JPS61281212A - Light writing printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the light writing printer which can be used in the wide wavelength scope, can be applied to various light sources and photosensitive bodies and can execute the highly speedy action by collecting selectively the light and writing the light on the photosensitive bodies since the deflection deforming quantity of the movable thin film is changed. CONSTITUTION:By changing over the electric potential between movable thin films and executing the double-amplitude deflection deformation of a movable thin film 101 by means of a switch 105, the quantity of the light to be made incident on a light collecting part 107 and to be used for writing the light can be controlled. When the switch 105 is not connected to an A side and a B side in the figure and the movable thin film 101 is made into the floating condition, the charge accumulated before the film is changed over to the floating condition is preserved as it is, and therefore, the force to occur at the movable thin film 101 will not be changed, and has a memory effect to keep the position as it does.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a printer device that uses light to expose a photoreceptor or photosensitive paper for viewing. More specifically, the present invention relates to an optical writing printer using an optical writing head having a light amount control element that modulates the amount of light emitted from a light source.

<Prior art> The exposure method used in optical writing printers, for example, focuses light from a point light source such as a laser, and scans and exposes a photoreceptor with a rotating polygon mirror, which requires a complex and highly accurate optical system and control. system is required. On the other hand, when using a linear light source, the amount of light is controlled by a light amount modulating element interposed between the i1 light source and the photoreceptor (in the method of exposing the photoreceptor, a light shutter array consisting of a large number of light amount modulating elements is placed close to the photoreceptor). By arranging a complex optical system, a control system is not required, and a general light source such as a fluorescent lamp can be used as a light source, so it is an advantage to realize a device with a simple configuration. has.

Conventionally, a liquid crystal shutter is used as a light amount control element i1
A device is used that selectively exposes the photoreceptor by transmitting or blocking light depending on whether the liquid crystal element is turned on or off. However, with this conventional technology, the response speed of the liquid crystal shutter is slow, the shutter's on/off light intensity ratio cannot be large, and the wavelength range of light that can be used is narrow due to the custom light absorption and light resistance of the liquid crystal material. It had disadvantages such as physical limitations.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> The purpose of the present invention is to solve these problems, to be usable in a wide wavelength range, to be applicable to various light sources and photoreceptors, to have a large light intensity ratio between on and off, and to be able to operate at high speed. An object of the present invention is to realize an optical writing printer having a light amount control element capable of 51 operations.

Means for Solving the Problems> The optical writing printer of the present invention includes a movable thin film, an electric field generator groove for generating an electric field around the movable thin film, a charge application unit for applying a charge to the movable WI film, and the above-mentioned. It consists of a mechanism for irradiating light onto a movable thin film, and the movable thin film receives electrostatic force from the electric field and is deflected from its elastic equilibrium position in both directions to change the direction of reflection of the irradiated light. , and a light amount control element.

According to the above-mentioned feature 111 of the present invention, an electrostatic force is generated in the movable thin film by controlling one or both of the @beak that stores charge in the movable thin film and the mechanism that generates an electric field around the movable thin film. changes, and the deflection deformation of the movable thin film changes depending on the cell. By changing the deflection deformation 1 of the i5T dynamic thin film, the direction of reflection of the light irradiated onto the movable thin film by the light irradiation mechanism changes, so only the light reflected in a specific direction is selectively focused and connected to the photoreceptor. The present invention performs optical writing on a photoreceptor using the above-mentioned light amount control element. It is something.

<Example> The present invention will be explained based on examples.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a printer according to the present invention, in which light from a light source 1 is focused by a condensing lens 2 and irradiated onto a light amount control element 3. The light amount control element 3 is connected to the lens 4
The amount of reflected light jt in the direction is controlled, and the light focused by the imaging lens 4 exposes one point on the photoreceptor 5. While performing optical writing in this manner, the photoreceptor or the optical writing system is moved to scan the surface of the photoreceptor.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which a line printer is constructed using a light amount control element array in which a large number of light amount control elements are integrated in a line shape.
A SELFOC lens array 14 is used as an imaging lens that irradiates the tit control element array 13 and condenses and focuses the reflected light, and forms an image on the photoreceptor 5 to perform optical writing for one line. By moving the photoreceptor 5 in the direction of the arrow, optical writing is performed on the entire plane.

