JPS6335366A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a recorder from being enlarged in size and prevent dangers of short-circuit or line breakage, by leading out signal electrodes from micro- shutters alternately in opposite directions, and connecting the signal electrodes led out in the same direction to the same driving circuit board at every m- electrodes. CONSTITUTION:Signal electrodes 14 for liquid-crystal photo-shutters 9 are led out altenately in opposite directions with respect to two common electrodes 15a, 15b, and the signal electrodes led out in the same direction have alternately different lengths. The signal electrodes 14 have connecting parts 14a-14d for connection with flexible connectors (FCNs) 20a-20d at ends thereof. The FCNs 20a-20d are connected to corresponding driving circuit boards 11a-11b. For example, let the recording density of this recorder be 480 dots/in and the printing width be 8 in, then the total number of the shutters is 480X8, both the number of the signal electrodes and the number of drivers are 1920. When the drivers are divisionally mounted on four PCBs 11a-11d, 480 drivers are mounted on each of the PCBs, and since each driving LSI has 80 drivers, six LSIs are fitted to each of the PCBs 11.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field of invention] The present invention relates to a recording device using a liquid crystal optical shutter.

[Traditional technique]

2. Description of the Related Art A recording device is known that performs optical writing on a photoreceptor drum by opening and closing a liquid crystal optical shutter.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a portion of a recording apparatus using the above-mentioned liquid crystal optical shutter. The liquid crystal light shutter 1 has a large number of microshutters, each for recording one dot, formed in the depth direction of the drawing, and the liquid crystal light shutter 1 has a light source 2 and an imaging lens array (for example, the product name SELFOC lens array).
Drive circuit boards 3a and 3b are provided on both sides of the light source 2 and are provided between the drive circuit boards 3a and 3b and the liquid crystal light shutter 1 for driving each microshank to open and close. Connected with lb.

Further, the light transmitted through the liquid crystal light shutter 1 is imaged (exposed) on the photoreceptor drum 5 by the imaging lens array 4, but around the photoreceptor drum 5 there is a developing device (not shown) for forming an image. , since it is necessary to arrange devices such as a charger, the drive circuit board 3a.

3b and the liquid crystal light shutter 1 are configured in a U-shape as shown in the figure.

[Problems with conventional technology]

In the conventional recording device as described above, it is possible to record on the photosensitive drum 5 at a low printing density of about 240 dots/inch or 300 dots/inch;
Furthermore, when recording is performed at a higher density, such as 480 dots/inch, the following problems occur.

(a) The number of drivers for driving each micro-shutter constituting the liquid crystal optical shutter l increases, the drive circuit boards 3a and 3b become larger, and the device as a whole becomes larger.

(b) In addition, it is necessary to create high-density connection patterns for connecting the flexible connectors 1a and 1b to the liquid crystal optical shutter 1 and the drive circuit boards 3a and 3b, which reduces the yield in manufacturing the flexible connectors. becomes worse. Furthermore, when connecting the liquid crystal optical shutter 1 and the flexible connector, the risk of disconnection or short circuit increases.

[Object of the Invention] In view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, the present invention reduces the area occupied by each drive circuit board by using a plurality of the same boards, and configures the flexible connector pattern with low density. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a recording device that does not increase in size and reduces the risk of short circuits and disconnections.

[Key points of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a large number of microshafts formed at the cross-opposed portions of the common electrode and the signal electrode in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the photoreceptor, and the signal electrodes are opened and closed by a drive circuit board. In a recording device that performs recording by supplying a signal, modulating light from a light source with the micro-shutter, and irradiating the light onto the photoreceptor, the direction in which the signal electrodes are drawn out from the micro-shutter is reversed for each signal electrode. The present invention is characterized in that every m signal electrodes drawn out in the same direction are connected to the same drive circuit board, and 2×m drive circuit boards are provided.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the recording apparatus of this embodiment.

