An optical disk and an optical disk reproduction apparatus

Abstract: An optical disk on which data is recorded comprises a prescribed region in which an identifier is provided for indicating whether a barcode-like mark is present or not on said optical disk, said identifier and said mark being in respectively different locations on said disk, the mark being disposed in a circumferential direction and having a plurality of bars each extending in a radial direction. Control data in which physical feature information regarding the disk is recorded in said prescribed region.

Description: The present invention relates to an optical disk according to the preamble portion of claim and an optical disk reproduction apparatus, for use with such disk. An optical disk and reproduction apparatus of this kind are known from EP-A-741 382. In the manufacturing process of optical disks, it has been commonly practiced to record a serial number, lot number, etc. on each optical disk in the form of a barcode. Since such information cannot be written to a pit information area of the optical disk, it has been practiced to write the barcoded information to a non-information area, or unused space, on the optical disk. When reproducing (playing back) such an optical disk, the pit information is read by an optical pickup; to read the barcoded information such as a serial number, etc. recorded in the non-information area, however, a separate reading device has been used. In the above prior art optical disk, since information carrying a serial number and the like is not recorded in a pit area but recorded in a non-information area, as described above, a separate reading device has had to be provided in addition to the usual optical pickup, the resulting problem being increased complexity of the playback apparatus construction. In view of the above problem with the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disk wherein data such as a disk ID number, etc. is converted into a barcode and recorded in a pit area, thereby permitting the use of a single optical pickup to read both the bit data and barcode data. The invention is an optical disk wherein a control data area is provided for holding therein physical feature information concerning said optical disk, and an identifier for indicating the presence or absence of said barcode is recorded in said control data area. Figure 1 is a diagram showing a disk manufacturing process and a secondary recording process; Figure 2(a) is a top plan view of a disk, (b) is a top plan view of the disk, (c) is a top plan view of the disk, (d) is a transverse sectional view of the disk, and (e) is a waveform diagram of a reproduced signal; Figure 3 is a diagram showing a disk fabrication process and a secondary recording process; Figure 4 is a diagram showing the disk fabrication process and the secondary recording process; Figure 5 (a) is an enlarged view of a nonreflective portion of a laminated type, and (b) is an enlarged view of a nonreflective portion of a single-plate type; Figure 6 (a) is a reproduced-waveform diagram for a nonreflective portion, (b) is a reproduced-waveform diagram for a nonreflective portion, (c) is a reproduced-waveform diagram for a nonreflective portion, and (d) is a plan view of a master disk produced by a master disk method; Figure 7 (a) is a cross-sectional view of a nonreflective portion of the laminated type, and (b) is a cross-sectional view of a nonreflective portion of the single-plate type; Figure 8 is a schematic diagram, based on an observation through a transmission electron microscope, illustrating a cross section of the nonreflective portion; Figure 9(a) is a cross-sectional view of a disk, and (b) is a crosssectional view of the nonreflective portion of the disk; Figure 10 is a block diagram of a low-reflectivity position detector; Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating the principle of detecting address/clock positions of a low-reflectivity portion; Figure 12 is a diagram showing the arrangement of stripes on a disk and the contents of control data; and Figure 13 is a block diagram illustrating play back apparatus working a piracy prevention algorithm. We will first describe a general process flow from disk manufacturing to the completion of an optical disk by using the flowchart of Figure 1. In this patent specification, laser trimming is also referred to as laser marking, while a nonreflective optical marking portion is simply referred to as the barcode, stripe, marking, or optical marking or, sometimes, as the physical ID unique to a disk. First, the software company performs software authoring in software production process 820. The completed software is delivered from the software company to the disk manufacturing factory. In disk manufacturing process 816 at the disk manufacturing factory, the completed software is input in step 818a, a master disk is produced (step 818b), disks