Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Tokyo Sanyo Electric Co.

Akira Tsukihashi

Yasushi Hanamoto

Koji Hayashi

Katsuki Hattori

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto

Michiyoshi Sawada

Tohru Tanaka

Takeshi Aoki

Shigeru Nakamura

Tsutomu Ishikawa

Takeo Inoue

Masashi Arai

Toshihiko Hiroshima

Naobumi Nagasawa

Toru Tanaka

Yutaka Kaneko

Osamu Ikeda

Mitsuhiro Hiruma

Shozo Sugishita

Yutaka Imamura

Hideharu Nishida

Satoru Miyoshi

Shinji Seki

Shinichi Nakahashi

Kazunori Ueki

Misao Kuramochi

Tadashi Iwama

Tadashi Hitomi

Hiromitsu Kondo

Yoshiaki Tsubokura

Takashi Iwasaki

Yoji Honda

An optical disk comprising two layers including a signal recording layer and an image recording layer further comprises a metal reflective layer formed on a surface of the image recording layer on the incidence side of laser light. The image recording layer is capable of forming a visible image in response to an increase in temperature caused by application of laser light to the metal reflective layer. The visible image is capable of being visually observed from a side opposite to the incidence side.

Optical disk

An optical disk recording and playback device comprises a first laser driving circuit that supplies a driving signal to a first laser diode, a second laser driving circuit that supplies a driving signal to a second laser diode, a signal recording pulse generating circuit that generates a signal recording pulse signal in accordance with a signal to be recorded on a signal recording layer, and outputs the signal recording pulse signal to the first laser driving circuit, and an image recording pulse generating circuit that generates an image recording pulse signal in accordance with a signal to form an image on an image recording layer, and outputs the image recording pulse signal to the second laser driving circuit. When recording of a signal to the signal recording layer and recording of an image to the image recording layer are simultaneously performed, the first laser diode and the second laser diode are controlled to prevent light emission from simultaneously occurring at recording levels.

Optical disk recording and playback device

In the optical pickup unit configured to guide a laser beam emitted from a laser source to an objective lens, to converge the laser beam with the objective lens to be irradiated to a disk, and to guide the laser beam reflected and returned by the disk to the photo detector including a light reception region constituted by a plurality of segments, the photo detector is disposed with each amplifier corresponding to each segment of the light reception region, is disposed with each output terminal that outputs each light reception output corresponding to each segment from the photo detector via each amplifier, and is disposed with an output setting circuit that sets each light reception output from each of the output terminals by changing the gain of each of the amplifiers and/or by attenuating the input or output of each of the amplifiers with an attenuator.

Light reception output controlling apparatus of photo detector in optical pickup unit

An operation for recording a recording signal onto a disk () is interrupted, when an amount of signal data stored in a buffer RAM () for temporarily storing the recording signal is less than an interruption setting value during performing of the recording operation. Moreover, when the amount of signal data stored in the buffer RAM () increases and indicates a resumption setting value, the signal recorded on the disk () before interruption is reproduced, and the recording operation is resumed based on the reproduced signal. Moreover, recording properties are detected by the signal reproduced before resumption of recording.

Optical disk recording/reproducing method and apparatus in which recording properties of the disk are detected when recording speed is changed

A controller for a data recorder for recording data that records data in a continuous manner regardless of interruptions. An encoder encodes data that is to be written to a recording medium. A synchronizing circuit synchronizes the data read from the recording medium with the encoded data when the writing of data to the recording medium is interrupted. A first retry determination circuit determines whether an address of the data read from the recording medium and an address of the data provided to the encoder match. A second retry determination circuit determines whether the timing for reading data from recording medium and the timing for encoding data match. A restart circuit restarts the writing of data to the recording medium based on the determinations of the first and second retry determination circuits.

Controller for data recorder

A data recorder for recording data that records data in a continuous manner regardless of interruptions. An encoder encodes data that is to be written to a recording medium. A synchronizing circuit synchronizes the data read from the recording medium with the encoded data when the writing of data to the recording medium is interrupted. A first retry determination circuit determines whether an address of the data read from the recording medium and an address of the data provided to the encoder match. A second retry determination circuit determines whether the timing for reading data from recording medium and the timing for encoding data match. A restart circuit restarts the writing of data to the recording medium based on the determinations of the first and second retry determination circuits.

Data recorder

An optical disc apparatus which realizes high density disc recording using an existing disc and an existing recording signal processor. When recording data on a recordable disc corresponding to an existing first standard, either one of first and second recording signal processorsandcan be selectively used, so that data recording in the high density recording mode which allows data generated by the second recording signal processorto be recorded on a recordable disc corresponding to the first standard can be performed. As a result, the existing second standard data format can be used with regard to a disc corresponding to the existing first standard, so that recording can be performed at a higher density than when the first standard data format is used for the same disc, thereby increasing recording capacity.

