OPTICAL MODULE AND DISTANCE MEASURING DEVICE

The present invention is aimed at radiating a linear light beam without distortion regardless of an incident angle of the scanning light beam in an optical module that irradiates a target object with a light beam and detects the reflected light. In an optical module of the present invention, an optical scanning unit (150) causes the light beam to scan in a predetermined direction (perpendicular direction). An optical conversion unit (161) converts the scanning light beam into a linear light beam in a linear direction (horizontal direction) substantially orthogonal to the scanning direction. A light detection unit (180) detects reflected light, which is the linear light beam reflected from a target object. The optical conversion unit (161) has an optical surface (S1) having a radius of curvature (rx) in the scanning direction that is substantially equal to a distance from a virtual scanning center point (Ox) in the scanning direction to a center point (A) of the optical surface (S1), regardless of a position in the linear direction. The optical module of the present invention is applicable to a distance measuring device.