An image exposure method

Abstract

The present application discloses an image exposure method, which is applied to the field of laser direct imaging and includes: a control module of a laser direct imaging device controls a plurality of lasers arranged in a straight line to reciprocate horizontally from top to bottom. There is an induction delay when a reading head of the laser direct imaging device senses the position of the lasers. The photosensitive coating is exposed in sequence to obtain two columns of images with an odd number of exposed points in the left column and an even number of exposed points in the right column. Among them, the first laser at the top exposes the first exposed point, and the first exposed point exposed by each of the remaining lasers is set as an odd-numbered exposed point starting from the first exposed point. The present application solves the problem that the exposure misalignment caused by the induction delay of the reading head cannot be solved by the method of image translation before exposure, and improves the image exposure accuracy.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the field of laser direct imaging, and particularly relates to an image exposure method. Background Art

[0002] Reference Figure 1 , the laser direct imaging device includes: an upper horizontal guide rail 31, a lower horizontal guide rail 32, a vertical beam 33, a control module 35, a left vertical guide rail 36, a right vertical guide rail 37, and a position detection device 38. On the vertical beam 33, a plurality of lasers are evenly distributed. For example, three lasers 34-1, 34-2, and 34-3 are exemplarily drawn on the vertical beam 33 in a uniform distribution. The vertical beam 33 moves left and right reciprocally on the upper horizontal guide rail 31 and the lower horizontal guide rail 32 under the control of the control module 35 to drive the plurality of lasers to reciprocally expose; the upper horizontal guide rail 31, the lower horizontal guide rail 32, and the vertical beam 33 move downward simultaneously on the left vertical guide rail 36 and the right vertical guide rail 37 under the control of the control module 35 as a whole. The position detection device 38 is arranged on the lower horizontal guide rail 32, and a reader head 39 is built in the position detection device 38.

[0003] Figure 1 In, theoretically, when the three lasers 34-1, 34-2, and 34-3 move from the initial position O to point A on the lower horizontal guide rail 32 to the right along with the vertical beam 33, the reader head 39 immediately senses the three lasers, and the control module 35 controls the three lasers to emit light at point A to expose a photosensitive coating (not shown). The control module 35 controls the vertical beam 33 to continue moving to the right until it stops at the rightmost point B. The control module 35 controls the vertical beam 33 to move downward by a distance e (see Figure 2 ), so that the three lasers move downward as a whole by a distance e. When the control module 35 controls the three lasers to move to point C on the horizontal guide rail 32 to the left, theoretically, the reader head 39 immediately senses the three lasers, and the control module 35 controls the three lasers to emit light at point C. After the exposure is completed, it continues to move to the left until it stops at the initial position O. This continues repeatedly until all points are exposed, as shown in Figure 2 . Therefore, theoretically, if there is no induction delay in the reader head 39, Figure 2 all the exposure points (black dots) on the left column of should be on the same vertical line L1, and all the exposure points (black dots) on the right column should be on the same vertical line L2. It should be noted that Figure 2 the upper 10 exposure points in are obtained by the 1st laser 34-1 performing multiple reciprocating exposures row by row first from left to right and then from right to left, and the lower 10 exposure points are obtained by the 2nd laser 34-2 performing multiple reciprocating exposures row by row first from left to right and then from right to left.

[0004] Reference Figure 3 andFigure 4 , however, the actual situation is that due to the sensing delay of the read head 39, when the No. 1 laser 34-1 reaches the preset position L1 (point A) shown by the dotted circle in the first row, the read head 39 does not sense the No. 1 laser 34-1. The control module 35 controls the No. 1 laser 34-1 not to expose, and the No. 1 laser 34-1 continues to move to the right. After a time △T, it reaches point F and is only sensed by the read head 39. At this time, the control module 35 controls the No. 1 laser 34-1 to expose at point F. After the exposure is completed, the No. 1 laser 34-1 continues to move to the rightmost position B and then stops. Refer to Figure 1 , the control module 35 controls the upper horizontal guide rail 31 and the lower horizontal guide rail 32 to move down a distance e of one pixel size along the left vertical guide rail 36 and the right vertical guide rail 37, so that the No. 1 laser 34-1 moves down a distance e. The control module 35 controls the No. 1 laser 34-1 to move left from position B. Refer to Figure 3 , it should have been exposed at point C (L2), but due to the sensing delay of the read head 39 for a time △T, the laser 34-1 continues to move left to point G (L4) before being sensed. Therefore, the actual exposure position of the laser 34-1 is at the vertical line L4. It can be understood that all the odd-numbered exposure points of the No. 1 laser 34-1 except the first exposure point are on the same vertical line L3 as the first exposure point, and all the even-numbered exposure points of the No. 1 laser 34-1 except the second exposure point are on the same vertical line L4 as the second exposure point. That is: all the odd-numbered exposure points of the No. 1 laser 34-1 are shifted to the right by a displacement of V*△T relative to the preset exposure position L1, and all the even-numbered exposure points are shifted to the left by a displacement of V*△T relative to the preset exposure position L2, where V is the horizontal movement speed of the vertical beam 33 and also the horizontal movement speed of each laser.

