Abstract:
An optical card or disc drive having a card or disc adaptive receiving carrying tray. A compound pivot mechanism engages a spindle hub with a card or disc inserted and carried on the tray. The spindle and hub is supported by a base chassis, which pivots with respect to a main frame. A sub-chassis is pivot connected with the mainframe and elastically coupled with the base chassis. A cam member on the main frame engages the sub-chassis to pivot the sub-chassis coincident with the tray being level positioned or lowered relative to card spindle hub. The sub-chassis in turn pivots the base chassis to engage or disengage the disc with the spindle hub. The movement of the tray also activates a motor and roller combination to receive or eject the card into or from the tray. The tray accommodates card or discs and comprises mechanisms for securing the card or disc while the card disc is retracted into and ejected from the main frame. A card guide member acts to reposition the card into tray slot after the card disengaging from the spinning spindle hub for ejection out of mainframe. A focusing adapter member works to meet the optical pick unit focusing distance requirement for difference thickness of optical card or disc.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     This invention relates generally to systems and method for optical card drives. More particularly, this invention is related to a method and apparatus for loading optical card/disc that has information-recording material thereon along a path to a reference location about which the card/disc is held and rotated, whereby the recording material can be read and/or written.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     The technologies as that commonly implemented in conventional optical disc drive for reading and writing data to disc storage medium are typically designed to handle rotating disk having a circular shape. Such conventional disc drives cannot be conveniently applied for carrying out data access functions for data stored in a data storage card compatible with regular credit card having a rectangular shape. Furthermore, regular optical disc drive has a thickness of 1.2 mm while a credit card has a smaller thickness of 0.76 mm. The difference in thickness further complicate the data access functions when a regular optical drive as now available is implemented to carry out data access functions for both a card shape data card and a circular disc.  
         [0005]     Several systems and configurations are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,507,768, 4,592,039 and 6,804,184 for conventional optical disc such as CDROM, CDR, and DVD in either top or front loading. These systems are applicable for disc drives employed for circular discs only. U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,551 disclosed a method for loading and unloading optical rectangular card. The device serves satisfactorily. However, the system configuration is quite complicated in construction and operation and would not be practical for cost effective implementations.  
         [0006]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,865,141 describes method to switch optical focus (focus jump) to different recording layers of an optical media such as DVD. Such or similar method applies to recording layers separated by distance in the micrometers range. When the layer location is changed in the mini-meter range, such or similar methods cannot be used.  
         [0007]     These patented inventions however do not provide relevant or effective solutions to enable an optical drive to process the data access functions to both a credit card shaped data card and a regular circular data disc. Therefore, a need still exists in the art to provide improved and new configuration and of optical drive and data access process to overcome such limitations.  
       SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
       [0008]     Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a system and method to receive and engage a rectangular data card or a circular data disc of different thicknesses to conveniently carry out data access functions.  
         [0009]     The present invention further provides an improved method of an apparatus for transferring a generally rectangular card or circular disc, having binary coded information stored on concentric and/or spiral tracks and or segmented circular and or spiral tracks, to a rotational reference location where the card/disc can be rotated thereabout.  
         [0010]     Included in the apparatus is a housing assembly, which may house a card/disc reader and/or writer device. Methods provide for transferring the card/disc from a slot opening in housing to a receiving tray and to the spindle motor hub rotational reference axis. Means are provided for positioning the card at the spindle motor hub reference axis and for allowing rotation of the card/disc about the reference axis. The data tracks can be read and/or written.  
         [0011]     In illustrated embodiments, the cam mechanism system of reader and/or writer device is operable for engaging, disengaging, and rotating the card/disc about the rotational reference axis. Provision is made for means for holding and positioning the card after the stop of rotation and return to the seating of tray at proper orientation with a stop guide.  
         [0012]     In another illustrated embodiment, the sensing the presence of a card for ejection or receiving and algorithm to orient the card to a proper seating for ejection out of the housing.  
         [0013]     In another illustrated embodiments, the optical focus adapter used to compensate relative drastic change of the thickness of card/disc that can prevent data read and/or write to data tracks.  
         [0014]     Among other objects of this invention are, therefore, the provision of a method of and apparatus, which can easily be adapted to commercially available compact disc players.  
