Patents Assigned to Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
  • Optical disk apparatus having guide shaft adjusting mechanism
    Patent number: 8245248
    Abstract: There are provided a disk motor arranged on a chassis, an optical pickup that performs recording and reproducing of a signal from an information recorded surface of an optical disk, a pair of guide shafts arranged on the optical pickup to guide the optical pickup radially of the optical disk, adjustment screw that move at least one ends of the guide shafts in a direction substantially perpendicular to a surface of the chassis, a leaf spring arranged on a frame body to bias the one end of the guide shaft toward the surface of the chassis, and the leaf spring includes a support surface that supports the one end of the guide shaft, and a stopper portion projecting from the support surface to define a clearance between the support surface and the surface of the chassis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Nozomu Harada, Seiji Hamaie, Shinya Asano
  • Optical disk apparatus with an improved track jump performance
    Patent number: 8243565
    Abstract: An optical disk device for recording or reproducing an optical disk has: an objective lens for irradiating a laser beam to the optical disk; an actuator for moving the objective lens in the radial direction of the optical disk; and a spindle motor for rotating the optical disk. After the laser beam irradiated to the optical disk passed through a PID portion of the optical disk, the actuator moves the objective lens in the radial direction of the optical disk at a timing corresponding to a rotational speed. Between signals to drive the actuator, an output time of a deceleration signal is set to a predetermined ratio of a time during which an acceleration signal is outputted. While the deceleration signal is outputted, a light spot passes through the PID portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Takeyoshi Kataoka, Motoyuki Suzuki
  • Optical disk device
    Patent number: 8238222
    Abstract: Proposed is an optical disk device capable of appropriately performing focus control. In an optical disk device, an objective lens is moved in the thickness direction of an optical disk by controlling an actuator and a time interval in which each of the recording layers was detected is measured while moving the objective lens, a first time interval from the first detection of the recording layer to the second detection of the recording layer is compared with a second time interval from the second detection of the recording layer to the third detection of the recording layer, and a focal position of the objective lens is determined based on the comparative result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Takeshi Imai
  • Optical disc apparatus
    Patent number: 8234666
    Abstract: The present application relates to an optical disc apparatus for carrying out at least one of recording and reproduction of signals onto or from a data recording surface of an optical disc loaded in the optical disc apparatus. The optical disc apparatus is capable of being thinned and lightened while ensuring a mechanical strength and a stiffness, and also capable of restraining sticking of a flexible printed circuit (FPC) connected to the optical pickup and reducing the sliding resistance of the FPC during movement of the optical pickup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Nozomu Harada, Seiji Hamaie, Shinya Asano, Hisahiro Miki
  • Optical disk device
    Patent number: 8228780
    Abstract: Proposed is an optical disk device capable of optimally adjusting a current value of a direct current and a high frequency superimposed current for driving a laser diode. This optical disk device includes a laser driver for superimposing a high frequency current on a direct current to obtain a drive current and supplying the drive current to the laser beam source and driving the laser beam source, and a control unit for adjusting a current value of the direct current and/or the high frequency superimposed current supplied by the laser driver to the laser beam source based on the servo signal or the reproduction signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc., Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Manabu Shiozawa
  • Optical disc device and optical disc record reproducing method
    Patent number: 8228768
    Abstract: When record or reproduction quality of an optical disc is deteriorated, an enhancement in the performance is implemented by slowing down record or reproduction speed of the optical disc. However, there still exists a problem of how to select and determine a timing with which the speed is to be modified. In the present invention, the modification of the speed is performed with a seek processing selected and used as its trigger, and depending on various conditions at that time. Simultaneously, information recording area of the optical disc is separated into a plurality of zones. Then, when an optical pickup passes though a zone switching portion therebetween, the seek processing is inserted, thereby being used as the trigger for the speed modification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Takeyoshi Kataoka
  • Optical disc recording apparatus and optical disc recording method
    Patent number: 8228771
    Abstract: In a recording/reproducing apparatus and a recording method, for enabling a high reliability on reproduction data are conducted the followings: recording a test mark within the test aria with a predetermined write strategy; obtaining signal amplitudes corresponding to a front portion, a middle portion, and a rear portion of the test mark, by reproducing the test mark; determining on whether the test mark has a desirable configuration or not, upon basis of at least one of ratios, defined between the amplitude of the front portion and the amplitude of the rear portion, and between the amplitude of the middle portion and the amplitude of the rear portion; correcting the write strategy if it is determined that the test mark has not the desirable configuration; and recording the information within the data area with the write strategy after the correction thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Takuya Himi, Toshiki Ishii, Tsuyoshi Toda
