Patents by Inventor Saburo Funada

Saburo Funada has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 4858220
    Abstract: A laser controller for an optical data recording/reproducing apparatus includes a detector for detecting an intensity of a laser beam emitted from a laser, a servo controller for comparing the detected value with a reference value and generating a feedback signal in accordance with the difference between the two values, and a drive circuit for supplying a drive signal corresponding to the feedback signal to the laser, and a modulator for modulating the drive signal during recording. Furthermore, the laser controller includes a controller connected to the servo controller, a RAM, a timer, and a temperature sensor which are connected to the controller. When reproduction and erasing are to be performed, the operation of the modulator is stopped, and the drive signal is obtained by feedback control. When erasing is to be performed, a level of the feedback signal is stored in the RAM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 1987
    Date of Patent: August 15, 1989
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Saburo Funada
  • Patent number: 4769801
    Abstract: A focus servo control device has a focus driver for driving an optical system having an objective lens, and a servo control section for detecting that the optical system is within a focus servo control range. A focus servo control loop is formed in response to a detection signal representing that the optical system is in the focus servo control range, and the optical system is driven under servo control until the amount of light reflected by the optical disk is detected as a maximum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: September 6, 1988
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Saburo Funada, Masanori Doi
  • Patent number: 4730294
    Abstract: An optical information-recording/reproducing apparatus comprises a beam-irradiator for irradiating a beam to an optical information-recording medium having a pre-format portion containing an address signal, and a data portion including an area in which information signals are to be recorded, a reflected-beam detector for producing an electric signal corresponding to the reflected beam from the recording medium, an error-signal detector for detecting an error signal for tracking control and/or focussing control of the beam, based on the electric signal, an information signal detector for detecting an information signal to be recorded in the data portion of the recording medium, based on the electric signal, a pre-format portion detector for detecting the pre-format portion of the recording medium, based on the electric signal, an offset-canceller for overlapping the error signal from the error signal detector and a compensation signal corresponding to the substantial difference of DC offset components between
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 8, 1988
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Saburo Funada
  • Patent number: 4706232
    Abstract: The optical recording and reproducing apparatus comprises a magnetic field applying section, a movable mechanism for moving the magnetic field applying section, a distance detecting section for detecting a distance between magnetic poles of the magnetic field applying section and the surface of a recording medium, and a distance control section for maintaining the above distance constant in response to an output of the distance detecting section. The distance between two magnetic pole ends of the magnetic field applying section can be minimized. Further, on the basis of the tracking control of either one of the recording and erasing light beams, it is possible to enable a high-precision tracking control to the other of the two light beams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 1986
    Date of Patent: November 10, 1987
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Saburo Funada, Yoshiro Yoda, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masanori Doi, Kazutake Sugawara
  • Patent number: 4651314
    Abstract: The light beam from a semiconductor laser that generates laser light for recording or reproducing is irradiated onto a disk through an objective lens and the light reflected from the disk is received by a four quadrant light detector with four light receiving areas. Based on the light received by the light receiving areas, first and second feedback signals are generated and fed to servo actuators to control the objective lens in tracking and focusing. These signals are supplied to the actuators for tracking and focusing through switches to apply the tracking servo and focusing servo functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1985
    Date of Patent: March 17, 1987
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shoji Yoshikawa, Saburo Funada