         [0015]     Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention discloses an optical drive for accessing data stored in an optical medium layer on a data card. The optical drive includes a receiving tray supported on a chassis for pivoting on a cam member for disposing the data card in two different vertical positions in the optical drive for an insertion/rejection operation at a first vertical position and for accessing data at a second vertical position. In a preferred embodiment, the receiving tray further includes a card placement seat for receiving and placing the data card having a rectangular shape. In another preferred embodiment, the receiving tray further includes a disc placement seat for receiving and placing the data card having circular-disc shape. In another preferred embodiment, the cam member further includes a post for driving the receiving tray along a horizontal direction for receiving the data card in for accessing data on the data card and for pushing the data card out after completing a data access operation. In another preferred embodiment, the optical drive further includes a spindle motor supported on the chassis for engaging and rotating the data card through an opening in the receiving tray. In another preferred embodiment, the optical drive further includes an optical pickup head supported on the chassis for accessing data on the data card through an opening in the receiving tray. In another preferred embodiment, the optical drive further includes an accessing motor supported on the chassis for horizontally moving the optical pickup head for accessing data in different tracks on the data card through an opening in the receiving tray. In another preferred embodiment, the optical drive further includes a roller fixture actuated by a spring for pulling the data card into the receiving tray and pushes the data card out from the optical drive. In another preferred embodiment, the optical drive further includes a card stop for stopping a rotation movement of the data card of a non-circular shape and for restoring the data card in an original insertion orientation whereby the data card is ready for ejecting out from the optical drive. In another preferred embodiment, the optical drive further includes a focus adapter attached to an optical pickup head for compensating a thickness difference of the data card to maintain focus on the optical medium layer. In another preferred embodiment, the focus adapter includes a fixed lens attached to the pickup head.  
         [0016]     In a preferred embodiment, this invention further discloses a method for accessing data stored in an optical medium layer on a data card by employing an optical drive. The method further includes a step of attaching a focus adapter to an optical pickup head to enable the optical drive to access data store in a data card of different thickness. In a preferred embodiment, the step further includes a step of attaching a focus adapter of 0.4 mm thick to an optical pickup head in the optical drive for receiving the data card of 0.76 mm in a commercially available CD or DVD optical drive.  
         [0017]     These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various drawing figures. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]     The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the attached drawings in which:  
         [0019]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view showing an optical card/disc drive according to the present invention. The cutout shows the receiving tray, spindle motor and optical pickup unit only.  
         [0020]      FIG. 2  is a view showing a inserted card, the receiving tray and pivot structure that carries the receiving tray cam mechanism, card sensor, card stop, spindle motor, accessing motor, and optical pickup unit.  
         [0021]      FIG. 3  shows the receiving tray and the cam for push pull of the tray.  
         [0022]      FIG. 4  is a view showing a pivot structure of the base chassis in the optical card/disc drive, the receiving tray at up position for receiving or ejecting card/disc.  
         [0023]      FIG. 5  is a view showing a pivot structure of the base chassis in the optical card/disc drive, the receiving tray at down that allows the card/disc to rotate for data accessing.  
         [0024]      FIG. 6  is a sectional view showing the card/disc push pull roller arrangement.  
         [0025]      FIG. 7  is a side view showing the tray and card/disc roller.  
         [0026]      FIG. 8  is section view showing the card/disk roller feeder at unloaded position.  
         [0027]      FIG. 9  is section view showing the card/disk roller feeder at loaded position.  
         [0028]      FIG. 10  shows the spindle motor, optical unit, and accessing motor on a pivoted chassis engaged to a lifting cam.  
         [0029]      FIG. 11  shows the end view of a lifting cam member.  
         [0030]      FIG. 12  shows a card stop guide at engaged position.  
         [0031]      FIG. 13  shows a card stop guide at disengaged position.  
         [0032]      FIGS. 14A, 14B  and  14 C show optical pickup units and their focusing arrangements.  
         [0033]      FIG. 15  shows a fixed version of focusing adaptor attached to optical pickup unit.  
         [0034]      FIG. 16  shows a pivoting version of focusing adaptor attached to optical pickup unit.  
         [0035]      FIG. 17  shows an algorithm for card/disc insertion and ejection process.  
         [0036]      FIG. 18  shows a modified top loading tray for a drop in card.  
