JPH0356547B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a recording device using a liquid crystal optical shutter that utilizes an electro-optic effect, and particularly to a recording device that can eliminate buffering in an external circuit of the recording device. [Prior Art] So-called impact printers, which mechanically print characters by hitting a ribbon on paper, have been used as standard equipment for computer output for many years. These impact printers have good printing quality and high reliability, but now that the recording speed and amount of information have increased, they are no longer able to fully satisfy customer demands. On the other hand, so-called non-impact printers, which create images by electrostatic development, etc. without mechanical printing, can basically record in free format by changing the external input, so they can record not only text information but also symbols. , line and image information can be easily recorded. The recording methods of this non-impact printer include optical recording, magnetic recording, electrostatic recording,
Although there are methods such as thermal recording, the optical recording method is the best as it can be used for a wide range of applications from low speeds to high speeds. In this optical recording method, a laser, OFT, LED, etc. are used to write image information on a photoconductive recording medium.
A light conversion element such as an LCD is used, but if a laser is used, the optical scanning system for creating the beam becomes complicated and the laser equipment is also expensive. Furthermore, there is a problem with the stability of laser light output. On the other hand, when OFT is used, it is difficult to miniaturize, and LED
When using a monolithic LED array, the light output of the monolithic LED array varies widely and the manufacturing yield is poor. Furthermore, when lasers and LEDs are used, their emission wavelengths are around 630 to 820 mm, so there is a deviation from the spectral sensitivity range of the photoconductive recording medium, and insufficient sensitivity of the photoconductive recording medium is always a problem. Become. Furthermore, if sensitization is performed toward longer wavelengths to compensate for the lack of sensitivity, there is a drawback that the device becomes sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature changes. There is a recording device using a liquid crystal shutter as a recording device that eliminates these conventional drawbacks. A recording apparatus using a liquid crystal light shutter will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In FIG. 1, the surface of a photosensitive drum (photoconductive recording medium) 1 is uniformly charged in advance by a charging section 2. As shown in FIG. The liquid crystal optical shutter section 3 receives recording information and is driven by a signal from a recording control section 4 that controls timing and the like, performs electro-optical conversion of the information, and performs optical writing on the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive drum 1. The electrostatic latent image thus formed is developed with toner in the developing section 5 and made visible. The developed image is transferred by a transfer device 6 to a transfer paper 9 fed by a paper feed roll 7 and a waiting roll 8. Further, the transfer paper 9 separated from the photosensitive surface by the separating section 10 has a toner image fixed thereon by the fixing section 11, and then
2 is sent out to the outside. On the other hand, on the photosensitive surface, after neutralization of toner charges is performed in a static eliminating section 13, residual toner is cleaned in a cleaning section 14, and surface charges on the photosensitive surface are neutralized in an eraser 15. The process of visualizing an electrostatic latent image and creating a recorded image in this way is a technique known as electrophotography. As shown in FIG. 2, the liquid crystal light shutter section 3 can have a configuration of a light source 16, a liquid crystal light shutter 17, and a condenser lens 18. The liquid crystal light shutter 17 is formed by sealing a liquid crystal mixture between two glass substrates 19 and 20, as shown in FIG.
are provided with signal electrodes 21 alternately, and a common electrode 22 is provided on the glass substrate 20. The microshutter 23 has a signal electrode 21 and a common electrode 22.
Transparent electrodes of indium oxide (In ₂ O ₃ ), tin oxide (SnO ₂ ), etc. are constructed of the necessary size and shape at the intersection of the two. By disposing at least one polarizing plate on the liquid crystal panel 24 configured in this way, it becomes a liquid crystal light shutter 17,
Based on the recording signal, the incident light from the light source 16 is modulated by the microshutter 17, and the condensing lens 18
The photoreceptor drum 1 is irradiated through the steps. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the liquid crystal light shutter 24. A gap is maintained between the two glass substrates 19 and 20 by a spacer 25, and a liquid crystal mixture 26 for dual-frequency driving is sealed. The signal electrode 21 is composed of a transparent electrode 27 and a metal electrode 28, and the common electrode 22 is composed of a transparent electrode 29 and a metal electrode 30. A microshutter 23 is provided in a portion 31 where the metal electrodes 27 and 29 are partially removed. is formed. In addition, the polarizing plate 32 is the micro shutter 2.
