Abstract:
The invention relates to a method and system comprising: 
       a detector for obtaining first focus error signal (FES n,1 ) and second focus error signal (FES n,2 ) dependent on radiation in first and second zones in a cross-section of a radiation beam, respectively,    processing means for subtracting said second focus error signal (FES n,2 ) to said first focus error signal (FES n,1 ) so as to generate a spherical aberration signal (SAES n ),    processing means for generating said second focus error signal (FES n,2 ) according to the formula:  
         FES     n   ,   2       =     α   ⁡     [           A   2     -     B   2           A   2     +     B   2         +         C   2     -     D   2           C   2     +     D   2           ]           
 
wherein α is a parameter, and A 2 , B 2 , C 2  and D 2  comprise output signals from a plurality of radiation detection sectors located in said respective second zone.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     This invention relates generally to the field of optical storage systems and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for generating a spherical aberration signal for use in a detection system for detecting a radiation beam travelling from an optical storage medium, such as an optical disc.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Optical data storage systems provide a means for storing great quantities of data on an optical record carrier, such as an optical disc. The data is accessed by focussing a laser beam onto the data layer of the disc and then detecting the reflected light beam. In one known system, data is permanently embedded as marks, such as pits, in the disc, and the data is detected as a change in reflectivity as the laser beam passes over the marks.  
         [0003]     The optical disc storage technology that employs an optical disc with pit patterns as a high-density, large-capacity recording medium has been put into practical use while expanding its applications to digital versatile discs (DVDs), video discs, document file discs and data files.  
         [0004]     In order to improve the recording density of an optical disc further, an increase in the numerical aperture (NA) of an objective lens has been studied recently. The objective lens focuses a light beam on the optical disc to form a diffraction-limited spot. However, spherical aberration (SA), which is caused by an error in thickness of a base material for protecting a data record layer of the optical disc, increases strongly with NA. Thus, as optical storage discs increase in density and the NA of the objective lens becomes higher, the influence due to spherical aberration, arising when the cover layer of the disc deviates from the design value due to small variations in the manufacturing process of the disc or when dual layer discs are used, will increase accordingly, such that there will be distortion in the read-out signal.  
         [0005]     For portable applications, both the disc and the drive should be as small as possible. In order to achieve sufficient data capacity on a small disc, the use of a dual layer disc is quite favourable for this type of application. Referring to  FIG. 1  of the drawings, in such a disc, the first data layer L 0  is located at a depth d below the entrance surface S of the disc, the second layer L 1  is located at a depth d+s. The top layer, of thickness d, is called the cover layer, and the intermediate layer, of thickness s, is called the spacer layer.  
         [0006]     For discs having only a single layer, a fixed amount of spherical aberration can be compensated for by the objective lens producing the converging cone of light, but this is not sufficient for multi-layer discs. The latter type of disc needs compensation for the spherical aberration related to focusing through the spacer layer. This may be achieved by the use of two objective lenses, each of which compensates for spherical aberration in respect of layer L 0  and L 1  respectively. Thus, a typical optical scanning device, in this case, may comprise two objective lenses OL 0  and OL 1  for compensating for spherical aberration in respect of layer L 0  and L 1  respectively, the objective lenses being mounted in an actuator AC, which is the part of the drive that can move in the radial and focus direction in order to keep the scanning spot on track and in focus.  
         [0007]     In all cases, for a high-NA readout system, compensation for spherical aberration is needed in order to increase the tolerances with respect to cover layer thickness variations or when dual layer discs are used, where spherical aberration is the phenomenon whereby the rays in a converging cone of light scanning the disc that make a small angle to the optical axis (inner rays) have a different focal point to that of the rays in the converging cone that make a large angle with the optical axis (outer rays). This results in blurring of the spot and loss of fidelity in reading out the bit stream. The amount of spherical aberration that needs to be compensated for is proportional to the depth of the data layer it is focussed on, and increases strongly with NA. Although a fixed amount of spherical aberration is compensated for by the objective lens producing the cone of light, it follows that a variable amount of spherical aberration needs to be compensated for in a multi-layer disc, and such compensation can be achieved by, for example, adding a spherical aberration generating component to the light path.  
         [0008]     Such spherical aberration compensating means requires a spherical aberration Error Signal (SAES) and such an error signal can be generated as described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,600 and WO 00/39792, both of which arrangements are based on comparing the Focus Error Signal (FES) of the inner rays of the beam with the FES of the outer rays of the beam, bearing in mind that spherical aberration is defined as a focus difference between the inner and outer part of the beam.  
         [0009]     However, problems arise in the case of beamlanding, i.e. if the spot on the detector is replaced relative to the segments of a radiation detector, which introduces an offset in the overall FES as well as the SAES.  
       OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0010]     It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and system for generating a spherical aberration signal, in which the above-mentioned offset is reduced or substantially eliminated.  
         [0011]     In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system comprising: 
        a detector for obtaining first focus error signal (FES n,1 ) and second focus error signal (FES n,2 ) dependent on radiation in first and second zones in a cross-section of a radiation beam, respectively,     processing means for subtracting said second focus error signal (FES n,2 ) to said first focus error signal (FES n,1 ) so as to generate a spherical aberration signal (SAES n ),     processing means for generating said second focus error signal (FES n,2 ) according to the formula:  
         FES     n   ,   2       =     α   ⁡     [           A   2     -     B   2           A   2     +     B   2         +         C   2     -     D   2           C   2     +     D   2           ]           
 
