JPH02139261A - Printing head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an optical printing head provided with allowance by pattern constituting and improve in manufacturing yield by forming a beam emitting part from semiconductor laser emitting laser beam and constituting an optical switch of a thin film waveguide type optical switch. CONSTITUTION:An optical switch 3 performing the switching action of laser beam contains a main waveguide 4 receiving the laser beam from a lens 2, an output waveguide 5 provided at a constant pitch so as to be adjacent to the main waveguide 4 and an electrode 6 for branching the laser beam of the main waveguide 4 to the output waveguide 5 by the application of the voltage based on printing data to output the same and is constituted as the thin film waveguide type optical switch, for example, provided on an LiNbO3 substrate. The laser beam from semiconductor laser 1 is inputted to the optical switch 3 through a lens 2 to propagate through the main waveguide 4 and, by applying the voltage based on printing data to the electrode 6, the laser beam propagates through the output waveguide 5 to be outputted to the outside from the end surface thereof and a printing head receives said laser beam to perform printing.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to the structure of a printer head.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional printers include impact printers, thermal transfer printers, and optical printers, but impact printers are inferior in printing speed and noise, and thermal transfer printers require special paper, so optical printers have become more popular in recent years. There is.

There are three types of optical printer heads used in optical printers: liquid crystal printer heads, laser printer heads, and light emitting diode printer heads.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Among the conventional optical printer heads mentioned above, liquid crystal printer heads are small and low cost, but have the disadvantage of slow printing speed.Laser printer heads are capable of high-speed printing, but The presence of mechanically moving parts not only increases the size of the head, but also has drawbacks in terms of reliability and cost.

On the other hand, although light emitting diode printer heads do not have the above-mentioned problems, there are currently manufacturing problems such as large variations in the amount of light in the light emitting diode array and failure of light emission in areas with defects.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer head that solves the above problems.

[Differences between the invention and the prior art]

The present invention differs from the conventional optical printer head described above in that the printer head is configured using an electronic optical switch.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, a printer head according to the present invention includes a light emitting section and an electronic optical switch that performs a switching action of laser light emitted from the light emitting section based on print data, and the light emitting section The optical switch is composed of a semiconductor laser that emits laser light, and the optical switch is a thin film optical four-wave path optical switch.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Example 1) FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, the present invention includes a semiconductor laser 1 that emits laser light, an optical switch 3 installed in the optical path of the laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser 1, and a lens that introduces the laser light from the semiconductor laser 1 into the optical switch 3. It is equipped with 2.

The optical switch 3 that performs the switching action of the laser light includes a main waveguide 4 that receives and receives the laser light from the lens 2, an output waveguide 5 that is provided adjacent to the main waveguide 4 at a constant pitch, and a main waveguide 4 that receives and receives the laser light from the lens 2. By applying voltage, the main waveguide 4
For example, it includes an electrode 6 for branching and outputting a laser beam of LiNb0. It is constructed as a thin film guided waveguide type optical switch on a substrate. The output waveguide 5 is formed perpendicularly to one main surface of the substrate, while the main waveguide 4 is formed horizontally within the substrate.

In the embodiment, laser light from a semiconductor laser 1 passes through a lens 2 and is input to an optical switch 3.

The input laser light propagates through the main waveguide 4, but by applying a voltage to the electrode 6 based on the printed data,
The laser light propagates through the output waveguide 5 and is outputted to the outside from its end face, and printing is performed by receiving this laser light.

(Example 2) FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, Ia and lb are semiconductor lasers, 2a and 2b
is a lens, 3 is an optical switch, 4a and 4b are main waveguides,
5 is an output waveguide, and 6 is an electrode.

In the present invention, the basic operation is the same as in Embodiment 1, but in this embodiment, laser light can be propagated from both left and right directions to the same output location, so even if a problem occurs in the output waveguide in one direction, There is an advantage that the yield can be improved by using the other output waveguide.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, by using an optical waveguide type optical switch, the present invention is small and ultra-high-speed, and has redundancy due to the pattern configuration, so it is effective in providing an optical printer head with a high manufacturing yield. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. 1, la, lb... semiconductor laser 2, 2a, 2b.
...Lens 3...Optical switch 4, 4a,
4b... Main waveguide 5... Output waveguide 6
...Electrode diagram 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) It has a light emitting part and an electronic optical switch that performs a switching action of laser light emitted from the light emitting part based on printed data, and the light emitting part is made of a semiconductor laser that emits laser light, and the light emitting part is made of a semiconductor laser that emits laser light, and the light emitting part A printer head characterized in that the switch is composed of a thin film optical waveguide type optical switch.