It is provided on the top of 3. Liquid crystals are widely used as LCDs (liquid crystal displays) to display calculators and clocks, and recently they have become popular in high-density displays such as LCD televisions, and as an alternative to CRT displays in personal computers and word processors. It is also actively used for screen display. There are two typical types of electro-optical effects in liquid crystals: guest-host type (hereinafter referred to as GH type) and twisted nematic type (hereinafter referred to as TN type).
The two drive modes will be explained with reference to FIG. Figures 5a and 5b illustrate the GH mode, and Figures 5c and d illustrate the TN mode. The GH type liquid crystal cell is composed of a host liquid crystal and a guest dye dissolved therein. For example, as shown in FIGS. 5a and 5b, incident light 33, which is natural light, becomes linearly polarized light 35 by a polarizer 34 such as a Nicol prism or a Guhum-Thompson prism, and enters a liquid crystal cell 36. The liquid crystal cell 36 includes liquid crystal molecules 37 and dichroic dye 3.
8, liquid crystal molecules 37, dichroic dye molecules 3
8 moves in direction by an external electric field, and the dichroic dye molecule 38 absorbs more light in the long axis direction than in the short axis direction. Therefore, the linearly polarized light 35 incident on the liquid crystal cell 36 is absorbed when the liquid crystal molecules 37 and dichroic dye molecules 38 are arranged as shown in FIG. 3A, and no light is emitted to the outside. Therefore, when used as a liquid crystal shutter, it is in a closed state. In addition, as shown in the same figure b, liquid crystal molecules 37, dichroic dye molecules 3
If the array of 8 does not absorb the incident light 35, the light 39 is emitted. In this case, if used as a liquid crystal shutter, it will be in the open state. Next, the TN type liquid crystal cell 40 shown in c and d of the same figure is made by arranging liquid crystal molecules 41 in parallel on the panel surface and twisting them at 90 degrees between the electrodes. It is structured like this.
The polarizers 42 and 43 can be arranged with respect to the plane of polarization, as shown in FIG. In the parallel Nicol arrangement, the opening and closing operations in the orthogonal Nicol arrangement described below are reversed. In the figure c, the incident light 44 is transmitted through the polarizer 42.
The light is linearly polarized and enters the TN type liquid crystal cell 40. At this time, since the liquid crystal molecules 41 are twisted by 90 degrees, the polarization plane of the output light 46 that receives the light 45 is rotated by 90 degrees and enters the polarizer 43, but the polarization plane of the light 46 and the polarization plane of the polarizer 43 are Since they are parallel, it can pass through and generate an output light 47, which becomes an open state as a liquid crystal light shutter. On the other hand, when the liquid crystal molecules 41 are vertically aligned as shown in FIG. Become. Next, a method for driving a liquid crystal light shutter using dual-frequency driving will be described. Dual-frequency driving uses inversion caused by dielectric anisotropy to rearrange liquid crystal molecules by changing the frequency of the electric field. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, at a frequency (hereinafter referred to as _fL ) lower than the crossover frequency (hereinafter referred to as _fC ), the dielectric anisotropy Δε becomes positive, indicating positive dielectric anisotropy. Frequency higher than f _C (hereinafter f _H
), the dielectric anisotropy becomes negative, indicating negative dielectric anisotropy. The liquid crystal molecules can be aligned parallel to the electric field by applying the f _L signal, and the liquid crystal molecules can be aligned perpendicular to the electric field by applying the f _H signal. In addition, the dielectric anisotropy Δε was sensitive to viscosity and therefore changed significantly with temperature changes. When the viscosity changes, f _C changes; for example, when the temperature increases from 20°C to 40°C, f _C increases by nearly an order of magnitude from 5 KHz to 46 KHz. Therefore, if the viscosity is low, the liquid crystal molecules will work faster and a high-speed response is expected, so it is desirable to use the liquid crystal at a somewhat elevated temperature. The size of the transfer paper handled by the recording device is A3.
