Incremental printing of symbolic information – Light or beam marking apparatus or processes – Scan of light
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-29
2001-04-24
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Light or beam marking apparatus or processes
Scan of light
C347S241000, C358S401000, C358S472000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06222581
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an image reading/writing head capable of reading and printing an image by means of thermal-transfer or thermosensible method.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An image processing apparatus such as a facsimile machine is commonly provided with an image sensor for reading an image, and a thermal printhead for recording an image which is received or read by the above image sensor on heat-sensitive paper for example.
If there is a reading/writing head capable of reading the image and recording the image on paper for the image processing apparatus, the facsimile machine will be assembled with fewer parts and components, the head will occupy a smaller space, and therefore the facsimile machine will be more compact.
Such a reading/writing head is already disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-319013. According to the reading/writing head disclosed in this publication, image sensing is achieved through an image reading surface provided at an upper surface of a casing, where light is reflected to pass through a rod lens array to focus on light receiving elements provided in an upper surface of an element-mounting substrate disposed in a bottom surface of a substrate. On the other hand, a thermal printhead function is achieved by an array of heating elements provided in a lower surface of a heating element formation substrate disposed adjacently to the element-mounting substrate on a bottom surface of a casing, whereas drive IC's for driving these heating elements are mounted on a lower surface of the element-mounting substrate.
However, the image reading/writing head according to the above arrangement has the following problems which must be solved.
First, the element-mounting substrate has one surface for mounting the light receiving elements for the image sensor, and the other surface for mounting the drive IC's for the thermal printhead. Because of such an arrangement, this element-mounting substrate is extremely difficult to manufacture. Specifically, this element-mounting substrate must be formed with a very fine wiring pattern in each of the two surfaces. Further, this element-mounting substrate must be mounted with elements by means of chip bonding and wire bonding in each of the two surfaces, and thus it is extremely difficult to smoothly perform such manufacturing operations today.
Second, the substrate for mounting the elements is prepared separately from the substrate in which the heating elements are formed. This increases the number of parts and assembling steps, raising cost of the image reading/writing head.
Third, the distance from the image reading surface to the light receiving elements is set to a so-called conjugated length of the rod lens array. This makes it impossible to further reduce the thickness of the head.
Fourth, the light receiving elements for the image sensor are separated from the drive IC's for the thermal printhead, raising the cost of the head.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an image reading/writing head which can be manufactured more easily.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image reading/writing head comprising a fewer number of parts.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image reading/writing head having smaller outside dimensions.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an integrated circuit suitable for the image reading/writing head.
OUTLINE OF THE INVENTION
An image reading/writing head provided by a first aspect of the present invention comprises an integrated circuit for reading provided with a plurality of light receiving elements for reading an image on a document by receiving, via optical lenses, light reflected by the document placed on an image reading surface provided in a surface of a casing; a plurality of heating elements disposed in a surface different from the reading surface in the casing for forming an image on recording paper by heat; and an integrated circuit for writing for controlling these heating elements.
The integrated circuit for reading, the heating elements and the integrated circuit for writing are provided in a main surface of a substrate held by the casing. Further light reflecting means are provided for making the light after passing the optical lenses enter the light receiving elements.
Specifically, according to this image reading/writing head, the image reading surface and the heating elements are disposed in different surfaces in the casing, yet the heating elements, the integrated circuit for writing for controlling the heating elements, and the integrated circuit for reading provided with light receiving elements are provided in the same single main surface of a single substrate. Further, the light reflecting means are provided for making the reflected light from the document enter the light receiving elements in the integrated circuit for reading provided in the substrate. Specifically, the reflected light from the document passes through the optical lenses, and then directed by the reflecting means for entering the light receiving elements.
According to this image reading/writing head, the integrated circuit for reading and the integrated circuit for writing are mounted basically in one main surface of one substrate. Thus, it becomes possible to use a substrate, formed with a wiring pattern only in one surface, on which formation of the heating elements, bonding of each integrated circuit and necessary wirebonding can be made. As a result, the manufacturing process can be significantly simplified as compared to the arrangement in which integrated circuits must be mounted in both surfaces of the substrate.
Further, the reflected light from the image reading surface is re-directed by the reflecting means before entering the light receiving elements. Thus, even if a selfoc lens array is used as the optical lenses, it becomes possible to make the thickness of the casing smaller than the conjugated length of the rod lens array. This contributes greatly to size reduction of this reading/writing head.
According to a preferred embodiment, a clock signal for the integrated circuit for reading and a clock signal for the integrated circuit for writing are the same clock signal.
With such an arrangement, compared with the case where separate clock signals are supplied respectively to the integrated circuit for reading and the integrated circuit for writing, a fewer number of pins can be needed for a connector for supplying clock signals from outside of the image reading/writing head to the wiring pattern of the substrate, making it possible to reduce the size of the connector.
According to the preferred embodiment, a direction in which read image signals are transferred in the integrated circuit for reading is the same as a direction in which image data for recording are transferred in the integrated circuit for writing. With this arrangement, the image can be properly formed on the recording paper when copying the document in which occasion the read image signals are converted into binary information as image data for recording.
With such an arrangement, in the image reading/writing head in which a plurality of integrated circuits for reading and a plurality of integrated circuits for writing are mounted in parallel to the heating elements, when read image signals from the integrated circuits for reading are converted into binary information as image data for recording, and then supplied to the integrated circuits for writing, the recorded image is not a mirror image in which left-hand side and the right-hand side of the original image are vise-versa.
Specifically, the image reading writing head is likely to be used in such a way that the document to be read and the recording paper are fed in a same direction, and when copying, the surface of the document is opposed to the recording surface, with the image reading/writing head sandwiched in between. On the other hand, in the plurality of integrated circuits for reading, signals of the read image are out
Fujimoto Hisayoshi
Onishi Hiroaki
Le N.
Merchant & Gould P.C.
Pham Hai C.
Rohm & Co., Ltd.
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