Patent ID: 7154839

Claim:
An optical pickup apparatus, comprising: a fixed optical system having a light source and a collimator lens, and which is fixedly provided within a signal recording and/or reproducing apparatus; a movable optical system having an objective lens, and which is supported such that an optical axis of said objective lens is parallel to a shaft of a spindle motor that rotates an optical disc in said signal recording and/or reproducing apparatus, wherein said objective lens is provided so as to be movable towards or away from the shaft of said spindle motor, a parallel light beam, which is emitted from said light source and then from said fixed optical system via said collimator lens, enters said objective lens, and said light beam is focused by said objective lens onto a signal recording surface of said optical disc rotated by said spindle motor; and light detecting means for detecting a reflected light beam of the light beam that is focused on the signal recording surface of said optical disc by said objective lens, wherein the parallel light beam that enters said movable optical system from said fixed optical system travels through a light path that is parallel to the direction in which said objective lens is movable, and enters said movable optical system from a side of the moveable optical system on which said shaft of said spindle motor is provided.