Patent ID: 7697398

Claim:
An optical pickup device comprising: a light source; a reflective optical element; an objective lens; an electromechanical conversion element which repeatedly expands and contracts with different velocities between an expansion direction and a contraction direction; a driving device including a movable portion which moves in a predetermined direction according to a pattern of expansion and contraction of the electromechanical conversion element; and a movable optical element connected with the movable portion; wherein the optical pickup device conducts at least one of recording and reproduction of information by entering a light flux coming from the light source into the objective lens through the movable optical element and the reflective optical element and by focusing the light flux coming from the objective lens onto each information recording surface of various types of optical information recording media, and wherein when the optical pickup device is divided by a first plane which includes an optical axis of the objective lens and which is perpendicular to an axis of an incident light flux of the light flux coming from the light source, the incident light flux entering the reflective optical element, the electromechanical conversion element is positioned on an opposite side of the first plane with respect to the light source.