Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Hiroaki Irie

Kenichi Nishiuchi

Keiichiro Horai

Mitsuaki Oshima

Yoshihisa Fukushima

A main information areacapable of recording an information signal and a subsidiary information areafor recording subsidiary information that is different from the information signal are divided in one principal plane direction of a substrate, and an information layer for recording the information signal in the main information areais provided also in the subsidiary information area, and medium identification information for distinguishing the medium optically is recorded in the information layer of the subsidiary information areawithout changing the shape of the information layer. As a result, the medium identification information can be recorded in an optical recording mediumstably. In particular, the initialization of a phase change type optical recording medium and the recording of the medium identification information can be performed at the same time, so that the production process can be simplified, and the production costs can be reduced.

Optical recording medium and recording method for the same

A main information areacapable of recording an information signal and a subsidiary information areafor recording subsidiary information that is different from the information signal are divided in one principal plane direction of a substrate, and an information layer for recording the information signal in the main information areais provided also in the subsidiary information area, and medium identification information for distinguishing the medium optically is recorded in the information layer of the subsidiary information areawithout changing the shape of the information layer. As a result, the medium identification information can be recorded in an optical recording medium 1 stably. In particular, the initialization of a phase change type optical recording medium and the recording of the medium identification information can be performed at the same time, so that the production process can be simplified, and the production costs can be reduced.

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Takatsuki, Japan

Hiroaki Irie