Patent ID: 7137132

Claim:
An optical pickup comprising: a half mirror; a base made of synthetic resin and having a beam passage hole which penetrates the base and in which the half mirror is disposed, a laser hole communicating with the beam passage hole, a diffraction grating operating hole provided to penetrate a laser hole side wall portion of the base, a laser mounting surface formed around an opening portion of the laser hole, and a notch groove formed in the laser hole side wall portion so as to range from the laser mounting surface to the operating hole; a photodiode disposed in an opening portion at one end of the beam passage hole; a collimator lens and an objective lens disposed in an opening portion at the other end of the beam passage hole; a laser diode disposed in the laser hole; a diffraction grating disposed in the laser hole; a photodiode supporting holder made of metal and attached to the laser mounting surface and having a plurality of radiator fins projecting thereon and a fitting piece integrally formed so as to project thereon and removably fitted into the notch groove, and a lock hole provided to penetrate the holder coaxially with the laser hole; and a radiator plate, wherein the operating hole is defined between a forward end of the fitting piece and an inner end of the notch groove, an operating rod inserted into the operating hole is brought into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the diffraction grating so as to rotate the diffraction grating at a predetermined angle, the laser diode is fitted into the lock hole of the holder while the radiator plate is attached to an outer surface of the holder, so that the laser diode is held between the radiator plate and the holder, screws are screwed down into threaded holes formed in the laser mounting surface, the screws penetrating the radiator plate and the holder so that the radiator plate and the holder are fixed to the base, a recess portion is formed in the laser mounting surface except circumferential edge portions of the threaded holes, so that an air gap is defined between the holder and the base through the recess portion, and a laser beam is projected from the laser diode onto a disk through the diffraction grating, the half mirror, the collimator lens and the objective lens, whereupon the beam reflected from the disk is received by the photodiode through the half mirror so that information recorded in the disk can be read.