         [0037]      FIG. 19  shows a modified top loading tray for a drop in card that is off center. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0038]      FIG. 1  shows a card  101  or alternately a disk for inserting into an optical drive  102  through a front slot opening  104 . The optical drive  102  receives the card  101  (or alternately a circular disk) to carry out different data accessing functions, e.g., either read data from or write data to the card  101 . The cutout portion of the drive  102  shows a spindle motor  108  with built-in hub for rotating and moving the data card  101 . The optical drive  102  further includes an optical pickup unit  106  that support an optical head to carry out the read and write data access functions. The optical drive  102  further includes a receiving tray  107  mounted to drive frame  105  to receive the card  101  or disc wherein the operations and functions of the receiving tray  107  will be further described below.  
         [0039]     FIGS.  2  to  5  show the motion and control mechanisms of tray  107 . FIGS.  6  to  9  illustrate the card/disc push pull mechanics.  FIGS. 10 and 11  illustrate the operations and functions of the cam  1001  and chassis  401 .  FIGS. 12 and 13  show the functions of the card stop  205 . FIGS.  14  to  16  illustrate the functions performed by a focus adapter  1417 .  
         [0040]     Referring to  FIG. 2 , the receiving tray  107  is mounted to the drive frame  105  through four linkages  201 . The data card  101  when inserted into the optical drive  102  is seating on the receiving tray  107 . The spindle motor  108 , the optical pickup unit  106 , and the accessing motor  203  with a lead screw  202  are below the receiving tray  107 . These items are attached to a pivoted chassis  204 . A cam member  210  drives the tray  107  and chassis  204 . A post  212  on the cam  210  can drive the tray back and forth in the slot  211 . When the post  212  moves side-to-side in the slot  211 , the movement causes the tray  107  to move. An opening  209  in the tray  107  allows the spindle motor  108  to engage the card or disc for rotational motion. The accessing motor  203  with lead screw member  202  are employed to push and pull the optical pickup unit  106  to access different data tacks on the data card  101  for reading and writing. A data-medium placement seat  208  in the receiving tray disposed on both sides of the opening  209  is provided as a seat receiving a card or a disc during insertion or ejection of the card or disc. The placement seat  208  can be rectangular in shape for a rectangular card or circular in shape for disc. A card/disc sensor  207  is applied to detect a card/disc under the sensor to indicate card/disc presence and starts the card/disc push or pull sequence of processing step as will be further described in  FIG. 17  below. The card stop  206  is located next to and protrudes to the edge of the placement seat  208  in the tray. An extension  205  of the card stop  206  is fixed to the frame  105  and therefore cannot move in either length direction or along other side way directions. The card stop  205  attached to the extension  205  can only move one end at tray slot  206  up and down relative to the tray  107 . When the card stop  206  along with the extension  205  is protruding up from the tray slot  206 , the card stop  206  is provided to prevent the card  101  to rotating across over the stop  205 . When the card stop  206  attached to the extension is moved under the tray  107 , the card  101  card is allowed to rotate freely. The card stop  206  is necessary only for the card shaped media and is not needed for disc shaped media because a card  101  must be oriented properly to pass through the drive slot  104  as that showed in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0041]      FIG. 3  shows a rack  301  and a pinion  302  arranged as part of the cam member  210 . The pinion  302  is driven by a motor through gear train or belt and pulley arrangement not showing in the Figure. The rack  301  and pinion  302  are driven by a motor not shown that moves cam  210  and post  212  side to side. The slot  211  of the tray  107  combines with the post  212  drive the tray  107  to move back and forth perpendicular to the side motion.  
         [0042]      FIG. 4  is a side cross sectional view that shows the tray  107  is moved toward front. Since the linkages  201  tie the tray  107  to the frame  105 , the tray  107  actually move forward and up as a member of a four bar linkage mechanism. With the receiving tray  107  in a forward position as shown, a card/disc  101  can be inserted to or ejected from the tray  107  through the slot  104  as  FIG. 1 . Spindle motor  108 , optical pickup unit  106  and other drive members not shown are mounted to a chassis  401  that can pivot about a hinge  401  tied to frame  105 . When the tray  107  is at forward and up position, the chassis  401  is kept at a lower pivoted position thus the chassis and the devices supported thereon are away from and have no interferences with the motions of the card/disc supported on the tray  107  now pivoted to an elevated position away from the chassis  401 . A cam member controls the pivot motion that is further described in  FIG. 10  below.  