For example, when photosensitive paper is used as the photoreceptor in Figures 1 and 2, processing such as development and fixing may be required, and a photosensitive charging drum is used as the photoreceptor to form an electrostatic latent image. If formed, printing, transfer, and transfer using well-known electrophotographic methods
Although steps such as fixing are required, illustrations and descriptions of the entire device will be omitted.

Next, a light amount control element according to the present invention will be explained. Third
The figure is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the light amount control element used in the present invention, in which a lower electrode plate 102 and a lower electrode plate 103 are arranged on the upper and lower surfaces of a movable thin film 101 made of aluminum with spacers 104 made of R-rated plastic interposed therebetween. It has 11 structures. The electrode plate 102 on the upper surface 1 is a glass substrate formed with a transparent light guide film such as Nesa film, and transmits light of a wavelength used for writing.

The lower electrode plate 103 is also made of the same material as the lower electrode plate in this embodiment. A voltage is applied between the upper electrode plate 102 and the lower electrode plate 1030 through the WL source, and the movable thin film 101
It consists of a machine that generates an electric field around *t. Next, the light amount control operation will be explained. When the switch 105 is switched to the A side in the figure, the movable thin film 10r and the lower electrode plate 102
are set at equal potential and no electrostatic force is generated between them, but since a potential difference and a force are generated between the movable thin film 101 and the lower electrode plate 103, the movable thin film @101 is charged (1 in the figure).
! In the case of source coordination, a negative charge) is applied and accumulated, and an attractive force is generated between the bottom surface and the electrode plate 103 due to electrostatic force, and the movable thin film 1
01 is deflected and deformed to the state 201 in the figure. At this time, the multiplication table 106 that is irradiated onto the movable thin i101 is reflected in the direction of C in the figure, and almost no light enters the condenser 107H in the direction of C in the figure.

Next, when the switch 105 is switched to the B side in the figure, an attractive force due to electrostatic force acts between the movable thin film 101 and the upper electrode plate 102, and the space between the movable thin films is deflected and deformed, as shown by the two-dot chain line in the figure. The state becomes 202.

At this time, the reflected light is reflected in the direction shown in the figure, and the light entering the condensing section 107 becomes maximum. As described above, by changing the potential between the movable thin films using the switch 105 and deforming the movable thin film 101 in both directions, the light condensing section 10
It is possible to control the beam of light incident on 7 and used for optical writing. Furthermore, if the switch 105 is not connected to the A side or the B side in the figure, and the Machido Thin 11101 is placed in the 70-setting state, the charges accumulated before switching to the floating state will be stored as they are, so the movable thin film The force generated on 101 does not change and has a memory effect that keeps it in the same position.

In the embodiment shown in the wca diagram, the condenser 107 is located at the position F in the figure, but it is also possible to have the condenser 107 at the position C in the figure, in which case the state of the switch 105 and the condenser Part 1
The relationship between the amount of light incident on 07 is opposite to that in the wc3 diagram.

Further, the light converging section 107 may be located in any direction between C and D, but the maximum e-minimum light amount ratio will be smaller than when it is located in the C or D direction.

In the example shown in Fig. 3, the top surface! The electrode plate 102 was formed by forming a transparent WL film on a glass substrate so as to transmit light.
Only the parts of the reflection path of the light must be left unobstructed, so if you put a window in these parts, you can close the top surface to the polar plate 10.
2 itself may be constructed of opaque material such as metal. The lower electrode plate 103 does not need to be transparent, and may be made of any material as long as it is conductive. Matamachi motion thin ga10
7 does not need to be aluminum as long as it has a high reflectance for light at the wavelength used for optical writing, and may be made of other conductors or of a composite structure of conductor and non-conductor.

