OPTICAL HEAD

Abstract: The lenses are moved to correct the track position error of an optical beam produced by decentering and the focal position error of the optical beam due to disc surface deflection and the change of the relative distance between the lenses. Accordingly, assembly and adjustment become easy in a simple structure and an optical head having a high resonance frequency and high speed response can be produced.

Description: The present invention relates to an optical head according to the preamble of claim 1 for use in a device for recording or reproducing optical information, by irradiating a disk-shaped recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a disk) with a light beam. Such a optical head is known from JP-A-61-137237 which comprises an objective lens connected to a movable holder by flexible connecting means. The holder is moved only in the tracking direction of a disk, but the objective lens is moved in the tracking direction of the disk and in the focusing direction of the disk, i.e. in a direction perpendicular to the recording surface of the disk. The movement of the objective lens in both directions is provided by the flexible connecting means which allows only a relatively inaccurate positioning of the objective lens. Referring to Fig. 1, an example of a conventional optical head will be illustrated. As illustrated in the figure, a light beam emitted from an optical source 1 is directed toward a polarized beam splitter 3 and a quarter-wave plate 4 via a coupling lens 2, diverted 90 o by an optical path converting prism mirror 5, and focused onto a recording surface 7a of a disk 7 through an objective lens 6. The light beam reflected back from the recording surface 7a is reflected on the reflecting plane of the polarized beam splitter 3, and detected by an optical detector 8. The follow-up control of the focusing position and tracking position of the optical head arranged as described above is performed by the use of a focusing actuator 9 and a tracking actuator 10. To be concrete, the follow-up control is conventionally effected such that the focusing actuator 9 moves the objective lens 6 in a direction where a focal point is to be adjusted while the tracking actuator 10 moves in a direction of tracking, the objective lens 6, focusing actuator 9, optical path converting prism mirror 5, and a tracking movable part casing 12 for supporting the foregoing members, all those members being integrally united in the head casing 11. The conventional optical head however requires a complicated precission mechanism because in the arrangement described above the tracking movable member 12 must be supported linearly movably only in a direction of the light beam emitted from the optical source 1 by the supporting member 13. It also requires the same mechanism because the objective lens 6 must be moved accurately linearly perpendicularly to the direction of the movement of the movable part casing 12 by the supporting member 14, the movable part casing moving in the direction of the optical path extending from the optical source 1. It has further another problem of its being difficult to assure the accuracy in assembly and adjustment of the device because the directions of driving of the actuators 9, 10 are different, perpendicular to each other and the supporting members 14, 13 are intervened respectively between the focusing actuator 9 and the objective lens 6, and between the tracking actuator 10 and the tracking movable part casing 12. It furthermore suffers from a problem that the higher order resonance of the mechanism in the direction of the tracking is liable to occur in a low frequency region owing to the supporting member 14 because the objective lens 6 is supported through the movable part casing 12 and the supporting members 13, 14. In view of the drawbacks of the conventional optical head, it is an object of the present invention to provide an excellent optical head capable of removing the aforementioned problems and of restricting resonance frequencies to a high frequency region with a simplified structure. This object is solved by the optical head according to claim 1. The optical head can hereby be simplified in its structure and provide the resonance frequency restricted to a high frequency range. Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional optical head, Fig. 2 is a perspective view, cut away in part, illustrating an optical head according to the present invention, Fig. 3 is a control circuit for controlling tracking and focal point adjustments, Fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a driving system for the tracking and focal point adjustments, Fig. 5 is a view illustrating an example of a preceding compensator circuit, Figs. 6 (a), (b), and (c) are views each illustrating the situation of control of the focal point adjustment, and Fig. 7 is a perspective view, cut away in part, illustrating another embodiment of the optical head of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 2, an embodiment of an optical head according to the present invention is illustrated, in which the like symbols shall be applied to the like constituent portions as in the prior art example. That is, designated at 5 is an optical path converting prism mirror, 6 is an objective lens, 15 and 16 are first and second lenses, respectively, 17 and 18 are first and second holders, respectively, 19 and 20 are carriages, respectively, 21 and 22 are coils, respectively, 23 is a guide shaft, 24 is a magnet, and 25 and 26 are yokes, respectively. The optical path converting prism mirror 5 and the objective lens 6 are fixedly held by the first holder 17 together with the first relay lens 15, all those members being mounted on the carriage 19. The carriage 19 is supported only axially movably on a pair of the guide shafts 23 via the sliding parts 19a provided on both ends thereof (here, for the sliding parts and guide shafts only ones 19a and 23 are shown in the figure). The second relay lens 16 is fixedly held by the second holder 18, which holder is then mounted on the carriage 20. The carriage 20 is supported on the pair of the guide shafts 23 only axially movably thereof via the sliding part 20a (only one is shown) provided on both ends of the carriage 20. The first and second relay linses 15, 16 have the same optical axis which is parallel to the axis of the guide shaft 23. Additionally, a pair of the coils 21 are disposed on both sides of the holder 17 mounted on the carriage 19, which have their axis parallel to the axis of the guide shaft 23. Likewise, a pair of the coils 22 are disposed on both sides of the holder 18 mounted on the carriage 20, which have their axis parallel to the axis of the guide shaft 23. The pair of the coils 21, 22 are disposed, spaced slightly away, around each of the pair of the yokes 26 constituting a magnetic circuit together with the pair of the magnets 24 and the pair of the yokes 25. Those coils move the carriages 19, 20 axially of the guide shaft 23 in response to a driving current supplied from a control circuit described later. In the above respective arrangements, a head casing (not shown) houses the pair of the guide shafts 23, the magnet 24, and the yokes 25 and 26, all fixedly mounted therein, such that the holders 17, 18 move in the direction of the tracking of the disk. Here, there are disposed the sane optical source, polarized beam splitter, 1/4 plate, and optical detector, etc., as in the conventional case, on the opposite side of the relay lens 16 to the relay lens 15. The light beam is hereby allowed to reach the optical path converting prism mirror 5 via the relay lenses 16, 15, diverted there 90 o , focused by the objective lens 6, and directed toward the recording surface of the disk (not shown). The light beam is reflected back on the recording surface of the disk in the original direction through the objective lens 6, optical path converting prism mirror 5, and relay lenses 15, 16. Fig. 3 illustrates a control circuit for controlling the tracking and the focal point adjustment of the foregoing device. In the figure, designated at 27, 28 are optical detector elements, 29, 30 are amplifiers, 31, 32 are compensators, 33 is a preceding compensator, 34 is an adder circuit, and 35, 36 are drivers. In the optical detector elements 27, 28, which constitutes the optical detector 8 illustrated in Fig. 2, the former optical detector 27 generates upon the light beam being displaced from a predetermined track position, a voltage having an amplitude corresponding to the displacement and a polarity (+) or (-) corresponding to a direction of the same, while the optical detector element 28 generates likewise upon the light beam being displaced from a predetermined focal position, a voltage having an amplitude corresponding to the displacement and a polarity (+) or (-) corresponding to a direction of the same. The amplifiers 29, 30 amplify output voltages from the optical detector elements 27, 28, respectively, while the compensators 31, 32 compensate in proper output voltages from the amplifiers 29,30, respectively. The preceding compensator 33 receives part of an output voltage from the compensator 31, reverses its signal, and delivers it to the adder 34, as described later. The adder 34 adds the output voltages from the compensator 32 and the preceding compensator 33. The