         [0043]     In contrast to  FIG. 4 ,  FIG. 5  shows the receiving tray  107  disposed at lower position as the tray  107  is moved away from the front end of the optical drive. The chassis  401  is pivoted to an elevated position through a pivot hinge  402 . At the elevated position, the spindle motor  108  is applied to engage the card/disc  101  and the spindle motor  108  is employed to rotate the card  101  as it has room to freely rotate around a rotating axis. The card/disc  101  is properly clamped to the spindle motor  108 . At this arrangement, optical pickup unit  106  can access data tracks of a card/disc with proper control circuits (not shown).  
         [0044]      FIG. 6  illustrates a roller fixture  601  that mounted to the frame  105  through a hinge  602 . The fixture can rotate about the hinge  602 . A motor  604  is mounted to fixture  601  by a bracket  603 . A pressure roller  605  is attached to motor  604 . The pressure roller  605  serves as push pull mechanism when a card/disc is pressed between the roller  605  and the tray  107 . The card/disc  101  moves along the surface of the tray  107  by the roller  605 . A spring bracket  606  as part of the roller fixture  601  further includes an unload spring  608  and a download spring  607 .  FIG. 7  is a side cross sectional view of the relative positions of the roller fixture  601  and the tray  107  when the tray  107  is disposed at a lower position. The linkage  201  mounted the tray  107  to the frame  105  is shown at a lower elevation position. A card/disc  101  is shown above the tray  107 . The roller fixture  601  is at upper position with the roller  605  away from and not in contact with the card/disc  101 . The tray  107  and chassis are at data access position.  FIG. 8  is similar to  FIG. 7  showing the unload spring  608  is acting by the spring stop  801  at frame  105 . The leg of spring  608  forced fixture  601  to rotate about the hinge center and lifting the roller  605  off the card/disc  101 . In contrast to  FIG. 8 ,  FIG. 9  shows the tray  107  and linkage  201  are at upper and forward position and the card/disc  101  is placed in the tray  107 . The tray  107  pushes the leg of loading spring  607  and forcing the fixture  601  rotating downward that in turn forcing the roller  605  squeeze the card/disc between roller  605  and tray  101 . Depending the system requirement, the roller  605  spins to either push toward or pull inward the card/disc through the slot  108  in  FIG. 1  along the surface of tray  107 .  
         [0045]      FIG. 10  shows a chassis  401  pivoted at  402  against the frame  105 . The chassis  401  is mounted with spindle motor  108 , optical pick unit  106 , accessing motor  203  and other drive components not shown. The chassis  401  is driven by cam  1001  that is part of cam member  201  shown in  FIG. 2 . The cam  1001  moves the chassis  401  to swing around pivot point  402 . When chassis  401  is swing up, the spindle motor  108  engages the card  101  for data accessing by the optical pickup unit  106 . When the chassis is swing down, the spindle motor  108  is disengaged from the card/disc  101  and allows the tray  107  to receive or eject the card/disc.  FIG. 11  shows the guide slot  1101  in the cam member  1001 . A pin  404  is part of the chassis  401  the can move in the slot. When the cam  1001  moves to right side of the slot  1101  as shown, the chassis  401  is swung upward. When the cam  1001  moves to the left side of the slot  1101 , the chassis  401  is swung down.  
