Industrial Technology Research Institute

Hsi-Fu Shih

Mark O Freeman

Tzu-Ping Yang

Jinn-Kang Wang

Jau-Jiu Ju

Der-Ray Huang

Yuan-Chin Lee

Chi-Lone Chang

Chau-Yuan Ke

Carl Y Yang

Wei-Chih Lu

Dai-Tin Huang

A planar integrated micro-optical pickup head is used to perform reading and writing operations on a high-density disk. The planar integrated micro-optical pickup head includes a set of optical elements that is comprised of a beam splitter, a plurality of 45-degrees-oriented folding mirrors, and two planar collimators. The pickup head further comprises a photo-detector, a laser source for emitting a laser beam of short wavelength, and an objective lens of high value of numerical aperture. The set of optical elements is formed on lower and upper substrates via semiconductor planar fabrication processes, the laser source and the objective lens then are mechanically attached on the lower substrate. The lower and upper substrates are ultimately aligned and attached with each other to achieve the pickup head hence having a reduced size and simply fabricated.

Planar integrated micro-optical pickup head including two planar cylindrical collimators

The present invention relates to an optical device with a variable numerical aperture (NA), which utilizes special optical properties of a liquid crystal medium. Through the design of external electrodes and a circuit control unit, the refraction index of the liquid crystal medium can be modulated by the external voltage so that the beam passing through the LCD produces diffraction. An optical device with a variable focal point is thus formed by combining this LC diffractive device and an objective lens. So the present invention provides an optical device with focal points of different numerical apertures by varying the external voltage, whereby the device can read optical disks of all specifications.

Optical device with variable numerical apertures

A focus/tracking method and system is provided for use in an optical drive with a possibly multiple-wavelength laser source for control of the focus/tracking of the pickup head of the optical drive. The use of a multiple-wavelength laser source allows the optical drive to read data from various types of optical discs. The focus/tracking method and system combines the use of a differential, dual optical channel method for focusing control of the laser beam used to read data from the optical disc and the use of the single-beam tracking method for tracking control of the same. The focus error signal and the tracking error signal can be obtained from the same set of multi-element photodetectors. The structure of the system can therefore be simplified to include a reduced number of constituent components thus allowing a reduction in manufacturing cost.

Robust and versatile focus/tracking method and system for optical pickup heads

The present invention discloses a multiple-beam holographic optical pick-up head, which has the advantages of the multiple-beam optical pick-up head and the holographic optical pick-up head and can increase the light usage efficiency. This invention uses the property that a polarized diffractive optical element can generate different optical effects for laser beam with different polarizations and places a polarized multiple-beam grating and polarized hologram on the optical path for splitting the incident light toward the disc into multiple reading beams by the multiple-beam grating. The returning laser beams reflected from the disc are diffracted and diverted by the hologram to reach a photodetector. Both the incident and reflective beams are diffracted once only; thus the light usage efficiency can be increased.

Multiple-beam holographic optical pick-up head

A dual-wavelength holographic laser module is provided. The dual-wavelength holographic laser module includes a holographic optical element (HOE), a multiple-element photodetector, and a laser light source that can produce a laser light with a wavelength that has, for example, two desired quantities. The laser light emitted from the laser light source with a desired wavelength can travel through the HOE and an objective lens unit, which is used to focus the laser light onto an optical disk of the DVD system, the CD system, or the CD-R system, depending on which wavelength quantity is chosen. The objective lens unit includes a single lens with a changeable NA quantity or a two-lens system that can be switched to put one lens at a time in the optical path. The optical disk reflects the laser light back to the HOE along the same light path. The reflected laser light is diffracted by the HOE to reach to the multiple-element photodetector. The photodetector receives the reflected laser light to obtain a signal, which is used for focusing and tracking, and further reads the information in the DVD system, the CD system, or the CD-R system. The laser light has a single light path even though the laser light can have two different wavelength quantities.

Dual-wavelength optical pickup head

A two-wavelength laser diode package is provided, which can be utilized in the read/write head of an optical drive capable of reading data from different types of optical discs, such as CD (compact disc), CD-R (CD Recordable) and DVD (digital versatile disc). The laser diode package includes a pair of laser diodes of two different specifications in wavelength, which are disposed on one or two submounts, either horizontally or vertically oriented with each other. Further, a beam coinciding means, such as a micro dichroic prism, a micro dichroic plate, a micro dichroic beam-splitter, or an external dichroic beam-splitter, is used to make the two respective laser beams from the two laser diodes to propagate on the same propagation axis when in use.

Two-wavelength semiconductor laser diode package for use on the read/write head of an optical drive capable of reading different types of optical discs

Growing community of inventors

Chang-Hua Hsien, Taiwan

Hsi-Fu Shih