As shown in the figure, the liquid crystal light shutter section 6 is mainly composed of a light source 7, a light reflecting tube 8, a liquid crystal light shutter 9, an imaging lens array 10, and a driving substrate 11a-1id. A fluorescent lamp is used as the light source 7, and the liquid crystal shutter 9 is fixedly attached to the base member 13.

Further, each of the drive boards 11a to lid has an LS11
2a to 12d are installed.

Further, the liquid crystal light shutter 9 is constructed as shown in FIG. The figure shows the liquid crystal shutter 9 facing upward (in the direction of the light source 7).
This is a diagram seen from above, and the signal scrapers 14 are drawn out in opposite directions one by one with respect to the two common electrodes 15a and 15b. The longitudinal direction of the common electrodes 15a, 15b is the depth direction of the liquid crystal light shutter 9 shown in FIG. Therefore, the signal electrode 14 provided orthogonally to the common electrodes 15a, 15b
The longitudinal direction is the lateral direction of the liquid crystal light shutter 9 shown in FIG.

Here, the above-mentioned signal electrode 14 and common electrode 15a.

15b, the signal electrode 14, and the common electrode 15a.

The relationship between the micro shutters 15b and 15b will be explained with reference to FIG. 3, which is a sectional view taken along line AA' in FIG. 2 mentioned above. The cross section shows a structure in which a liquid crystal mixture 18 is sealed between two glass substrates 16 and 17. and,
The glass substrate 16 is provided with signal electrodes 14 (alternately), and the glass substrate 17 is provided with common electrodes 15a and 15b. Further, a liquid crystal mixture is sealed between the glass substrates 16 and the glass substrates with a sealing material 19. Also,
A deflection plate 21 is arranged on the upper surface of the glass substrate 16.

Further, the signal electrode 14 is composed of a transparent member 22, a chrome plated part 23, and a common electrode 15a.

15b also includes a transparent member 24 and a chrome plated portion 25. Since the chrome plated portions 23 and 25 do not allow light to pass through, a micro shutter 26 is formed at the portion where both the transparent members 22 and 24 face each other.

The above explanation of the structure of the micro shutter 26, etc. is for the case where it is formed on the A-A' cross section of FIG. 2. The other micro shutters formed are similarly configured.

To further explain the configuration of the signal electrodes 14 using FIG. 2, each signal electrode 14 is pulled out in the opposite direction one by one.
Every other signal electrode 14 drawn out in the same direction has a different length, and the ends of these signal electrodes 14 have connecting portions 14a with the aforementioned flexible connectors (FCN) 20a to 20d.
~14d. The aforementioned transparent member 22, which is not chrome plated, is exposed in the connecting portions 14a to 14d.

Of course, this transparent member 22 is made of a conductive material, and is a conductor that provides a waveform signal, which will be described later, to the microshutter along with the common types 115a and 15b. Therefore, the opening/closing driving signal of the micro shutter 26 is sent to the signal electrode 14 (actually, the opening/closing driving signal of the micro shutter 26 is controlled by the driving signal applied to the common electrodes 15a, 15b and the opening/closing driving signal described above). In order to supply the above-mentioned FCNs 20a to 20d,
- connected to d. The connecting portions 14-a and 14-b are arranged above the page in FIG. 2, and the connecting portions 14-c and 14-
d is arranged below.

If this positional relationship corresponds to that in FIG. 1, the connection portion 14-a is located on the left side of the figure with respect to the liquid crystal light shutter 9.

14-b is located, and the connecting portion 14-c is located on the right side.

14-d is located. Furthermore, the connecting portions 14-a, 14-b, and 14-c are pulled out in the same direction.

14-d also have different distances from the common electrodes 15a and 15b.

On the other hand, to explain the structure of FCN20a-FCN20d, FCN20a-20d is an insulating film coated with an insulating thermocompression adhesive and a conductive thermocompression adhesive in a striped pattern. The coating width is the common electrode 14
The width W is equal to the width W, and the coating pinch is equal to the width P shown in the figure. These FCNs 20a to 20d and corresponding connection portions 14-a to 14-d of the common electrode 14 are connected by thermocompression bonding. The specific connection is that the signal type 8i14 having the connection part 14-a in the signal' electrode is FC.
Connected to N20a.