 wherein a is a parameter, and A 2 , B 2 , C 2  and D 2  comprise output signals from a plurality of radiation detection sectors located in said respective second zone. 
       
 
         [0015]     In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system comprising: 
        a detector comprising an inner four-quadrants and an outer four-quadrants intended to detect a radiation in first and second zones in a cross-section of a radiation beam, respectively,     processing means for generating a spherical aberration signal (SAES′ n ) according to the formula:  
         SAES   n   ′     =     α   ⁡     [           A   1     -     A   2     -     B   1     +     B   2           A   1     +     A   2     +     B   1     +     B   2         +         C   1     -     C   2     -     D   1     +     D   2           C   1     +     C   2     +     D   1     +     D   2           ]           
 
 wherein a is a parameter, A 1 , B 1 , C 1  and D 1  comprise output signals from a plurality of radiation detection sectors located in said inner zone, and A 2 , B 2 , C 2  and D 2  comprise output signals from a plurality of radiation detection sectors located in said outer zone. 
       
 
         [0018]     It is also an object of the invention to provide an optical scanning device and an optical storage system using such a system and method.  
         [0019]     Said optical scanning device comprises a radiation source for generating a scanning beam, means for focusing said scanning beam onto an information layer of an optical storage medium, a detection system comprising a plurality of detection sections for receiving a radiation beam reflected from said information layer of said optical storage medium, wherein said device further comprises a system as defined above for generating a spherical aberration signal.  
         [0020]     The present invention extends still further to an optical storage system including an optical scanning device as defined above.  
         [0021]     Thanks to the present invention, a spherical aberration signal is generated which is less sensitive to a non-symmetrical positioning of the light spot on the sub-detectors. Consequently, the focusing of the light spot on the record carrier by the objective lens system can be improved.  
         [0022]     These and other aspects of the present invention will be apparent from, and elucidated with reference to, the embodiments described herein. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0023]     Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0024]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating an optical scanning device according to the prior art for dual layer read-out with a dual lens;  
         [0025]      FIGS. 2   a ,  2   b  and  2   c  are schematic diagrams illustrating light distribution on a quadrant detector according to the known astigmatic focus method;  
         [0026]      FIG. 3  shows an optical beam having spherical aberration;  
         [0027]      FIG. 4   a  illustrates schematically an astigmatic spherical aberration detection system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0028]      FIG. 4   b  is a schematic diagram illustrating an eight-segment detector for generating a spherical aberration signal;  
         [0029]      FIG. 5   a  is a schematic circuit diagram illustrating a system according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0030]      FIG. 5   b  is a schematic circuit diagram illustrating a system according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0031]      FIG. 6  illustrates schematically detector segments in which the width of the inner segments a, the intersection of the spot rim (spot radium is taken to be 1 and the line separating the inner and outer segments defines b=(1−a 2 ) 0.5 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0032]      FIG. 3  shows an optical beam having a spherical aberration. The wavefront of the beam is indicated by the drawn line  1 . If the beam had no spherical aberration, the wavefront would be a spherical surface  2  centred on an axis  3 . Paraxial rays, i.e. rays close to the axis, such as drawn rays  4 ,  5 , come to a focus  6  on the axis. Rays further away from the axis, such as drawn rays  7 ,  8 , come to a focus  9 . Marginal rays, i.e. rays near the rim of the beam, such as the drawn rays  10 ,  11 , come to a focus  12 . A focus detection system arranged in the optical beam and capturing mainly paraxial rays of the beam will detect the focus position close to or equal to the position of paraxial focus  6 . Another focus detection system arranged in the same beam and capturing instead mainly marginal rays will detect a focus position close to or equal to the marginal focus  12 . The difference of the two detected foci is a measure for the sign and magnitude of the spherical aberration.  
