Certain printed image features can benefit from high printing resolution, such as solid lines, curves, fonts, etc. with very high contrast edges. High resolution is often expensive and sometimes can degrade other aspects of image quality. High resolution also often comes with a reduction in print speed. Electrophotographic printers, for example, typically utilize either a laser scanning system or an LED (light emitting diode) bar-based system to expose regions of toner on a rotating photoconductor drum for developing the toner in these regions to form an image. The resolution of these printers generally will not exceed a frequency at which the laser scans the drum or to the density of the LEDs of the LED bar.
In the following detailed description of the present embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part here of, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments that may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice disclosed subject matter, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that process, electrical or mechanical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the claimed subject matter. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is defined only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.
The regions of photoconductor drum 102 that attract the toner form an image on photoconductor drum 102. The image is then transferred on to a media sheet 116, such as paper, plastic, etc., that for one embodiment passes through a nip between photoconductor drum 102 and a transfer roller 118, where heat and/or pressure are applied thereto to fuse the toner onto media sheet 116. For other embodiments, the toner is transferred to an intermediate transfer belt (not shown, but located where media sheet 116 is located) that in turn transfers the toner to the media and then fuses it.
For one embodiment, laser beam 106 scans photoconductor drum 102 parallel to a rotational axis 120 of photoconductor drum 102 along a scan line 122 (
For another embodiment, a pulse width modulator (PWM) 140 (shown in
LED bar 108 is mounted parallel to rotational axis 120, and may be placed either immediately before or after scan line 122. LEDs 130 are distributed along LED bar 108 parallel to rotational axis 120. LEDs 130 are modulated to illuminate photoconductor drum 102 at preselected locations as photoconductor drum 102 rotates past LED bar 108 and therefore illuminate the drum in a direction perpendicular to scan line 122 to create an LED scan in the direction of rotation of photoconductor drum 102, indicated as parallel LED scan centerlines (or axes) in
For one embodiment, each of the LEDs 130 can be modulated to so that they illuminate portions of the photoconductor drum 102, in a direction perpendicular to rotational axis 120, for a shorter time than it takes to illuminate an entire native pixel size, perpendicular to rotational axis 120, of the LED scan, i.e., that corresponds to operating the LED bar alone, resulting in sub-pixel size exposures in a direction perpendicular to rotational axis 120. Moreover, this enables an LED illumination to be moved in a direction perpendicular to rotational axis 120 anywhere within a native pixel of the LED scan.
In
The extent (HLaser) of cross-hatched region 320 in the direction perpendicular to the laser scan is fixed, as is the extent (WLED) of cross-hatched region 330 in the direction perpendicular to the LED scan, as shown in
The laser and LED illuminations are each at intensity levels below a threshold at which toner is attracted to the non-overlapping portions of cross-hatched regions 320 and 330. That is, when photoconductor drum 102 is substantially uniformly charged, the individual laser and LED illuminations are insufficient to discharge the non-overlapping portions of cross-hatched regions 320 and 330, respectively, to a level for attracting toner. However, the combined intensities of laser and LED illuminations are sufficient to discharge photoconductor drum 102 to attract the toner. Therefore, cross-hatched region 340, where the two illuminations overlap, is sufficiently discharged to attract toner but not the areas of region 320 and region 330 that are not. Consequently, a dot of toner is formed in cross-hatched region 340.
Note that toner is repelled by the regions illuminated by the laser scan, without illumination by the LED scan, and illuminated by the LED scan, without illumination by the laser scan. Note further that the toner dot corresponding to cross-hatched region 340 is smaller than cross-hatched region 320 and cross-hatched region 330. This means that for one embodiment overlapping the LED and laser scans can produce a region that is smaller than the regions of the individual LED and laser scans.
Alternatively, in embodiments where the exposed regions correspond to the regions upon which toner is not to be deposited, the photoconductor drum 102 is charged, and the intensity levels of individual laser and LED illuminations are insufficient to respectively discharge the non-overlapping portions of cross-hatched regions 320 and 330 to a level for repelling toner. However, the combined intensities of laser and LED illuminations are sufficient to discharge the photoconductor drum 102 to a level so that it repels the toner. Therefore, the cross-hatched region 340, where the two illuminations overlap, is discharged to a level that is sufficient to repel toner, but not the areas of region 320 and region 330 that are not. Consequently, a toner-free dot (i.e. a dot without toner) is formed in the overlapping portions of cross-hatched regions 320 and 330 that is surrounded by toner in the regions not exposed to laser and LED illumination and in the non-overlapping portions of cross-hatched regions 320 and 330. The regions not exposed to laser and LED illumination and in the non-overlapping portions of cross-hatched regions 320 and 330 correspond to toner dots. Note that the toner-free dot corresponding to cross-hatched region 340 is smaller than cross-hatched region 320 and cross-hatched region 330.
