Image scanning apparatus

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS REPRESENTATIVE OF FIGURES TO BE GENERATED BY AN OUTPUT DEVICE COMPRISING, MEANS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY PRODUCING ELECTRON IMAGES OF A PLURALITY OF FIGURES TO BE GENERATED, AN ELECTRODE HAVING A PLURALITY OF APERTURES THEREIN, THE SIZE OF SAID APERTURES BEING SMALL RELATIVE TO THEIR RESPECTIVE ELECTRON IMAGES, MEANS FOR ACCELERATING THE ELECTRONS FORMING SAID IMAGES TOWARD SAID ELECTRODE, MEANS FOR DEFLECTING ALL OF SAID ELECTRON IMAGES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SAME PREDETERMINED SCANNING PATTERN AS THE ELECTRONS ACCELERATE TOWARD SAID ELECTRODE WHEREBY STREAMS OF ELECTRONS CORRESPONDING TO THE ELECTRON IMAGES FLOW THROUGH THE RESPECTIVE APERTURES, MEANS FOR DERIVING AN OUTPUT SIGNAL FROM A SELECTED ONE OF SAID STREAMS OF ELECTRONS, AND MEANS COUPLING SAID OUTPUT SIGNAL TO SAID OUTPUT DEVICE.