparatus.SOLUTION: A laser driving device used for an image formation apparatus comprises: a surface emission laser beam source 1 emitting a laser beam; a light source drive control unit 5a performing an on/off drive control of the surface emission laser beam source 1 while an amount of light of the laser beam emitted from the surface emission laser beam source 1 is maintained constant; an amount of light adjustment element 3 arranged on an optical path of the laser beam emitted from the surface emission laser beam source 1, and capable of electrically converting the transmissivity or reflection rate of the incident laser beam; and a peak amount of light control unit 5b that, while an amount of light of the laser beam emitted from the surface emission laser beam source 1 is maintained constant, controls the transmissivity or the reflection rate of the amount of light adjustment element 3 and that adjusts a peak amount of light of the laser beam emitted from the amount of light adjustment element 3 by transmission or reflection in the amount of light adjustment element 3.

Description

  The present invention relates to a laser driving device, an optical scanning device, and an image forming apparatus, and more specifically, includes a semiconductor laser driving circuit that controls the light output of a light source in a laser printer, an optical disk device, a digital copying machine, an optical communication device, and the like. The present invention relates to a laser driving device, an optical scanning device including the laser driving device, and an image forming apparatus including the optical scanning device.

  2. Description of the Related Art In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an optical scanning device including a laser driving device including a semiconductor laser serving as a light source and a driver for driving the semiconductor laser is widely used. In this optical scanning device, a method of forming an electrostatic latent image by rotating a photosensitive drum while scanning laser light using a deflecting means such as a polygon mirror in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum is generally employed. Yes.

  In addition, such a normal semiconductor laser driver has both a function of adjusting the amount of light of a semiconductor laser, a semiconductor laser array, and a vertical cavity surface emitting semiconductor laser (VCSEL) and a function of performing high-speed modulation. In a forming apparatus, it is common to select an optimal amount of light according to the efficiency of each color photoconductor or optical system, and to quickly turn on / off the light source with that amount of light (see Patent Documents 1 to 5). .

  Here, when trying to select an optimum light amount according to the efficiency of the photosensitive drum or optical system of each color using only the semiconductor laser driver, for example, the efficiency of the optical system has a range twice that of the photosensitive drum. If the sensitivity variation is in the double range, the light amount adjustment in the quadruple range is required. For example, if the maximum output of the semiconductor laser is 10 mW, the range is four times, so a dynamic range of 2.5 mW to 10 mW is required. The dynamic range of the driver output current itself can cover these ranges.

  However, in such a laser driving apparatus, when the driving current of the semiconductor laser is different, that is, when the optical output is different, the laser characteristics, particularly the droop characteristics of the laser output are different, so that the same optical waveform is not obtained. When an image is formed using this laser light, there is a problem that the density of the image is fluctuated, and a stable uniform density of the image cannot be obtained.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems in the prior art, and provides a laser driving device, an optical scanning device, and an image forming apparatus that can output with the same optical waveform even when the amount of laser light is changed. The purpose is to do.

The present invention provided to solve the above problems is as follows. In addition, the site | part and code | symbol etc. which respond | correspond in the form for implementing this invention in parentheses are shown.
[1] A laser driving apparatus used in an image forming apparatus, the surface emitting laser light source (light source 1) emitting laser light, and the surface emitting laser light source with a constant light quantity of laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source A light source drive control unit (light source drive control unit 5a) that performs on / off drive control of the laser, and is disposed on the optical path of the laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source, and electrically transmits or reflects the incident laser light The light quantity adjustment element (light quantity adjustment element 3, 3 ') that can be changed to the above and the light quantity of the laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source is constant, and the transmittance or reflectance of the light quantity adjustment element is controlled, A peak light amount control unit (peak light amount control unit 5b) that adjusts the peak light amount of the laser light emitted from the light amount adjustment element by transmission or reflection in the light amount adjustment element. The laser driving apparatus according to symptoms (laser driving device 10, FIG. 3, FIG. 11).
[2] The surface-emitting laser light source has a plurality of light emitting units, and the light source drive control unit performs on / off drive control for a laser light source in which the light emission amounts of the plurality of light emitting units are adjusted to desired values. The laser drive device according to [1], which is characterized in that
[3] The laser driving device according to [1] or [2], wherein the light amount adjusting element is any one of a liquid crystal polarizing element, a variable ND element, an acoustooptic element, and a Faraday element (see FIG. 4 to 6).
[4] An optical scanning device (optical scanning device 100, FIG. 9) provided with the laser driving device (laser driving device 10) according to any one of [1] to [3].
[5] An image forming apparatus (image forming apparatus 200, FIG. 10), comprising the optical scanning apparatus (optical scanning apparatus 100) according to [4].
[6] The peak light amount control unit adjusts the peak light amount of the laser light emitted from the light amount adjusting element by controlling the transmittance or reflectance of the light amount adjusting element based on the density deviation of the formed image. The image forming apparatus as described in [5] above.

