JPS5951445A - Recording element - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the efficiency of optical coupling to an imaging element by forming one part of a substrate corresponding to the luminous portion of a phosphor such that said part possesses a refractive index profile by which light is effectively collected into the imaging element. CONSTITUTION:An insulating and optically opaque film 50 is formed on the surface of a transparent glass substrate 30 containing exchanging ions. Then, one part of the light shielding film 50 is removed by means of a photoetching method forming a circular shape with a desired pitch where wanted resolution is attained with respect to a main scanning direction A, allowing a slit opening 50a to be formed. Successively, a refractive index profile distributed symmetrically about an arbitrary optical axis O is provided by implanting ions from the light shielding film 50 side through the opening 50a to the inside of the substrate 30. Hereby, it is possible to effectively transmit a luminous flux from the phosphor limited in its power to the surface to be exposed, enabling high speed scanning exposure to be performed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a recording element.

Among the conventional printer fields, as a photo printer,
Various types of printers are known, such as laser printers, OFT printers, LED printers, and shutter array printers. Among these printers, laser printers require a movable mechanism such as a high-speed rotation mechanism for polygons, etc., and therefore have the drawback that the scanning optical system becomes complicated. In addition, 0FT (optical fiber)
In chip printers, it is necessary to avoid increasing the size of the device, but it is also necessary to accurately manage the minute gap between the recording surface and the end face of the fiber chip. Furthermore, L.E.
D In printers, it is necessary to connect a large number of LED chips in one direction, or to arrange them in a striped pattern, which makes the LED light emitting elements themselves expensive and increases the light emission distribution. It has the disadvantage of being non-uniform.

In addition, in the case of a one-dimensional printer, when using PLZT as a chair with crystal denomination, for example,
BD printers have the same drawbacks as mentioned above. Therefore, improved recording devices have been proposed to overcome the above drawbacks. This recording apparatus includes a recording element that forms a light emitting pattern in the main scanning direction, and a focusing element that forms an image of the light emitting pattern onto a recording medium as imaging light. The essence of this technology is based on the light emitting display mechanism of a fluorescent display tube, which is conventionally used for displays.

This invention was developed into an optical information output element for an L'Y photo printer, that is, a recording element closely related to the present invention, and this was applied as a basic configuration to the intended recording apparatus.

This recording element consists of a pixel unit I on a transparent substrate.
A large number of transparent electrode plates arranged in an array, phosphors provided correspondingly on these transparent electrodes, and a filament for thermionic emission provided above the phosphors; It is possible to have a sealing member that seals these transparent electrodes, phosphors, filaments, etc., and input image information signals through a driver circuit to cause the phosphors to selectively emit light in pixel units. It's configured so well.

Here, as a premise for explaining the present invention, a specific example of the configuration of the recording element will be introduced.

In FIG. 1b and FIG. 2, the temperature is "recording element 1."

A light shielding member 5 is provided on a substrate 3 made of glass.

Next, a transparent electrode array 6, a phosphor 7. Grid electrode 8
, a filament 9 serving as a cathode is provided with an opening facing the sealing member 4 in that order, and these are housed in an inner sealing portion formed by the substrate 3 and the sealing member 4. The two light shielding members 5 are thinly coated on the substrate 3, and each of the light shielding members 5 is provided with a minute slit opening 5a of, for example, about 100 μm. [3- This opening 5a is parallel to the main scanning direction A, which is the same as the arrangement direction of the transparent electrode array 6. As shown in FIG. 2, the transparent electrode array 6 includes a single minute transparent electrode 6a.
and 6b are arranged alternately in an array in the main scanning direction, and the above-mentioned opening 5a is connected to the transparent electrode 6as.
6b at a right angle.

The phosphor 7 is disposed in the main scanning direction, has a band shape, and is adjacent to the transparent electrode array 6.

In this embodiment, the phosphor 7 is applied onto the transparent electrode array 6 by, for example, a printing method. The laminated film is sealed from the outside by the sealing member 4 at a temperature of n°C.

Next, reference numeral 11 indicates a signal line group n derived from the driver circuit (not shown), and the signal line group 11 is connected to the
A voltage as a gap information signal is selectively applied to each transparent electrode, and along with this, thermoelectrons are emitted from the filament 9.
The phosphor is injected into the phosphor portion corresponding to the transparent electrode, and the phosphor selectively emits light in pixel units.

