Patent ID: 7613097

Claim:
An optical pickup apparatus which performs recording/reproduction or deletion of information on an optical recording medium, said apparatus comprising: a light-emitting unit, in which n sources are integrated, n being equal to or greater than 2; a light-condensing unit operable to condense, onto the optical recording medium, each light emitted by said light-emitting unit; an optical unit which includes a plurality of outgoing light areas each outgoing light area divides a corresponding one of lights condensed and reflected from the optical recording medium; and a light-receiving unit operable to detect the divided reflected light, wherein said optical unit includes n division lines each of which extends in a tangential direction of the optical recording medium with respect to a corresponding one of the light sources, and each of which serves as a boundary between outgoing light areas at a position where the division line intersects an optical axis of the reflected light, said optical unit is divided into n+1 light outgoing areas by the n division lines, and said light-receiving unit includes n+1 received light detection areas each of which independently detects the reflected light divided by each of the n+1 light outgoing areas, and is operable to determine, for each light source, a differential signal based on a difference between a signal from a received light detection area which detects a light divided by a light outgoing area included in one of two sets of the light outgoing areas and a signal from a received light detection area which detects a light divided by a light outgoing area included in the other one of the two sets of the light outgoing areas, the two sets of the light outgoing areas being located at a different side of the division lines corresponding to each light source.