Patent ID: 8125861

Claim:
An optical disk device, comprising: a pickup for irradiating laser light upon an optical disk having a plurality of information recording layers, and for detecting light reflected therefrom; an offset means for generating a focus error signal on the basis of the reflected light detected by the pickup, and for applying to the focus error signal an offset voltage specifying an adjusted voltage value; a focus servo means for shifting the lens towards and away from an information recording surface of a predetermined layer of the information recording layers, on the basis of an offset focus error signal, thus performing focus servo control to focus the laser light upon the information recording surface, the offset focus error signal being the focus error signal to which the offset voltage has been applied by the offset means; and a layer jump means for performing a layer jump operation in which the lens is shifted from a position in which focus servo control is being performed upon a first layer, to a position in which focus servo control is performed upon a second layer, wherein the layer jump operation includes the following four operations: a kick start operation of, when the level of the offset focus error signal passers through a first threshold value, accelerating the lens towards or away from the information recording surface; a kick end operation of, when the level of the offset focus error signal passes through a second threshold value, stopping the acceleration driving of the lens; a brake start operation of when the level of the offset focus error signal passes through a third threshold value, accelerating the lens in a direction which is opposite to the direction in which the lens is moving due to the stopping of acceleration driving; and a brake end operation of when the level of the offset focus error signal passes through a fourth threshold value, stopping the acceleration driving of the lens, wherein before performing the layer jump operation, the layer jump means changes the value of the second threshold value or the value of the third threshold value, according to the value of the offset voltage, and wherein the optical disk device further comprises a prohibition means for prohibiting the layer jump means from changing the value of the second threshold value or the value of the third threshold value.