drivers 35, 36 supply a driving current (control signal) to the coils 21, 22 in conformity with the output voltages from the compensator 31 and the adder 34 to move the carriage 19 or 20, i.e., the relay lens 15 or 16, for the purpose of correcting the displacements of the track position and the focal position, as described later. Here, the circuits described above are conventionally well known excepting the preceding compensator 33. Fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a tracking and focal point adjustment driving system in the aforementioned optical head. In the figure, designated at G1 is a transfer funtion in the compensator 31, G2 is the same in the compensator 32, Gm1 in the driver 35 and the coil 21, Gm2 in the driver 36 and the coil 22, H in the preceding compensator 33, V1 is a voltage indicative of a track position, V2 is a voltage indicative of a position on a disk surface, X1 is a voltage indicative of the position of a light beam in the direction of tracking, X2 is a voltage indicative of the focal position of a light beam, e1 is an output voltage of the compensator 31, and e2 is an output voltage of the compensator 32. Additionally, subtraction designated at 37 equivalently indicates the displacement of the focal position of a light beam due to the movement of the first relay lens 15. Here, Laplace transformation of the driving system shown in Fig. 4 gives a relation: G2Gm2V2(s) - G2Gm2X2(s)-HE1(s)Gm2 - X1(s) = X2(s) (1) This leads to: Here, estimation of a deviation ε (s) gives: Subtraction 37 described previously, the transfer function H of the preceding compensator 33 may be set such that the second and third terms of the expression (3) are zero or an equation: HGm2E1(s) + X1(s) = 0 (4) holds. From a relation X1(s) = Gm1E1(s) , Thus, the transfer function H is set to satisfy a relation: H = - Gm1/Gm2 (5) Further, decomposition of the arrangement of the driving system into Gm1 = A1/M1S² Gm2 = A2/M2S² leads (here, A1, A2: force constant of the tracking and focal point adjustment driving system, M1, M2: Mass of the same system) to: Hereby, when an inverting amplifier of a well-known operational amplifier of the type shown in Fig. 5 is used as the preceding compensator 33, resistances R1, R2 are set so as for the guide A of the amplifer to satisfy: A = -R2/R1 = -M2A1/M1A2 (6) The preceding compensator 33 and the adder 34, which include the transfer function H set as described above, correct the displacement of a focal position without delay, by supplying a compensation voltage to the driver 36 of the focal point adjustment control system, the compensation voltage being to compensate the foregoing displacement caused by the movement of the first relay lens 15 for the tracking control. Figs. 6(a) to (c) illustrate a situation of the focal point adjustment control in the above device. An operation of the embodiment will be described with reference to the figure. Fig. 6(a) illustrates a situation of the light beam when the recording surface 7a of the disk is separated away by a predetermined distance from the objective lens 6, for example by a focal distance ℓ o of the objective lens 6. A parallel light beam emitted from a light source (not shown) is once focused by the relay lens 16, converted again into a parallel light beam through the relay lens 15 to enter the objective lens 6, and focused onto the recording surface 7a located at the focusing position of the above lens 6. The light beam so focused is reflected from the same surface, and transmitted, after propagating back through the objective lens 6 and the relay lenses 15, 16, to an optical detector (not shown), etc., as a parallel light beam. Here, the total sum of the respective focal distances of the lenses 15, 16 is taken to be equal to a relative distance ℓ x between the relay lenses 15 and 16. Fig. 6(b) illustrates a stituation of the light beam when the recording surface 7a of the disk is separated away by the predetermined distance or more from the objective lens 6. In the situation, the driver 36 supplies a driving current to the coil 22 on the basis of the output from the optical detector element 28 to move the carriage 20 or the relay lens 16 in a direction where the carriage 20 or the relay lens 16 approaches the relay lens 15. Thereupon, the relative distance ℓ x becomes less than the total sum of the focal distances of the lenses 15 and 16, so that the parallel light beam 38 changes to a light beam slightly wider than the relay lens 15 and enters the objective lens 6. The focusing position is made larger than the focal distance ℓ o by the objective lens 6, and when the focusing position reaches the recording surface 7a, the