In this case, if the recording density is 10 dots/mm,
A microshutter with approximately 3000 dots/line is required. Static driving of a liquid crystal optical shutter with such a large storage capacity not only increases the number of driving elements, the number of wiring lines, and the mounting area, which increases costs, but also makes mounting technology difficult due to the number of wiring lines and their connections. becomes. Conventionally, the above drawbacks have been compensated for by time-division driving. However, the following two problems are pointed out by performing time-division driving. Since the target of time-division driving performed by a display device is the human eye, it is sufficient to drive the display device to maintain the necessary brightness to the extent that it does not cause discomfort such as flickering. Therefore, the number of time divisions, writing period, etc. are determined by the response speed of the display element, the magnitude of output energy, the display capacity, etc. By performing n time-division driving, the period assigned to the selected group is shorter than the write cycle Tω/n. Therefore, if the liquid crystal light shutter is driven in n time divisions using the conventional method, the opening time of the liquid crystal light shutter will be less than 1/n, the amount of exposure received by the photoreceptor will be less than 1/n, and the number of time divisions will be less than 1/n. The larger n becomes, the more serious the problem of insufficient light quantity becomes. Next, the problems encountered when time-division driving is performed on a liquid crystal light shutter will be described with reference to FIG. The liquid crystal light shutters 48 arranged in a straight line are divided into n groups, and the writing selection electrodes are _C1 to Cn.
and n recording signal electrodes, and m recording signal electrodes S ₁ to Sm. It is assumed that the moving direction of the photoreceptor, that is, the width scanning direction, is 49 in c of the same figure, and time-division driving is performed as shown in b of the same figure. Write selection electrodes C ₁ , C ₂ ,
..., Cn are selected and recorded at the timing of A ₁ , A ₂ , ..., An, respectively. The liquid crystal light shutters 48 arranged in a straight line in this manner are recorded obliquely as shown at 51 instead of being recorded as shown at 50 in FIG. The degree of skew 52 is the writing cycle Tω
is the moving distance of the photoreceptor drum corresponding to . As described above, when a liquid crystal optical shutter is used as a recording head, performing time-divisional driving in the same manner as in a display device is unsatisfactory from the viewpoint of a reduction in exposure amount and recording quality. Regarding n time-division driving, an example where n=2 will be described below for ease of explanation. FIG. 8 shows the configuration of a liquid crystal light shutter based on two-time division drive with n=2. Here, transparent electrodes are placed at the intersections of the two write selection electrodes 53 and 54 and the recording signal electrodes 55 to 58, which are placed alternately in order to increase the aperture ratio of the shutter and to facilitate later wiring. Formed microshutters 59, 60
There is. Reference numeral 61 represents the moving direction of the photoreceptor, that is, the sub-scanning direction. As mentioned above, according to the conventional two-time division drive, the microshutter 5 on the write selection electrodes 53 and 54
Taking the example of recording white-black-white-white-black at 9 and 60, respectively, 62,
A recording signal is provided to indicate a photoresponse of 63.
Here, Tω indicates the write cycle. As can be understood from the figure, in the n time division drive, the recording operation is performed only within Tω/n of the selected engine, so the shutter is always closed within the period Tω/n, and the shutter is closed during the non-selected period. (1-1/n)
Tω is closed. In FIG. 8, write selection signals 64 and 65 shown in FIG. 10 are applied to write selection electrodes 53 and 54, and the first half or the second half of Tω is assigned to a selection period, respectively. The recording signals applied to the recording signal electrodes 55-58 are any one of 66-69 as shown in FIG. The recording signal 66 is sent to the write selection electrode 5
3 is an on-on recording signal that turns on the microshutter 59 when selected, and turns on the microshutter 60 when the write selection electrode 54 is selected.
Similarly, a recording signal 67 is an on-off recording signal, 68 is an off-on recording signal, and 69 is an off-off recording signal. The drive signal applied to the microshutter 59 on the write selection signal electrode 53 is as shown in FIG.