are pressed (steps 818e, 818g), reflective films are formed on the respective disks (steps 818f, 818h), the two disks are laminated together (step 818i), and a ROM disk such as a DVD or CD is completed (step 818m, etc.). The thus completed disk 800 is delivered to the software maker or to a factory under control of the software maker, where, in secondary recording process 817, an anti-piracy marking 584, such the one shown in Figure 2, is formed (step 819a), and accurate position information of this mark is read by a measuring means (step 819b) to obtain the position information which serves as the physical feature information of the disk. This physical feature information of the disk is encrypted in step 819c. The encrypted information is converted to a PE-RZ-modulated signal which is then recorded in step 819d as a barcode signal on the disk by using a laser. The disk physical feature information may be combined together with software feature information for encryption in step 819c. The above processes will be described in further detail. That is, a disk fabrication process, a marking formation process, a marking position reading process, and an encrypted information writing process for an optical disk according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to Figures 3 and 4 and Figures 5 to 9. In the following description, the marking formation process and the marking position reading process are collectively called the secondary recording process. (A) First, the disk fabrication process will be described. In the disk fabrication process 806 shown in Figure 3, first a transparent substrate 801 is pressed in step (1). In step (2), a metal such as aluminum or gold is sputtered to form a reflective layer 802. An adhesive layer 804 formed from an ultraviolet curing resin is applied by spin coating to a substrate 803 formed in a different processing step, and the substrate 803 is bonded to the transparent substrate 801 having the reflective layer 802, and they are rotated at high speed to make the bonding spacing uniform. By exposure to external ultraviolet radiation, the resin hardens, thus firmly bonding the two substrates together. In step (4), a printed layer 805 where a CD or DVD title is printed, is printed by screen printing or offset printing. Thus, in step (4), the ordinary laminated-type optical ROM disk is completed. (B) Next, the marking formation process will be described with reference to Figures 3 and 4. In Figure 3, a laser beam from a pulsed laser 813 such as a YAG laser is focused through a converging lens 814 onto the reflective layer 802, to form a nonreflective portion 815 as shown in step (6) in Figure 4. That is, a distinct waveform, such as the waveform (A) shown in step (7), is reproduced from the nonreflective portion 815 formed in step (6) in Figure 4. By slicing this waveform, a marking detection signal such as shown by waveform (B) is obtained, from which hierarchial marking position information comprising an address, such as shown in signal (d), and an address, a frame synchronizing signal number, and a reproduced clock count, such as shown in signal (e), can be measured. At the rising edge of the thus obtained marking detection signal, a specific address (indicated by address n in Figure 4 (d)) is read by the optical pickup from within the plurality of addresses shown in Figure 4(d). Figure 4(b) shows the physical location of the specific address in schematic form. On the other hand, Figure 4(e) shows the logical structure of the data. As shown in Figure 4(e), there are m frame synchronization signals under address n, and k reproduced clock pulses under each frame synchronization signal. Therefore, the position of the marking measured by the optical pickup can be represented by address, frame synchronization signal number, and reproduced clock count. The technique for forming the nonreflective optical marking portion will be described in further detail in sections (a) to (d) below with reference to Figures 5 to 9, etc., dealing with the laminated type in comparison with a single-plate type. Figures 5(a) and (b) are micrographs showing plan views of nonreflective optical marking portions, and Figure 7(a) is a simplified schematic cross-sectional view of a nonreflective portion of the two-layer laminated disk. (a) Using a 5 µ j/pulse YAG laser, a laser beam was applied to a 500angstrom aluminum layer lying 0.6 mm below the surface of a 1.2mm thick ROM disk consisting of two 0.6mm thick disks laminated together, and, as a result, a 12 µ m wide slit-like nonreflective portion 815 was formed, as shown in the X 750 micrograph of Figure 5(a). In this X 750 micrograph, no aluminum residues were observed on the nonreflective portion 815. Thick swollen aluminum layers, 2000 angstroms thick and 2 µ m wide, were observed along boundaries between the nonreflective portion 815 and reflective portions. As shown in Figure 7(a), it was