Patent ID: 7281254

Claim:
An optical disc drive comprising: a tray for mounting thereon a cartridge in which a disc is housed as an information storage medium and which has a positioning hole; a spindle motor for mounting and rotating the disc in the cartridge thereon; a chassis for supporting the tray such that the tray is movable in a first direction which is substantially parallel to the disc being mounted on the spindle motor; an optical head for reading or writing information from/on the disc; a traverse base, which is supported on the chassis so as to rotate around an axis that is defined in a second direction near one end of the chassis in the first direction and which mounts the spindle motor and the optical head thereon, the second direction being substantially parallel to the disc mounted on the spindle motor and perpendicular to the first direction; a traverse holder coupled to the traverse base; a positioning pin, which is provided for the traverse holder and which fits in with the positioning hole of the cartridge, thereby positioning the cartridge; an elevating portion for moving a portion of the traverse holder in a third direction that is defined perpendicularly to the disc in the cartridge; and a first pair of damping members for coupling the traverse holder and the traverse base together near the other end of the chassis in the first direction, the first pair of damping members having elasticity and damping property, wherein the traverse holder is rotatable around an axis which is substantially parallel to the second direction and is mutually different from the axis of the traverse base.