Any one of an on-off drive signal 71 based on 67, an off-on drive signal 72 based on 68, and an off-off drive signal 73 based on 69 is applied.
Microshutter 6 on write selection signal electrode 54
The drive signal applied to 0 is as shown in Figure 12.
It is equivalent to Tω/2 phase delayed. In these figures, *f _L is a signal with the opposite phase to f _L , *f _H
indicates a signal having an opposite phase to f _H , and indicates a superimposed signal of the f _L signal and the f _H signal as an f _L +f _H signal. The optical response characteristics when such a drive signal is applied to the microshutter 59 are shown as 774 to 77 in the figure. They correspond to the on-on drive signal 70 to the off-off drive signal 73, respectively. here,
The responses of 75, which tends to close with an on signal, and 76, which tends to open with an off signal, indicate that there is no signal in the non-selection period 78.

[0] is given or the superimposed signal f _L + f _H
It depends on whether it is given. When the microshutter 59 is captured, if the on response 75 can be made to the same level as 74 and the off response 76 to 77, the recording state at the time of the previous selection will be the same at the time of the next selection in the non-selection period. Therefore, even though it is time-division driving, it appears to be static driving, and the exposure time is not 1/n.
The effect is huge. In the recording signals 66 to 69 shown in FIG.
At the end of the first half and the second half of Tω/2, a period is provided where the f _L signal is applied, as indicated by T _L. The second half T _L period corresponds to the T _L period 78 of the write selection signal 64, and the first half corresponds to the T _L period 79 of the write selection signal 65, as shown in FIG _. is applied to drive the liquid crystal light shutter to open, and is performed in order to cut the hysteresis phenomenon caused by high frequencies. The write selection signals 64 and 65 shown in FIG.
It has selection periods 80 and 81 indicated by the f _H signal, and more precisely 84 and 85 excluding 82 and 83 corresponding to the T _L period are actual selection periods. When the light intensity is within the range where the reciprocity law in photography and electrophotography is almost satisfied, the attenuation of the electrostatic charge on the photoreceptor surface is determined by the total exposure amount, so there is an on response or an off response as described above. By setting the dots to almost the same level, white or black dots can be recorded in the same way. As described above, in n time-division driving, according to the driving method of the present invention, there are 2 ^Cn-1 combinations of drive signals given during the non-selection period, and no matter what kind of driving is performed during the selection period, the driving signal is non-selected. During the selection period, the cumulative effect of the liquid crystal is effectively utilized to change the state of the selection period Tω/n to the non-selection period (1-1/n).
n) If it is made possible to continue for Tω, it will look similar to static drive and the exposure time will be reduced to 1/n.
The effect is enormous because n=
We were able to prove this method using the two-time division drive example in Section 2. In addition, in Figs. 10 and 12, f _H
= 300KHz, f _L = 5KHz, voltage 30V, Tω = 2ms, and driving was performed at a liquid crystal temperature of 45°C. In the two-time division drive configuration shown in FIG. 8, the write cycle is Tω, and the microshutter 216 is white-black-white-white-black, and the microshutter 217 is white-black-black-white-black. Figure 13 shows the optical response when driving for recording.
6,87. When compared with the optical response based on the conventional two-time division drive shown in Figure 9, the selection period
The shutter is not always closed after Tω/2 (generally Tω/n), and the period of one given write cycle Tω is effectively used, so it appears to be close to static drive. . In general, microshutters arranged in a staggered manner in n time division driving are as shown in Figs. It can be recorded on a straight line as shown at 50 in Figure c. The drive circuit has two functions depending on how recording data is given.
One method is shown in FIG. The total number of liquid crystal light shutters 88 and 89 is assumed to be m (m is an even number).
Liquid crystal light shutters 88 and 89 correspond to 59 and 60, respectively, in FIG. The liquid crystal optical shutter drive circuit 90 includes an m-bit shift register 91, an m-bit data latch 92, and an m-bit shift register 91.
Consists of a bit data selector 93, a level shifter, and high voltage drivers 94, 95, and outputs recording data and k to the liquid crystal optical shutter 88.
