Optical pickup using objective lens compatible with a plurality of optical disks

Abstract

An optical pickup device including an objective lens which is compatible with a plurality of optical disks of respectively different specifications, such as a digital versatile disk (DVD), a compact disk-recordable (CD-R) medium, a compact disk (CD) and a laser disk (LD). The optical pickup device includes a laser source to emit light, an objective lens to focus the light emitted from the laser source on respective information recording surfaces of a plurality of optical recording media as an optimal optical spot, and an optical detector to detect light reflected from the information recording surface of the optical recording medium on which the optical spot has been focused and transmitted through the objective lens. The objective lens includes a first lens area, a second lens area, and a third lens area to focus the light emitted from the laser source. The first lens area has an aspherical surface corresponding to a first optical recording medium and a second optical recording medium, the second lens area has an aspherical surface corresponding to the second optical recording medium, and the third lens area has an aspherical surface corresponding to the first optical recording medium. As a result, the optical pickup can be compatible with a plurality of the optical disks of a respectively different specification irrespective of the thickness of the disk.