According to the laser driving device of the present invention, a laser beam having a good droop characteristic and a high-speed optical response characteristic is emitted from the light source at a constant output, and then attenuated by the light amount adjusting element and emitted, so that the droop characteristic also has a high-speed optical response. The characteristics are simply attenuated without damaging the good characteristics, the same optical waveform can be reproduced with an arbitrary amount of light, and a very stable laser drive can be realized.
Further, according to the optical scanning device of the present invention, since the laser driving device of the present invention is used, it is possible to use laser light having a very stable optical waveform, and stable without depending on the characteristics of the semiconductor laser. Optical writing can be realized.
Further, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, since the optical scanning apparatus of the present invention is used, accurate optical scanning is possible, and a high-quality image can be formed. In particular, when applied to a color laser printer or a color digital copying machine, a high-quality color image with little color misregistration can be formed.

It is a figure showing the droop characteristic of a general semiconductor laser. It is a figure which shows the example of the high-speed optical response waveform of a general semiconductor laser. It is the schematic which shows the structural example of the laser drive device which concerns on this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the structure of the liquid crystal polarizing element as a light quantity adjustment element. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the variable ND element as a light quantity adjustment element. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the Faraday element as a light quantity adjustment element. It is a figure showing the droop characteristic of the laser beam in the laser drive device of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the high-speed optical response waveform of the laser beam in the laser drive device of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the structural example of the optical scanner which concerns on this invention. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. It is the schematic which shows the other structural example of the laser drive device which concerns on this invention.

The concept of laser characteristics and drive control, which are the premise of the present invention, are as follows.
FIG. 1 shows a droop characteristic of a general semiconductor laser.
FIG. 1 shows the relationship between the drive currents 1, 2, and 3 and the optical output waveform (optical waveform) when the magnitude of the drive current is divided into three types. In this figure, ΔP is the same regardless of the magnitude of the drive current, but this is a simplification for the sake of explanation, and it is known that the value actually varies somewhat. However, the amount is not an amount that follows the change in the drive current, that is, the change in the peak light amount, but may be considered to be approximately the same value.

  In general lasers, it is known that the absolute amount of droop due to efficiency reduction due to self-heating does not depend much on the amount of light, and as a result, as shown in FIG. The light output is reduced by the power (ΔP in the figure). For this reason, the droop characteristic of the semiconductor laser is more affected by the ratio with the peak light amount (first light output) as the light amount (steady state light output) is smaller, and the ratio of light amount fluctuation becomes larger. End up.

  Therefore, in order to obtain a more uniform light quantity, that is, to obtain a more uniform image density, the semiconductor laser light quantity is increased to be used in an operating situation in which the influence (ratio) of droop is smaller than the peak light quantity. Things are desirable. For example, when a semiconductor laser is used in the image forming apparatus, in FIG. 1, of course, when the drive current is 1, that is, when both the drive current and the light emission amount are large (FIG. 1 (a1), (a2)), Since the droop value is reduced, it is possible to form a more suitable image that is more suitable for uniform image density.

  However, since the light use efficiency of the image forming apparatus changes due to lens variations, photoconductor sensitivity variations, and changes over time, the light emission amount of the semiconductor laser must be changed. In this case, for example, the condition of the drive current 3 (the condition that the light utilization efficiency of the image forming apparatus is good because the amount of light is small (FIGS. 1 (c1) and (c2))) is the droop characteristic of the semiconductor laser. As a result, the peak value fluctuation of the laser emission amount occurs, resulting in fluctuations in image density.

