JPH0527854B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a recording method that performs gradation recording by controlling the ion beam diameter in a recording method by controlling an ion flow.

[Prior art]

First, we will explain the principle of electrostatic recording using ion flow.
This will be explained using figures.

As shown in Fig. 1a and b, ions generated from the corona wire 2 by applying a high voltage of several KV between the ion generator 1 and the corona wire 2 are exposed to the electric field formed by the corona wire 2 and the counter electrode 3. For example, the ion flow passes through the ion flow control hole 4 with a diameter of about 100 to 500 μm, but the amount of the ion flow is limited to the aperture electrode 5.
Upper control electrode 6 and lower control electrode 7 forming
controlled by the electric field formed by the That is,
As shown in FIG. 1a, if the electric field formed by the upper control electrode 6 and the lower control electrode 7 is set in the same direction as the electric field formed by the corona wire 2 and the counter electrode 3,
The ions pass through the ion flow control hole 4 like an ion flow 10a, and form an electrostatic latent image 9 on the recording medium 8 made of a dielectric material on the counter electrode 3. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 1b, if the electric fields formed by the upper control electrode 6 and the lower control electrode 7 are reversed, the ions will be
0b, the electrostatic latent image 9 is not formed because it is absorbed by the upper control electrode 6. Although only one aperture electrode 5 is shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b, in reality, a large number of aperture electrodes 5 are provided in one line.

The conventional method of performing gradation recording by controlling the ion flow includes a pulse width control method in which a voltage with a pulse width corresponding to the recording signal is applied between the upper control electrode 6 and the lower control electrode 7; There is a voltage control method that applies a voltage of a magnitude corresponding to a signal.

The former method has the advantage of being easy to implement with a digital circuit in order to control the pulse width, but has the disadvantage of poor gradation reproducibility when considering the development of the electrostatic latent image formed. In addition, the latter method has the advantage of good gradation reproducibility because the ion beam diameter is controlled by controlling the voltage.
The disadvantage is that the voltage control circuit for each electrode is complicated and expensive.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to eliminate these drawbacks, this invention records by changing the ion beam diameter by turning on and off a voltage that changes at the same period as the recording period with a pulse width corresponding to the recording signal. be. The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiments of the invention]

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which 11 is a voltage generation circuit that generates a voltage to be applied to the aperture electrode, 12 ₁ , 12 ₂ , 12 ₃ , . . . are ON and OFF.
Signal input section (hereinafter collectively referred to as simply 12
That's what it means. The same applies to other symbols), 13
₁ , 13 ₂ , 13 ₃ , ... are control signal output sections, 14
₁ , 14 ₂ , 14 ₃ , ... are transistors, 15 ₁ ,
15 ₂ , 15 ₃ , ... are resistors. Note that the control signal output section 13 is applied to each aperture electrode, but the aperture electrode is omitted.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the output from the voltage generating circuit 11, where the horizontal axis is time t, the vertical axis is voltage V, and T is the recording period, that is, the recording interval from one line of dots to the next line. As shown in the figure, the output changes at the same cycle as the recording cycle T.

Next, the operation shown in FIG. 2 will be explained. The voltage generated from the voltage generation circuit 11 is applied to each transistor 1.
4 collector and is controlled ON and OFF by the ON and OFF signal input section 12, the output voltage depends on the timing of the ON and OFF signals and
Depending on the pulse width of the ON signal, it is possible to output various voltage waveforms, for example voltages with widths of times t ₀ -t ₁ , t ₀ -t ₂ , and t ₀ -t ₃ in FIG. 3.

In particular, when expressing low recording density, for example, if you use a voltage with a width of time t ₀ to _{t 1} in Figure 3, you can select an ON state with a narrowed ion beam diameter, which improves reproducibility. It is possible to make excellent records.

Next, the above operating principle will be explained. Figure 4a,
b and c show changes in the ion beam diameter due to changes in the voltage applied to the aperture electrode 5 shown in FIG. 1, that is, the upper and lower control electrodes 6 and 7. It is shown.
The ion beam diameter can be controlled by the voltage applied to the aperture electrode 5, as shown in FIG.

That is, in Figure 4 a, b, c, E ₁ , E ₂ , E ₃
represent the electric field near the upper control electrode 6, the electric field between the upper control electrode 6 and the lower control electrode 7, and the electric field near the lower control electrode 7, respectively.

FIG. 4a shows a case where E ₂ /E ₁ =−0.5 and E ₃ /E ₁ =4, and the ion flow 10A cannot pass through the ion flow control hole 4, so no recording is performed.

FIG. 4b shows the case where E ₂ /E ₁ =0 and E ₃ /E ₁ =4, and recording is performed by the thin ion flow 10B.

FIG. 4c shows the case where E ₂ /E ₁ =2 and E ₃ /E ₁ =4, and recording is performed with a thick ion flow 10C.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show electrostatic latent images in the case of the present invention and in the conventional case, respectively, when only the pulse width is changed without changing the voltage. Waveforms #1 to #4 in FIGS. 5 and 6 indicate waveforms in which the pulse width increases in the order of 1 to 4, L indicates the development slice level, and the horizontal axis is the position (recording size) , the vertical axis shows the charge density.

In the conventional example shown in FIG. 6, when cutting at the development slice level L, no recording is made at all when the charge density is low like the waveforms #1 and #2, and
Recording is performed only when the waveform becomes .

On the other hand, in the present invention shown in FIG. 5, even in the case of waveform #1, the slice level is higher than L, and it can be seen that recording is performed with a narrow ion beam diameter.

As is clear from comparing Figures 5 and 6,
This invention has better gradation expression.

In the above embodiment, the voltage was applied to the aperture electrode 5 between the upper control electrode 6 and the lower control electrode 7, but this was done by applying voltage to only one electrode and keeping the other electrode at a constant potential. You can also do this.

Furthermore, the output voltage waveform of the voltage generation circuit 11 is
It is also possible to use other voltage waveforms, such as a voltage waveform that changes linearly as shown in FIG. 3, or one that changes in an upwardly concave or upwardly convex curve.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, this invention uses a voltage that changes at the same period as the recording period so that the ion beam diameter is modulated, and turns this voltage on and off with a pulse width corresponding to the recording signal. It has the advantage of being able to record with excellent gradation reproducibility using a circuit that can be easily implemented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1a and b are diagrams explaining the principle of electrostatic recording using ion flow, Figure 2 is a circuit diagram of the main part of an embodiment of this invention, and Figure 3 is an example of voltage output from a voltage generation circuit. Figures 4a to 4c are diagrams showing an example of controlling the ion beam diameter, Figure 5 is a diagram showing an electrostatic latent image according to the present invention, and Figure 6 is a diagram showing an electrostatic latent image using the conventional pulse width modulation method. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a latent image. In the figure, 10 is an ion flow, 11 is a voltage generation circuit,
12 is an ON/OFF signal input section, 13 is a control signal output section, 14 is a transistor, and 15 is a resistor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 In a recording method in which ion flow is controlled by an aperture electrode, a voltage that changes at the same period as the recording period is used as the voltage applied to the aperture electrode, and this voltage is applied with a pulse width corresponding to the recording signal.
An ion flow control gradation recording method characterized in that recording is performed by turning on and off the ion beam and modulating the ion beam diameter of the ion flow.