Design and experimental results for a compact laser printer optical system with MEMS scanning mirror

There are many features expected by printer users, which include high resolution, low price, compact size, color, high speed printing and so on. Laser printers generally utilize a polygon mirror as a reflector in their optical configurations, but the usual size of the polygon mirror prevents laser scanning unit from being made much smaller. We have been conducting research on techniques which can contribute to reducing the optical unit size. Although oscillating mirror made with MEMS technology enables the system to be compact, it requires a sophisticated optical design having an increased number of constraints due to the change in angular velocity which varies depending on the orientation of the mirror, while the polygon mirror allows the scanning with constant speed. Using a small MEMS mirror is one of the critical issues concerning the reduction of cost. We have successfully resolved all the challenges listed above by using high-precision free-form optical surfaces and an optical layout making efficient use of 3D space. Our techniques can make the unit size much smaller and reduce the price. The optical path is designed to have a ray passing through a lens twice. We report both theoretical and experimental results for this system.