         [0033]     The spherical aberration of an optical beam can thus be measured by dividing the beam into a plurality of concentric zones, detecting the focus of each of the zones and determining the spherical aberration from the positions of the foci.  
         [0034]      FIG. 4   a  illustrates schematically a spherical aberration detection system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A lens  15  forms a radiation beam  16  focused on a detector  17 . Beam  16  is made astigmatic by an optical element, which may be the lens  15 . The electrical output signals of the detector are connected to a signal processor  18 . The signal processor supplies a spherical aberration signal S SA , the value of which represents the spherical aberration in the optical beam.  
         [0035]     As illustrated by  FIG. 4   b , the detector  17  has an inner quadrant detector (for detecting an inner zone of a radiation beam) comprising four adjacent sub-detectors A 1 , B 1 , C 1  and D 1 , and an outer quadrant detector (for detecting an outer zone of a radiation beam) comprising four adjacent sub-detectors A 2 , B 2 , C 2  and D 2 . The amount of astigmatism in beam  16  is adjusted to the size of the inner quadrant detector such that the astigmatic spot formed by the paraxial rays in beam  16  falls mainly on the inner quadrant detector, whereas a substantial amount of energy of the focal lines of the marginal rays in beam  16  fall on the outer quadrant detector.  
         [0036]     The electrical output signals of sub-detectors A 1  to D 1 , respectively are combined to form a focus error signal in respect of the paraxial rays, whereas the electrical output signals of sub-detectors A 2  to D 2 , respectively are combined to form a focus error signal in respect of the marginal rays.  
         [0037]     Basically, the inner focus error signals FES 1  and outer focus error signals FES 2  can be defined as:  
               FES   1     =         A   1     -     B   1     +     C   1     -     D   1           A   1     +     B   1     +     C   1     +     D   1                 (     0   ⁢   a     )                 FES   2     =         A   2     -     B   2     +     C   2     -     D   2           A   2     +     B   2     +     C   2     +     D   2                 (     0   ⁢   b     )             
 
 and the overall focus error signal FES and the overall spherical aberration signal are derived as follows:
 
 FES=FES   1   +FES   2 
 
 SAES=FES   1   −FES   2 
 
         [0038]     The system of the present invention achieves the above-mentioned object based on the recognition of the fact that the focusing system may fail to operate correctly because the light spot formed on the detector  17  by the reflected light beam is not always positioned exactly symmetrically relative to the sub-detectors. This non-symmetrical position (also referred to as beamlanding offset) is caused, for example, by the tilting of the mirror for the radial or tangential tracking operations. As a result of this beamlanding offset, an erroneous spherical aberration signal may be derived from the output signals of the sub-detectors, so that the light beam is not focused accurately on the record carrier by the objective lens system.  
         [0039]     According to the invention, the system for generating the spherical aberration signal is arranged and configured such that a spherical aberration signal is generated which is less sensitive to a non-symmetrical positioning of the light spot on the sub-detectors. Consequently, the focusing of the light spot on the record carrier by the objective lens system can be improved.  
         [0040]     The beamlanding induced offset is eliminated according to the invention by independently normalising the inner focus error signal FES n,1  and the outer focus error signal FES n,2  as follows:  
               FES     n   ,   1       =     α   ⁡     [           A   1     -     B   1           A   1     +     B   1         +         C   1     -     D   1           C   1     +     D   1           ]               (     1   ⁢   a     )                 FES     n   ,   2       =     α   ⁡     [           A   2     -     B   2           A   2     +     B   2         +         C   2     -     D   2           C   2     +     D   2           ]               (     1   ⁢   b     )             
 
 wherein a detector  17 , such as that illustrated in  FIG. 4   b , is used to obtain output signals A 1 , B 2 , C 1 , D 1 , A 2 , B 2 , C 2  and D 2 . 
 