  In addition, changing the light amount also changes the optical response waveform such as rise time (Tr) / fall time (Tf) and droop characteristics in the light output, so that the fluctuation also results in the density fluctuation of the image. There is a problem that becomes (FIG. 2).

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a high-speed optical response waveform of the semiconductor laser. In FIG. 1, the time scale on the horizontal axis is μs, and the rising / falling pattern is described by a straight line. In FIG. Is shown.

  In the case of such a high-speed optical response, even if the drive current has the same pulse width, the light emitted from the semiconductor laser has a pulse width different from that of the drive current as shown in FIG. Things are known. One cause of the narrowing of the pulse width is an oscillation delay phenomenon of the semiconductor laser. The delay amount is reduced if a sufficient bias current is supplied in advance, but for example, when light is emitted from a driving current of 0 or a minute current. In this case, the delay amount becomes larger, and as a result, the pulse width of the light becomes narrower. Another cause of the narrowing of the pulse width is that the Tr / Tf becomes slow due to the low-pass filter effect caused by the parasitic capacitance and the resistance component between the semiconductor laser and the driver. As a result, the pulse width is also narrowed.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the light amount (light output) is small (in the case of the drive current 3 (FIG. 2 (c1), (c2)), the droop characteristic is generally deteriorated, but the high-speed response characteristic. However, in the case of a surface emitting laser such as a VCSEL, different characteristics may be obtained, but the use with a constant light quantity is still the most stable. For example, in order to absorb the light utilization efficiency, there is a method of changing the efficiency by using a plurality of ND filters, and in this case, the dynamic range can be partly reduced, but the light quantity can be optimized. As a result, the amount of light from the light source must be changed, resulting in variations in the optical waveform.

  Thus, by increasing or decreasing the drive current, the peak light amount of the semiconductor laser can certainly be increased or decreased accordingly, but one is the droop characteristic of the semiconductor laser, and the other is the semiconductor laser and Due to the high-speed response characteristics of the system, even if the laser driver has an ideal drive current waveform, the optical waveform will cause fluctuations in peak light intensity due to droop and pulse thinning during high-speed response, so that more accurate images will be used in the future. This is a major problem when considering a forming apparatus.

  Next, the reason why the use range (dynamic range) of the light source quantity is increasing in laser printers and copiers now will be described. In a so-called laser printer or laser copying machine that scans and writes laser light on a photosensitive member, it is generally necessary to change the light amount of the light source in order to cope with the following fluctuation in efficiency.

(Variation 1) Variation in efficiency of optical system Generally, there is a variation in efficiency of about twice due to variations in transmission / reflection of lenses and polygon mirrors, but the laser power required by the photoconductor is determined by the photoconductor. It is necessary to adjust the optical variation (absorb the variation) by changing the amount of laser light.

(Variation 2) Process efficiency variation of the photoconductor, etc. The sensitivity of the photoconductor also varies, and in the case of the photoconductor, there is also a change with time (deterioration) due to use. It is necessary to adjust by changing the amount of light. In particular, recently, the machine itself has been inspected for changes over time in the efficiency of the photoconductor and development, and the process itself performs a process control operation that performs self-adjustment so as to maintain the optimum image density. As a result, the adjustment is performed by changing the light quantity of the light source.

(Variation 3) Efficiency variation between models The use of a common light source for various models has led to simplification of the process and cost reduction. System efficiency and process efficiency are not exactly the same, and because the productivity (for example, printout time) differs depending on the model, the laser light output is different and the modulation speed is also different. The amount of light used is different.

  In order to absorb these variations and system efficiency (correction / adjustment), a light intensity dynamic range of about 10 times is required at present, and the correction range tends to increase in the future. For this reason, changes in the optical waveform depending on the amount of light have become increasingly important issues in the future.

