Funai Electric Company Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Hitoshi Fujii

Susumu Sugiyama

Akira Ishii

Katsuhiko Tanaka

Wataru Kuze

Fuminori Tanaka

Kenji Nagashima

Manabu Murayama

Kanji Wakabayashi

Isaku Kanno

Hiroshi Yamamoto

Takayuki Hayashi

Masanari Mohri

Hidetoshi Kotera

Yusuke Nagae

Teruyuki Takizawa

Yoshikazu Goto

Ken Nishioka

Yoshihiro Mushika

Naoki Inoue

Takeo Santo

Seiji Takemoto

Yoshiteru Namoto

Jouji Anzai

Kenichiro Urairi

Kouichi Kugo

Mitsuyoshi Sasabe

Daisaburo Kubota

Yasumasa Shibata

Takayuki Kojima

In a MEMS device (), a first drive portion () is divided into a first drive section () and a second drive section (). A second drive portion () is divided into a third drive section () and a fourth drive section (). The first drive section, the second drive section, the third drive section, and the fourth drive section are controlled for driving independently of each other to incline an optical component ().

MEMS device and electronic device having projector function

There is provided a vibrating mirror element capable of inhibiting flexural deformation of a support portion. This vibrating mirror element () includes a mirror portion (), a deformable driving portion (), and a support portion () connected with a first connecting portion () of the driving portion on the side of a first end portion (), while the thickness of the support portion is larger than the thickness of the driving portion.

Vibrating mirror element and method for manufacturing vibrating mirror element

This vibrating mirror element includes a pair of first beam portions supporting a mirror portion in a vibratile manner, a pair of second beam portions connected with the pair of first beam portions respectively, and a pair of driving portions connected with the pair of second beam portions respectively. The mirror portion is arranged in a region surrounded by the pair of second beam portions and the pair of driving portions. The width of the pair of first beam portions and the width of the pair of second beam portions are rendered smaller than the width of the pair of driving portions.

Vibrating mirror element

A vibrating mirror element includes a base member, a substrate made of metal, integrally formed with a mirror portion, a movable portion swingably supporting the mirror portion from both sides and functioning as a lower electrode, and a mounting portion supporting the movable portion and mounted on the base member, a piezoelectric film provided on the movable portion of the substrate and vibrating the mirror portion by application of a periodic voltage, and an upper electrode provided on the piezoelectric film.

An optical pickup apparatus includes a plurality of laser light sources, a single objective lens, and a beam shaping mirror. The beam shaping mirror causes each of the laser beams to be incident on a transmission surface, reflects the beam from a reflection surface being unparallel to the transmission surface and causes the beam to emerge from the transmission surface, thereby to convert a light intensity distribution of the beam of each of the wavelengths from an elliptic shape into a circular shape. The beam shaping mirror is made of a liquid crystal, which forms the transmission surface and the reflection surface, and is electrically driven so that a refractive index of the liquid crystal may be held constant irrespective of the wavelengths of the beams each of which enters the beam shaping mirror.

Optical pickup apparatus

In a variable-shape mirror provided with a support base, a mirror portion that is disposed to face the support base and that has, on a side thereof facing away from the support base, a mirror surface which is irradiated with a light beam, and piezoelectric elements that are sandwiched between the support base and the mirror portion and that vary the shape of the mirror surface, the piezoelectric elements are bonded, by means of a thin layer of metal, to at least one of the support base and the mirror portion by the application of heat and pressure.

Fabrication method for variable-shape mirror using thermo-compression bonding

An objective lens actuator is provided with an objective lens holder and a tilting coil that drives the objective lens holder in a tilting direction. The tilting coil is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction, so that a rotation center when the objective lens holder is driven in the tilting direction, is located on extension lines of sides that effectively contribute to driving the objective lens holder in the tilting direction by interaction between a magnetic field formed by a magnet and current that is supplied and flows in the coil among sides of the tilting coil.

Objective lens actuator and optical pickup device having the same

The variable-shape mirror is provided with a support base and a minor portion that is disposed to face the support base and that has on a side thereof facing away from the support base a minor surface which is irradiated with a light beam. There are also provided piezoelectric elements that are sandwiched between the support base and the mirror portion and that vary the shape of the mirror surface. The piezoelectric elements are bonded, through a thin layer of metal that is separately provided for bonding, to at least one of the support base and the mirror portion. A driving voltage to the piezoelectric elements is supplied through the thin layer of metal.

