Optical Scan Engine Using Rotating Mirror Sectors

An optical scan engine includes a rotatable component, for example a disk or drum. The rotatable component includes a plurality of scan sectors that are arranged around the rotation axis and that lie substantially in a plane of rotation. Each scan sector includes a pair of reflective surfaces that typically are radially-facing. The incident optical beam typically propagates along a radial direction (e.g., towards the rotation axis) and each pair of reflective surfaces deflects the incident optical beam by approximately 180 degrees as that pair rotates through the incident optical beam. The deflected optical beam has a virtual image located on the rotation axis. As a result, the real image of the deflected optical beam rotates around the rotation axis at the same angular velocity as the scan sectors. Different scan sectors can be designed to yield diffeent deflections in the axial direction. The addition of a third reflective surface to each scan sector can be used to generate image points that are fixed in space as the scan sector rotates.