Integrated electro-optical scanner with photoconductive substrate

Claim 1

An integrated electro-optic device for use in scanning a photosensitive medium with a focused line of light comprising a plurality of closely spaced, intensity-modulated pixels to record a two-dimensional image, said device comprising: a photoconductive substrate; a plurality of spaced, parallel electrodes disposed on a surface of said photoconductive substrate; a first buffer layer disposed atop said electrodes, said first buffer layer comprising a transparent dielectric material; an optical waveguide layer disposed on said first buffer layer, said waveguide layer comprising an optically-transparent, polymer material, said waveguide layer being adapted to transmit a uniform phasefront of light therethrough in a direction substantially perpendicular to the layer thickness by multiple total internal reflections; a second buffer layer deposited atop said polymer layer, said second buffer layer comprising a transparent dielectric material, said first and second buffer layers having a refractive index lower than the refractive index of said polymer layer., a transparent electrode disposed atop said second buffer layer, opposite said spaced, parallel electrodes; said optical waveguide layer exhibiting electro-optic properties at least in the region interposed between said transparent electrode and that portion of the substrate on which said spaced, parallel electrodes are disposed, means for selectively applying an electric field between each of selected spaced, parallel electrodes and said transparent electrode to cause selected portions of said polymer layer therebetween to perturb selected portions of a uniform phasefront propagating therethrough in accordance with pixel image information to be recorded, means for converting a perturbed phasefront of light within said waveguide layer to an intensity-modulated pixel pattern; and means for projecting an image of said intensity-modulated pixel pattern upon the surface of a photosensitive medium.