JP2001184639A - Recording medium and its driving mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording medium which can be miniaturized and have large capacity and its driving mechanism. SOLUTION: A recordable area is expanded by forming a recording area having no through-holes. The driving device for the recording medium holds, fixes and rotates the recording medium having no through-holes by a rotating member and a fixing member.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to a recording medium and a driving mechanism thereof, and more particularly to a recording medium having a novel shape and a driving mechanism thereof. The present invention is suitable for, for example, next-generation small optical disks.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, optical disks have been developed and put into practical use as large-capacity, high-density information recording media. Also,
Further large capacity is required to store image files and moving image files, and miniaturization of optical disks is required to improve portability. An optical disk is a recording medium that uses laser light for recording and / or reproducing data, and includes a magneto-optical disk. Such an optical disk is
Generally, it is used as an audio disk, a video disk, a large-capacity image file, and an auxiliary storage device of a computer.

[0003] Optical discs are basically made of plastic,
It has a disk-shaped substrate made of glass or the like. On the board,
A concentric or spiral groove called a guide groove or a recess called a pit is formed. When the groove or the pit is formed, the upper surface is covered with the recording layer. A protective film is formed on the uppermost surface. As a result,
The optical disc has a laminated structure including a substrate, a recording layer, and a protective film.

A typical conventional optical disk has a through hole called a clamp at the center of the disk. The clamp has a through hole and a transparent part. The drive mechanism of the optical disk uses the clamp unit to fix and rotate the recording medium. In particular,
The through hole is mainly used for fixing the optical disk, and the transparent part is mainly used for holding. Therefore, the clamp section cannot be a recording area, but is a non-recording area. Usually, even if the optical disk has a small diameter, the area occupied by the clamp portion cannot be reduced in proportion to the small diameter. At the time of manufacturing an optical disc, the recording layer and the protective film are applied by spin coating so as to avoid the clamp portion.

[0005] The drive mechanism of the optical disk has, for example, a structure as shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating the structure of an optical disk drive mechanism 200e according to an exemplary embodiment.
The drive mechanism 200e includes a spindle 210e and a clamp 220e. Spindle 210e
Is a holding member having a rotating shaft, and has a holding portion 212e and a fixing portion 214e. According to FIG.
2e is provided in a transparent portion of the clamp portion (a portion distant from the rotation axis of the spindle by a prescribed distance), and
b is held from below. The fixing portion 214e is provided at the center of the spindle, and has a size inscribed in the through hole of the clamp portion of the optical disc 100b. When the holding section 212e contacts the optical disc 100b, the fixing section 214e enters the inside of the through hole and fixes the optical disc 100b. The optical disk 100b is fixed without eccentricity by the operation of the fixing portion 214e. The clamp 220e is a member that presses and fixes the optical disc 100b from the upper surface, and has a fastening portion 222e corresponding to the holding portion. As shown in FIG. 7, the retaining portion 222e is provided above the holding portion 212e via the optical disc 100b. This allows
This enables the optical disc 100b to be held and fixed perpendicular to the rotation axis. Further, since the holding portion 212e and the retaining portion 222e are provided in the transparent portion of the optical disc 100b, vibration or movement of the disc 100b during rotation is prevented.

[0006]

The above-mentioned optical disk has a clamp for a drive mechanism at the center. However, when the size of the optical disk is reduced, there is a problem that the ratio of the recordable area occupying the disk surface decreases due to the presence of the clamp portion which is a non-recording area. That is, even if the optical disk is downsized, the non-recording area occupied by the clamp unit cannot be easily reduced in size, so that only the recordable area decreases and the recording capacity decreases. As a result, it has been difficult to manufacture a small-sized and large-capacity optical disk.
Further, since the recording layer and the protective film are not formed in the region occupied by the clamp portion, it is difficult to form a uniform layer and film by coating the region except the clamp portion.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a new and useful recording medium and a drive mechanism thereof for solving such a conventional problem.

More specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium which can be reduced in size and increase in capacity, and a drive mechanism thereof.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a recording layer and a protective film can be easily applied and formed, and a drive mechanism for the recording medium.

In order to achieve the above object, a recording medium according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes a disk-shaped substrate having no through-hole, a recording layer provided on the substrate and forming a recording area. Having. In such a recording medium, it is possible to increase the recording capacity by allocating a conventional through-hole area to a recordable area.

Further, a driving mechanism according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes a rotating portion for rotating a recording medium having no through hole, and a supporting portion for rotatably supporting the recording medium. Such a driving mechanism can drive a recording medium having no through hole.

[0012] A recording apparatus as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a driving mechanism as described above, a head for recording and / or reproducing the recording medium, and a signal processing unit connected to the head and processing the output of the head. Device. Such a recording apparatus can exhibit the same operation as the above-described driving mechanism.