5-4- Then, by the slit opening 5a of the light shielding member 5 of the recording element 1, it is possible to obtain light emitting dots with a small area, for example, approximately square, lined up in the main scanning direction for the light emitted by the phosphor 70. By using a light emitting pattern taken out from the substrate 3 side of the recording element 1 having such a function, for example, by forming an image of the light emitting pattern on a recording medium via an imaging element 10 consisting of a convergent light transmitting array. One desired piece of information can be recorded on a recording medium. In this case, the moving direction of the recording medium is the sub-scanning direction B, which is orthogonal to the main-scanning direction A in FIG.

By the way, in such a recording element, the aperture 5a
The emitted light travels while spreading radially as shown by reference numeral 12 in FIG. This results in low optical coupling efficiency with the device.

For example, it may be difficult to secure a sufficient amount of exposure to support high-speed recording.

The present invention was made with attention to such circumstances, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording element that can increase optical coupling efficiency with an imaging element.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

In the recording element according to the present invention, a part of the substrate corresponding to the light emitting part of the phosphor is formed to have a refractive index distribution such that light is effectively focused on the imaging element. Features.

For example, in FIG. 1, the temperature of the substrate 3 is 0.degree.

In the case of normal glass having a homogeneous refractive index, the light emission pattern from the phosphor is uniformly diffused as shown by the reference numeral 12,
Although the amount of light entering the imaging element 10 is extremely small, this substrate 3
When a refractive index distribution is imparted to a part of the aperture 5a corresponding to Φ, a light focusing effect is produced, and the light 121 is focused as shown by the imaginary line, and the light 121 is focused on the imaging element I.
The amount of light entering O can be increased to achieve the objective of the present invention.

There are two ways to provide such a refractive index distribution.

One is an arbitrarily determined optical axis 1, for example, the optical axis O of the imaging element 10.
The other method is to provide a refractive index distribution in an axially symmetrical manner, and the other method is to provide a refractive index distribution in the arrangement direction of the transparent electrode array, that is, in the sub-scanning direction H that is orthogonal to the main scanning direction A. .

In the former case, the convergence direction of the light is uniform in all directions, so the light 121
It is clear that the situation is convergent.

On the other hand, in the latter case, the focusing direction of the light is in the sub-scanning direction B.
Since the light is limited to n, it is clearly seen that the light is focused in FIG. 1, but in the case of FIG. 4 when viewed from the sub-scanning direction B, it is found that the light is uniformly diffused.

Next, examples of manufacturing steps for each of the above cases will be described.

Example 1. (See FIGS. 5 to 10) This is a method of providing a refractive index distribution axially symmetrically with respect to an arbitrarily determined optical axis.

Step 1 (see FIG. 5) First, a transparent glass substrate 30 containing exchanged ions is prepared, and an insulating light-shielding film 5o having electrical insulation and light impermeability is coated on its surface. Form a film.

7-Step 2 (see FIG. 6) A part of the insulating light-shielding film 50 is removed circularly in the main scanning direction A at a desired pitch that satisfies the desired resolution using a photoetching method to form a slit opening 50a.

Step 3 (see FIG. 7) From the insulating light shielding film 50 side, open the slit opening 50a k
By diffusing (exchanging) ions through the substrate 30 into the substrate 30, a refractive index distribution is provided axially symmetrically with respect to an arbitrary optical axis O. This ion diffusion method is described in the magazine "Optics" Vol. 10, 4.
The technology related to "distributed refractive index flat plate microlens" published on pages 14 to 419 can be applied. The region where the refractive index distribution is given in this way is schematically shown by a broken line in the figure.

Step 4 (see FIG. 8) Transparent electrodes 601, 60b are formed on each slit opening 50a so as to have a configuration similar to the arrangement of the transparent electrodes 6a, 6f) shown in FIG. 2.

Step 5 (see FIG. 9) 8- A phosphor 70' is formed by forming a film or an electric layer so as to overlap the slit opening 50a and the transparent electrodes 6oa and 6ob.

The method of forming the phosphor 70 is to form it as a continuous strip in the main scanning direction, as shown in FIG.
It is easy to manufacture. Naυ.

As another method of formation, as shown in FIG. 10, there is also a mode in which the electrodes are formed independently on each transparent electrode.

In the recording element manufactured according to the embodiment described above,
Since the actual focusing direction covers all directions, the coupling efficiency of the light with the imaging element becomes high, and high-speed ball distribution becomes possible.