confirmed that no significant damage had occurred inside. In this case, the application of the pulsed laser presumably melted the aluminum reflective layer, causing a phenomenon of molten aluminum buildup along the boundaries on both sides due to the surface tension. We call this a hot melt surface tension (HMST) recording method. This is a characteristic phenomenon observed only on a laminated disk 800. Figure 8 is a schematic diagram, based on an observation through a transmission electron microscope (TEM), illustrating a cross section of the nonreflective portion formed by the above laser trimming process. And Figure 8 shows that the adhesive layer of the disk has been removed by using solvent. In the figure, if the aluminum film swollen portion is 1.3 µ m wide and 0.20 µ m thick, the amount of increased aluminum in that portion is 1.3 x (0.20 - 0.05) = 0.195 µ m 2 . The amount of aluminum originally deposited in a half portion (5 µ m) of the laser exposed region (10 µ m) was 5 x 0.05 = 0. 250 µ m 2 . The difference is calculated as 0.250 - 0.195 = 0.055 µ m 2 . In terms of length, this is equivalent to 0.055/0.05 = 1.1 µ m. This means that an aluminum layer of 0.05 µ m thickness and 1.1 µ m length remained, and therefore, it can be safely said that almost all aluminum was drawn to the film swollen portion. Thus, the result of the analysis of the figure also verifies the explanation about the above-described characteristic phenomenon. (b) We will next deal with the case of a single-plate optical disk (an optical disk comprising a single disk). An experiment was conducted by applying laser pulses of the same power to a 0.05 µ m thick aluminum reflective film formed on a single-sided molded disk, of which result is shown in Figure 5(b). As shown in the figure, aluminum residues were observed, and since these aluminum residues cause reproduction noise, it can be seen that the single-plate type is not suitable for secondary recording of optical disk information of which a high density and a low error rate are demanded. Furthermore, unlike the laminated disk, in the case of the single-plate disk, the protective layer 862 is inevitably damaged, as shown in Figure 7(b), when the nonreflective portion is subjected to laser trimming. The degree of damage depends on the laser power, but the damage cannot be avoided even if the laser power is controlled accurately. Moreover, according to our experiment, the printed layer 805 formed by screen printing to a thickness of a few hundred microns on the protective layer 862 was damaged when its thermal absorptance was high. In the case of the single-plate disk, to address the problem of protective layer damage, either the protective layer has to be applied once again or the laser cut operation should be performed before depositing the protective layer. In any case, the single-plate type may present a problem in that the laser cut process has to be incorporated in the pressing process. This limits the application of the single-plate disk despite its usefulness. (c) A comparison between single-plate disk and laminated disk has been described above, using a two-layer laminated disk as an example. As is apparent from the above description, the same effect as obtained with the two-layer laminated disk can be obtained with the single-layer laminated disk. Using Figures 9(a), 9(b), etc., a further description will be given dealing with the single-layer laminated disk type. As shown in Figure 9(a), the reflective layer 802 has the transparent substrate 801 of polycarbonate on one side, and the hardened adhesive layer 804 and a substrate on the other side, the reflective layer 802 thus being hermetically sealed therebetween. In this condition, pulsed laser light is focused thereon for heating; in the case of our experiment, heat of 5 µ J/pulse is applied to a circular spot of 10 to 20 µ m diameter on the reflective layer 802 for a short period of 70 ns. As a result, the temperature instantly rises to 600°C, the melting point, melting state is caused. By heat transfer, a small portion of the transparent substrate 801 near the spot is melted, and also a portion of the adhesive layer 804 is melted. The molted aluminum in this state is caused by surface tension to build up along boundaries 821a and 821b, with tension being applied to both sides, thus forming buildups 822a and 822b of hardened aluminum, as shown in Figure 9(b). The nonreflective portion 584 free from aluminum residues is thus formed. This shows that a clearly defined nonreflective portion 584 can be obtained by laser-trimming the laminated disk as shown in Figures 7(a) and 9(a). Exposure of the reflective layer to the outside environment due to a damaged protective layer, which was the case with the single-plate type, was not observed even when the laser power was increased more than 10 times the optimum value. After the laser trimming, the nonreflective layer 584 has the structure shown in Figure 9(b) where it is sandwiched between the two transparent substrates 801, 803 and sealed with the adhesive layer 804 against the outside environment, thus producing the effect of protecting the structure from environmental effects. (C) Next, the process of reading the position of the thus formed marking will be described. Figure 10 is a block diagram showing a low reflectivity light amount detector 586 for detecting the nonreflective optical marking portion, along with its adjacent circuitry, in an optical disk manufacturing process. Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating the principle of detecting address/clock positions of the low reflectivity portion. For convenience of explanation, the following description deals with the operating principle when a read operation is performed on a nonreflective portion formed on an optical disk constructed from a single disk. It will be recognized that the same operating principle also applies to an optical disk constructed from two disks laminated together. As shown in Figure 10, the disk 800 is loaded into a marking reading apparatus equipped with a low reflectivity position detector 600 to read the marking, and in this case, since a signal waveform 823 due to the presence and absence of pits and a signal waveform 824 due to the presence of the nonreflective portion 584 are significantly different in signal level, as shown in the waveform diagram of Figure 6(a), they can be clearly distinguished using a simple circuit. Figure 6(a) is a diagram showing the waveform of a playback signal from a PCA area, described later, containing the nonreflective portion 584 formed by laser light. Figure 6(b) is a diagram showing the waveform of Figure 6(a) but with a different time axis. By removing the reflective film by laser light, as described above, a waveform easily distinguishable from that of a pit signal is obtained. Rather than forming an anti-piracy identification mark by removing the reflective film by laser light, as described above, the anti-piracy mark may be formed by changing the shape of pits on the master disk. This method will be described below. Figure 6(c) shows the waveform of a playback signal when the anti-piracy identification mark was formed by making pits longer than other data pits on the master disk. It can be seen from the diagram that the waveform 824p of the anti-piracy identification mark is distinguishable from the waveform of other pit data. In this way, a waveform similar to that obtained from the PCA area described later can be obtained by forming longer pits on the master disk; in this case, however, the waveform is a little difficult to distinguish as compared to the waveforms shown in parts (a) and (b) of Figure 6. By removing the reflective film by laser light, as described above, a waveform easily distinguishable from that of a pit signal is obtained. Rather than forming the barcode of the invention by removing the reflective film by laser light, as described above, the barcode may be formed by changing the shape of pits on the master disk. This master disk method will be described below. Figure 6(d) is a plan view showing a portion of a master disk wherein pits 824q in a few hundred tracks on the master disk are made longer than other data pits and made equal to the barcode bar width t (= 10 µ m). Since reflectivity drops in this longer-bit area, a waveform 824 p as shown in Figure 6(c) is obtained. It can be seen from the diagram that the waveform 824p by the master disk method is distinguishable from the waveform of other pit data. In this way, a waveform similar to that obtained from the PCA area described later can be obtained by the master disk method; in this case, however, the waveform is a little difficult to distinguish as compared to the waveforms shown in parts (a) and (b) of Figure 6. Next, the constitution and operation of a reproduction apparatus (player) for reproducing the thus completed optical disk on a player will be described with reference to Figure 13. In the figure, the construction of an optical disk 9102 will be described first. A marking 9103 is formed on a reflective layer (not shown) deposited on the optical disk 9102. In the manufacturing process of the optical disk, the position of the marking 9103 was detected by position detecting means, and the detected position was encrypted as marking position information and written on the optical disk in the form of a barcode 9104. Position information reading means 9101 reads the barcode 9104, and decrypting means 9105 contained therein decrypts the contents of the barcode for output. Marking reading means 9106 reads the actual position of the marking 9103 and outputs the result. Comparing/judging means 9107 compares the decrypted result from the decrypting means 9105 contained in the position information reading means 9101 with the result of reading by the marking reading means 