[0005] Refer to Figure 3, if the first row of exposure points where the second laser 34-2 starts to expose is an even number of exposure points, for example, starting from the 10th exposure point, since it moves synchronously and in the same direction as the first laser, it can be understood that the position of the first actual exposure point of the second laser 34-2 is offset by a displacement of V*ΔT to the right relative to the preset position L2 and is at the position of the vertical line L5, and the actual position of the second exposure point is offset by a displacement of V*ΔT to the left relative to the preset position L1 and is at the position of the vertical line L6. Therefore, the connection line of all the left exposure points exposed by the second laser 34-2 finally obtained is offset by a displacement of 2*V*ΔT relative to the connection line of all the odd-numbered exposure points on the left side exposed by the first laser 34-1, and the connection line of all the right exposure points is offset by a displacement of 2*V*ΔT relative to the connection line of all the even-numbered exposure points on the right side exposed by the first laser 34-1. This causes the connection lines of all the exposure points on the same side to be misaligned and not on the same vertical line, resulting in image exposure errors. For a physical diagram of the image exposure error, see Figure 5 . If the image translation method in Patent 2022100924860 is pre-adopted to precisely translate each pixel point corresponding to the exposure point one by one, the desired exposure result where all odd-numbered exposure points are on the same vertical line and all even-numbered exposure points are on another same vertical line as shown in Figure 2 cannot be obtained finally. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present invention provides an image exposure method, aiming to solve the problem that during the reciprocating progressive exposure process of several lasers, due to the reading delay of the magnetic head, the exposure points on the left side are not on the same vertical line, and the exposure points on the right side are not on another same vertical line, resulting in exposure errors.

[0007] The solution of the present invention is as follows:

[0008] An image exposure method, applied to the field of laser direct imaging, includes:

[0009] The control module of the laser direct imaging device controls a number of lasers arranged in a straight line to move horizontally back and forth from top to bottom. When the read head of the laser direct imaging device senses the position of the laser, there is an induction delay. The photosensitive coating is exposed in sequence to obtain two columns of images with an odd number of exposure points in the left column and an even number of exposure points in the right column;

[0010] Among them, the first laser at the top exposes the first exposure point, and the first exposure point exposed by each of the remaining lasers is set to be an odd number of exposure points starting from the first exposure point.

[0011] In some embodiments, when each laser moves from the leftmost position of the first row to the right to expose the corresponding first exposure point, the control module controls each laser to move down by the displacement of one pixel point simultaneously and move back, to expose the corresponding second exposure point, and then return to the initial position at the leftmost of the second row, and continue to move down by the displacement of one pixel point, and in the same way as exposing the respective first exposure point and second exposure point, expose the remaining exposure points on the photosensitive coating.

[0012] In some embodiments, the horizontal distance interval between the third vertical line formed by connecting the actual exposure positions of all odd-numbered exposure points and the first vertical line formed by connecting the preset exposure positions is V*ΔT, and the horizontal distance interval between the fourth vertical line formed by connecting the actual exposure points of all even-numbered exposure points and the second vertical line formed by connecting the preset exposure points is V*ΔT;

[0013] wherein, V is the horizontal movement speed of each laser, and ΔT is the delay time when the reading head senses the position of the laser.

[0014] In some embodiments, the distance between every two adjacent lasers in the vertical direction is not necessarily the same.

[0015] In some embodiments, the distance between every two adjacent exposure points in the left column or the right column in the vertical direction is 2e, where e is the resolution of the image to be exposed.

