Patent ID: 7870572

Claim:
An object lens driving apparatus comprising: a lens holder so supported that said lens holder is movable toward and away from a surface of a recording medium, said lens holder holding an object lens so that said object lens faces said surface of said recording medium, a focusing coil fixed in the interior of said lens holder so that said focusing coil surrounds an optical axis of said object lens, said focusing coil generating a driving force for moving said lens holder toward and away from said recording medium, and an insertion opening formed on an outer wall of said lens holder parallel to said optical axis, said insertion opening being provided for inserting said focusing coil into said lens holder, wherein said optical axis defines the Z-axis of an orthogonal X-Y-Z coordinate system, said lens holder and said focusing coil, as wound, each having a length running in the X direction and a width running in the Y direction in a plane parallel to the XY plane, the length and width of said focusing coil, as wound, being smaller than the length and width, respectively, of said lens holder.