Yoshihiro SEKIMOTO, Nobuo OGATA, Yasuo NAKATA, Hideaki SATO and Toshio ISHIKAWA

Corporate Research and Development Group, Sharp Corporation, 2613-1, Ichinomoto-cho, Tenri, Nara 632, Japan

(Accepted September 6, 1994)

In order to miniaturize optical disc drives, it is important to miniaturize and thin the optical pickup. We have developed two new optical parts: the hologram laser and the actuator. By optimizing the hologram pattern of the hologram laser, optical path length is shortened. The frequency characteristics of the actuator have been stabilized by improving the damping characteristics. Thus, we have developed a compact optical pickup for Mini Disc drives, and the pickup shows high performance when it reads out an optical disc.

Key words : pickup, hologram, diffracted beam, actuator, miniaturization