Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Martinus P M Bierhoff

Peter Coops

Antonius H M Akkermans

Jozef P H Benschop

A device for optically scanning an information plane having tracks. Radiation is supplied by a radiation source focused on the information plane by an objective system. The beam reflected by the information plane is incident on a dividing element, for example a grating which divides the beam into two halves along a dividing line. Two sub-gratings at both sides of the dividing line each form a detection beam from one half of the beam, which detection beams are detected each by a detector. A focus error signal is generated from the detector signals by forming a difference signal of the two detector signals and dividing this difference signal by the sum signal of the two detector signals. The focus error signal is relatively insensitive to the position accuracy of the detectors with respect to the detection beams.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Martinus P M Bierhoff