driving current is interrupted to complete the focal point adjustment. Fig. 6(c) illustrates another situtation of the light beam where the recording surface 7a of the disk is separated away by a distance less than the distance ℓ o from the objective lens 6. In the situation, the driver 36 supplies a driving current of the opposite polarity to that of the previous situation to the coil 22 based upon the output from the optical detector element 28 to drive the relay lens 16 so as to go away from the relay lens 15. Thereupon, the relative distance ℓ x becomes larger than the total sum of the focal distances of the lenses 15 and 16, so that the parallel light beam 38 changes to one slightly narrower than the relay lens 15 and enters the objective lens 6. The focusing position by the objective lens 6 comes nearer from the position corresponding to the focal distance ℓ o of the objective lens 6, and when the position coincides with the recording surface 7a, the driving current is interrupted to complete the focal point adjustment. On the other hand, when the focusing position of the optical beam in the direction of tracking by the objective lens 6 is displaced from the track position on the recording surface 7a, the driver 35 supplies a driving current to the coil 21 on the basis of the output from the optical detector element 27 to move the carriage 19 or the optical path converting prism mirror 6 and the objective lens 6 in the direction of tracking for correction of the foregoing displacement as in the conventional case. Hereupon, as described previously, the driver 36 supplies a driving current to the coil 2 on the basis of the output from the optical detector 29 to move the carriage 20 in the direction of tracking. For this, the foregoing relative distance ℓ x is not changed even with the movement of the carriage 19 and hence of the relay lens 15, and is kept at a distance corresponding to that between the objective lens 6 and the recording surface 7a at that time point. Referring here to Fig. 7, another embodiment of the optical head according to the present invention is illustrated in which the like symbols shall be applied to the like constituent portions as those in the conventional example. In the figure, designated at 5 is the optical path converting prism mirror, 6 is the objective lens, 40, 41 are second relay lenses, respectively, 42, 43 are first and second coils, respectively, 46, 47 are guide shafts, respectively, 48, 49, 50, and 51 are yokes, respectively, and 52, 53 are magnets, respectively. The optical path converting prism mirror 5 and the objective lens 6 are fixedly held by the first holder 42 together with the first relay lens 40. The holder 42 is supported on a pair of the guide shafts 46, 47 disposed in parallel to each other movably only axially of those shafts via sliding parts 42a, 42b provided on both ends of the holder 42. Additionally, the second relay lens 41 is fixedly held by the second holder 43. The holder 43 is supported by a pair of the guide shafts 46, 47 movably only axially of those shafts via sliding parts 43a, 43b provided on both ends of the holder 43. Here, the first and second relay lenses 40, 41 have the same optical axis parallel to the axis of the guide shafts 46, 47. The holder 42 includes the first coil 44 wound therearound, which coil 44 has its axis parallel to the axes of the guide shafts 46, 47, including therein the sliding parts 42a, 42b. In addition, the holder 43 likewise includes the second coil 45 wound therearound, which coil 45 has its axis parallel to the axes of the guide shafts 46, 47, including therein the sliding parts 43a, 43b. The guide shaft 46 constitutes a magnetic circuit together with yokes 48, 50 and a magnet 52, while the guide shaft 47 constitutes another magnetic circuit together with yokes 49, 51 and a magnet 53. Here, the coils 44 and 45 are disposed having small intervals between the guide shaft 46 and the yoke 50 and between the guide shaft 47 and the yoke 51. Hereby, the holders 42, 43 are moved axially of the guide shafts 46, 47 responsibly to a driving current supplied from a control circuit described later. In the respective arrangements described above, a head casing (not shown) includes the guides shafts 46, 47, the yokes 48 to 51, and the magnets 52, 53, all being fixedly mounted therein, such that the holders 42, 43 are moved in the direction of tracking of the disk. Thereupon, there are disposed on the opposite side of the relay lens 41 to the relay lens 40, a light source, a polarized beam splitter, a 1/4 plate, and an optical detector, etc., as in the conventional case. A light beam transmitted from the above arrangement reaches the optical