Further, the signal electrode 14 having 14-b is connected to the FCN 20b. Similarly, the signal electrode 1 having a connecting portion 14-C
4 is connected to FCN20C, and signal electrode 14 having 14-d is connected to FCN2Qd.

In addition, each FCN 20a to 20d connected as described above
is the corresponding driving board (hereinafter referred to as PCB) lla-1
Connect to 1d. That is, as shown in FIG.
a connects to PCBlla, FCN20 b connects to PCBl
FCN20C is connected to PCB 11 C, and FCN20d is connected to PCBlld.

Next, the number of LSs 112a to 12d mounted on the PCBs 11a to 12d used in this embodiment, the recording density of the recording device, etc. will be explained. The recording density of this recording device is 48
0 dot/inch, and the print width is 8 inches.

Therefore, the total number of micro shutters is 480X8=384
The number of signal electrodes and drivers is 3840+2-1920 since two microshutters are time-divisionally driven by one signal electrode. Moreover, since this is dividedly mounted on four PCBs 113 to lid, 1920÷4-480 drivers are mounted on one PCB. Further, since one driving LSI has 80 drivers, 480÷80-6 LSIs are mounted on each of the above-mentioned PCBs 11a to lid. Therefore, each of the aforementioned LSs 112a to 12d is composed of six LSIs.

Six LSIs provided in the above LS112a to 12d
One specific circuit is shown in FIG.

Record data is supplied from a circuit not shown.

This recorded data 28 is manually input to a 160-bit shift register 30 in synchronization with the rising edge of a clock pulse 29. The final output of the shift register 30 outputs a cascade signal 31 to be supplied to the next LSI of the same configuration.

The output of the shift register 30 is a latch pulse 3 in parallel.
3 is output from the shift register 30 and input to the data latch 32. The even bit output of the data latch 32 is the data delay D type FF 34 Heratch pulse 3
It is supplied in synchronization with 3. Odd bit outputs of the data latch 32 are sent to the data selector multiplexers A1 to A without going through the delay D-type FF 34. is fed to the input of Furthermore, the line passing through the D type FF 34 through 1 bit is input to the A input of the delay selection gate 36, and the D type FF
The F34 2-bit line feeds 8 manpower.

The output W of the delay selection gate 36 is outputted to B1-B of the data selector multiplexer 35. supplied to the input. In this embodiment, the B input is selected by the delay selection signal 37, and therefore the data selector multiplexer 35 has data that is not delayed (<A+=data to the A*o input) and data that has been delayed by two lines. (data to B, ~B1° input) is input, and according to these two inputs, an on-on recording signal 38, an on-off recording signal 39, an off-on recording signal 40, which are input to the data selector multiplexer 35, Select one of the off-off recording signals 41 to output W, -W,. outputs an on or off signal to the driver 42. Here, the above-mentioned four types of recording signals 38 to 41 are complicated signals because each micro-shutter 26 is driven on or off (open, close) by two-time division drive in this recording apparatus. As described above, the opening/closing operation is actually performed by superimposing the signals applied to the common electrodes tsa and 15b.

The above-mentioned signal electrode 14 has the above-mentioned output Y.

~The signal output from Yl16 is sent to FCN20a~20d
It will be supplied via.

Furthermore, six LSIs having the same circuit configuration as above are arranged on each PCB 113 to lid, and the clock 1 to 4 signals that serve as the reference for driving each PCB 11a to lid are It is created as follows.

