Patent ID: 8743672

Claim:
An optical disk manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a phase-change optical disk having at least one recording layer including an identification information recording region for recording identification information of the optical disk, an inner peripheral region disposed on the inside in a radial direction of the identification information recording region, and an outer peripheral region disposed on the outside in the radial direction of the identification information recording region, said apparatus comprising: a laser beam irradiation component that directs a laser beam at the at least one recording layer of the optical disk; a movement mechanism that moves the laser beam irradiation component in a radial direction of the optical disk; a rotation mechanism that rotates the optical disk; and a controller that controls the laser beam irradiation component, the movement mechanism, and the rotation mechanism; wherein, according to a command from the controller, the laser beam irradiation component irradiates the recording layer with a laser beam at a first power level, required to crystallize the recording layer, while the rotation mechanism is rotating the optical disk; the movement mechanism (i) changes a movement speed of the laser beam irradiation component from a first speed to a second speed at a first radial position located within a range where the laser beam irradiation component moves from the inner peripheral region of the optical disk to the identification information recording region, and (ii) changes the movement speed of the laser beam irradiation component from the second speed to a third speed at a second radial position at which the laser beam irradiation component has reached the identification information recording region at the second speed, the second speed is set to be lower than the first speed and the third speed, and the laser beam irradiation component records the identification information by irradiating with a laser beam while alternating between the first power level and a second power level that is low enough not to crystallize the recording layer, when moving through the identification information recording region, the movement mechanism (i) changes the movement speed of the laser beam irradiation component from the third speed to a fourth speed at a third radial position at which the laser beam irradiation component has moved from the identification information recording region to the outer peripheral region, and (ii) changes the movement speed of the laser beam irradiation component from the fourth speed to a fifth speed at a fourth radial position located within a range where the laser beam irradiation component moves through the outer peripheral region at the fourth speed, and the fourth speed is set to be lower than the first speed, the third speed, and the fifth speed.