Dynamic information storage or retrieval – With particular cabinet structure
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-16
2001-09-25
Miller, Brian E. (Department: 2754)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
With particular cabinet structure
C361S689000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295264
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk device having a cooling fan, in particular, for avoiding waste of power consumption and reducing the operating sound.
This application is based on Patent Application No. Hei 10-202620 filed in Japan, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 4
is a diagram showing the general structure of a conventional optical disk device. This device comprises spindle motor
17
for rotating disk
16
, and optical head
18
for writing or retrieving data of disk
16
. Recently, in such conventional optical disk devices (such as CD-ROM drives or DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) drives), the heat radiated by the optical head
18
or spindle motor
17
has increased more and more.
Recent CD-ROM drives have higher rotational speeds in order to improve their performance and specification, and the heat radiated by the motor also increases. On the other hand, DVD drives employ in their pickup a head radiating a high-intensity laser beam, thereby increasing heating of the head. Therefore, such conventional disk drives must be cooled so as to prevent the optical disk device from heating.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the above problem, an objective of the present invention is to provide an optical disk device having a cooling fan, so that the device can be cooled and thus can be prevented from heating.
Therefore, the present invention provides an optical disk device comprising:
a spindle motor for rotating a disk;
an optical head for writing or retrieving data on the disk;
a cooling fan for cooling the inside of the device;
a motor for rotating the cooling fan;
a controller for outputting a control signal for controlling the rotating operations of the spindle motor and the motor of the cooling fan;
a first driver for adjusting current supplied to the spindle motor by using the control signal from the controller; and
a second driver for adjusting current supplied to the motor of the cooling fan by using the control signal from the controller, and
wherein the cooling fan rotates in proportion to the rotational speed of the spindle motor for rotating the disk.
As the cooling fan is provided in the optical disk device, it is possible to prevent deterioration of the optical head or the disk due to heating of the device. In addition, the cooling fan is rotated in proportion to the rotational speed of the disk; thus, the device can be effectively cooled.
Preferably, the rotational speed of the cooling fan is 1.25 times as fast as the rotational speed of the disk.
Also preferably, if an operation of retrieving data from the disk fails, then the rotational speed of the disk is reduced and the retrieving operation is retried.
Also preferably, while the disk is mounted in the disk drive, if no access is detected for a predetermined time, then the operation of the disk drive is automatically shifted to an energy-saving mode and the rotating operations of the disk and the cooling fan are stopped. In this case, preferably, the energy-saving mode is a stand-by mode or a sleep mode.
Accordingly, when no disk is mounted in the device, or when the disk is not rotated and the optical head is not operated in the stand-by state, the cooling fan is not rotated. Therefore, the consumption of power can be reduced and the operating sound can be reduced.
The present invention also provides an optical disk device comprising:
a spindle motor for rotating a disk;
an optical head for writing or retrieving data on the disk;
a cooling fan for cooling the inside of the device; and
a gear and a shaft attached to the spindle motor in a manner such that the cooling fan is rotated via the shaft in accordance with the rotation of the spindle motor so that the power of the spindle motor is directly used for rotating the cooling fan.
Similar effects can be obtained according to this structure.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4803834 (1989-02-01), Vogel et al.
patent: 5691948 (1997-11-01), Sakabe
patent: 4-90187 (1992-03-01), None
patent: 5-205460 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 7-272476 (1995-10-01), None
patent: 11-15565 (1999-01-01), None
Foley & Lardner
Miller Brian E.
NEC Corporation
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