Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Condition indicating – monitoring – or testing – Including radiation storage or retrieval
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-13
2003-08-05
Huber, Paul W. (Department: 2653)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Condition indicating, monitoring, or testing
Including radiation storage or retrieval
C369S044270
Reexamination Certificate
active
06603720
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an optical disc discriminating system, in particular to a system for discriminating a read-only disc such as a DVD-ROM (Digital Video Disc-Read Only Memory) and a writable disc such as a DVD-R (Digital Video Disc-Recordable).
FIG. 7
indicates a conventional system for discriminating the types of different optical discs to determine if it is a read-only disc such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) or a writable disc such as a CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable).
In
FIG. 7
, a reference character D is an optical disc to be discriminated,
101
is an optical pickup,
102
is a spindle motor for rotating the optical disc D,
103
is a motor control circuit for controlling the rotation of the spindle motor
102
,
104
is a head amplifier,
105
is a servo circuit,
106
is an information pit detector,
107
is a CPU (Central Processing Unit).
The optical disc D to be discriminated is mounted on a turntable (not shown) of the spindle motor
102
which rotates in accordance with a control signal from the motor control circuit
103
. The motor control circuit
103
, in accordance with a command from the CPU
107
, compares a pulse signal (FG) having a frequency proportional to the motor rotation speed, with another pulse signal (FG) indicating a rotation speed previously set by a setting section
171
of the CPU
107
, so as to produce a frequency difference between these two pulse signals. Then, a control signal for rendering the frequency difference to become zero is fed to the spindle motor
102
. In this manner, a servo loop is formed for controlling the rotation of the optical disc D. Therefore, the optical disc D which is to be discriminated later is controllably rotated at a speed previously set by the CPU
107
.
On the other hand, a laser beam irradiating from the optical pickup
101
is reflected on the recording surface of the optical disc D (to be discriminated), a reflection diffraction light bearing the information from the optical disc D is received by a photodetector (not shown) of the optical pickup
101
. Then, the reflection diffraction light is converted into an electric signal to be fed to the head amplifier
104
. The head amplifier
104
processes the above electric signal so as to first produce and then amplify a RF signal and an error signal to be used in focusing control/tracking control. The amplified signals are fed to the servo circuit
105
and the information pit detector
106
. The servo circuit
105
, in view of an error signal applied hereto and in accordance with an command from the CPU
107
, produces a servo control signal for controlling a slid motor (not shown) which may effect a radial movement of the optical pickup
101
, a focus actuator (not shown) and a tracking actuator (not shown) both of which are contained in the optical pickup
101
. Further, the servo circuit
105
produces a tracking lock signal (indicating a condition determined by a tracking control operation after the tracking servo loop is closed) to the information pit detector
106
. The information pit detector
106
extracts an envelope of the RF signal, and determines whether the envelope has a higher level than a predetermined level. If the envelope has a higher level than a predetermined level, the pit detector
106
produces a signal (indicating that the optical disc D has formed thereon information pits) to the CPU
107
.
The types of different optical discs may be discriminated with the use of the system of
FIG. 7
in a manner which will be described in detail below.
At first, the CPU
107
gives a command to the servo circuit
105
to drive a slide motor (not shown) so as to move the optical pickup
101
in a radial direction to a position corresponding to a TOC (Table of Contents) area on the optical disc D. Then, the CPU
107
produces a command signal to the motor control circuit
103
to cause the optical disc D to rotate in a predetermined speed. Subsequently, a laser beam is emitted from the optical pickup
101
, a focus control and a tracking control are effected by means of the servo circuit
105
such that the laser beam is converged on the information recording surface of the optical disc D and trace along information tracks thereon. After that, if the pit detector
106
has produced a signal indicating that the optical disc D has information pits formed thereon, it is determined that the optical disc D is a read-only CD or a finalized CD-R which does not contain any unrecorded portions. On the other hand, if the pit detector
106
does not produce such a signal, it is determined that the optical disc D is a CD-R which contains un-recorded portions.
A principle for discriminating the types of different optical discs in the above system of
FIG. 7
may be explained as follows.
Namely, a CD-ROM or a finalized CD-R, which is a read-only optical disc, has formed in its TOC area a lot of pits representative of TOC information. Thus, when tracks are traced a RF signal will be read out which has an envelope whose level will be higher than a predetermined level, thereby producing a signal indicating that pits have been detected. On the other hand, a CD-R which contains unrecorded portions has not formed in its TOC area any pits representative of TOC information (because contents to be recorded have not yet been finally decided and thus the disc itself has not been finalized), although when tracks are traced a RF signal will be read out, an envelope of the RF signal will have a level which equals to zero, hence failing to produce any signal indicating that pits have been detected.
Recently, there has been developed a further advanced optical disc such as a read-only DVD-ROM (Digital Video Disc-Read Only Memory) which has a much larger information recording capacity and a higher recording density than a read-only CD. Also, there have been developed further advanced writable optical discs including a DVD-R (Digital Video Disc-Recordable), DVD-RAM (Digital Video Disc-Random Access Memory), which have an identical signal format as the read-only DVD-ROM but can optionally record movies or music a user has selected. Further, it has been suggested that a general system be designed to enable the DVD, DVD-R and DVD-RAM to be used so as to perform recording or reproducing on only one recording/reproducing device. With such a general system, it is necessary to discriminate the types of different optical discs so as to perform a desired changeover into an equivalent circuit having a characteristic corresponding to an optical disc to be used for recording or reproducing.
However, as shown in
FIG. 8
, when pit height or groove depth of an optical disc is &lgr;/4n (&lgr; is a wave length of a laser beam, n is an index of refraction of a substrate of an optical disc), an RF signal from the optical disc will reach a maximum level, thus a C/N (Carrier to Noise) of the RF signal is in its optimum condition. On the other hand, a push-pull signal (tracking error signal) indicating a difference between two outputs from a two-section (equally divided) photo-detector will become maximum when pit height or groove depth is &lgr;/8n, but will become minimum when the height or the depth is &lgr;/4n.
Where an optical disc is a CD-ROM, a pit height or a groove depth is designed to be &lgr;/6n, so as to obtain a RF signal having a level equal to or higher than a predetermined value, and at the same time to surely perform a tracking control using a push-pull signal.
Where an optical disc is a DVD-ROM, since its recording density is seven times as high as a CD-ROM, an optical pickup, which is to be used in the above-described general system, has to be designed with an extremely high precision so as to meet the requirements prescribed in MTF (Modulation Transfer Function). In order to reduce a burden on the designing of such an optical pickup which is for use in the general system, the height of the pits formed on the DVD-ROM is designed to be &lgr;/4n so as to obtain a RF signal having an optimum signal quality. Consequently, as a t
Kuroda Kazuo
Taniguchi Shoji
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn
Huber Paul W.
Pioneer Electronic Corporation
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