[0016] In some embodiments, the laser direct imaging device further includes: a vertical beam, an upper guide rail and a lower guide rail arranged in parallel, a position detection device, a left guide rail and a right guide rail arranged vertically, the vertical beam is vertically arranged between the upper guide rail and the lower guide rail and is parallel to the left guide rail and the right guide rail, the position detection device is arranged on the lower guide rail, and the reading head is built in the position detection device;

[0017] A plurality of lasers are arranged in a column on the vertical beam, and the control module controls the vertical beam to move horizontally back and forth along the upper guide rail and the lower guide rail, so as to drive the plurality of lasers to move back and forth in the horizontal direction;

[0018] The control module controls the upper guide rail and the lower guide rail to move down synchronously on the left guide rail and the right guide rail, so as to drive the plurality of lasers on the vertical beam to move down as a whole.

[0019] In some embodiments, the control module is a chip processor.

[0020] Advantageous technical effects of the present invention: By setting the initial exposure points of all lasers at odd exposure point positions, when each laser exposes the photosensitive coating back and forth row by row, all odd-numbered exposure points on the left side are located on the same vertical line, and all even-numbered exposure points on the right side are located on another vertical line. This solves the problem that the connection lines of the odd-numbered exposure points on the left side and the connection lines of the even-numbered exposure points on the right side of the laser direct imaging device's magnetic head are not on the same vertical line due to reading delay and different starting exposure points of each laser at odd-numbered exposure points, resulting in exposure errors. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0021] Figure 1 Structural module diagram of a part of the laser direct imaging device of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the left and right two columns of vertical lines formed by the connection lines of exposure points when the read head of the laser direct imaging device has no induction delay in the ideal state, and two lasers move horizontally back and forth for exposure, and the horizontal distance between the two columns of vertical lines is d;

[0023] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the misalignment (not on the same vertical line) of the connection lines of the left and right pairs of actual exposure points obtained when the read head of the laser direct imaging device has induction delay in the actual situation, and two lasers move horizontally back and forth for exposure and the initial exposure points are not both odd numbers;

[0024] Figure 4 For relative Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the lag of the actual exposure position of the laser relative to the preset position due to the induction delay of the read head;

[0025] Figure 5 Physical diagram of the misaligned vertical lines formed by connecting the actual exposure points on the left and right pairs obtained when the read head of the laser direct imaging device has induction delay in the actual situation, and two lasers T move horizontally back and forth synchronously for exposure and the initial exposure points are different and odd numbers;

[0026] Figure 6 For setting Figure 5 The starting exposure point of the second laser in is set after the 11th laser, and the schematic diagram of the first case of the left and right two columns of images connected by the actual exposure points after eliminating the misalignment phenomenon;

[0027] Figure 7 For setting Figure 5 The starting exposure point of the second laser in is set after the 9th laser, and the schematic diagram of the second case of the left and right two columns of images connected by the actual exposure points after eliminating the misalignment phenomenon. Detailed Embodiment

[0028] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Apparently, the described embodiments are only a part rather than all of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0029] In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc. is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. It is only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as a limitation to the present invention. The terms "first", "second", "third" are only used for description to distinguish, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance. In addition, unless otherwise clearly defined and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", "connected" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be directly connected, or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be the communication inside two elements. For those of ordinary skill in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific situations.

[0030] An image exposure method disclosed by the present invention includes: a control module of a laser direct imaging device controls a plurality of lasers arranged in a column to move horizontally back and forth synchronously, and sequentially exposes a plurality of exposure points on a photosensitive coating.