Embodiment 2 (See FIGS. 11 to 14) A method is employed in which a refractive index distribution is provided only in the sub-scanning direction B in the substrate for each light emitting portion.

Step 1 (see FIG. 11) After forming the insulating light shielding film 5o on the substrate 30, a slit opening 50a' parallel to the main scanning direction is formed.

Step 2 (see FIG. 12) Ions are diffused (exchanged) from the insulating light-shielding film 50 side into the substrate 30 through the slit openings 50a'' to provide a refractive index distribution only in the sub-scanning direction B.Ions The method of diffusion is similar to that of the first embodiment.

Step 3 (see FIG. 13) Transparent electrodes 60a', 60t)' are arranged in the slit opening 50a1 at an appropriate arrangement pitch that satisfies a predetermined resolution.
Arrange the melons in layers.

Step 4 (see Figure 14) Slit opening 50a1 and transparent electrode 60a'+
A phosphor 70 is formed by film formation or electrodeposition so as to commonly overlap with 60b'.

In the recording element manufactured according to the embodiment described above, light is emitted from the region where the phosphor 70, the transparent electrodes 60a', 60b', and the slit opening 50a' overlap in common, and in the sub-scanning direction. The light is focused on B and is incident on the imaging element.

In this embodiment, the formation of the slit opening 50a1 is much easier than in the first embodiment.

In addition, the subsequent ion diffusion step is easy to perform and is suitable for mass production. In addition, since there is no focusing effect in the main scanning direction, although a slight decrease in light coupling efficiency is observed in Example 2 compared to Example 1, in the main scanning direction, adjacent original patterns This has the advantage that unevenness in the amount of light is alleviated by overlapping them.

FIG. 15 shows an example in which the recording element manufactured in this manner is applied to a recording apparatus in combination with an imaging element consisting of a convergent light transmitting array. In the figure, the reference numeral 100 indicates a recording element according to the present invention, and the recording element according to the first embodiment and the recording element according to the second embodiment are commonly shown in the same figure.

Further, reference numeral 10' indicates a convergent optical transmitter array, and reference numeral 15 indicates a recording medium.

Similarly, FIG. 16 shows an example in which the recording element according to the present invention is applied to a recording apparatus in combination with a one-quadrant element consisting of a roof mirror lens array 10''. , luminous flux can be effectively transmitted from a phosphor of limited power to the exposure surface, and high-speed exposure can be performed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a recording element to which the present invention can be applied, viewed from the main scanning direction, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same figure with the sealing member removed. 4 is a sectional view of the same figure as seen from the sub-scanning direction, FIG. 5(a) is a plan view of the substrate section, FIG. 5(c) is a side view of the same figure as above, and FIG.
) is a plan view of the board, FIG. 6(b) is a side view of the same figure,
FIG. 7(a) is a front view of the substrate section, FIG. 7(0)) is a side view of the same figure as above, FIG. 8(a) is a plan view of the substrate section, and FIG.
)) Figure 9(a) is a side view of the same as above, FIG. 9(a) is a plan view of the substrate section, and FIG. 9(b) is a side view of the same as above. Fig. 10 is a plan view of the substrate section, Fig. 11 (a) is a plan view of the substrate section, Fig. 11 @ is a side view of the same as above, Fig. 12 (a)
is a front view of the board part, Figure 12 (b) is a side view of the same figure,
Figures 13 and 14 are plan views of the substrate section, Figure 15,
FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram of the case where the recording element according to the present invention is applied to a recording apparatus. 10', IO''... Storage element, 3o... Substrate, 100... Recording element. Agent Toru Kabayama 224 12-

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A large number of transparent electrode plates arranged in pixel units on a transparent substrate, phosphors provided correspondingly on these transparent electrodes, and above the phosphors. and a filament for thermionic emission. It has a sealing member that seals these transparent electrodes, phosphors, filaments, etc., and inputs a squadron information signal through a driver circuit to cause the phosphors to selectively emit light in pixel units. A recording element that can: ・A part of the substrate that corresponds to the light emitting part of the phosphor. A recording element characterized in that it is formed to have a refractive index distribution such that light is effectively focused on a quadratic element. 2. The recording element according to claim 1, wherein the refractive index distribution formed on the substrate is formed axially symmetrically with respect to an arbitrarily determined original axis. 3. The recording element according to claim 1, wherein the refractive index distribution formed on the substrate is formed in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the transparent electrode array.