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EP0410704A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Optical recording apparatus

Assignee: Panasonic Holdings Corp
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Filing: 1990-07-25
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2010-07-25
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Abstract

Abstract An optical recording apparatus comprises optical recording mediums (6) each of which comprises a single plate substrate and recording layers which are formed on both sides of the substrate and available for recording and reproduction or for recording, erasing and reproduction with irradiation of laser beams, both surfaces of the recording medium being available for the simultaneous access, and floating type optical thin heads (2) which are provided at every side of the recording mediums and float from the respective surfaces of the recording mediums with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto the recording mediums when the recording mediums are rotated. Combination of these optical recording mediums and optical heads makes it possible to stack plural pairs of them within a thin space, thus improving the on-line capacity of the optical recording apparatus to a great extent.

Inventors

  • 👤 Noboru Yamada
  • 👤 Isao Satoh
  • 👤 Sadao Mizuno
  • 👤 Yasuhiro Gotoh

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-02 19:28
CPC Classifications
G; G11; G11B; G11B7/00; G11B7/24; G11B7/26; G11B7/241; G11B7/252; G11B7/254; G11B7/004; G11B7/0045; G11B7/00454; G11B7/12; G11B7/122; G11B7/14; G11B7/242; G11B7/243; G11B2007/24302; G11B2007/24312; G11B2007/24314; G11B2007/24316; G11B2007/25408; G11B2007/25417; G11B7/257; G11B2007/25705; G11B2007/25706; G11B2007/2571; G11B2007/25715; G11B2007/25716; G11B7/258; G11B7/2595

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 24
Claim 1
Independent Claim 113 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording body comprising plural stacked optical recording mediums each comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable phase changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording body; and (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording mediums and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording mediums with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording mediums when said recording body is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 113 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording body comprising plural stacked optical recording mediums each comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable phase changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording body; and (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording mediums and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording mediums with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording mediums when said recording body is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 106 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording medium comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable phase changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording medium; and (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording medium and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording medium with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording medium when said recording medium is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 106 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording medium comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable phase changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording medium; and (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording medium and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording medium with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording medium when said recording medium is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 131 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording body comprising plural stacked optical recording mediums each comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable phase changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording body; (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording mediums and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording mediums with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording mediums when said recording body is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means; and (d) an air-tight box for encasing therein said optical recording body, said rotating means, and said optical heads.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 131 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording body comprising plural stacked optical recording mediums each comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable phase changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording body; (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording mediums and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording mediums with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording mediums when said recording body is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means; and (d) an air-tight box for encasing therein said optical recording body, said rotating means, and said optical heads.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 123 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording medium comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording medium; (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording medium and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording medium with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording medium when said recording medium is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means; and (d) an air-tight box for encasing therein said optical recording medium, said rotating means, and said optical heads.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 123 words
An optical recording apparatus comprising: (a) an optical recording medium comprising a single plate substrate and recording films which are formed on both sides of said substrate and produce optically detectable changes between plural states corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations; (b) means for rotating said recording medium; (c) floating type optical heads which are provided at both sides of said optical recording medium and float from respective surfaces of said optical recording medium with maintaining specific distances therefrom for irradiating laser beams onto said optical recording medium when said recording medium is driven in a fixed direction by means of said rotating means; and (d) an air-tight box for encasing therein said optical recording medium, said rotating means, and said optical heads.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 88 words
An apparatus of Claim 1 or 3, wherein each surface of said substrate has a continuous groove or a row of signal pits arranged along a spiral line to guide to a desired position said laser laser beam serving as recording and reproducing means, directions of the spiral lines on upper surfaces and on lower surfaces of the plural recording mediums being the same respectively, and directions of the spiral lines of upper and lower surfaces of each of the plural recording mediums being opposite from each other.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 63 words
An apparatus of Claim 2 or 4, wherein each surface of said substrate has a continuous groove or a row of signal pits arranged along a spiral line to guide to a desired position said laser beam serving as recording and reproducing means, directions of the spiral lines on upper and lower surfaces of said optical recording medium being opposite from each other.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 52 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein when signals are recorded on or reproduced from said optical recording medium or body, said rotating means rotates said optical recording medium or body at constant relative linear velocity with respect to said optical heads regardless of positions of said optical heads.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 50 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein said recording layer is composed of a material which produces reversible phase changes between a thermally equibrium phase and a thermally non-equibrium phase or between a thermally non-equibrium phase and another thermally non-equibrium phase corresponding to conditions of laser irradiations.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 24 words
An apparatus of Claim 8, wherein said reversible phase change is produced between an amorphous phase and a crystalline phase of said recording film.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 64 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein said recording layer is a film of a mixture of a first material producing optically detectable changes between plural states according to laser irradiation conditions, and a second material which is optically transparent to said laser beam, having higher melting point than said first material, and containing therein said first material as small particles.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim 64 words
An apparatus of Claim 10, wherein said first material is a phase change material producing reversible phase changes between a thermally equibrium phase and a non-equibrium phase or between a thermally non-equibrium phase and another non-equibrium phase, and changes in optical characteristics of said first material caused as a result of the phase change are detected as signals, thereby carrying out the rewritable recording.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim 24 words
An apparatus of Claim 11, wherein said first material is a material producing reversible phase changes between an amorphous phase and a crystalline phase.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim 46 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein said optical recording medium or body has optically transparent protective layers of a thickness of hundreds µm at most for the top layer of each recording surface, laser beams being irradiated from the protective layer side.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim 29 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein said optical recording medium or body has a dielectric layer formed on at least one of said recording films.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim 24 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein said optical recording medium or body has reflective layers directly formed on said substrates.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim 39 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein each of said optical heads produces a single laser beam as means for information rewriting, and having means for overwriting by modulating the irradiation power of said laser beam.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim 38 words
An apparatus of Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein each of said optical heads comprises a slider, an objective lens, and a deflection prism or mirror, which are made of the same material as a monoblock body.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim 20 words
An apparatus of Claim 17, wherein the numerical aperture of said objective lens is equal to or larger than 0.6.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim 16 words
An apparatus of Claim 13, wherein the protective layer is composed of a DLC thin film.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim 22 words
An apparatus of Claim 17, wherein the surfaces of said sliders faced to said recording medium are coated with DLC thin films.

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