path converting prism mirror 5 via the relay lenses 41, 40, diverted the 90 o in its direction, focused by the objective lens 6 to enter the recording surface of the disk (not shown), and the light beam is reflected back therefrom in the original direction through the objective lens 6, optical path converting prism mirror 5, and relay lenses 40, 41. Furthermore, the tracking control and the focal point adjustment control of the above device is performed as in the first embodiment. The optical head according to the present invention simply requires both the first and second holders being movable only in one direction, allowing the respective supporting means to be individually provided. This simplifies the arrangement of the optical head and facilitates the adjustment of the head upon assembly. Additionally, both the first and second holder separately include driving means correspondingly to directions where they are movable. This prevents the one holder from being mechanically vibrated as the other holder is moved, thereby assuring its resonance frequency being shifted to a higher range. Furthermore, the second holder is driven on the basis of control signals concerning the displacements of a focusing position and of a track position, thereby allowing the displacement of the focusing position due to tracking control to be corrected without any time delay. The present invention thus can provide a higher response optical head, thereby assuring very useful industrial applicability. The afore-mentioned term "relay lens" means a lens used for making an image from another image made with another lens.

Claims: An optical head for controlling the tracking and the focal point adjustment of a light beam irradiating information for recording or information for restoration, the light beam being emitted from an optical source (1) and transmitted through a polarized beam splitter (3) and a 1/4 plate (4),etc., by directing the light beam to the recording surface (7a) of a disk (7), detecting the light beam reflected from the disk (7) through that 1/4 plate (4) and said polarized beam splitter (3), and generating a control signal concerning the displacements of a track position and of a focusing position of the light beam on the basis of the detected signal, comprising: a first holder (17;42) for holding an objective lens (6) and an optical path converting prism mirror (5), supporting means (19,19a,20,20a,23;42a,42b,43a,43b,46,47) for supporting the first holder (17;42) movably only in the direction of tracking of the disk (7), and driving means (21,22,24,25,26;44,45,48 to 53) for driving said first holder (17;42) in the direction of tracking on the basis of control signals concerning the displacement of the focusing position and the displacement of the track position, characterized in that the first holder (17;42) fixedly holds the objective lens (6), that a second holder (18;43) is provided for fixedly holding a second relay lens (16;41), that the supporting means (19,19a,20,20a,23;42a,42b,43a,43b,46,47) support the second holder (18;43) movably only in the direction of tracking of the disk (7), and that the driving means (21,22,24,25,26;44,45,48 to 53) drive the second holder (18;43) in the direction of tracking on the basis of the control signals concerning the displacement of the focusing position and the displacement of the track position. An optical head according to claim 1, characterized in that the supporting means include guide shafts (23;46,47) each for supporting said first and second holders (17,18;42,43) movably only in the direction of tracking, which guide shaft (23;46,47) forms a magnetic circuit as part of a yoke. An optical head according to claim 2, characterized in that the driving means include coils (44,45) each provided on and wound around said first and second holders (42,43) each coil having an axis of the guide shaft (46,47) and including therein a sliding part (42a,42b;43a,43b) for the guide shaft (46,47).

Inventors: NAGATA SHIZUO OKI ELECTRIC IND, OHTSUKA MINORU OKI ELECTRIC IN, SHIMIZU YASUO OKI ELECTRIC IND, TAKAHASHI MASAHIRO OKI ELECTRI, TANOSHIMA KATSUHIDE OKI ELECTR, NAGATA, SHIZUO OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD., OHTSUKA, MINORU OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD., SHIMIZU, YASUO OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY, TAKAHASHI, MASAHIRO OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY, TANOSHIMA, KATSUHIDE OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY
Applicants: OKI ELECTRIC IND CO LTD, OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY COMPANY, LIMITED
Application year: 1988
Main classification: G11B7
IPC codes: G11B7