Patent ID: 8116177

Claim:
An optical pickup, comprising: a moving base configured to move in a radial direction of a disc-shaped recording medium mounted on a disc table; and an objective-lens driving device disposed on the moving base, wherein the optical pickup irradiates the disc-shaped recording medium on the disc table with a laser beam through an objective lens, the laser beam being emitted from a light source and reflected by a rising mirror, the objective-lens driving device includes a fixed block fixed to the moving base, a movable block having the objective lens and a lens holder configured to hold the objective lens, the lens holder having an optical-path opening through which the laser beam emitted from the light source to be incident on the rising mirror passes, the movable block being movable with respect to the fixed block in at least a focusing direction in which the movable block moves toward and away from a recording surface of the disc-shaped recording medium and a tracking direction which is substantially a radial direction of the disc-shaped recording medium, a plurality of support springs configured to connect the fixed block and the movable block to each other, a focusing magnetic circuit configured to move the movable block in the focusing direction and including a first focusing coil, a second focusing coil, a first focusing magnet, and a second focusing magnet, and a tracking magnetic circuit configured to move the movable block in the tracking direction and including a tracking coil and a tracking magnet, an optical path of the laser beam that passes through the optical-path opening in the movable block extends in a tangential direction which is perpendicular to both the focusing direction and the tracking direction, the first focusing coil includes a first thrust-generating portion and a second thrust-generating portion that generate thrusts when the movable block is to be moved in the focusing direction, and is attached to the lens holder such that the first thrust-generating portion and the second thrust-generating portion are spaced from each other in the tangential direction, the second focusing coil is attached to a surface of the lens holder that faces the fixed block such that an axial direction of the second focusing coil coincides with the tangential direction, and the first focusing magnet and the second focusing magnet are arranged in the tangential direction with the movable block disposed therebetween.