[0031] Reference Figure 6 , Figure 6 schematically shows the exposure situation where the starting exposure point of the first laser is the first exposure point, and the starting exposure point of the second laser is the 11th exposure point counted from the first exposure point. It should be emphasized that the first laser must start exposing from the first exposure point. Combining Figure 1 , Figure 2 and Figure 6 , the exposure trajectory of the first laser is: the control module 35 controls the vertical beam 33 to move from the leftmost initial position O to the right at a speed V, so that the first laser exposes the first exposure point on the photosensitive coating (not shown). Figure 6The uppermost one of the black dots in the left column in the figure is the first exposure point. Define the vertical line where this black dot is located as the third vertical line L3. The dotted black dot on the left corresponding to the first exposure point is the preset exposure point. Define the vertical line L1 where the left preset exposure point is located as the first vertical line. From the previous description, it can be known that the third vertical line L3 is offset to the right by a distance of V*△T relative to the first vertical line L1. Refer to Figure 1 and Figure 6 , the first laser 34-1 moves from the initial position o on the leftmost side to point A to the right. After exposing the first exposure point in the topmost row, it continues to move to the rightmost position B and stops. The control module 35 controls the upper horizontal guide rail 31 and the lower horizontal guide rail 32 to move downward by a distance e of one pixel point simultaneously, so that all the lasers on the vertical beam 33 move downward by a distance e of one pixel point (see Figure 6 ). The control module 35 controls the first laser 34-1 to move from the rightmost position B to the left. Define the vertical line L4 (point G) where the actual exposure position of the second exposure point is located as the fourth vertical line. Since there is an induction delay when the read head 39 senses the laser, when the first laser 34-1 exposes the second exposure point, compared with the second vertical line L2 (point C) where the preset exposure position is located, it is offset to the right by a displacement of V*△T. After the exposure is completed, it continues to move to the left to the initial position O and stops. Similarly, when the first laser exposes the 3rd and 4th exposure points, the horizontal exposure route is the same as that for the 1st and 2nd exposure points: it also exposes in the order of first from left to right and then from right to left, and vertically it moves downward by a displacement of 2e. Figure 6Among them, the first laser reciprocates to expose a total of 9 exposure points. The distance d1 between the connecting lines L3 and L4 of the actual exposure points in the left and right columns and the preset distance d between the connecting lines L1 and L2 of the exposure points in the left and right columns have a unilateral interval of V*ΔT. In order to make the connecting lines of the actual exposure points in the left and right columns obtained by the subsequent second laser, third laser... Nth laser reciprocating exposure all be on the vertical line where the two columns of exposure points actually exposed by the first laser are located, it can be understood that the starting exposure point of each subsequent laser exposure needs to be set to be at the position of an odd-numbered exposure point starting from the first exposure point at the top. This is because the first laser, the second laser, the third laser......... the Nth laser are all arranged in a column on the vertical beam 33, that is to say, their movements are synchronized, that is, they first move to the right simultaneously to expose the corresponding first exposure point, then move down by the displacement of one pixel point simultaneously, and then move back from right to left to expose their corresponding second exposure point. Since the first exposure point of each laser starting to expose is at the position of an odd-numbered exposure point starting from the first exposure point at the top, therefore, all the odd exposure points in the left column are on the same vertical line, and all the even exposure points in the right column are on another vertical line. In this way, the defect that all the exposure points on the left side are not on the same vertical line and all the exposure points on the right side are not on another vertical line due to the exposure delay of the laser as shown in Figure 3 and Figure 5 is eliminated, and the problem that it is difficult to accurately make all the odd exposure points in the left column be on the same vertical line and all the even exposure points in the right column be on another vertical line even by translating the corresponding pixel points through image processing in Patent 2022100924860 before exposure is solved.

[0032] It should be noted that referring to Figure 1 , the distances between adjacent lasers on the vertical beam 33 of the laser direct imaging device 30 in the vertical direction are not necessarily the same. That is to say, except that the position of the first laser 34-1 at the top cannot be moved, the positions of the remaining lasers in the vertical direction are set to be adjustable, and the purpose is to ensure that the first exposure point of all lasers is an odd exposure point. For example, referring to Figure 1 and Figure 6 , Figure 1 the second laser 34-2 in Figure 6Use the 9th exposure point or the 13th exposure point in [[ ]] as the starting exposure point, rather than necessarily using the 11th exposure point as the starting exposure point. However, in any case, the starting exposure point of the second laser 34-2 must be an odd-numbered exposure point starting from the topmost first exposure point. For example, it can be the 7th, 9th, or 11th exposure point. This is to ensure consistency with the starting exposure point of the first laser 34-1 being the 1st exposure point, that is, both are odd-numbered exposure points. Similarly, Figure 1 The first exposure point of the third laser 34-3 in [[ ]] and the remaining lasers (not shown) below the third laser on the vertical beam 33 must also be odd-numbered exposure points.

