摘要:
A holder for a thermal print medium is disclosed. The holder is adapted to be used in a thermal printer in which a donor element in a thermal print medium transfers dye to a receiver element upon receipt of a sufficient amount of thermal energy. The printer includes a plurality of diode lasers which can be individually modulated to supply energy to selected dots on the medium in accordance with an information signal. The print head of the printer includes a fiber optic array having a plurality of optical fibers coupled to the diode lasers. The holder for the thermal print medium includes a rotatable vacuum drum, and the fiber optic array is movable relative to the drum. The vacuum drum includes separate vacuum supplies for the donor sheet and for the receiver sheet so that the sheets can be independently handled.
摘要:
A dye-receiving element for thermal dye transfer suitable for forming a slide for projection viewing comprising a polymeric central dye image-receiving section and an integral polymeric frame section extending around the periphery of the central dye image-receiving section, the frame section being from about 1/2 to about 3 mm thick and the central dye image-receiving section preferably being thinner than the frame section. Such integral receiver-frames do not require post-imaging framing and mounting assembly operations in order to be viewable in slide projectors, and are particularly advantageously used in laser thermal dye transfer systems.
摘要:
An optical system for illuminating a multi-element spatial light modulator from a multi-emitter laser array such that each element of the modulator sees light from all emitters targets the light onto the two or more rows of elements, without putting light into the gap between the rows, and without putting light in the spaces between the elements. The element illumination may match a complex shape of the elements. A beamsplitter/staggerer is adapted to split the line of laser light into plural parallel lines of light, and to split the parallel lines of light into regions such that substantially all of the light from the illumination system falls onto the elements of the rows without impinging between the rows of elements or between the elements in the rows.
摘要:
An apparatus and method are provided for forming a laser-induced thermal dye transfer image. A slide for brings a dye donor and dye receiver into dye transferring proximity, and a laser emits a beam of light toward the donor to image-wise transfer dye to the receiver. The slide, along with the donor therein, is tilted to eliminate intensity noise in the laser caused by light reflecting from the slide and donor back to the laser. By tilting the slide, specular reflections from the dye donor do not intercept optical path and do not propagate along the optical path.
摘要:
A rotary device is disclosed for use as a precision element such as an optical scanner. The device comprises a rotor which includes a driven element such as a polygon having a plurality of mirror surfaces thereon, an arrangement for supporting the rotor for rotational movement, and a drive motor for the rotor. The rotor supporting arrangement includes a thrust bearing. In order to provide a rotary device having a low profile and a minimum of parts, a planar motor is used as the drive motor, and the permanent magnet of the motor is incorporated in the rotor. The thrust bearing includes an arrangement for directing an axial force against a radial surface of the rotor when the motor is actuated.
摘要:
Laser color printers include multiple laser sources formed of either diode lasers or laser diode arrays emitting light beams of different wavelengths, and an optical arrangement. The optical arrangement independently processes each of the light beams to provide a separate predetermined sized collimated light beam, and then focuses and scans the light beams over a printing media that prints separate colors for each different wavelength of light. Where different sized collimated light beams are required to match a printing media, a separate zoom lens is used is used in the optical arrangement to independently reshape each of two orthogonal cross-sectional directions of a separate one of the light beams before being properly sized at the output thereof. Where only one of the two orthogonal cross-sectional directions of the light beams has to be reshaped, the light beams are collimated and combined and pass through a beam shaper which reshapes that cross-sectional direction of the light beams before the light beams are focused and scanned over the printing media. Where laser diode arrays are used to generate separate wavelength light beams, each of the light beams from the lasers of an array are formed and focused into a linear array of spots on the printing media.
摘要:
This invention relates to a process of forming a laser-induced thermal dye transfer image comprising:a) contacting at least one dye-donor element comprising a support having thereon a dye layer, having an infrared-absorbing material associated therewith, with a dye-receiving element comprising a support having thereon a polymeric dye image-receiving layer, said dye-donor and dye-receiver being separated by spacer beads;b) imagewise-heating the dye-color element by means of a laser at a given power supplied to the laser; andc) transferring a dye image to the dye-receiving element to form the laser-induced thermal dye transfer image,and wherein another portion of the dye-donor element or another dye-donor element is imagewise-heated by the laser to transfer a second dye image which is approximately the same hue as the first dye image and is in register with the first dye image to produce a given density, the power supplied to the laser for the first and second imagewise heatings being lower than the power which would have to be supplied to the laser to produce the same given density with only one imagewise heating.
摘要:
A scanner is disclosed which uses an electro-optic deflector to deflect a light beam onto a receiving medium. The deflector comprises a substrate formed of an optical material and a thin film optical channel waveguide fabricated on a top surface thereof. A light beam is supplied to the waveguide along an optical axis in the waveguide. An array of parallel metallic electrodes are formed adjacent to the waveguide. Each of the electrodes is adapted to receive a voltage independently of the other electrodes. When a voltage is supplied to an electrode, a local variation in the index of refraction of the waveguide occurs across the thickness of the waveguide, and this local variation is used to effect the radiation of the beam into the substrate. In order to use the waveguide to scan a light beam across the receiving medium, the light beam is supplied to the waveguide in a direction normal to the electrodes, and a voltage is sequentially supplied to the electrodes.
摘要:
An optical head is disclosed which comprises a light source such as a diode laser and an optical element, for example, a collimating lens. The collimating lens and the diode laser are mounted along a common optical axis. A thermoelectric cooling element is provided in the head to control the temperature of the diode laser. In order to precisely locate the collimating lens relative to the diode laser, the housing of the collimating lens is mounted directly onto the barrel of the diode laser.
摘要:
An ink-jet printer capable of providing a large number of gray levels delivers ink for each pixel through several nozzles for each color, with each nozzle corresponding to a bit of the pixel's image data word. The nozzle corresponding to the least significant bit of the image data word has a capacity to deliver an amount of ink just sufficient to produce 1/256 of the maximum desired density on the media. The second nozzle, corresponding to the next least significant bit of the image data word, has a capacity to deliver twice as much ink as the first nozzle. The third nozzle delivers twice as much ink as the second nozzle (and four times as much as the first nozzle), and so on. The last nozzle delivers 128 times as much ink as the first nozzle. Control of each nozzle is time-sequenced to print each pixel of the image as the printhead scans over the media. The ink is delivered to the image pixel according to the value of the image data word.