Patent ID: 7295501

Claim:
A focus control apparatus for controlling focus of a laser beam emitted to reproduce information onto an optical disk in which a plurality of recording layers are formed, on the basis of a focus error signal indicative of a deviation amount of the laser beam from a focus state in any of the recording layers, comprising: a light emitting device provided to emit the laser beam; a driver configured to drive the light emitting device in accordance with a drive signal; a servo controller configured to apply the drive signal having an acceleration pulse or a deceleration pulse to the driver to make a focus jump from a first recording layer to a second recording layer; a processor configured to determine whether a level of the focus error signal for the second recording layer reaches a predetermined value for the second recording layer and to lower the predetermined value in the case where the level of the focus error signal does not reach the predetermined value, wherein the servo controller applies the drive signal as a deceleration pulse to the driver in the case where the processor determines that the level of the focus error signal reaches the predetermined value.