Sony Corporation

Sony Group Corporation

Tetsu Tanaka

Takeshi Kubo

Junichi Suzuki

Norio Fukasawa

Satoru Ishii

Masahiro Saito

Kiyoshi Toyota

Masayuki Miyazaki

Takuya Hasegawa

Nobuhiro Kondo

Norihiro Kato

Syohei Uchida

Masayuki Miyazawa

Daiki Kondo

A lens barrel includes a lens drive unit that moves a lens holder holding a lens in an optical axis direction, a locking mechanism that regulates movement of the lens holder at a movable end of the lens holder, and a control unit that performs, as a shift process for shifting the lens holder to a movement regulated state produced by the locking mechanism, control for moving the lens holder by using the lens drive unit to a position where movement regulation is achieved by the locking mechanism in a state where movement regulating force generated by the locking mechanism is reduced.

Lens barrel, control method, and imaging device

An optical pickup device is provided which includes a double-wavelength objective lens () that collects a light beam selectively emitted from a light-emitting/-detecting element () that selectively emits a plurality of light beams different in wavelength from each other, and also return light from an optical disk (), a first diffraction grating () that splits the light beam emitted from a light-emitting/-detecting element () into three beams including a zero-order light beam and positive and negative first-order light beams, a second diffraction grating () that diffracts the return light for traveling along a light path separate from that of the outgoing light, and a third diffraction grating () that corrects a light-path deviation by diffracting the positive first-order light beam diffracted by the second diffraction grating (). The light-emitting/-detecting element () provides a focusing error signal FE by detecting the negative first-order light beam diffracted by the third diffraction element (), and a tracking error signal by detecting return portions of the positive and negative first-order light beams from the first diffraction grating ().

Optical pickup device, optical disk drive, optical device and composite optical element

An optical pickup apparatus is described which includes a movable unit with an objective lens, a focus servo coil for moving the moveable unit containing the objective lens in the optical-axis direction, and tracking servo coils for moving the moveable unit containing the objective lens in the horizontal directions, and a liquid crystal element disposed for correcting the refractive index. Springs simultaneously provide support for the moveable unit and feed power to the liquid crystal element, the focus servo coil, and the tracking servo coils. A method for making said optical pickup apparatus is described. Two sheets, each having four springs extending across an opening formed by punching, are disposed parallel to each other at a predetermined distance. On these sheets, a fixed unit and a movable unit are formed by insert-molding. Excess portions of the metal sheets are removed, and a through-hole is formed so that connected portions of the wirings, lying side by side, are disconnected. Then, an objective lens, a focus servo coil, tracking servo coils, and a liquid crystal element are mounted on the movable unit.

Method for making an optical pickup apparatus having a movable unit supported by springs attached to a fixed unit

This invention is an optical pickup device having a composite optical element () which has a first diffraction grating () for splitting a light beam emitted from a light source () into zeroth-order light, plus-first-order light and minus-first-order light, a second diffraction grating () for diffracting the optical path of a return light beam from an optical disc (), and a split prism () arranged at a position where the minus-first-order light diffracted by the second diffraction grating () is incident and adapted for splitting the minus-first-order light into a plurality of light beams. It also has a light receiving unit () for acquiring a focusing error signal FE by receiving each return light beam split by the split prism () and for acquiring a tracking error signal by receiving return light beams from the optical disc () of the plus-first-order light and the minus-first-order light split by the first diffraction grating ().

Optical pickup device and optical disc device

An optical pickup device is provided which includes a first diffraction grating () that splits a light beam emitted from a light-emitting/-detecting element () into a zero-order light beam and positive and negative first-order light beams, a second diffraction grating () that diffracts return light from an optical disk () for traveling along a light path separate from that of the outgoing light, and a third diffraction grating () that corrects the deviation of the light path by diffracting the positive first-order light beam diffracted by the second diffraction grating (). The light-emitting/-detecting element () provides a focusing error signal FE by detecting the negative first-order light beam, and a tracking error signal by detecting return portions of the positive and negative first-order light beams from the first diffraction grating ().

Optical pickup device and optical disk device and optical device and composite optical element

Optical pickup and optical disc drive device

This invention relates to an objective lens driving device which moves an objective lens; an optical pickup device, comprising this objective lens driving device, which condenses a light beam onto the information recording surface of an optical disc; and an optical information recording and/or reproduction device, comprising this optical pickup device, which drives in rotation an optical disc and moves the optical pickup device to record and/or reproduce information signals onto or from the information recording surface. Two printed coil boards, with a first printed coil with a first shape formed on at least one face and a second printed coil with a second shape formed on the other face, are provided in parallel in an objective lens driving device of this invention, and a moveable portion on which an objective lens is provided is connected with the two printed coil boards; also, a magnet is positioned between the two printed coil boards provided in parallel. A driving current is supplied to each of the first and second printed coils to drive the objective lens in the vertical and/or lateral directions. By means of the objective lens driving device of this invention, twice the propelling force is generated by the two printed coil boards positioned on either side of the magnet, so that driving control of the objective lens can be performed satisfactorily using a simple construction.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tetsu Tanaka