         [0041]     The parameter α is advantageously set to 0.5. This has the advantage that during manufacture of the system, detector means including the radiation detection sectors may be adjusted less accurately, so that the system is cheaper to make. Moreover, with such a setting, the sensitivity of the focusing error detection system around the “in focus” condition will then be the same as that of existing reading apparatus.  
         [0042]     The focus error signal FES n  and the spherical aberration error signal SAES n  are then defined as follows:
 
 FES   2   =FES   n,1   +FES   n,2 
 
 SAES   2   =FES   n,1   −FES   n,2   (2)
 
         [0043]     In one exemplary embodiment, only the outer focus error signal FES n,2  is normalized according to (1b). In that case, the inner focus error signal FES n,1  may be normalized according to (0a) or a different way.  
         [0044]     In another exemplary embodiment, so as to ensure that the beamlanding offset is entirely eliminated and further improve the focusing abilities of the objective lens system, the inner focus error signal FES n,1  and the outer focus error signal FES n,2  are normalized according to (1a) and (1b).  
         [0045]      FIG. 5   a  of the drawings illustrates schematically the implementation of (2). Means for subtracting, adding, dividing and multiplying are advantageously performed by processing means, such as a processor.  
         [0046]     Consider now the case of an alternative detector arrangement, wherein the eight segments are shaped as shown in  FIG. 6 , and are arranged and configured such that the width of the segments provided in respect of an inner zone is a, and the intersection b of the spot rim (i.e. the rim of the spot defined by the radiation beam) and the line separating the segments provided in respect of the inner zone from the segments provided in respect of the outer zone defines b=(1−a 2 ) 0.5 . In case of beamlanding, the segments change according to:  
                 A   1     →       A   1     +       (     1   -   b     )     ⁢     ɛ   r       +     a   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       A   2     →       A   2     +     b   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   r       +       (     1   -   a     )     ⁢     ɛ   t       +       ɛ   r     ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       B   1     →       B   1     +       (     1   -   b     )     ⁢     ɛ   r       -     a   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       B   2     →       B   2     +     b   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   r       -       (     1   -   a     )     ⁢     ɛ   t       -       ɛ   r     ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       C   1     →       C   1     -       (     1   -   b     )     ⁢     ɛ   r       -     a   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       C   2     →       C   2     -     b   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   r       -       (     1   -   a     )     ⁢     ɛ   t       +       ɛ   r     ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       D   1     →       D   1     -       (     1   -   b     )     ⁢     ɛ   r       +     a   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   t           ,     
     ⁢       D   2     →       D   2     -     b   ⁢           ⁢     ɛ   r       +       (     1   -   a     )     ⁢     ɛ   t       -       ɛ   r     ⁢     ɛ   t           ,           (   3   )             
 
         [0047]     The normalization of equations (1) also work in this case, although the offsets of the individual segments due to beamlanding are quite different.  
         [0048]     In a second embodiment, signals from inner and outer zones are added and subtracted, then normalized in a different way compared to equations (1). The the focus error signal FES′ n  and the spherical aberration error signal SAES′ n  are thus calculated as follows:  
                 FES   n   ′     =     α   ⁡     [           A   1     +     A   2     -     B   1     -     B   2           A   1     +     A   2     +     B   1     +     B   2         +         C   1     +     C   2     -     D   1     -     D   2           C   1     +     C   2     +     D   1     +     D   2           ]         ⁢     
     ⁢       SAES   n   ′     =     α   ⁡     [           A   1     -     A   2     -     B   1     +     B   2           A   1     +     A   2     +     B   1     +     B   2         +         C   1     -     C   2     -     D   1     +     D   2           C   1     +     C   2     +     D   1     +     D   2           ]                 (   4   )             
 
         [0049]     This has the same effect of eliminating the beamlanding offset, and a corresponding implementation is illustrated schematically in  FIG. 5   b  of the drawings.  
         [0050]     Thus, in summary, the above-described exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method for generating a spherical aberration error signal, the spherical aberration signal being the (possibly weighted) difference between the focus error signals of the inner and outer part of the beam, wherein the inner and outer focus error signals are separately normalized according to equations (1). An embodiment in which the order of normalization and taking the difference signal is reversed is also described.  
         [0051]     It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be capable of designing many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed in parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claims. The word “comprising” and “comprises”, and the like, does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in any claim or the specification as a whole. The singular reference of an element does not exclude the plural reference of such elements and vice-versa. The invention may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In a device claim enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.