FIG. 6 shows the above-mentioned clock 1-4 signal generation circuit. The basic clock 0 is a reference clock when one line of serial data to be recorded is input. Clock O
are output to an inverter 44, a 4-frequency divider circuit 45, and an 8-frequency divider circuit 46, respectively.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the relationship between each input and output. DI-D+. . . . indicates data input to the recording device in synchronization with clock 0, the output of the 4-frequency divider 45 is a signal e, and the output of the 8-frequency divider 46 is a signal f.

This signal e is ANDed through inverters 47 and 48, respectively.
To gate 49.50, also directly AND gate 1-51,5
It is output to 2. Signal f is output via inverters 53, 54 to AND gate 49 and directly to AND gate 50, 52, respectively.

Furthermore, the outputs of the AND gates 49-52 are 55-5, respectively.
8 and is ANDed with the signal g input via the inverter 44 mentioned above. And AND gate 55
The above-mentioned clocks 1 to 4 are output as outputs of clocks 1 to 58.

By configuring the recording device as described above, the PCB
The LSs 112a to 12d configured on lla"d are sequentially selected.

That is, first, when clock 0 is input to the recording apparatus, clock 1 is output to the shift register 30 of the LS 112a at the timing shown in FIG. 7 described above.

At this time, data D+ and Dz are stored in the shift register 30.
Output to.

Next, clock 2 outputs LS11 at the timing shown in FIG.
2b, data Dz and Da are synchronized with this.
is output to the shift register 30.

Next, the clock 3 is set to PCB1 at the timing shown in FIG.
When output from lc, data Ds and D are synchronized with this.
, is output to the shift register 30 of the LS 112c.

Furthermore, clock 4 outputs PCBL at the timing shown in FIG.
When output from lc, data D7. D
Il is output to the shift register 30 of the LS 112d.

Hereafter, PCBs 11a to 11a are similarly synchronized with clocks 1 to 4.
The data D and the following are sequentially output from the lid to the corresponding shift register 30.

Therefore, by configuring and operating this embodiment as described above, data is written in the shift registers 30 corresponding to the LSs 112a to 12d in synchronization with clocks 1 to 4, respectively, and the circuit shown in FIG. Outputs YI to Y, from the corresponding drivers 42 by operation. An opening/closing signal is sent to the signal electrode 14 as a signal.

This operation allows the corresponding micro shutter 26 to operate. Optical writing is performed on the photosensitive drum 27 according to this opening/closing operation.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, by using a plurality of the same boards, the area per drive circuit board can be reduced, and the flexible connector pattern can be configured with low density. Therefore, it is possible to realize a recording device that is less likely to be short-circuited or disconnected without increasing the size of the device.

Furthermore, for example, a 480 dot/inch recording device can be driven by using two drive circuit boards each without changing the drive circuit boards used in the 240 dot/inch recording device, thereby shortening the development period. Can be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the main parts of the recording device, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the electrode configuration of the liquid crystal light shutter, FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing the structure of the liquid crystal light shutter, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of the LSI on the board; FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram for dividing input to each board; FIG. FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing the relationship between clocks 1 to 4 and shift clocks input to each board, and is a block diagram of the main parts of a conventional recording apparatus. 9...Liquid crystal light shifter, 11a-11d...PCB. 1 2a-12d...LSI. 14...Signal electrode, 15a, 15b...Common electrode, 26.26a-26h...Micro shutter, 30.
...Shift register, 45...4 frequency divider circuit, 46...8 frequency divider circuit. Patent applicant Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Same as above
Casio Electronic Industries Co., Ltd. No. 118! CLKO- Figure 7 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] A large number of micro-shutters formed at the cross-opposing portions of the common electrode and the signal electrode are arranged in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the photoreceptor,
In a recording device that performs recording by supplying an opening/closing signal to a signal electrode by a drive circuit board, modulating light from a light source with the microshutter, and irradiating the light onto the photoreceptor, the direction in which the signal electrode is drawn out from the microshutter is provided. are in opposite directions for each signal electrode, and connect every m signal electrodes pulled out in the same direction to the same drive circuit board, 2×m
A recording device characterized by being provided with a drive circuit board.