The recording data for 89, which is delayed by one line, is alternately received for m bits within the write cycle Tω. The mixed recording data transferred to the data latch 92 causes the data selector 93 to output the recording signal 95.
One of them is selected and sent to the level shifter and high voltage driver 94. The recording signal 95 is the 11th
This corresponds to 66 to 69 in the figure. The write selection signal 96 is converted into write selection drive signals 98 and 9 by a level shifter and high voltage driver 95.
9, which correspond to 64 and 65 in FIG. 10, and drive the write selection electrodes 53 and 54 in FIG. 8, respectively. Receiving recorded data is the first
As shown in FIG. 5, the mixed recording data 101 is received into the m-bit shift register 91 as described above in synchronization with the write period signal 100, and the latch pulse 10
2, the data is transferred to the data latch 92. An example of another liquid crystal light shutter drive circuit is shown in Figure 103.
m/2 bit shift register 104,
It is composed of an m/2 bit data latch 105, an m/2 bit data selector 106, a level shifter and high voltage drivers 94 and 95, and the recording data to the liquid crystal optical shutter 88 and the recording data to the liquid crystal optical shutter 89 delayed by k lines are written. Reception is performed separately in the first half and the second half of the period Tω. Based on the separated recording data transferred to the data latch 105, the data selector 106 selects one of the recording signals 97 and sends it to the level shifter and high voltage driver 94. Recording signal 97 corresponds to 66 and 69 in FIG. The recording data is received by the shift register 104 in synchronization with the write synchronization signal 100, as shown in FIG. The recorded data 108 is for the liquid crystal optical shutter 88, and the recorded data 109 is delayed by k lines with respect to the liquid crystal optical shutter 89 separated by an interval l. As shown in the above two examples, no matter which driving method is used, 2 ^n-1 driving signals will be applied in the non-selected state. Next, behavior during n time division driving will be explained using an example of three time division driving. FIG. 16 shows the optical response characteristics during three time division driving. Here, the responses when the microshutters 112, 113, and 114 shown in FIG. 14 are driven to record white-black-white-white-black-black are shown at 115, 116, and 117, respectively.
The selection periods given to the write selection electrodes 118, 119, 120 are 115a, 116a, 1, respectively.
17a and can be generally expressed as Tω/n. Regardless of whether the drive circuit 90 shown in FIG. 15 or 103 is used, the drive circuit 11 shown in FIG.
Selection period 115a for 5, 116, 117,
116a and 117a, that is, during the non-selection period (1-1/n) Tω, by providing a drive that appropriately produces a cumulative effect so that the drive state of the selection period Tω/n continues, the apparent static drive is reduced. It is possible to prevent a significant decrease in exposure time. Liquid crystal light shutter drive circuit 90, 10 in FIG.
In example 3, the recording data is received serially, but it is of course also possible to receive it in parallel (for example, 8-bit parallel), and parallel reception has the advantage of shortening the transfer time of recording data. A method for preparing mixed recording data as shown in FIG. 17a using the example of the liquid crystal optical shutter drive circuit 90 shown in FIG. 15 will be described with reference to FIG. 18. In FIG. 18, an image signal generator 120 generates a time-series pixel signal 122 in synchronization with the rising edge of a clock pulse 121, and sends it to a MUX gate 123. At the same time, k m-bit shift registers 124 are connected due to a k-line delay. The data is input to the data delay unit 125 configured. In the example of Figure 18, k=3
It is shown as. k at the data delay unit 125
Data 126 delayed by a line is input to a MUX gate 123, mixed with the time-series pixel signal 122 to generate recording data 127, and supplied to 91a of the liquid crystal light shutter drive circuit 90 in FIG. In FIG. 18, the D type F/F 128a has a clock pulse 121 and a transfer enable signal 12.
9, the mixed data of the time-series pixel signal 122 and the delayed data 126 is controlled, and as shown in FIG.
Record data 127 is generated as shown in FIG. In addition, in FIG. 18, clock pulse 121
is the AND gate 12 via the inverter 128b.