  • Optical disc drive
    Patent number: 8223602
    Abstract: With a high-density optical disc drive, although it is necessary to correct spherical aberrations which depend on a disc substrate thickness error, operation of an aberrations correction element takes time and therefore easy correction according to a disc radius degrades the operability of the apparatus. The present invention comprises an optical pickup unit including an objective lens and an aberrations correction lens, a focus actuator, a tracking actuator, a aberrations correction motor, a seek motor, an aberrations correction lens control module, a radius information detecting module, and a system control module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Seiji Imagawa
  • Disc drive with clearance adjustment member
    Patent number: 8220010
    Abstract: There is provided a disc drive by which the fluid loss of a disc is reduced and the electric power consumption of a spindle motor can be decreased. In the disc drive according to the present invention, a rotation load reducing member is provided between a top cover and the disc. The rotation load reducing member is movably supported by a clearance adjustment member. While the disc is rotating, the rotation load reducing member is moved in the direction approaching the disc. Thereby, the thickness of an air layer on the upper surface of the disc is decreased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Yamauchi, Mitsutaka Shizuya, Tatsumi Uchigiri, Hisahiro Miki, Ikuo Nishida, Shinya Tsubota
  • Servo controller and optical disk device
    Patent number: 8213277
    Abstract: In a servo controller and an optical disk device (FIG. 4), the following performance for disturbance is improved. By disposing a characteristic change section to change a characteristic to improve the following performance for disturbance, the disturbance is detected by use of a signal in a stage after the characteristic change section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc., Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Shinsuke Onoe
  • Optical disc apparatus, driving method of optical disc apparatus
    Patent number: 8208354
    Abstract: An optical disc apparatus, for executing recording or reproducing on an optical disc having at least two recording/reproducing layers, includes an optical pickup, having a sphere aberration compensating portion, an objective lens, a driver portion, and an obtaining portion. The sphere aberration compensating portion sets up a compensation volume corresponding to an intermediate position laying between a deepest layer and a most front layer from the optical pickup, and the driver portion drives the objective lens in a direction approaching to the optical disc in accordance with the set compensation volume. When the sphere aberration compensating portion sets up the compensation volume corresponding to the deepest layer, and when the objective lens is driven in a direction approaching the optical disc, the driver portion drives the objective lens in a direction of separating from the optical disc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Hideki Maruyama, Toshiteru Nakamura
  • Recording device and recording method for optical recording medium
    Patent number: 8203923
    Abstract: It is desired that the overshooting and undershooting of optical pulse waveforms of optical pickups included in optical disk devices be reduced to improve the quality of recording. Among pulses to be recorded, the trailing edge of each last pulse and the leading edge of the subsequent erase top pulse are made to almost coincide with each other. Ratio a/b, where a is the difference between erase top pulse power level Pet and erasing power level Pe and b is the difference between recording power level Pw and the erasing power level Pe, is adjusted to realize an optical pulse waveform with reduced overshooting and undershooting for each of different recording media. Erase top pulse duration Tert is switched according to different recording speeds for different recording media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi -LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Toshio Shoji, Mitsunori Kobayashi
  • Optical disc and optical disc apparatus
    Patent number: 8203919
    Abstract: The invention provides an optical disc apparatus which prevents that a laser beam whose power is set at a read power level causes erroneous data recording or deletion. The optical disc apparatus includes an emission controller which controls an amount of an electrical current that a current supply portion supplies to a laser diode in order to control a level of emission power at which the laser diode emits the laser beam. The emission controller has a function to set levels of the emission power at the following transition processings: a transition processing after a read processing and before a write processing, a transition processing after a write processing and before a read processing, a transition processing between two read processings for respective areas, and a transition processing between two write processings for respective areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc., Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinsuke Izawa, Manabu Shiozawa
  • Optical information recording/reproducing apparatus
    Patent number: 8203924
