JPS62265859A - Electronic printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain a quick printing under light from a light source with weak optical energy by providing at least a light source in two lines in the direction of rotating a photosensitive drum and exposing the same position on the photosensitive drum by the 1st and 2nd lines and by the same data. CONSTITUTION:The tited printer is provided with at least the light source 2 in two lines in the direction of rotating the photosensitive drum 1, a lens array 3 to condense e the radiation light of the light source 2 and a control means 4 to control the flicker of the lines in the light source 2. The control means 4 light-emits the two lines, for instance, based on the same printing information, and in terms of timing the means 4 light-emits the required part of a photosensitive body exposed by the 1st line in the light source with a fixed time difference so that the 2nd line in the light source can expose repeatedly. Thus optical energy getting on the photosensitive body is doubled, thereby speeding up printing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention provides a plurality of light sources arranged in a row in the direction of the rotation axis of a photoreceptor drum, and at least two rows in the rotation direction, and a lens for condensing light from the light sources. An array and a control means for controlling the blinking of the light sources and the timing of the light source rows are provided, and the same location on the photoreceptor drum is exposed with the same data in the first and second rows, and a high-speed light source with low light energy is provided. Enables printing.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an electronic printer device, and more particularly to an electronic printer device that uses a light emitting source with relatively low optical energy.

2. Description of the Related Art Electronic printer devices, typified by laser printers, are widely used in the field of information processing because of their low noise, good print quality, and ability to print Chinese characters and the like at high speed.

This laser printer uses a laser as a light source, and the method is to irradiate this laser onto a rotating polygon mirror and expose the photoreceptor drum with the reflected light from the rotating polygon mirror. Difficult to downsize.

In order to cope with this miniaturization, electronic printer devices have been developed that use solid-state light emitting elements such as light emitting diodes as light sources. However, does the light emitting diode used as this light source emit light in units of each diode? The deviation is very large, making it difficult to maintain print quality.

Therefore, there is a demand for an electronic printer device that uses a small light source and has good print quality.

(Conventional technology) As a light source for a small electronic printer device with good print quality,
There is an electronic printer device that uses electroluminescence (hereinafter referred to as EL). A conventional electrophotographic printer using an EL light source is constructed as shown in FIG.

The EL panel 5 used as a light source is a one-line dot array having a resolution corresponding to the size and pitch of dots to be printed. This dot array is arranged in the direction of the rotation axis of the photosensitive drum 1. Depending on the printed information,
The light array is caused to emit light and an image is formed on the rotating photosensitive drum 1 via a lens array, that is, a self-focusing lens 3, thereby exposing the photosensitive member. Subsequent development.

The transfer fixing, neutralizing, cleaning, and charging steps are the same as those of a general electrophotographic printer, and their explanations will be omitted.

This conventional EL panel will be explained using a specific example. When a thin film EL element with a double insulating layer structure in which Zn:Mn (0.5%) is used as the light emitting layer of the EL panel and sandwiched between insulating layers is used as a light source, the driving voltage is set to 230V. When emitting light at a frequency of 3 KHz, the minimum exposure energy required for printing is 1 μJ/cffl (1 μJ/cffl per 1 cm square).
x 10 joules), it was necessary to reduce the printing speed to 2 sheets per minute or less for A4 size paper.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The conventional electrophotographic printer using an EL light source described above has a slow printing speed because the light energy emitted by the EL panel of the light source is about 1/100 of the light energy of a light emitting diode.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned conventional situation, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic printer device with a compact optical system and a high printing speed.

[Means for solving problems]

As shown in the principle diagram of FIG. 1, this invention includes at least two rows of light sources 2 in the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum 1, a lens array 3 for condensing the irradiated light tA2, and a light source 2 in each row. It is composed of a control means 4 for controlling blinking.

[Effect]

When there are two rows of light tA2, the iJ port means 4 causes each row to emit the same light based on the printed information, but in terms of timing, the light tA2 is controlled at a required location on the photoreceptor exposed by the light source of the first row. The light sources in the second row emit light with a constant time difference so as to perform repeated exposure. Therefore, the light energy reaching the photoreceptor is doubled, making it possible to speed up printing.

〔Example〕

The structure of a two-line array EL panel used as the light source 2 of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. The EL panel is the second
As shown in the cross-sectional view of the main part in Figure (a), a 200 nm (10 meter) ITO film (Sn-doped rn, o, film) was formed as two lines of transparent electrodes 22 on a glass substrate 21, and then Silicon nitride (Si3
N-order) etc. are formed to a thickness of 200 nm by suba-tuttering. Zinc sulfide (Zn
S) 5% manganese (Mn) is formed to a thickness of 600 nm by vacuum evaporation, and heat treatment is performed in vacuum for 1 hour to improve the diffusion of Mn and the crystallinity of ZnS.

This light emitting layer 24 is coated with silicon nitride (5
13N4) to a thickness of 200 nm. On this insulating layer 25, 3001101 layers of Al (aluminum) are formed as two-line back electrodes 26. For example, if the printing resolution is to be 10 lines/mm, the transparent electrode 22 will have a stripe pattern with a pitch of 0.1a+m, separated at the center, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 2(b). ITO
The film is patterned and etched, and the back electrode 26 is pinched 0.1 in the direction perpendicular to the transparent electrode 22.
Formed in mm.