8c, which generates a clock pulse 130 together with a transfer enable signal 129, which is then supplied to 91b of the liquid crystal light shutter drive circuit 90 in FIG. When m bits of the mixed recording data 127 for one line are sent to the liquid crystal optical shutter driving circuit 90 in synchronization with the rising edge of the clock pulse 130, a latch pulse 131 is generated by the pixel signal generating section 120 and 92a of the liquid crystal optical shutter driving circuit 90 is sent. One line of data is transferred to the data latch 92, and the shift register 91 becomes free and ready to receive the next line. FIG. 18b shows the timing chart of a. Here, * represents data delayed by k lines (k=3 in this example). [Problems with the prior art] As shown in FIGS. 8 and 14, the microshutters 59, 60, 112, 113,
114 by the liquid crystal light shutter drive circuit shown in FIG. 15, the mixed data shown in FIG. 17a must be created by the circuit shown in FIG. 18. If m microshutters are arranged and k lines are delayed, the shift register 1 shown in FIG.
The number of bits for 24 is m·k. For example, in order to record A3 size paper at a recording density of 10 dots/mm, a micro-shutter will need approximately 3,000 dots/mm.
If you need 3 lines and delay 3 lines, 9000
A shift register with a capacity of 1 bit is required. Furthermore, if RAM (random access memory) is used, the capacity will be further doubled. Conventionally, shift registers and RAMs with such a capacity were used as individual elements, resulting in a large printed circuit board and the need for wiring between each element, which was a problem when mounting a liquid crystal light shutter drive circuit. [Object of the Invention] In view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, the present invention integrates a shift register, a data latch, a data delay means, a data mixing means, a driver, etc. into an integrated circuit, and further connects the integrated circuits in cascade. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drive circuit that can flexibly correspond to recording devices with different numbers of dots. [Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes liquid crystal shutter arrays arranged in n rows and m columns and arranged with mutual displacement in the row direction; It is provided with a light source for irradiation and an optical system for forming an image of transmitted light of the liquid crystal shutter array on a recording medium, and a first control means determines in advance a write selection electrode provided in each row of the liquid crystal shutter array. and apply the second waveform.
In a drive circuit of a recording device, a control means applies a waveform having a phase different from a waveform applied to the write selection electrode to a signal electrode provided in each column according to recording data to form an image on a recording medium, The second control means includes data distribution means for distributing the record data inputted in time series into n data units, and the second control means includes:
a shift register having a predetermined number of bits and having an input terminal for serially inputting the distributed data and outputting it in parallel; latch means for latching the output of the shift register; and k+1 of the latch means.
A plurality of stages of data delay means connected to the k-th bit (where k is an odd number), a plurality of predetermined waveforms, an output of the data delay means connected to the k+1-th bit, and the k-th latch means. The present invention is characterized in that it comprises a data mixing means for inputting the output of the bits of the data and creating a waveform to be input to the signal electrode, and a driver provided corresponding to the output of the data mixing means. [Embodiments of the Invention] Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 19 is a configuration diagram of a recording device driving circuit according to the present invention. Power supplies 137, 138, and 139 are supplied from outside, and recorded data 140 is generated by clock pulse 14.
It is input to the i-bit shift register 142 periodically at the rising edge of 1 (in this example, it is expressed as i=160). The final output of the shift register 142 is sent to the cascade signal 14 to be supplied to the next LSI.
Outputs 3. When the transfer of one line m bits of recording data is completed, the i bit data latch 144,1
A latch pulse 145 is supplied to a D-type FF 146 (k=2 in this example) for data delay of k lines with i/2 bits per line, and a latch pulse 145 is supplied to the shift register 14.
2 is made free and ready to receive the next line of recording data. The odd bits of the data latch 144 are supplied to the inputs A ₁ to _{A 80} of the data selector multiplexer 147 without passing through the D type FF 146 for delay, and the even bits, which have passed one bit through the D type FF 146, are supplied to the A of the delay selection gate 148. The line through 2 bits is fed to the B input. The output W of the delay selection gate 148 is B ₁ of the data selector multiplexer 147.
