Optical Scan Engine Using Rotating Mirror Sectors
First Claim
1. An optical scan engine for scanning an incident optical beam, the optical scan engine comprising a rotatable component that defines a plane of rotation, a rotation axis, and a radial direction;
- the rotatable component comprising a plurality of scan sectors arranged around the rotation axis and lying substantially in the plane of rotation, each scan sector comprising a radially-facing pair of reflective surfaces;
wherein each scan sector deflects the incident optical beam by approximately 180 degrees as the scan sector rotates through the incident optical beam, the deflected optical beam rotates with the scan sector and has a virtual image located on the rotation axis, and at least two of the scan sectors generate different scan figures.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An optical scan engine includes a rotatable component, for example a disk or drum. The rotatable component includes a plurality of scan sectors that are arranged around the rotation axis and that lie substantially in a plane of rotation. Each scan sector includes a pair of reflective surfaces that typically are radially-facing. The incident optical beam typically propagates along a radial direction (e.g., towards the rotation axis) and each pair of reflective surfaces deflects the incident optical beam by approximately 180 degrees as that pair rotates through the incident optical beam. The deflected optical beam has a virtual image located on the rotation axis. As a result, the real image of the deflected optical beam rotates around the rotation axis at the same angular velocity as the scan sectors. Different scan sectors can be designed to yield diffeent deflections in the axial direction. The addition of a third reflective surface to each scan sector can be used to generate image points that are fixed in space as the scan sector rotates.
10 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. An optical scan engine for scanning an incident optical beam, the optical scan engine comprising a rotatable component that defines a plane of rotation, a rotation axis, and a radial direction;
- the rotatable component comprising a plurality of scan sectors arranged around the rotation axis and lying substantially in the plane of rotation, each scan sector comprising a radially-facing pair of reflective surfaces;
wherein each scan sector deflects the incident optical beam by approximately 180 degrees as the scan sector rotates through the incident optical beam, the deflected optical beam rotates with the scan sector and has a virtual image located on the rotation axis, and at least two of the scan sectors generate different scan figures. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
- the rotatable component comprising a plurality of scan sectors arranged around the rotation axis and lying substantially in the plane of rotation, each scan sector comprising a radially-facing pair of reflective surfaces;
-
14. An optical pattern generator for generating a pattern of continuous figures from an incident optical beam, the optical pattern generator comprising:
-
an optical scan engine comprising a rotatable component that defines a plane of rotation, a rotation axis, and a radial direction;
the rotatable component comprising a plurality of scan sectors arranged around the rotation axis and lying substantially in the plane of rotation, each scan sector comprising a radially-facing pair of reflective surfaces;
wherein each scan sector deflects the incident optical beam by approximately 180 degrees as the scan sector rotates through the incident optical beam, the deflected optical beam rotates with the scan sector and has a virtual image located on the rotation axis, and at least two of the scan sectors generate different continuous scan figures; andan imaging group positioned to focus the optical beam. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
Specification