Lasers in the Digital Print Revolution

Digital printing is undergoing a revolution brought about by semiconductor lasers. Although discrete lasers have been used in printing for many years, developments in semiconductor integration technology now allow massively parallel arrays of lasers to be fabricated on a single chip. These developments are bringing about a step change in laser functionality and performance for the most demanding printing applications. More than 100 individually addressable lasers can now be fabricated on a single chip and packaged in a single module. This brings a massive cost and size reduction, yet still allows printing at the highest current commercial resolutions - up to 4800 dpi - and beyond for high level security applications. Monolithic laser arrays can also be placed side by side to create single modules with several 100 addressable elements. These modules can be built into heads of any size, enabling page wide printing in a single pass. The benefits of laser technology in page wide printing include high power, contact-free imaging, high-speed and high-resolution. Laser technology can match other technologies in such as ink jet and thermal printing in image quality and its advantages are expected to result in massive displacement of competing technologies over the next few years