Laser Spot Size Measurements and Resulting Developed Toner Features

Abstract

Laser spot size is critical to developed dot resolution in electrophotographic printing. Spot size measurements are correlated with actual discharged areas on a photoconductor surface as measured by developed toner image size. The resulting developed dot is then used to determine the optimum parameter for converting energy intensity measurements to actual developed toner features. Due to the effects of fringe fields on the discharged photoconductor surface, holes imaged into developed areas have different laser energy to developed area conversion rates than do dots in non-discharged areas, with holes requiring a larger unexposed area to reproduce the desired features. The 50% peak intensity metric was found to be superior to the 13.5% peak intensity metric.