Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Nidec Copal Corporation

Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd.

Hideki Aikoh

Tohru Nakamura

Hideki Nakata

Fumitomo Yamasaki

Hironori Tomita

Osamu Mizuno

Joji Anzai

Eishin Mori

Kousei Sano

Akihiro Arai

Takuya Wada

Makoto Takashima

Takayuki Nagata

Takao Hayashi

Yutaka Murakami

Masanari Mohri

Kenichi Miyamori

Masayuki Shinoda

Katsuhiko Hayashi

Sadao Mizuno

Noboru Kikuchi

Masayuki Shiwa

Hisayuki Enshu

Hiroyuki Nakamura

Yoshiaki Komma

Hidenori Wada

Keiichi Matsuzaki

Masahiro Birukawa

Kanji Wakabayashi

Takeharu Yamamoto

Hiroshi Yamamoto

Yoshinori Katada

Akira Yoshikawa

Tomio Yamamoto

Toru Tanaka

Yukihiro Chokyu

Takatoshi Yukimasa

Kouretsu Boku

Tadashi Kuroda

Ryuta Yamawaki

Mitsuru Yanagisawa

Hiromichi Furukawa

Kenichi Shinotani

The present application discloses optical disc apparatus including: drive mechanism for rotating medium including processing surface to be subjected optical information process; housing for storing drive mechanism; tray mechanism for displacing medium between storage position, at which medium is stored in housing, and ejection position, at which medium is ejected from housing; at least one objective lens for condensing light onto processing surface of medium situated at storage position to perform information process; and first displacement mechanism for displacing at least one objective lens along processing surface between first position and second position which is more distant from rotational center of medium rotated by the drive mechanism than first position is. Tray mechanism defines at least one opening in position closer to second position than first position.

Optical disc apparatus, sheet member, and method for cleaning objective lens

A tilt can be detected highly accurately by minimizing the tilt detection error. An optical head includes: an objective lens for converging a light beam from a light source onto an optical disc; a photodetector section receiving the beam, reflected from the disc, at divided areas on its photodetection plane and outputting light detection signals from those areas; and a tilt detecting section for detecting a relative tilt between the lens and disc based on the detection signals. The tilt detecting section generates a first push-pull signal PPbased on the detection signals supplied from a first group of areas, which are arranged symmetrically to a virtual reference line drawn parallel to a disc radial direction and crossing an optical axis, also generates a second push-pull signal PPbased on the detection signals supplied from a second group of areas, different from the first group and also arranged symmetrically to the reference line, changes coefficients k according to the location of the lens in a disc radial direction, and generates a tilt detection signal TLT by TLT=PP&#x2212;k&#xd7;PP

Optical head and optical disc device

An optical head () transmits a light beam to an optical disc (), in which light-transmitting layers largely change in thickness, and includes a degree-of-diversion/convergence enlarging member () fixed between a collimating lens () and an objective lens (). The diversion/convergence enlarging member () reduces a moving range of the collimating lens (), and allows the optical head () to be miniaturized.

A first information recorder comprises a limited number-of-times of copying information setting unit for setting information on the limited number-of-times of copying electronic data, a first limited number-of-times of copying information updating unit for reading out the electronic data from a first information recording medium containing electronic data set with limited number of times of copying information by the limited number-of-times of copying information setting unit and updating the limited number-of-times of copying information set with respect to the electronic data, and a first transmitter for transmitting electronic data whose limited number-of-times of copying information is updated by the first limited number of times of copying information updating unit. A second information recorder comprises a second receiver for receiving electronic data transmitted from the first transmitter, a second limited number-of-times of copying information updating unit for reading out the electronic data from a second information containing medium recording the electronic data and updating the limited number-of-times of copying information set with respect to the electronic data, and a second transmitter for transmitting electronic data whose limited number-of-times of copying information is updated by the second limited number-of-times of copying information updating unit.

Information recording apparatus, information copying system, method for copying information, program and computer readable recording medium

As imaging devices are miniaturized, and optical devices are miniaturized, lens moving mechanisms are also miniaturized. Thus, position sensors for them are required to be miniaturized and have high accuracy at low cost. A magnet of a pillar shape and a yoke which move in the X axis direction with respect to a magnetic field detection element are provided, and a shape of a cross section of the yoke which is orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the magnet changes along the longitudinal direction.

Position sensor, optical head device, head moving mechanism, information recording and reproduction device and position control system

A near-field optical head capable of being significantly miniaturized is constituted by a near-field optical probe slider formed by holding, on a slider, a semiconductor laser, a heat dissipation member, a prism for guiding light from the semiconductor laser to a scattering body and a photodetector element.

Near-field recording head capable of directly forming light source in slider

Provides an objective lens, an optical head and an optical disc apparatus (drive) capable of compensating for various types of aberrations including wavelength changes for a plurality of types of optical discs including high density optical discs, DVDs and CDs with a good wavelength dispersion compensation ability and thus capable of providing good recording or reproduction characteristics. The objective lens according to the present invention includes a first lens and a second lens substantially in close contact with each other such that optical axes thereof match each other, and acts as a convex lens as a whole. Each lens includes a central portion including the optical axis and a peripheral portion located in a periphery of the central portion. The central portion of the first lens acts as a convex lens; and the central portion of the second lens acts as a concave lens. Where the refractive index of the first lens at d line (wavelength: 587.56 nm) is nd1, the Abbe constant of the first lens represented using the refractive indices at d line, F line (wavelength: 486.13 nm) and C line (wavelength: 656.27 nm) is &#x3bd;d1, the refractive index of the second lens at d line is nd2, and the Abbe constant of the second lens represented using the refractive indices at d line, F line and C line is &#x3bd;d2, the objective lens fulfills nd1&#x3e;nd2 and &#x3bd;d1&#x3e;&#x3bd;d2.

