Patent ID: 7027369

Claim:
An optical pickup apparatus which serves to focus the spots (M, E, F, G, H, I and J) lining up in a single file of a plurality N of light beams onto a plurality N of adjacent tracks of a recording medium ( 34 ) and detect a plurality N of reflected lights from said tracks, whereby simultaneously reading out a plurality N of pieces of data recorded on said tracks, where N is an integer more than two, said apparatus comprising: (a) objective spot forming means ( 30 ) for forming each spot (M, E, F, G, H, I, and J) of said plurality of light beams entered via a collimator ( 28 ), on each track of said recording medium ( 34 ); (b) a plurality N of adjacent photodetectors ( 52 M, 52 E, 52 F, 52 G, 52 H, 52 I, and 52 J) lining up in a single file, each provided for each spot (M to J) for receiving reflected light of each spot (M to J), the reflected light having passed through said objective spot forming means ( 30 ), said collimator ( 28 ), and focus adjusting means ( 50 ) in this order; and (c) a chassis ( 70 ) mounted with said collimator ( 28 ), wherein said focus adjusting means ( 50 ) and said series of adjacent photodetectors ( 52 M to 52 J) are supported respectively by a focus adjusting means support member ( 72 ) and a photodetector support member ( 78 ) formed separately from said chassis ( 70 ), and the focus adjusting means support member ( 72 ) and the photodetector support member ( 78 ) are movable along a direction of an optical axis ( 66 ), and these members ( 72 , 78 ) are fixed to said chassis at positions along an optical axis, the positions being visually confirmed that the reflected light of each spot (M to J) becomes incident upon a corresponding one of said photodetectors ( 52 M to 52 J).