[0033] Please continue to refer to Figure 1 and Figure 6 , in this embodiment, the first laser 34-1 and the second laser 34-2 move from left to right and start exposing from the 1st exposure point and the 11th exposure point respectively at the same time. The first laser 34-1 exposes the first 10 exposure points, and the second laser 34-2 exposes the last 20 exposure points. When the first laser 34-1 moves from right to left to expose the last 10th exposure point, the second laser 34-2 also moves from right to left to expose the last 20th exposure point at the same time. That is to say, since both the first laser 34-1 and the second laser 34-2 are on the vertical beam 33, they both move from left to right or from right to left at the same time. Similarly, the movement of all other lasers on the vertical beam 33 is synchronized and in the same direction as the first laser 34-1 and the second laser 34-2.

[0034] Refer to Figure 7 , it should be noted that if the second laser 34-2 uses the 9th exposure point as the starting exposure point and the first laser 34-1 and the second laser 34-2 expose the first 20 exposure points in total, then it can be understood that when the first laser 34-1 finishes exposing the 8th exposure point, the second laser 34-2 finishes exposing the 18th exposure point. The remaining 19th and 20th exposure points still need to be exposed by the second laser 34-2. At this time, Figure 1The control module 35 needs to control the vertical beam 33 to move downward by the distance of one pixel point first, and then control the second laser 34-2 to start exposing the 19th exposure point. After the exposure, it continues to move to point B at the rightmost end and stops. Then it moves downward by the distance of one pixel point, and then moves from right to left. After exposing the last 20th exposure point, it finally stops at point O. It can be understood that when the second laser 34-2 exposes the 19th and 20th exposure points, the first laser also moves downward to the positions of the 9th and 10th exposure points at the same time, and first moves from left to right to point B, then moves downward by the position of one pixel point, and finally moves from right to left to point O and stops. However, since the 9th and 10th exposure points have been exposed by the second laser 34-2, when the first laser 34-1 passes through the 9th and 10th exposure points, the control module 35 controls the first laser 34-1 not to emit light.

[0035] In addition, in this application, the size of the pixel point of the image to be exposed should be understood to be equal to the size of the exposure point. Therefore, when the laser moves downward by the size of an exposure point with a radius of e in the vertical direction, it is also equivalent to moving the size of one pixel point.

[0036] In some embodiments, the control module is a chip processor, and relevant programs are stored on the chip processor, such as the programs for the exposure of each laser, and the sequence programs for the left-right back-and-forth movement and up-down movement of the vertical beam 33.

[0037] In this application, the pixel point and the exposure point should be understood as objects of the same size. In theory, an exposure point exposes an area of the size of one pixel point.

[0038] Finally, it should be noted that the above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not used to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art can still modify the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or perform equivalent replacements for some of the technical features. Any modifications, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An image exposure method, applied in the field of laser direct imaging, characterized in that Including: The control module of the laser direct imaging device controls a number of lasers arranged in a straight line to move horizontally back and forth from top to bottom to expose the photosensitive coating. There is an induction delay when the read head of the laser direct imaging device senses the position of the lasers. Among them, the first exposure point exposed by the first laser at the top is defined as the initial exposure point, and the first exposure points exposed by the remaining lasers are set as odd-numbered exposure points starting from the initial exposure point. When each laser moves from the leftmost position in the first row to the right to expose the first exposure point on the left and then continues to move to the rightmost position, the control module controls each laser to move down by the displacement of one pixel point simultaneously and move back, and after exposing the second exposure point on the right, continues to move to the left to the initial position at the leftmost of the second row. The control module controls each laser to continue to move down, and in the same way as exposing the first exposure point and the second exposure point respectively, exposes the remaining exposure points on the photosensitive coating.

2. The image exposure method according to claim 1, wherein The distance between every two adjacent lasers in the vertical direction is not necessarily the same.

3. The image exposure method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The laser direct imaging device further includes: a vertical beam, an upper guide rail and a lower guide rail arranged in parallel, a position detection device, a left guide rail and a right guide rail arranged vertically. The vertical beam is vertically arranged between the upper guide rail and the lower guide rail and is parallel to the left guide rail and the right guide rail. The position detection device is arranged on the lower guide rail, and the read head is built in the position detection device. A number of the lasers are arranged in a row on the vertical beam, and the control module controls the vertical beam to move horizontally back and forth along the upper guide rail and the lower guide rail to drive the number of lasers to move back and forth in the horizontal direction. The control module controls the upper guide rail and the lower guide rail to move down synchronously on the left guide rail and the right guide rail to drive the number of lasers on the vertical beam to move down as a whole.

4. The image exposure method according to claim 1, wherein The control module is a chip processor.

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