Variable-shape mirror and optical pickup device therewith

In a variable-shape mirror of which the shape of the mirror surface can be varied, a mirror portion is bonded only to a fixed portion and not to a piezoelectric element. When the piezoelectric element is not operating, the mirror portion, receiving a predetermined force from the piezoelectric element, makes contact with the piezoelectric element. When the piezoelectric element contracts, the mirror portion tends to restore its original shape by its counterforce. Thus, even when the piezoelectric element contracts, the contact between the mirror portion and the piezoelectric element is held, and hence the electric conduction to the piezoelectric element is maintained.

A variable-shape mirror is provided with: a support base; a mirror portion that is disposed to face the support base and that has, on a side thereof facing away from the support base, a mirror surface which is irradiated with a light beam; fixed portions that fix the mirror portion to the support base; and piezoelectric elements that are sandwiched between the support base and the mirror portion and that vary a shape of the mirror surface. Here, the piezoelectric elements are arranged closer to a center of the mirror portion than the fixed portions are.

In a variable-shape mirror () of which the shape of the mirror surface can be varied, four piezoelectric elements () are sandwiched between a support base () and a mirror portion (), and are arranged symmetrically in cross-shaped directions. The piezoelectric elements () are bonded to the mirror portion (), and serve both to vary the shape of the mirror portion () by being driven and to fix the mirror portion () to the support base (). Support portions () are arranged one inside each of the piezoelectric elements (). With this structure, a small movement that the piezoelectric elements () produce when driven can be converted into a large movement of the mirror portion ().

An apparatus for driving an objective lens of the present invention includes: a base which is moved along an optical disk; an objective lens disposed so as to be opposed to the optical disk and having an optical axis in a vertical direction with respect to the optical disk, for optically recording information onto the optical disk or optically reproducing information from the optical disk; a holder portion for holding the objective lens; a plurality of elastic arms extending between the base and the holder portion in a tangent direction of the optical disk, for supporting the holder portion movably with respect to the base; and a driving portion for generating an electromagnetic force for moving the holder portion with respect to the base, wherein the elastic arms are disposed away from each other in a vertical direction, the base includes each movable portion for supporting one end of each of the elastic arms, and each of the movable portions is supported at each position in a vertical direction outside of one end of each of the elastic arms, so as to be elastically pivotable around each axis in a radius direction of the optical disk.

Apparatus for driving an objective lens utilizing flexible arms and pivotability mechanisms

An object lens driving device of the present invention includes a movable section, supporting sections for supporting the movable section and a base for holding the supporting sections. The movable section includes an object lens for recording and/or reproducing optical information to and/or from a disk-shaped recording medium, a lens holder for holding the object lens and at least four permanent magnets adhered to the lens holder. The supporting sections include at least four metal wires substantially parallel to each other, each wire having a first end fixed to the lens holder and a second end connected to the base, and elastic deformable elements connected to the base and having connecting sections thereof connected to the second end of each respective metal wire. The base includes yokes fixed to the base and facing the respective permanent magnets, focusing coils wound around the respective yokes, wound axes of the focusing coils being oriented in a direction of an optical axis of the object lens, and tracking coils wound around the respective yokes, wound axes of the tracking coils being oriented in a direction perpendicular to the wound axes of the focusing coils.

Object lens driving device

In a objective lens driver, at least one permanent magnet is mounted on a movable member, and plural yokes, each being wound with a coil having its winding axis in the focusing direction, are disposed facing the permanent magnet. The yokes are arranged almost symmetrically about a plane including the center of gravity of the movable member and being perpendicular to the tracking direction. In this structure, even when the movable member moves in the tracking direction, since the permanent magnet (a magnetic field source) also moves with the movable member, the distribution of magnetic flux density that contributes to the drive also shifts according to the movement of the movable member, so that the distribution of magnetic flux density maintains being almost symmetrical about the center of gravity of the movable member. Accordingly, in tilt drive, a constant sensitivity to tilt drive is obtained regardless of the position of the movable member. Further, since the rotation axis of tilt drive is fixed, there arises no crosstalk of displacement in the focusing direction and the tracking direction. Furthermore, since the point of action of driving force on the movable member is fixed, there arises no crosstalk of angular displacement in the tilt direction due to focusing drive and tracking drive. Consequently, stable focusing control, tracking control and tilt correction control are realized in an objective lens driver capable of correcting a tilt.

Objective lens driver

A tape loading apparatus includes a tape drawing member, a drive mechanism, a control circuit for controlling the drive mechanism, and a tape type judging circuit. The control circuit selectively controls a moving speed of the tape drawing member or a changing timing of the moving speed so as to be different in a loading mode and an unloading mode. Alternatively, the control circuit selectively controls the moving speed of the tape drawing member, its posture and/or tape tension depending on the type of tape.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Hitoshi Fujii