  Furthermore, in the case of a color machine, a problem arises with respect to the stability of the image depending on the light waveform of the light source. In other words, a color machine generally has its own photoconductor for each color (because productivity (speed) decreases when outputting color with a single photoconductor), and each optical system for each color. In general, the output of the light source in each color is scattered because the efficiency and time-dependent state of the photoconductor are different. In this case, if the output is different as described above, the toner is placed on the light waveform, in other words, the integrated light quantity and its distribution on the photoconductor, and a color image is formed as a result. And the density fluctuate due to variations in the optical waveform. When the area of the image is large, the effect is integrated and is relatively stable.However, in the case of a highlight image or the like, particularly when a highlight image is formed with a combination of small pixels, the variation of the optical waveform The effect will come out. Even in an image with a large image area, the density may change due to the influence of long-period characteristics such as laser droop characteristics. That is, there is a problem in image stabilization as compared with the monochrome case.

In order to solve these problems, the inventors have intensively studied and used a semiconductor laser on the high output side with no droop characteristic and good optical response waveform and with a constant light output, and the light quantity itself is A laser driving device that is adjusted (attenuated) after light emission by another means and an optical scanning device including the laser driving device are completed, and the optical scanning device is used to reduce image density fluctuation and achieve stable image formation. A possible image forming apparatus was realized.
The laser driving device, the optical scanning device, and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of a laser driving device according to the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 3, the laser drive device 10 includes a light source 1 that is a semiconductor laser that emits laser light, and a light source drive control unit that performs on / off drive control of the light source 1 with a constant amount of laser light emitted from the light source 1. 5a, a light amount adjusting element 3 arranged on the optical path of the laser light emitted from the light source 1 and capable of electrically changing the transmittance of the laser light transmitted through the inside, and a laser output from the laser driving device 10 A peak light quantity control unit that controls the internal transmittance of the light quantity adjusting element 3 in accordance with the optical characteristics of an optical component (optical system) related to the light, and adjusts the peak light quantity of the laser light transmitted through and emitted from the inside. 5b. The control unit 5 is a control device or a driver including a light source drive control unit 5a and a peak light amount control unit 5b.

  Here, the light source 1 has a predetermined output (for example, 10 mW) in which the droop characteristic and the high-speed response characteristic are improved by the drive current (LD signal) supplied from the light source drive control unit 5a and the photodetector (PD) signal for the light source 1. It always emits light. This is, for example, the state in the case of the drive current 1 in FIGS.

  In addition, an aperture 2 is provided between the light source 1 and the light amount adjusting element 3 to regulate the light amount of the laser light emitted from the light source 1 to a predetermined amount. In FIG. 3, the laser beam output at 10 mW is a constant 3 mW laser beam. An optical element such as a collimator lens may be arranged as necessary.

  When the light source 1 has a multiple light source configuration having a plurality of light emitting units such as an LDA (laser diode array) or a VCSEL, the light source drive control unit 5a adjusts the light emission amount of each of the plurality of light emitting units to a desired value. It is preferable to perform on / off drive control for the light source 1.

  The light amount adjustment element 3 has an internal transmittance that is changed by a signal (electrical control) from the peak light amount control unit 5b, and the laser light from the aperture 2 is required as a desired peak light amount (optical system of the image forming apparatus). It is an optical element that can emit light as a light quantity. For example, in FIG. 3, the light amount adjusting element 3 can adjust the transmittance so that incident 3 mW laser light is transmitted through the inside so that it can be arbitrarily adjusted within the range of 0.3 mW to 3 mW and emitted. It has become.

  The light quantity adjusting element 3 is preferably one that can electrically change the internal transmittance within at least one second in order to cope with the three efficiency fluctuations (variations 1 to 3) described above. It is preferably a variable ND element (continuous ND element), an acoustooptic element, or a Faraday element.

  Among these, the liquid crystal polarizing element may be used for general purposes in applications such as TV, video, camera finder, etc. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a transparent substrate 3a such as quartz glass is transparent on ITO or the like. A pair of substrates 3d on which a plurality of electrodes 3b and an alignment film 3c are laminated are arranged through spacers 3s so that the alignment film 3c faces each other, and the liquid crystal layer LC is filled therein. In this liquid crystal polarizing element, the transmittance of the entire interior is changed by changing the voltage applied between the electrodes 3b to change the liquid crystal alignment of the liquid crystal layer LC. Thus, since the light quantity adjusting element 3 is a liquid crystal polarizing element, a cheaper and more stable laser driving device can be realized. Such a liquid crystal polarizing element is suitable for a large number of light source configurations such as an LDA (laser diode array) and a VCSEL because a liquid crystal polarizing element can be obtained relatively easily.