    Abstract: There is provided an optical information recording/reproducing apparatus having an optical disc drive unit for driving an optical disc mounted, a hologram disc drive unit for driving a hologram disc mounted, a disc discrimination device for discriminating which of an optical disc and a hologram disc was mounted, a selection device of the disc drive unit for selecting an optical disc drive unit, when discriminated to be an optical disc, by the disc discrimination device, while selecting a hologram disc drive unit, when discriminated to be a hologram disc, by the disc discrimination device, and a drive device of the disc drive unit for driving the disc drive unit selected by the selection device of the disc drive unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Takahiro Matsuda
  • Optical disc, optical disc unit and method of controlling the optical disc unit
    Patent number: 8199624
    Abstract: When a laser light focal point, driven by an objective lens, passes through each of a plurality of recording layers of an optical disc, data recorded on the recording layers through which the focal point passes may be deteriorated due to a difference in optical sensitivity for each recording layer or the like. In a focal point position movement in which switching of recording layers is made by a focus error signal, when the focal point position moves from a recording layer on which a laser light is focused to another recording layer which is not adjacent, light intensity or light density at the focal point is reduced in accordance with the recording layer to be passed through, thus deterioration of the data on the optical disc being prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Takahiro Matsuda
  • Optical disc apparatus and optical disc reproducing method
    Patent number: 8194523
    Abstract: An optical disc apparatus includes a light source for emitting laser light, a light source drive unit for driving said light source, an optical element for splitting the laser light into a plurality of light fluxes, an optical element drive unit for controlling the optical element, an element for focusing the laser light onto the optical disc, and a detection unit for detecting the laser light reflected by the optical disc. Reproduction of the optical disc is performed by switching effectiveness and ineffectiveness of a function of splitting the light flux of the optical element, and adjustment of an outgoing laser power is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Manabu Shiozawa
  • Optical disc drive and method of controlling the same
    Patent number: 8189447
    Abstract: An optical disc drive for reading or writing information on a multilayer optical disc having three or more recording layers by irradiating the disc with a light beam includes an optical pickup for irradiating the disc with the light beam, a recording state detector for detecting data recording states at a start point of a focus jump, a transit point or transit points on a recording layer or recording layers to be passed through, and an expected landing point of a focal point of the light beam in a focus jump, and a controller for moving the optical pickup to a position where the recording states are the same at all of the start point, the transit point(s) on the recording layer(s) to be passed through, and the expected landing point if the recording states are different among those points, before starting the focus jump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroharu Sakai, Hajime Nishimura, Shuichi Minamiguchi
  • Data reproducing apparatus
    Patent number: 8185793
    Abstract: A data reproducing apparatus has a nonvolatile memory in addition to a memory for data processing. When data error is uncorrected, data and error correction codes other than uncorrected data are accumulated in the memory for data processing. Corrected data is coupled and repaired, and the repaired data is stored in the nonvolatile memory. It is possible to reproduce data without retry, even if data error is uncorrected when the data of an optical disc is reproduced at the next time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventor: Masayuki Hirabayashi
  • Information detecting apparatus and method
    Patent number: 8179148
    Abstract: Proposed is a highly reliable information detecting apparatus and method. In an information detecting apparatus and method for detecting transmission information a transmission signal in which a burst period of transmitting a burst signal and a space period as a no-signal period are repeated in a pattern according to the subject matter of the transmission information, whether the absolute value of a signal amplitude level of the transmission signal is not less than a first threshold is detected, whether the absolute value of a signal amplitude level of the transmission signal is not less than a second threshold is detected, and whether the amplitude level displacement of the transmission signal is based on noise or the reception of the transmission information is determined based on the detection results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Fukuda, Junichi Iida, Masato Sano, Toshinori Arai
  • Optical disc apparatus
    Patent number: 8181190
    Abstract: In an optical disc apparatus, convex portions are provided on the inner surface of a top cover that covers the top surface side of the apparatus such that the convex portions are directly opposite or directly above a flexible printed circuit board during the slide-in/slide-out movements of a tray. The convex portions are positioned further outwardly from the outer circumference of an optical disc with respect to the rotation center of the optical disc upon completion of the slide-in movement of the tray. The convex portions guide or slide part of the flexible printed circuit board along the tip end surfaces of the convex portions in the direction of the slide-in movement of the tray when the part of the flexible printed circuit board comes into contact with the inner surface of the top cover during the slide-in movement of the tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
    Inventors: Koji Matsumoto, Yosuke Ishizuka