The EL panel described above and the self-focus lens 3 are arranged so that their center lines coincide with each other. If they are arranged with their center lines shifted, the self-focus lens 3 will be 5LA-20 (trade name of a lens made by Nippon Sheet Glass).
When using a self-focusing lens, the level of the amount of light passing through the self-focus lens changes depending on the center line shift, as shown in FIG.

As is clear from Fig. 3, the center line deviation ΔY is 0, 2
In the case of m+w or less, there is almost no influence. Therefore, the same level of light intensity as in the case of a conventional one-line array EL can be obtained.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a drive circuit operating as the control means 4, in which parallel data is held in a shift register 42 and a register 43 from a memory 41 storing print information. Register 43 is connected to shift register 44 .

The #1 parallel data held in the shift register 42 is converted into a serial signal and sequentially sent to the shift register 4.
The score remained at 5-1. When the data #1 is held in the shift register 45-1, the next data #2 is held in the shift register 42. At the same time, the data #1 held in the register 43 is held in the shift register 44, and the data #2 is stored in the register 43.

Therefore, the shift register 45-2 is the shift register 45-2.
The same data will be stored one cycle later than -1. The data held in shift registers 45-1 and 45-2 are taken in by launch circuits 46-1 and 46-2, respectively. Based on the output data of the latch circuit 46-1, a driver 47-1 that controls blinking of the first row of elements of the EL panel is activated. In addition, the latch circuit 46-
Based on the output data of No. 2, the driver 47-2 is activated to control the blinking of the second row of elements of the EL panel. Drivers 47-1.47 that operate sequentially with a predetermined time difference
-2, the two lines of transparent electrodes 22 of the EL panel having a two-line array configuration are sequentially driven.

On the other hand, the back electrode 26 of the EL panel is driven by a driver 47-3 operated by data in the memory 41. This driving is performed as shown in FIG.

That is, a voltage is applied to the transparent electrode 22 as shown in FIG. 5(a), and a voltage is applied to the back electrode 26 as shown in FIG. 5f). FIG. 5(C) shows the voltage state when the EL element is turned on (ON) and when it is turned off (OFF).

The operation described above will be explained using FIG. 6.

The EL panel has a back electrode S1 as shown in Figure 6 (al).
and the transparent electrodes DIl to Dnl constitute the first row of EL elements, and the back electrode S2 and the transparent electrodes 012 to Dn2 constitute the second row of EL elements.
It constitutes a row of EL elements. As shown in FIG. 6(b), at time t1, data is input to the transparent electrodes Dll, C31, and C51, which constitute the light emitting dots of the EL elements in the first row indicated by circles, and these dots are turned on. do.

After this, when the predetermined time delay reaches 12 hours, the
As shown in FIG. 1, the same lighting data as the lighting data for transparent electrodes D11, 031, and 051 is applied to transparent electrodes 012. It is input to C32 and C52.

At the same time, the following data is displayed on the transparent electrode D in the first row of EL elements.
21°031 and 041.061, and the light emitting dots (circles) formed by these electrodes are lit.

Furthermore, as time passes and it reaches 13 hours in Figure 6 (dl),
The same data as the lighting data of the transparent electrodes 021, 031, 041, 061 is applied to the transparent electrodes D22. of the EL elements in the second row.
C32, C42°C62, and the following data is input to the first row of EL elements: transparent type 1D11.021.0
61.

As described above, the same data is input to the EL elements in the first and second columns with a predetermined time difference, and the EL elements in each column are sequentially turned on with a predetermined time delay. Therefore, by synchronizing the rotational speed of the photoreceptor drum with this delay time, exposure of the same location on the photoreceptor drum is repeated twice with the same data, doubling the amount of light incident on the photoreceptor. do.

The above explanation was made using two rows of EL element groups, but two
Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to rows, and although the photoreceptor has been described as a drum, a planar photoreceptor may also be used.

〔effect〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, even when an EL light source with relatively low luminous energy is used as a light source, the printing speed is high, which is extremely effective in producing an electronic printer. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram of the principle of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a panel structure diagram of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a diagram of the light amount level with respect to center line deviation, Fig. 4 is a block diagram of the control means of the present invention, and Fig. 5 is a diagram of the panel structure of the present invention. A driving time chart, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a structural diagram of an electrophotographic printer using a conventional EL panel as a light source. In the figure, 1 is a photosensitive drum, 2 is a light source, 3 is a self-focus lens, and 4 is a control circuit. 11 Countries of Non-Invention Figure 1: Female, F Liang U Moon Howar Danger I Figure 2 Prison 1 (゛φ Sad O Ha'' - Ba 1 Shikf... 1 Shi G. Figure 3 Ij, Ming, Goh, Thousand F Shiba's 7, Mouth, 7, Figure 4, 3, 1 or 4 Time Child Mart, Figure 5, Figure 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of light sources (2) are arranged in a row in the direction of the rotation axis of the photoreceptor drum (1), and at least two of the rows are provided in the rotation direction of the photoreceptor drum; A lens array (3) that collects the irradiation light of 2) and exposes the photoreceptor drum, and a control means (4) that controls blinking of the plurality of rows of light sources (2), An electronic printer device characterized in that the plurality of rows of light sources are sequentially turned on using the same data to repeatedly expose the same photoreceptor of the photoreceptor drum. (2) An electronic printer device according to claim 1, characterized in that said light source (2) comprises a thin film electroluminescent panel.