A quartz galvanometer for optical scanning in a laser printer application

Using quartz micromachining, a compact galvanometer for optical scanning in a laser printer (LP) is developed. The merits of the device are compact size (24 mm * 24 mm * 14 mm), large scan angle (a 70 degrees C peak-to-peak effective optical angle), high speed scanning (a speed of 840 scans per second), and a structure suitable for mass production. The features of the galvanometer were evaluated and it was found that the jitter is less than 0.03%, the wobble is less than 90 mu rad, and the stability of the scan angle over a temperature range of 5 to 50 degrees C was less than a 0.5% change. These values satisfy the specifications of optical scanning in a LP.<>