Optical disc apparatus for processing data according to different optical disc standards to achieve higher recording density

To provide a method for optimizing the optical output from an optical head when recording data onto an optical disk, each time a suspension of data recording onto the disk is determined, the optical head reads data recorded onto the disk before the suspension, and recording state of this data is judged. Based on the judged recording state, the optical output from the optical head to be emitted when resuming the data recording is controlled. A timing at which to suspend data recording can be desirably set, so that the recording state of the recorded data in the disk can be judged at desirable timing in data recording operation, so that the optical output from the optical head is controlled based on the judged recording state.

Optical head optical output setting method and optical disk recording apparatus

A data recording equipment that accurately restarts the writing of data to an optical disc after data recording is interrupted. The equipment interrupts recording when detecting an external shock or when predicting the occurrence of a buffer underrun error. The equipment includes a counter, which counts execution of recording data on the optical disc and generates a count value indicating the amount of data that is recorded, and a control unit, which is connected to the counter to hold the count value of the counter immediately before an interruption when the recording of data is interrupted. The unit re-irradiates a position on the optical disc, on which data prior to the data recorded immediately before the interruption is recorded. The init controls restart of the recording based on the held count value while recognizing the position of the data on the optical disc.

Method and apparatus for recording data on an optical disc with restarting writing of data after data recording interruption

An optical system of an optical recording apparatus forms a main spot and sub-spots preceding and succeeding the main spot on a signal recording medium. The optical system is set such that the sub-spot is shifted from the main spot in the direction orthogonal to a signal track by a distance expressed by an expression (2k&#x2212;1)P/4(k=natural number), in which P denotes a distance between adjacent signal tracks on the signal recording medium. Thus, the sub-spot succeeding the main spot can be used to effectively read the state of a signal recorded on the signal recording medium by the main spot.

Optical recording apparatus and control method thereof

A CPU () generates a real recording address y from y=n(x&#x2212;m)+m, where absolute time x is obtained from an ATIP decoder (). Recording density scale factor is denoted by n and recording start address is denoted by m. Using the real recording address y, an encoder () performs encoding and data recording is performed.

Disc recording apparatus and disc

At the time of data recording onto a disk, when an external power source connection detecting circuit () detects that connection of an external power source is released, the currently set rotation speed is recognized. When the current rotation speed cannot be achieved in a maximum speed restricting mode, the processing speed is switched to the maximum speed that can be achieved in the maximum speed restricting mode. At the time of data reproduction on a disk, when the external power source connection detecting circuit () detects that the connecting power source is switched to the external power source, the processing speed is automatically switched to the maximum disk rotation speed regardless of the maximum speed restricting mode.

Controlling the maximum rotation speed of a disk drive device based on the presence of an external power source and the possibility of a buffer underrun

A controller of a data recorder that records data on a recording medium such that the occurrence of buffer underrun errors are prevented. Data encoded by an encoder is recorded on the recording medium. A decoder decodes the data recorded on the recording medium. The data recorder interrupts the recording of data when a buffer underrun is likely to occur. The controller restarts the recording of data when the decoded data and the encoded data are synchronized. When the decoded data is delayed from the encoded data, the controller stops the encoding until the decoded data catches up with the encoded data.

Controller of data recorder

An optical system of an optical disk recording apparatus irradiates a disk with a main beam for use in writing a data signal onto a disk and a sub-beam succeeding the main beam. When writing a data signal onto the disk, a site on the disk at which a data signal is written by the main beam is subsequently irradiated with the succeeding sub-beam. Light of the succeeding sub-beam reflected from the disk is received by a succeeding light receiving sub-region. A sampling circuit samples a signal at periods when the emission power of the main beam is at the recording level, among output signals from the succeeding light receiving sub-region. Based on the sampled signal at the recording level, a &#x3b2; value detection circuit and a jitter amount detection circuit obtain a &#x3b2; value and a jitter amount indicative of the recording state of the data signal recorded on the disk, respectively.

Optical disk recording apparatus and control method thereof

To resume data writing onto a disk, a recording start position detection means () detects a recording start position, and a synchronous setting means () synchronizes recording data with recorded data on a disk so that recording data successive to the recorded data on the disk can be additionally written onto the disk without a break. Data writing onto a disk is suspended until an amount of data equivalent to data writing capacity has been stored in the buffer memory (). Data writing is resumed upon detection of the fact that an amount of data equivalent to data writing capacity has been stored in the buffer memory (). With the above, power consumption can be reduced during a period when recording capability of a disk recording device exceeds the data transfer speed.

Growing community of inventors

Gunma, Japan

Akira Tsukihashi