         [0046]      FIG. 12  shows a card stop  205  protruding from the tray slot  206  in the tray  107  when the tray  107  is positioned at an up and forward position. With the stop  205  up, a card  101  is stopped from a rotation movement when the edge of card  101  reaches the stop  205 .  FIG. 13  shows the stop  205  at its retracted position. When the tray  107  is pulled down and moved toward the anchor side of the stop  205 , the stop  205  does not move with the tray  107  and the end of the stop  205  is only allowed to extend out from the tray slot  206  and sit against the bottom of the tray  101 . A card/disc  101  can rotates freely above the tray  107 . When the optical drive stops the rotation of the spindle motor  108  and prepares to eject a disc shaped media, the spindle motor  108  is disengaged from the disc and the disc drops to the circular shaped seat  208 . The tray  107  moves up and forward while the chassis  401  and the roller fixture  608  move down. The roller  605  is activated to push the disc out of the slot  108 . For a card shaped media, the car stop  205  is required to orient the card  101  such that the card  101  can be proper placed into the rectangular-shaped placement seat  208 . In this preferred embodiment, the operation of the optical drive begins a control signal that stops the spindle motor  108  then moves the receiving tray  107  about half way to a proper level position. The operation processes continue with a swing of the chassis  401  down to a level that is not all the way down as the receiving tray  107  is not all the way up yet. At this point, part of the stop  205  is protruding from the slot  206 . Furthermore, the spindle motor still clamps onto the card  101 . The card is moving in a downward direction toward the receiving tray  107 . Under the circumstances when the card  101  moves down to be on top of the stop  205 , the card  101  just pushes the stop  205  back into the slot  206 . Then the card  101  still has free space to rotate and will rotate with the spindle motor  108 . The card  101  then spins slowly and intermittently with marginal torque. As the card  101  swings by the stop  205  and is no longer on top of the stop  205 , the stop  205  pops out from the slot  206 . Then the card  101  is blocked by the stop  205  at next revolution and seated into seating  208 . Any further rotating movement of the card  101  by the spindle motor  108  is prevented by the stop  205 . Once the card  101  is seated, the card  101  is disengaged from spindle motor  108 . The chassis  401  continues to swing down all the way and move the tray  107  to a card rejection position for roller the  605  to eject the card  101  through the slot  108  shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0047]      FIGS. 14A, 14B  and  14 C illustrate the variations of focus length of the optical pickup unit to accommodate changes of the card or disk thickness. As shown in  FIG. 14A , a laser source  1401  shines a beam  1402  to pass through a beam splitter  1403  as projecting-through beam  1404 . The projecting-through beam  1404  reaches objective lens  1409  and proceeds as beam  1410  to shine upon the optical media  1412 . The beam  1410  enters media  1412  as a converging beam  1411  and focus to the target surface  1412 . The converged beam  1411  then reflects back from the data storage media  1412  and projected back through objective lens  1409 . The reflected beam reaches the beam splitter  1403  and reflects into a reflecting beam  1405 . The reflecting beam  1405  is projected from the beam splitter  1403  and passes through another objective lens  1406  to generate a converging beam  1407  to project onto a photo diode  1408 . The photo diodes  1408  converts light beam to electrical signals for focusing, tracking and data decoding process. A commercial CDROM, CDR, and CDRW and DVD drive use such or similar method to access data stored in the media  1412  that usually has a thickness of approximately 1.2 mm built with polycarbonate material with light reflection index 1.55.  FIGS. 14B and 14C  show a data storage media has a thickness of approximately 0.76 mm, e.g., having a same thickness as that of a typical credit card or ID card.  FIG. 14B  shows the focus beam  1411  as that shown in  FIG. 14A  is now changed to another converging beam  1414  due to less travel of the beam in media  1415 . In order to reach the same target focus size, the distance between media  1415  and objective lens  1409  must be increased such that beam  1413  is smaller than beam  1410 . In order to read data from and write data to the media  1415  with different distance as original design as beam  1410 , the laser beam power  1413  must be adjusted to a higher value. Even though the data can be written to media  1415  with higher power, the reflected beam from media  1415  back to photo diode matrix  1408  is distorted and cannot be decoded properly. Proper access of data is not achievable. It is impractical is to modify the objective lens  1409  and  1406  in existing optical pickups to compensate the media thickness change. As shown in  FIG. 14C , a simpler method is to attach a focusing adapter  1417  that can compensate the media thickness changed as  1415 . The beam  1410  as that shown in  FIG. 14A  is modified by the adapter  1417  to  1416  and  1418 . The laser beam read/write power can be maintained as a regular unit, regular optical read, write, encode, and decode applies. The focus adapter  1417  can be a plain, convex, or concave lens as configuration required. A preferred embodiment that employs commercial available optical drives for accessing data stored in CDROM, CDR, CDRW storage media, a focus adapter of 0.4 mm plain lens is implemented to access data stored in media that has a thickness changed from 1.2 to 0.76 mm.  FIG. 15  shows a fixed adapted  1417  attached to an optical pickup unit  106  and the objective  1409  stays same.  FIG. 16  shows top view of optical pickup unit  106  and objective lens  1409 . A focus adapter  1417  is mounted in a frame  1602  and can be swing over the objective lens  1049  by an actuator motor  1601  under system management. Such swinging in and out adapter arrangement can be controlled by dynamically changing command to access data stored in media having different thicknesses, e.g., 1.2 mm or 0.76 mm.  