One advantage of cross-hatched region 340 being smaller than cross-hatched region 320 and cross-hatched region 330 is that a laser-based imaging device, for example, can be upgraded by adding an LED bar to increase the resolution. In another example, a 600 dpi imaging device could be made with a 300 dpi (or 150 dpi) LED bar and a 300 dpi (or 150 dpi) laser scanner assembly.
Another advantage is that overlapping regions respectively produced by the laser and LED scans may act to produce high resolution edge definition, which is desirable for producing fine edges and lines, e.g., that can occur in highly detailed drawings, such as CAD drawings produced by industrial digital presses, for example. The minimum amount of data is generally about the same as the native resolution of the device dictate, e.g., the resolution of a laser-based device by itself. Additional data would be used to define the higher resolution edge locations and shape. This could be accomplished as an additional plane of low-bit-depth data (i.e., 1-bit/pixel) or embedded codes in the image data, etc. The amount of this data could be defined by the application and could be increased when desired.
In order to overlap the laser and LED scans as desired, the laser and LED scans are calibrated and aligned to one another. Printing a first set of patterns on a media sheet using the laser scan, without the LED scan, and printing a separate second set of patterns on either a different portion of the same media sheet or on a different media sheet using the LED scan, without the laser scan, helps to accomplish this for one embodiment. Note that the individual intensities of the laser beam and LED are set to a levels sufficient for printing, i.e., at levels sufficient so that toner is either attracted or repelled from regions exposed to the laser or LED light, for this process. For another embodiment, sensors, such as a sensor 150 of
It should be noted that for some embodiments, photoconductor drum 102 may be scanned by laser beam 106 without using LED bar 108 or by LED bar 108 without using laser beam 106. For these embodiments, the laser beam 106 or LED bar 108 is at an intensity that is at or above a threshold sufficient to produce marking-material-free regions or marking-material-containing regions on photoconductor drum 102.
It is desired for one embodiment that at least a portion of region 420 overlaps at least a portion of region 430, e.g., in one embodiment, that a center 425 of region 420 coincides with a center 435 of region 430. The locations of regions 420 and 430 enable the determination of a difference d1, in the direction of the rotational axis 120 of photoconductor drum 102 (or axial direction), between a line 436 passing through the center 435 of region 430 in the direction perpendicular to the rotational axis 120 (the rotational direction) and a line 438 substantially parallel to line 436 and passing through the center 425 of region 420. A difference d2, in the rotational direction of photoconductor drum 102, between a line 440 passing through the center 425 of region 420 in the axial direction and a line 442 substantially parallel to line 440 and passing through the center 435 of region 430 is similarly determined. For one embodiment, mapping the locations of the individually scanned regions 420 and 430 to a common coordinate system of the surface of photoconductor drum 102, as described above enables the differences d1 and d2 to be determined and thus whether at least a portion of the individually scanned regions 420 and 430 overlap in a predetermined manner on photoconductor drum 102.
To compensate for the difference d1, the time at which a source of laser beam 106 is activated to illuminate the portion of photoconductor drum 102 for forming region 420 is adjusted so that lines 436 and 438 substantially coincide. Note that for the example of
Once this alignment or calibration is complete, the controlling system can cooperatively modulate the two illumination sources in order to create the desired overlapping regions on the finer pixel grid, as described previously. The systems which drive these exposures will interpret a high resolution version of the desired image and separate it into two streams of data, one driving the LED sub-system and one driving the laser sub-system. These can each be generated in concert to create the desired overlapping exposures.
For one embodiment imaging device 500, receives image data via interface 502. Imaging device 500 has a controller 510, such as a formatter, for interpreting the image data and rendering the image data into a printable image. The printable image is provided to a print engine 520 to produce a hardcopy image on a media sheet. For one embodiment, print engine 520 is as described above for print engine 100 of
Controller 510 includes a memory 512, e.g., a computer-usable storage media that can be fixedly or removably attached to controller 510. Some examples of computer-usable media include static or dynamic random access memory (SRAM or DRAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically-erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM or flash memory), magnetic media and optical media, whether permanent or removable. Memory 512 may include more than one type of computer-usable storage media for storage of differing information types. For one embodiment, memory 512 contains computer-readable instructions, e.g., drivers, adapted to cause controller 510 to format the data received by imaging device 500, via interface 502 or by scanning, and computer-readable instructions to cause imaging device 500 to perform the various methods described above.
Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein it is manifestly intended that the scope of the claimed subject matter be limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof.