Patents Represented by Attorney Dickinison Wright PLLC
  • Patent number: RE41918
    Abstract: An optical disc apparatus for recording, reproducing or erasing an information signal by converging a light flux onto a recording layer through a transparent substrate. The apparatus includes one or a plurality of optical heads having a plurality of objective lenses whose aberrations have respectively been corrected for a plurality of disc substrates of different thicknesses, a cartridge for enclosing the optical disc, a discrimination hole which is formed on the cartridge, and a sensor for detecting the opening/closing state of the discrimination hole and for generating a discrimination signal. In accordance with the result of the discrimination as to the thickness of the loaded optical disc, the objective lens, in which the occurrence of the aberration is smallest, is used, so that the information signal can preferably be recorded, reproduced or erased onto/from the optical discs having different substrate thicknesses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Naoyasu Miyagawa, Yasuhiro Gotoh