         [0048]      FIG. 17  illustrates an algorithm with processing steps to carry out the functions of receiving and rejecting card. The process starts (step  1700 ) with a determination of whether a card  101  is detected by the card sensor  207  (step  1701 ). When a card  101  is detected a determination then made if the card is in the fully inserted position (step  1702 ). Under the circumstances that the card is not fully inserted yet, the roller motor  605  is actuated to pull in the card (step  1708 ) and meanwhile, the cam motor is actuated to engage the spindle motor  108  and to position the OPU  106  up and the receiving tray down (step  1709 ). Once the card  101  is pulled into the placement seat  208 , an operation to clamp the card and ready for read or write is carried out (step  1710 ) and the process continues based on the condition that the card  101  is in a fully inserted. The operation then proceeds with a determination if a rejection of the card  101  required (step  1712 ). If a card rejection is confirmed, the spindle motor  108  is stopped first (step  1703 ). The cam motor then moves the try upward and the moves the spindle motor  108  and the OPU  106  down to about a half way down position (step  1704 ). Then the spindle motor  108  rotates the card  101  until the card is rested in the placement seat  208  in the receiving tray  107  (step  1705 ) as that shown in  FIGS. 12 and 13 . Once the card  101  is seated and oriented properly, the receiving tray  107  is moved up all the way and the chassis  401  is moved all the way down (step  1706 ). Then the roller motor fixture  601  is actuated onto the card  101  to push the card out (step  1711 ).  
         [0049]     For a commercial available top load CDROM, CDR, DVD, etc. drive, the disk is dropped into to a sliding tray. The disc is then slides with the tray into the drive or out of a drive.  FIG. 18  shows a top view of such sliding tray  1801  arrangement. A disc seat  1802  is usually provided to receive an optical disk having a diameter of 120 mm. Another smaller seat  1805  is provided for receiving a disk having a diameter of 80 mm. When the tray  1801  is slid into the drive, the spindle motor  108  is at center of the circular disc placement seats  1802  and  1805 , and a rectangular card placement seat  1803 . The opening  1804  in the tray  1801  allows the spindle motor  108  and other mechanism to access the optical media. For the purpose of carrying out data access stored in a card  101  that has a clamping hole at the center of the rectangular card placement seat  1803  is employed to receive the card  101 . The seat  1803  is only necessary for feeding the card to the drive since the card  101  must be properly positioned relative to the position of the spindle motor  108  once a card  101  is fed into an optical drive. A card can seat to any position of tray seat  1802  when the card is ejected out of the optical drive with the tray  1801 . When the clamping hole of a card is not at the center of a card  101 , the card seat  1901  must be offset relative to the tray  1801  that allows the clamping hole of a card  101  to be positioned to spindle motor  108 .  FIG. 19  shows a card with the clamping hole that is not at the center of a card  101 , the card seat  1802  must be offset as  1901  relative to the tray  1801  that allows the clamping hole of a card  101  to be positioned to spindle motor  108 .  
         [0050]      FIGS. 18 and 19  disclose a method to modify a compact disc (CD) tray of the commercially available CD or DVD drive to receive and process a rectangular shape card as that disclosed in this invention. Regular drive can take a circular disc with a diameter of 120 mm and 80 mm. By providing a rectangular card placement seat as shown, a tray that is commonly used to receive and process a circular disc can now be employed to receive and process a rectangular shape card with the logic and firmware modified as necessary according the inventions to be covered by further Patent Applications. This invention thus discloses a method for receiving and processing a non-circular shape data storage card by providing a placement seat in a tray of an optical drive.  
         [0051]     Although the present invention has been described in terms of the presently preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that such disclosure is not to be interpreted as limiting. Various alternations and modifications will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the above disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as covering all alternations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.