9106, and judges whether the two agree within a predetermined allowable range. If they agree, a reproduction signal 9108 for reproducing the optical disk is output; if they do not agree, a reproduction stop signal 9109 is output. Control means (not shown) controls the reproduction operation of the optical disk in accordance with these signals; when the reproduction stop signal is output, an indication to the effect that the optical disk is an illegal duplicated disk is displayed on a display (not shown) and the reproduction operation is stopped. In the above operation, it will be recognized that it is also possible for the marking reading means 9106 to use the decrypted result from the decrypting means 9105 when reading the actual position of the marking 9103. Namely in this case, the marking reading means 9106 checks whether the marking is actually located in the position on the optical disk indicated by the position information which is decrypted by the decrypting means 9105. Thus the reproduction apparatus of the above construction can detect an illegally duplicated optical disk and stop the reproduction operation of the disk, and can prevent illegal duplicates practically. We will next describe features of the optical disk format with a barcode formed. In the case of a DVD disk in the present embodiment, all data are recorded in pits with CLV, as shown in Figure 12. Stripes 923 (forming a barcode) are recorded with CAV. CLV recording means recording with constant linear velocity, while CAV recording means recording with constant angular velocity. In the present invention, the stripes 923 are recorded with CAV, superimposed on a pre-pit signal in a lead-in data area holding an address which is recorded with CLV. That is, the data is overwritten with the stripes. In the present invention, the pre-pit signal area maps into all the data areas where pits are formed. The prescribed region of the pre-pit signal area, as mentioned in the present invention, corresponds to an inner portion of the optical disk; this region is also called a post-cutting area (PCA). In this PCA area, the barcode is recorded with CAV, superimposed on pre-bit signals. In this way, the CLV data is recorded with a pit pattern from the master disk, while the CAV data is recorded with laser-removed portions of the reflective film. Since the barcode data is written in overwriting fashion, pits are recorded between the barcode stripes 1T, 2T, and 3T. Using this pit information, optical head tracking is accomplished. In the present invention, as shown in Figure 12, the control data recorded in the control data area 936 of the optical disk contains a PCA stripe presence/absence identifier 937 recorded as a pit signal. Therefore, the optical head is first moved, in step 940n, to an outer area where the control data is recorded. And then the optical head moves inwardly jumping across a plurality of tracks until reaching the control data area 936. And then in step 940a, the control data is played back. It can thus be checked whether the stripes are recorded or not. If, in step 940b, the stripe presence/absence identifier is 0, the process proceeds to step 940f to initiate rotation phase control for normal playback with CLV. On the other hand, if, in step 940b, the presence/absence identifier 937 is 1, then the process proceeds to step 940h to check the presence or absence of a reverse-side record identifier 948 which indicates that the stripes are recorded on the side opposite from the side being played back, that is, on the reverse side. If the stripes are recorded on the reverse side, the process proceeds to step 940i to play back the recording surface on the reverse side of the optical disk. If the reverse side cannot be automatically played back, an indication is output for display, to urge the user to turn over the disk. If it is determined in step 940h that the stripes are recorded on the side being played back, the process proceeds to step 940c, where the head is moved to the stripe area 923 in the inner portion of the disk, and in step 940d, the control mode is switched to rotational speed control to play back the stripes 923 with CAV rotation. If the playback is completed in step 940e, then in step 940f the control mode is switched back to rotation phase control for CLV playback and the optical head is moved to the outer portion of the disk to play back pit signal data. Further, as shown in Figure 12, the control data also contains an additional stripe data presence/absence identifier and a stripe recording capacity. That is, after recording first stripes on an optical disk, additional stripes can be recorded in an empty, unrecorded portion of the area. The first recorded stripes will be referred to as the first set of stripes, and the additionally recorded stripes as the second set of stripes. With this configuration, when the first set of stripes 923 is already recorded by trimming, as shown in Figure 12, the capacity of the available space for trimming the second set of stripes 938 can be calculated. Accordingly, when the recording apparatus performs trimming to record the second set of stripes, the control data provides an indication of how much space is available for additional recording; this prevents the possibility of destroying the first set of stripes by recording more than 360° over the area. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 12, a gap 949 longer than one pit-signal frame length is provided between the first set of stripes 923 and the second set of stripes 938; this serves to prevent the previously recorded trimming data from being destroyed. barcode recorded on an optical disk by the above method. The description will also touch on productivity increases. Figure 10 is a block diagram of the playback apparatus already described in (I). In the first-half part (I); the apparatus has been described as an apparatus for reading the position of a marking formed on the reflective film of an optical disk, but hereinafter, the apparatus of Figure 10 will be described as a barcode reading apparatus, that is, a playback apparatus. An explanation will be given again referring to Figure 10, this time focusing on the demodulation operation. First, high-frequency components generated by pits are removed by a low-pass filter (LPF filter) 94 from a stripe signal output. In the case of a DVD, there is a possibility that a maximum 14T signal may be played back, where T = 0.13 µ m. In this case, it has been confirmed by experiment, a stripe signal and a high-frequency component generated by a pit can be separated by using the second-order or third-order Chevihov low-pass filter shown in Figure 35(a). That is, the use of a second- or higher-order LPF has the effect of being able to separate a pit signal and a barcode signal, thus ensuring stable playback of a barcode. Figure 35(b) shows the simulation waveform which is generated when the signal of the maximum 14T Digital data is demodulated by the PE-RZ demodulator 942. The data is then fed to an ECC decoder 928 for error correction. That is, deinterleaving is performed in a deinterleaver 928a, and Reed-Solomon code computation is performed in an RS decoder 928b for error correction.

Claims: An optical disk on which data is recorded and comprising of a location (923) for receiving a barcode-like mark extending in a circumferential direction and having a plurality of bars (923a, 923b...) each extending in a radial direction, characterized in that said optical disk further comprises an identifier (937) for indicating whether a barcode-like mark is present or not on said location (923) of the disk, said identifier (937) being provided in a pit area holding control data (936) said control data including physical feature information regarding said optical disk. An optical disk according to claim 1, wherein one of said bars (923a), where present, has a lower reflectivity than an average reflectivity of an area between said one of said bars (923a) and another of said bars (923b). An optical disk according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said physical feature information includes physical characteristics of said disk. An optical disk reproduction apparatus for use with a disk according to one of claims 1-3 characterized by comprising: reproduction means (9106) for reproducing said barcode-like mark (9103) on said optical disk (9102), identifier detection means (9106) for detecting said identifier (937) on said optical disk, and control means (9107) for controlling a prescribed operation based on the contents of said identifier (937) detected by said identifier detection means (9106), wherein said control means (9107) is arranged to signal to said reproduction means (9106) not to reproduce said barcode-like mark (9103) in response to said identifier (937) indicating absence of said barcode-like mark (9103). An optical disk reproduction apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said reproduction means (9106) includes an optical head for performing reproduction of the data of said disk. An optical disk reproduction apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein a signal is generated which indicates whether or not said identifier (937) indicates presence of said mark (9103). An optical disk reproduction apparatus according to one of claims 4-6, wherein said physical feature information includes physical characteristics of said disk (9102).

Inventors: GOTOH YOSHIHO, KOISHI KENJI, MORIYA MITSURO, OSHIMA MITSUAKI, TANAKA SHINICHI, GOTOH, YOSHIHO, KOISHI, KENJI, MORIYA, MITSURO, OSHIMA, MITSUAKI, TANAKA, SHINICHI
Applicants: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD, MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Application year: 1996
Main classification: G11B7
IPC codes: G11B7, G11B20, G11B23, G11B27, G11B5, G06K1, G06K19, G11B19, G11B13