US Patent 7123278 Led printer and image forming apparatus including the same

An LED printer capable of avoiding unevenness in the intensity of light depending on positions over all of the illumination areas divided in the direction of main scan, and an image forming apparatus including the LED printer. The LED printer comprises an LED array unit made up of an LED array having a plurality of LED's arrayed to lie in one direction and a focusing device for focusing light from the LED array onto an image carrier of the image forming apparatus, an image data transfer control device for dividing and transferring image data, which has been transferred to it, for each of a plurality of the multiple LED array units arranged in a zigzag pattern in an axial direction of the image carrier, a dividing device for dividing an area of the LED array unit energized to illuminate at a time into plural parts, an LED illumination control device for controlling the intensity of emitted light for each of the areas energized to illuminate at a time, and an LED illumination control device for controlling the intensity of emitted light for each of the LED array units.