Patent ID: 6871351

Claim:
A disc driving apparatus, comprising: a housing of a disc drive: a rotation mechanism disposed within said housing for rotating a disc; an optical pickup mechanism disposed within said housing for reproducing or reproducing/recording information on the disc; wherein said optical pickup mechanism has an optical pickup and a driving mechanism for driving said optical pickup in a radial direction of said disc; said optical pickup comprises a pickup housing made of metal, in which are mounted a laser diode emitting detection light for reproducing or recording information on said disc, a laser driver circuit board for controlling said laser diode, an objective lens driver for guiding the detection light to a predetermined position on said disc and for guiding reflection light from said disc onto an optical detector, optical parts including a lens, a prism, a mirror, and said optical detector for detecting said detection light; and said laser diode and said laser driver circuit board are mounted in thermal contact with said pickup housing so as to be disposed adjacent to each other, while providing a thermal separation portion for thermally separating said laser diode and said laser driver circuit board; wherein said thermal separation portion comprises a dividing portion formed with either one of a slit portion or a recess gutter, for dividing said pickup housing, disposed between said laser diode and said laser driver circuit board, and a heat separation member disposed in said dividing portion.