~B fed into the ₈₀ input. The delay selection gate 148 selects k=1 or k=2 in the figure based on the delay selection signal 149. FIGS. 20a and 20b are circuit diagrams explaining this circuit in detail, and it is composed of five gate circuits. Further, undelayed data (A ₁ -A ₈₀ ) and delayed data (B ₁ -B ₈₀ ) are input to the data selector multiplexer 147, and an on-on recording signal 150, which is also input to the data selector multiplexer 147, is input to the data selector multiplexer 147. - OFF recording signal 151, OFF-ON recording signal 152, OFF-OFF recording signal 1
53 to output W ₁ to _{W 80} to the level shifter and high voltage driver 154.
Output to. The level shifter and high voltage driver 154 output the recording signal 15 of _Y1 to _Y80 .
5 drives the signal electrodes of liquid crystal optical shutters 88 and 89 shown in FIG. The data selector multiplexer 147 is the 21st
The configuration shown in the figure is such that recording signals 150 to 153 correspond to signals 66 to 69 in FIG. 11 of the conventional example, respectively. Furthermore, the data selector multiplexer 147 is configured as shown in FIG. 22 to select undelayed recording data (A ₁ to A ₈₀ ) and delayed recording data (B ₁ to
B ₈₀ ) and similarly input the data selection signal 161 to the data selector multiplexer 147.
.about.163 may be used to configure the circuit including the data selector multiplexer 160 as shown in FIG. Further, _the liquid crystal panel is configured as shown in _FIG .
A plurality of drive circuits 172 and 173 are provided above and below. In addition, FIG. 25a shows the liquid crystal panel 17 in FIG.
0 shows a circuit that controls the drive LSI 174, and is sent from the image signal generator 180 to the drive circuit in FIG. The clock pulse 182 generates a clock pulse 184 and a clock pulse 185 in a clock separator section 183, and the clock pulses 186 and 187 in FIG.
are supplied to each. As shown in the timing chart shown in Figure 25b,
A time-series pixel signal 181 is output in synchronization with the rising edge of a clock pulse 182 by a transfer enable signal 188 from an image signal generator 180. Clock pulse 182 and transfer enable signal 188
From, inverter 189, D type FF190
Clock separator 1 by AND gate 191
83, a clock pulse 184 and a clock pulse 185 are created. The latch pulse 192 and the data select signal 193 are generated as shown in the timing chart of FIG. At the end of Tω, a latch pulse 192 generates a recording signal 194 for writing with the received data, and the first
The shift register 142 shown in FIGS. 9 and 23 is made free to prepare for reception of the next line. The first half Tω/2 of Tω of the data select signal 193 drives the liquid crystal microshutter 196 located on the write selection electrode 195 in FIG. drive each. Furthermore, the recording data D ₁ to D _n-1 and *D2 to *D _n input to the liquid crystal micro shutters 196 and 198 are the outputs of each drive LSI 174, that is, the outputs Y ₁ to Y ₈₀ in FIGS. 19 and 23. outputs. For example, the drive circuit 17
The drive LSI 174 on the second side is D ₁ , *D ₂ , D ₅ ,..., *
Drive LSI 17 for controlling D _n-2 and 173 examples of drive circuits
4 controls D ₃ , *D ₄ , D ₇ , ..., *D _n . Furthermore, the operation of the drive circuit shown in FIG. 23 that is different from that shown in FIG. 19 is that the drive circuit in _FIG .
A ₈₀ ) and delayed data (B ₁ to B ₈₀ ) are transferred to the data selection signal 16 that changes at 1/2 of the write period Tω.
1, when the data selection signal 161 is "0", that is, when A ₁ to _{A 80} and 161 are "1" in the first half, that is, B ₁ to B ₈₀ are selected in the second half, and thereby the ON recording signal 162 or off recording signal 163 is selected and becomes the output W ₁ to _{W 80} of the data selector multiplexer 160, which is output via the level shifter and high voltage driver 164.
A recording signal 165 of Y ₁ to _{Y 80} is generated. The high voltage driver has a push-pull configuration and is capable of high-speed operation. As described above, the drive control circuit of the present invention not only eliminates the need for an external buffer memory, but also eliminates the need for the data delay unit 1 shown in FIG. 18a.