As the variable ND element, for example, an element capable of adjusting the amount of light transmitted through the ND filter continuously with the rotating body is assumed. By controlling the amount of rotation of the element with, for example, a stepping motor, the transmitted laser light is transmitted. The peak light amount can be adjusted. In the case of an ND element in which the concentration continuously changes in an analog manner, the predetermined transmission efficiency place is narrow, so it is not suitable for a large number of light sources such as LDA and VCSEL, but as shown in FIG. In the case of an ND element that can change the transmission efficiency continuously though it is digital, the above problem does not occur and the present invention can be realized. That is, the variable ND element shown in FIG. 5A is divided into 16 with respect to the central angle of the disk that is a rotating body, and an ND filter having a different density is arranged for each divided region (central angle 22.5 degrees). The transmittance can be changed by rotating the disk. At this time, the larger the number of divisions on the disk, the easier it is to change the set value (transmittance) in an analog fashion. For example, there should be a step of about 256 values (8 bits) or more.
The variable ND element shown in FIG. 5B is a configuration example in which a desired amount of transmitted light is obtained by stacking a plurality of ND filters having different densities. For example, a predetermined one or a plurality of ND filters are selected. A desired density (transmittance) can be realized by placing the laser beam on the optical path of the incident laser light.

  A variable density can be realized by using a plurality of ND filters having such a fixed transmission efficiency and continuously switching them with a drive system. Further, since the light amount adjusting element 3 is a variable ND element, a cheap and stable laser driving device can be realized more easily.

  An acousto-optic element (AOM element) is an acousto-optic medium bonded with a piezoelectric element. An electric signal is applied to the piezoelectric element to generate an ultrasonic wave, which diffracts laser light passing through the inside. It becomes a light modulation element (or a light deflection element, an acousto-optic filter). At this time, the transmittance of the laser beam can be changed by amplitude-modulating the piezoelectric element at a constant frequency. Alternatively, when used as an optical deflection element or an acousto-optic filter, the intensity of the laser beam emitted is adjusted by frequency modulation and amplitude modulation.

  As described above, since the light amount adjusting element 3 is an acousto-optic element, a higher-speed and high-performance laser driving device can be realized. In general, since the acousto-optic medium is made of a single crystal, a larger crystal is required in the case of a plurality of light sources.

  A Faraday element is an element that is polarized by rotating a magnetic Kerr by applying a magnetic field to a nonlinear optical element, and is used as a filter. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the Faraday rotator F is sandwiched between two polarizers P1 and P2, and the rotation of the Faraday rotator F is adjusted by the magnetic field H to change the transmittance of the laser light. is there. As described above, since the light quantity adjustment element 3 is a Faraday element, a higher-speed and high-performance laser driving device can be realized.

7 and 8 show the waveform of the light output emitted from the laser driving device 10. FIG. 7 shows the droop characteristic of the waveform of the optical output emitted from the laser driving apparatus 10, and FIG. 8 shows the high-speed optical response waveform.
Considering the case where the laser drive device 10 emits laser light having the same light output as in the cases of FIGS. 1C1 and 1C2 (conditions of the drive current 3) described above, the laser light is output through the following process.
(S1) First, the LD signal of the drive current 1 shown in FIGS. 7A and 8A is always input to the light source 1 from the light source drive controller 5a.
(S2) The light source 1 has a waveform that decreases by ΔP from the initial light output as shown in FIG. 7B to a steady light output, and laser oscillation is predetermined as shown in FIG. 8B. A laser beam whose pulse width is narrowed with a delay is emitted.
(S3) Next, the laser light emitted from the light source 1 is incident on the light amount adjusting element 3 after the light amount is regulated to a predetermined amount by the aperture 2.
(S4) In the light amount adjusting element 3, the inside is adjusted to a predetermined transmittance by the peak light amount control unit 5b, and the incident laser light is attenuated and emitted. At this time, the optical waveforms in FIGS. 7B and 8B are simply attenuated and emitted with the optical output waveforms in FIGS. 7C and 8C. That is, as shown in FIG. 7C, the peak fluctuation value of the optical output due to the droop characteristic is ΔP × drive current 3 / drive current 1, and the influence of the droop characteristic becomes smaller in proportion to the magnitude of the optical output. . Further, as shown in FIG. 8C, the high-speed optical response waveform of the optical output is a waveform in which the delay of laser oscillation does not change, the pulse width of the optical output is the same as in FIG. Become.