Objective lens, optical head and optical disc device

An object of the invention is to provide an optical element for use in an optical information recording and reproducing device or a like device for recording or reproducing information with respect to an information recording medium using laser light, wherein the optical element is a resin optical element capable of suppressing lowering in transmittance due to deterioration by irradiation of light having a high energy density, and maintaining a high transmittance for a long time. To realize the above object, used is an optical element made of a silicon resin cured material obtained by subjecting a silicon resin composition containing a silsesquioxane compound to a curing treatment.

Optical head, optical information recording and reproducing device, and optical information system device

An optical recording medium is provided having a plurality of laminated recording layers, wherein the recording layers are formed such that a spacing between each pair of recording layers of all recording layer combinations selected from the plurality of recording layers is different from that of each other pair. Accordingly, a return of lights reflected by other layers to an optical head along the same optical path as reflected light from a readout layer during the reproduction can be avoided. Therefore, use of the optical recording medium, from which a good reproduction signal can be obtained, can suppress a deterioration of a servo signal and a reproduction signal of a reproducing device due to a variation of interference fringes on a light receiving element.

Optical recording medium and reproducing device

An optical head device has at least one upward-reflecting mirror, objective lenses, an objective lens actuator, and a moving mechanism. The upward-reflecting mirror receives an incident luminous flux having a wavelength emitted from a semiconductor, and changes its direction. The objective lenses having mutually different numerical apertures condense the luminous flux whose direction has been changed by the upward-reflecting mirror to radiate a condensed luminous flux onto an information recording medium. The objective lens actuator moves the objective lenses in the focus direction of the information recording medium so that the luminous flux incident on the information recording medium attains a focused state. The moving mechanism moves the upward-reflecting mirror so that the luminous flux is incident on the information recording medium via any one of the objective lenses.

Optical head device for forming light spot on disc-shaped information medium

An optical disk recording/reproducing device includes a turntableconfigured to rotate an optical diskand an optical headconfigured to record/reproduce information in/from the optical disk. A stepping motorto drive a collimator lensis mounted on a head baseof the optical headand a part of statorof the stepping motoris exposed through an openingof a head cover, an openingof a flexible substrate, an openingof a cover, and an openingof the cover

Optical disk recording/reproducing device and optical head

To provide an optical head to produce good servo and read signals by reducing the influence of interference by light reflected from a non-read layer of a multilayer optical disc. The head includes: a first optical system for converging light from a light source on a first or second storage layer; a second optical system for receiving and transmitting light reflected from the first layer and stray light reflected from the second layer when the light is converged on the first layer; a photodetector; and a calculator. The photosensitive areas of the photodetector output signals representing intensities of the light incident there through the second system. The reflected and stray light incident on the second system interfere with each other, and the first and second groups of areas are arranged so as to be equally affected by a variation in intensity caused by the interference. The calculator calculates the difference between sum of a first group of signals supplied from a first group of areas and that of a second group of signals supplied from a second group of areas, thereby generating a focus error signal.

Optical head

An object of the invention is to suppress an influence of a wavefront aberration which is generated at the time of correcting a third-order spherical aberration, and realize satisfactory information recording and/or reproducing. A collimator lenscorrects a third-order spherical aberration which is generated depending on the thickness of a light transmissive layer from a surface of a first optical information recording medium, corresponding to an optimal substrate thickness of a first objective lens, to an intended information recording surface, assuming that the light transmissive layer thickness of the first optical information recording mediumwhich minimizes a residual third-order spherical aberration at the time of incidence of parallel light into the first objective lensis defined as the optimal substrate thickness of the first objective lens. The optimal substrate thickness of the first objective lensis defined in such a manner that a variation of a wavefront aberration which is generated on the information recording surface of the first optical information recording mediumfarthest from the first objective lensat the time of correcting the third-order spherical aberration, and a variation of a wavefront aberration which is generated on the information recording surface of the first optical information recording mediumclosest to the first objective lensat the time of correcting the third-order spherical aberration are set equal to each other.

Optical head device, and recording and/or reproducing device

Provides a coupling lens which, when used in combination with an objective lens for a plurality of types of optical discs such as a high density disc, DVD, CD or the like, is capable of compensating for various types of aberrations including those caused by wavelength changes and thus providing good recording or reproduction characteristics with a good wavelength dispersion compensation ability; and an optical head and an optical disc apparatus (drive). A coupling lens is incorporated into an optical head for collecting laser light emitted from a plurality of light sources and having different wavelengths on an information recording face of different types of optical information recording mediums respectively. The coupling lens comprises a first lens and a second lens which are substantially in close contact with each other such that optical axes thereof match each other and designed such that the laser light having different wavelengths are refracted by the close contact face. The coupling lens is afocal for the shortest wavelength among the different wavelengths of the laser light.

Coupling lens, optical head and optical disc device

An optical controller includes a light source for emitting light, an object lens for condensing light emitted from the light source, a light detection unit for receiving light reflected on an optical information recording medium and outputting a signal corresponding to the amount of the light, and a laser control unit for controlling the amount of the light emitted from the light source to the information recording surface on which information is to be recorded or reproduced, based on the recording state of an information recording surface disposed closer to the object lens than an information recording surface on which the information is to be recorded or reproduced.

Optical control device, optical information recording/reproducing device, optical information recording medium and optical head control method

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Hideki Aikoh