LSI that integrates 25 and data mixing section 123
is configured as shown in FIG. 19 or FIG. 23, and cascade connection is also possible, so that a single type of LSI can accommodate any size liquid crystal panel by increasing or decreasing the number of LSIs. Furthermore, flexibility is further increased by providing a delay selection signal to accommodate changes in the spacing in the sub-scanning direction of the liquid crystal microshutters of the liquid crystal panel. [Effects of the Invention] As explained in detail above, according to the present invention,
Since the data delay section and data mixing section are built into the LSI, external buffers can be removed. Furthermore, delayed data and mixed data can be created inside the LSI, and since it is cascaded, it can be configured with one type of LSI. Furthermore, it is possible to adapt to changes in the interval of the microshutter in the sub-scanning direction, and since a delay selection signal is provided, the selection capacity can be further increased, so that it has great industrial value.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a recording apparatus using the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a liquid crystal light shutter section, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a liquid crystal panel, and Fig. 5 shows a and b a GH type liquid crystal;
c and d are configuration diagrams explaining the operating modes of the TN type liquid crystal, and Figure 6 shows the dielectric anisotropy σε of the liquid crystal for dual-frequency driving.
4 is a cross-sectional view of the GH type liquid crystal optical shutter used in the present invention, FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram for explaining n time division drive, and FIG. 8 is a diagram of the microshutter in 2 time division drive. Configuration diagram explaining the configuration, No. 9
The figure shows a photoresponse characteristic diagram for conventional two-time division driving, FIG. 10 shows a write selection signal diagram for explaining the two-time division drive used in the present invention, FIG. 11 shows a recording signal diagram, and FIG. Similarly, the drive signal and its optical response characteristics are shown, FIG. 13 is an optical response characteristic diagram when the driving method shown in FIG. 12 is used, FIG. An example of a shutter drive circuit, FIG. 16 is a photoresponse characteristic diagram by three time division drive according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of recording data supplied to the drive circuit shown in the figure, FIG. 18 is a control circuit diagram thereof, FIG. 19 is a drive control circuit diagram according to the present invention, and FIGS. 20 and 21 are circuit diagrams showing a part thereof in detail. , FIG. 22 is a circuit diagram showing a part of FIG. 23 in detail, FIG. 23 is a circuit diagram showing a drive control circuit according to the present invention, FIG. 24 is a configuration diagram showing a liquid crystal panel constructed according to the present invention, and FIG. The figure is its control circuit diagram. 140...Record data, 141...Clock pulse, 142...Shift register, 144...Data latch, 146...D type flip-flop, 14
8...Delay selection gate, 154, 164...Level shifter and high voltage driver, 147,
160...Data selector multiplexer, 180
...Image signal generation section, 190...D type flip-flop.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A liquid crystal shutter array provided in n rows and m columns and arranged with mutual displacement in the row direction, a light source that irradiates the liquid crystal shutter array with light, and the liquid crystal shutter array. an optical system for forming an image of transmitted light from the liquid crystal shutter array on a recording medium; a first control means applies a predetermined waveform to write selection electrodes provided in each row of the liquid crystal shutter array; 2. Applying a waveform having a phase different from the waveform applied to the write selection electrode to the signal electrodes provided in each column by the control means according to the recorded data,
In a drive circuit of a recording device that forms an image on a recording medium, the drive circuit includes data distribution means for distributing the recording data inputted in time series into n data units, and the second control means serially distributes the distributed data. a shift register having a predetermined number of bits and outputting in parallel, a latch means for latching the output of the shift register, and a (k+1)th latch register (k is an odd number) of the latch means;
a plurality of predetermined waveforms, the output of the data delay means connected to the k+1st bit, and the output of the kth bit of the latch means. A driving circuit for a recording apparatus, comprising: a data mixing means for creating a waveform to be input to the signal electrode; and a driver provided in correspondence with the output of the data mixing means. 2. The drive circuit for a recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second control means has a delay designation terminal for designating the number of stages of the plurality of stages of data delay means. 3. The driving circuit for a recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal shutter array is of a guest-host type.