  As described above, according to the laser driving device 10 of the present invention, laser light having good droop characteristics and high-speed optical response characteristics is emitted from the light source 1 at a constant output, and then attenuated and emitted by the light quantity adjusting element 3. Therefore, both the droop characteristic and the high-speed optical response characteristic are simply attenuated without impairing the good characteristics, and the optical output waveform of the laser beam emitted from the laser driving device 10 is the conventional one (FIGS. 1 and 2). Compared with 2), it is very stable.

  The amount of laser light emitted from the laser driving device 10 is monitored by a transmission type photo detector (PD), and the information is fed back to the peak light amount control unit 5b so that the output light amount becomes constant. You may control to.

Next, the configuration of the optical scanning device according to the present invention will be described.
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the optical scanning device according to the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 9, the optical scanning device 100 includes a laser driving device 10 of the present invention comprising a light source 1, an aperture 2, a light amount adjusting element 3, a light source drive control unit 5a, and a peak light amount control unit 5b, a cylindrical lens 12, and the like. The polygon mirror 13 which is a means for deflecting in the main scanning direction (scanning means), the deflector side scanning lens 14a and the image surface side scanning lens 14b which are imaging optical systems and fθ lenses, and the photosensitive drum 16 side. A folding mirror 15 for folding the laser beam and an optical housing (not shown) in which these mirrors are assembled at predetermined positions are provided.

  In the present embodiment, in the XYZ three-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system, the direction along the optical axis of the cylindrical lens 12 is described as the X-axis direction, and the direction parallel to the rotation axis of the polygon mirror 13 is described as the Z-axis direction. For convenience, the direction corresponding to the main scanning direction is abbreviated as “main scanning direction”, and the direction corresponding to the sub scanning direction is abbreviated as “sub scanning direction”.

  As shown in FIG. 9, in the optical scanning device 100, the laser light emitted from the laser driving device 10 is condensed in the sub-scanning direction by the cylindrical lens 12 and is simply deflected and reflected by the polygon mirror 13 rotating as the scanning means (simply). It is also incident on the reflecting surface. Next, the laser light reflected by the deflecting reflecting surface is deflected at a constant angular velocity along with the constant speed rotation of the polygon mirror 13, passes through the scanning lenses 14a and 14b, is folded back by the folding mirror 15, and is simply a photosensitive drum (simply). Condensed on the surface to be scanned 16 (also called photoconductor). As described above, the laser light emitted from the laser driving device 10 is imaged as a light spot on the surface to be scanned, and optical scanning of the surface to be scanned is performed.

  Since the optical scanning device 100 having such a configuration uses the laser driving device 10 of the present invention, a laser beam having a very stable optical waveform that cannot be obtained by the conventional configuration for changing the driving current of the light source 1 is used. Therefore, stable optical writing that does not depend on the characteristics of the semiconductor laser can be realized.

Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described.
FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, and is an overall side view of the image forming apparatus using the optical scanning device of the present invention.
In FIG. 10, an image forming apparatus 200 that is an electrophotographic apparatus arranges image forming units 110, 120, 130, and 140 for each color on an intermediate transfer belt 151, and forms a color image with toner on the intermediate transfer belt 151. Then, the color image is transferred to a sheet as a recording medium conveyed from the paper feeding device 170, and the toner is melted and fixed by heat and pressure by the fixing device 160 to form a color image.

  There are four types of image forming units 110, 120, 130, and 140, each having a K developing unit 110 having black toner, a C developing unit 120 having cyan toner, an M developing unit 130 having magenta toner, and a yellow toner. Y developing unit 140.

