Raster output scanners

• Main Authors: HERLOSKI, ROBERT PAUL, ANTOS, RONALD L, YIP, KWOK-LEUNG
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 07.10.1987
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECOGNITION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

A high-speed, high-resolution raster output scanner having a single source (9) beam; a beam splitter (25) for separating the beam into at least two separate and parallel writing beams; an acousto-optic modulator (40) having a substrate sized to provide a separate modulation channel for each writing beam to pass through without intruding into the other modulating channels; an rf transducer (44) for each writing beam for generating separate acoustic waves in each modulation channel of the substrate; a control circuit for simultaneously intensity modulating the writing beams by the rf output of all transducers in accordance with separate lines of image signals; and optical means (91) for simultaneously projecting the intensity-modulated writing beams at points two lines apart on a record member, the optical means including a prism for scanning the writing beams across the record member so as to write two or more image lines at a time.