Also, any material may be used for the spacer 104 as long as it has a high insulation ratio.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, if only the switch 1050 is replaced with a volume mechanism as shown in FIG. 4, the potential of the movable thin film 101 can be set to any potential within the power supply voltage range, and The deflection deformation position of the thin film 101 can also be set arbitrarily within the range from 201 to 202 in the WXs diagram, and the amount of light incident on the light condensing section 107 can be continuously controlled.

Also, in the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, the switch 1050 part is @5 with h.
Figure G) (b), the potential of the movable thin film 101 is fixed and the upper electrode plate 102 and the lower electrode plate 103
You can also use a switch to change the potential of .

The state of the movable thin film 101 is 202° in FIG. 3 when the switch is in the state shown in FIG. 5G), and 201 in FIG. 3 when the switch is in the state shown in FIG. 5(6).

Note that the switches and volumes shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 are not limited to mechanical types, but may be solid-state types using semiconductors or the like.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of another embodiment of the light amount control element of the present invention, in which curved surfaces are used for the upper electrode plate 102 and the lower electrode plate 103 to increase the efficiency when pulling the movable thin film 101 with electrostatic force. The other aspects are the same as the embodiment shown in FIG.

<Effects of the Invention> As shown in the above-described embodiments, the light amount control element of the present invention controls the amount of light by using reflection by a movable thin film. Light in a wide range of wavelengths can be used without limiting the photoreceptor or light source.In this case, it is possible to use materials with custom-made materials that have a flat spectral reflection over a wide wavelength range, such as gAl or aluminum. The movable thin film itself can be configured to have a filter effect by configuring it to suit a wavelength range, or conversely by using a material that absorbs or reflects only a specific wavelength range. Also, by choosing a material with good reflectance, such as aluminum, the efficiency of light use can be greatly increased. Furthermore, since the direction of light reflection itself is changed, the maximum/minimum light amount ratio is extremely large. In addition, since the movable thin film is constructed so that it can flex in both directions by receiving electrostatic attraction in both the up and down directions, it is possible to use a method in which the attractive force is applied only in one direction and the movable thin film returns to its original position in the opposite direction using only the elastic force of the movable thin film. In comparison, the wide width allows for high-speed driving.

Also, the movable thin film is driven by electrostatic force! ic#t, hardly flows and ultra-low power consumption can be achieved. In addition, by putting the movable thin film in a floater state, it has a memory effect that retains the previous state, so even when a large number of light amount control elements are integrated, dynamic driving by time division is easy and the number of drive drivers can be reduced. It can be reduced. Furthermore, since the light amount control element of the present invention can be manufactured using the same film-forming technology and patterning/etching technology as in semiconductor manufacturing processes, it is easy to manufacture a large number of integrated elements with high precision.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of the exposure section of the printer with light intensity of the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagram showing Embodiment 1 when a large number of light intensity modulation elements are integrated, and Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of the exposure section of the printer with light intensity of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of the light control element used in the invention, FIG. 4 is a full-oil diagram of another embodiment of the switch 105 in FIG.
(b) is a diagram showing still another embodiment of the switch 105 in FIG. 3, 0) and (b) show two states in which the switch is switched, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the light amount control used in the present invention. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the element. 3...Light amount control element 13...Light amount control! 11] Cumulative array 101-・Movable thin film or more

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a movable thin film, a mechanism for generating an electric field around the movable thin film, a mechanism for applying electric charge to the movable thin film, and a mechanism for irradiating light to the movable thin film, and the electric charge in the movable thin film and the surrounding electric field are The movable thin film is deflected in both directions from an elastic equilibrium position by the electrostatic force between the movable thin film and the light amount control element configured to control the direction of reflection of light irradiated onto the movable thin film. An optical writing printer.