  For example, as the image forming unit 110, a photosensitive drum 111 (which is the photosensitive drum 16 in FIG. 9) and a charging device 112 that charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 111 to a high voltage around the photosensitive drum 111 are input. A developing device 114 that visualizes the electrostatic latent image recorded on the photoconductive drum 111 by attaching the toner charged from the developing roller 114a to the electrostatic latent image recorded by the optical writing of the optical scanning device 100 of the present invention based on the obtained image data; A cleaning device 115 for scraping and storing the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 111 is disposed. The same applies to the image forming units 120, 130, and 140. It should be noted that the real-time scanning line positional deviation correction by the optical scanning device 100 as described above may be applied to all of the image forming units 110, 120, 130, and 140.

  The intermediate transfer belt 151 is an endless belt that is stretched and rotated by a plurality of rollers, and is in contact with the photosensitive drum and the secondary transfer roller 150 of each of the image forming units 110, 120, 130, and 140. . Further, a primary transfer roller (not shown) is disposed opposite to the photosensitive drum 111 and the like, and is disposed inside the intermediate transfer belt 151 and opposed to the photosensitive drum 111 and the like.

  The sheets are pulled out one by one by the pickup roller 171 from the sheet feeding device 170 on which the sheets are accumulated, and after passing through the registration rollers 172, come into contact with the intermediate transfer belt 151 while being pressed by the secondary transfer roller 150 and its opposing roller. Is transferred to the fixing device 160 via the conveyance belt.

  In the fixing device 160, the fixing member heated to a predetermined temperature and the pressure member are brought into contact with each other with a predetermined pressure to form a nip portion, and heat and pressure are applied to the sheet passing through the nip portion. It has become.

  When forming an image in the image forming apparatus 200, for example, the image forming unit 110 charges the photosensitive drum 111 with the charging device 112, and the optical scanning device 100 applies light according to the image to Drop the potential. The portion reaches the developing device 114 by the rotation of the photosensitive drum 111, and when it comes into contact with the toner layer on the developing roller 114a, the charged toner adheres to the image position.

  The toner image on the photosensitive drum 111 is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 151 at a portion where the primary transfer roller presses the intermediate transfer belt 151 toward the photosensitive drum 111. Similarly, in each of the image forming units 120, 130, and 140, the toner image on the photosensitive drum is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 151 to form a color toner image. As the intermediate transfer belt 151 is conveyed, the toner image is transferred onto the sheet conveyed at the site of the secondary transfer roller 150. The sheet onto which the toner image has been transferred is conveyed to the fixing device 160, where the toner is melted and fixed by heat and pressure to form a color image, and is discharged to the discharge tray 190 by the discharge roller 191.

  Note that the transmittance of the light amount adjusting element 3 of the laser driving device 10 in the optical scanning device 100 may be adjusted based on the image density information. The image density information is information on the result of measuring the image density of an actually formed image using a density detection sensor, for example, in a process control operation periodically performed by the machine itself. In the present invention, based on the image density information, the peak light quantity control unit 5b adjusts the light quantity adjusting element 3 so that the image has a desired density, thereby causing fluctuation 1 (variation in optical system characteristics (efficiency fluctuation)). And fluctuation 2 (process efficiency fluctuations of the photoconductor, etc. (variations in sensitivity, etc. and changes with time in the process)) and fluctuation 3 (efficiency fluctuations between models) can be corrected simultaneously. In that case, since the light quantity of the light source 1 itself is not changed, the optical waveform itself can obtain a very good and stable square wave. For that purpose, it is necessary to have a function of continuously changing the transmittance which can be changed to a desired transmittance for a certain desired period of time. Depending on the speed of this dynamic change, it can be used for shading characteristic compensation.

  As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, since the optical scanning device 100 of the present invention is used, accurate optical scanning is possible and a high-quality image can be formed. In particular, when applied to a color laser printer or a color digital copying machine, a high-quality color image with little color misregistration can be formed.

