Patent ID: 7136332

Claim:
An optical pickup device, which reads information recorded on a CD and DVD disc using laser beams having wavelengths corresponding to each disc, comprising: a semiconductor laser having a plurality of light emitters emitting laser beams having different wavelengths selectively; a photodetector which receives said laser beams; and an optical system which guides laser beams reflected by said discs into said photodetector as well as guides said laser beam emitted from said semiconductor laser into said discs; wherein said optical system includes an astigmatism element giving an astigmatism to said laser beam, a diffraction element generating a pair of sub-beams for tracking control of a CD in addition to main-beams from said laser beam, and lenses converging laser light; wherein said photodetector includes a multi-separation photoreceptor installed respectively corresponding to a plurality of laser beams having different wavelengths and a pair of sub-beams photoreceptors; wherein lenses of said optical system are disposed with reference to the main beam for a DVD; wherein said semiconductor laser is disposed such that a long axis of an elliptic main beam which is emitted from each light emitter for a CD and a DVD and is irradiated on a disc is located at 35°±5° in a radius direction of the corresponding disc which is defined as 0° when the long axis is in the radius direction and 90° when it is in a track direction; and wherein each separation photoreceptor for a CD and DVD of said photodetector is disposed such that the irradiation position of said each main beam onto a reproduction disc comes in contact with a line tilted to the direction perpendicular to the track tangential line.