  Although the present invention has been described with the embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings, and other embodiments, additions, modifications, deletions, etc. Can be changed within the range that can be conceived, and any embodiment is included in the scope of the present invention as long as the effects and advantages of the present invention are exhibited.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 11, as the laser driving device 10 of the present invention, the light source 1 that emits laser light and the light source drive control that performs on / off drive control of the light source 1 while keeping the light quantity of the laser light emitted from the light source 1 constant. The light amount adjusting element 3 ′ arranged on the optical path of the laser light emitted from the unit 5a and the light source 1 and capable of electrically changing the reflectance of the incident laser light, and the reflectance of the light amount adjusting element 3 ′ are controlled. The peak light quantity control unit 5b that adjusts the peak light quantity of the laser light emitted by the reflection at the light quantity adjustment element 3 ′ may be provided. In this case, the light quantity adjusting element 3 ′ is preferably one that can electrically change the reflectance within at least one second in order to cope with the three efficiency fluctuations (variations 1 to 3) described above. A liquid crystal polarizing element is mentioned.

  Also with such a laser driving device 10, since laser light having good droop characteristics and high-speed optical response characteristics is emitted from the light source 1 at a constant output, it is attenuated and emitted by the light quantity adjusting element 3 ', so that the droop characteristic is also obtained. The high-speed optical response characteristic is also simply attenuated without impairing its good characteristics, and the optical output waveform of the laser light emitted from the laser driving device 10 is compared with the conventional one (FIGS. 1 and 2). It will be very stable.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Light source 2 Aperture 3, 3 'Light quantity adjustment element 3a Transparent substrate 3b Electrode 3c Alignment film 3d Board | substrate 3s Spacer 5 Control part 5a Light source drive control part 5b Peak light quantity control part 10 Laser drive device 12 Cylindrical lens 13 Polygon mirror 14a, 14b Scanning Lens 15 Folding mirror 16, 111 Photosensitive drum 100 Optical scanning device 110, 120, 130, 140 Image forming unit 112 Charging device 114 Developing device 114a Developing roller 115 Cleaning device 150 Secondary transfer roller 151 Intermediate transfer belt 160 Fixing device 170 Supply Paper device 171 Pickup roller 172 Registration roller 190 Paper discharge tray 191 Paper discharge roller 200 Image forming device F Faraday rotator H Magnetic field LC Liquid crystal layer P1, P2 Polarizer

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-197037 JP-A-5-063283 JP 2004-128342 A JP 2008-233115 A JP 2008-292956 A

The present invention provided to solve the above problems is as follows .
A laser driving device used in an image forming apparatus, wherein a surface emitting laser light source (light source 1) emitting laser light and on / off driving of the surface emitting laser light source with a constant light quantity of laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source A light source drive control unit (light source drive control unit 5a) that performs control and an optical path of the laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source, and can electrically change the transmittance or reflectance of the incident laser light A light amount adjusting element (light amount adjusting element 3, 3 ') and the light amount of the laser light emitted from the surface-emitting laser light source are constant, and the light amount adjusting element is controlled by controlling the transmittance or reflectance of the light amount adjusting element. And a peak light amount control unit (peak light amount control unit 5b) for adjusting the peak light amount of the laser light emitted from the light amount adjusting element by transmission or reflection at Laser driving device (laser driving device 10, FIGS. 3 and 11) .

Claims (6)

A laser driving device used in an image forming apparatus,
A surface emitting laser light source for emitting laser light;
A light source drive control unit that performs on / off drive control of the surface emitting laser light source with a constant amount of laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source;
A light amount adjusting element that is disposed on the optical path of the laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source and can electrically change the transmittance or reflectance of the incident laser light;
A laser emitted from the light amount adjusting element by transmission or reflection at the light amount adjusting element by controlling the transmittance or reflectance of the light amount adjusting element while keeping the light amount of the laser light emitted from the surface emitting laser light source constant. A peak light quantity control unit for adjusting the peak light quantity of light;
A laser driving device comprising: The surface emitting laser light source has a plurality of light emitting portions,
2. The laser drive device according to claim 1, wherein the light source drive control unit performs on / off drive control for a laser light source in which a light emission amount of each of the plurality of light emitting units is adjusted to a desired value.   3. The laser driving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light amount adjusting element is any one of a liquid crystal polarizing element, a variable ND element, an acousto-optic element, and a Faraday element.   An optical scanning device comprising the laser driving device according to claim 1.   An image forming apparatus comprising the optical scanning device according to claim 4.   The peak light amount control unit adjusts the peak light amount of the laser light emitted from the light amount adjusting element by controlling the transmittance or reflectance of the light amount adjusting element based on the density deviation of the formed image. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5.