Other objects and further features of the present invention will be made clear by the embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an optical disc 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, FIG. 1 shows an optical disc 1 as an exemplary embodiment.
00 is a plan view of FIG. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the optical disc 100 of FIG. FIG. 2 shows, for example, a single-sided recording type rewritable optical disc 100 having a diameter of 50 mm or less and a substrate thickness of 0.6 mm or less. The same reference numerals denote the same members or steps, and a duplicate description will be omitted. In each of the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same members, and a duplicate description will be omitted. In addition, the same reference numerals with an uppercase alphabet added generally indicate a modified example, and unless otherwise specified, reference numerals without an alphabet refer to all reference numerals with an alphabet.

[0015] As shown in FIG.
It has a data area 110 and a holding unit 120. Further, the data area 110 may be provided with a groove 130 or a pit 140 (not shown).
The disc 100 can read information by irradiating the data area 110 with a laser beam and detecting the magnitude of the reflected light amount that changes depending on the presence or absence of the pit 140. The optical disc 100 can have a management area. The management area is, for example, an area in which the head of the optical disk drive first accesses the optical disk 100, and is an area that the user cannot access. "Inaccessible" means that access is not possible when the user uses a normal optical disk drive, for example, when the user modifies the drive or uses the same equipment as the manufacturer It should be noted that this does not always mean that rewriting is impossible.

The data area 110 is an area that can be used by the user, and the optical disc 100 can use this area to record and / or reproduce video information, audio information, text information, software and other information (user data). it can. As shown in FIG. 1, the data area 110 extends to a portion that was a conventional clamp portion, and the recordable area is larger than before.

The holding unit 120 records and / or records an optical disc.
Or, it is provided at the center of the optical disc in order to rotatably support the drive mechanism during reproduction. However, depending on the driving mechanism used (for example, the driving mechanism 200 described later), the holding unit 120 may store the data area 110 (that is, the data area 110).
It can be used as a recordable area. Therefore, the drive mechanism 200 can be used as both a non-recording area and a recordable area. The holding portion is a region corresponding to a part of the conventional clamp portion, but a region smaller than the conventional clamp portion having the through hole and the transparent portion (for example, less than half of the conventional clamp portion) is sufficient. . The drive mechanism 200 for driving the optical disc 100 of the present invention is shown in FIG.
It will be described later with reference to FIGS.

The groove 130 is a concentric or spiral guide groove. Such a guide groove or a space between the guide grooves is called a track, and information is recorded along the track. The track pitch is usually about 1.5 μm, but the track is becoming narrower in order to increase the recording density. The pit 140 is a concave portion mainly provided on a read-only optical disk, and is formed on a track. Pit 140
Since the reflection of the laser beam differs depending on the presence or absence of the laser beam, information can be read by detecting the magnitude of the reflected light amount.
The information is represented by the length and interval of the pit 140.

Referring to FIG. 2, the optical disc 100 includes:
Substrate 150, concave portion (dent) 160, recording layer 170
And a protective film 180. Substrate 150
Has optical characteristics such as high transmittance and low birefringence due to reciprocation of laser light during recording and reproduction. In this embodiment, the substrate 150 is made of, for example, a disc-shaped polycarbonate resin (PC) having a thickness of 0.6 mm or less. However, the present invention is not limited to this. PC / AB
S, a transparent material such as an acrylic resin (such as polymethyl methacrylate), glass, or a polyolefin resin may be used. The substrate 150 has the data recording area 11 described above.
An information pattern such as 0 (signal surface on which information is recorded) is formed by a preformat. A recording layer described later is formed on the information pattern.

The recess 160 is a part of the substrate 150 and corresponds to a part of a conventional clamp portion. The recess 160 is held and fixed by a drive mechanism 200 described later. Although the concave portion 160 has a columnar shape at the center of the substrate 150, the shape is not limited to this and may be a shape corresponding to the shape of the driving mechanism, such as a tapered shape. The recess 160 is formed simultaneously with the injection molding of the substrate 150.

The substrate 150 having the recess 160 is manufactured by an injection molding method. In the substrate 150 of the present invention, a pin gate at the time of injection molding is provided in the concave portion 160, and the molding proceeds so as to have the groove 130 (and the pit 140) from the inner peripheral portion to the outer peripheral portion. Generally, a plastic substrate obtained by an injection molding method tends to have a large substrate birefringence at an inner peripheral portion. That is, the substrate is distorted as it approaches the inner periphery where the injection gate is located. Since such distortion greatly affects the information recording portion such as the groove 130, it becomes more difficult to maintain good recording / reproducing characteristics as it approaches the inner peripheral portion. But,
In the present invention, since the pin gate is provided closer to the center (inner peripheral portion) than in the prior art, it is possible to reduce the substrate birefringence generated in the inner peripheral portion. As a result, good recording / reproducing characteristics can be maintained even in the inner peripheral portion.

The diameter of the recess 160 may change with changes in the ambient temperature and humidity of the outside air.
In order to maintain good fitting accuracy with 00, it is preferably 8 mm or less, more preferably 5 mm or less. The depth of the recess 160 is preferably 0.4 mm or more for the same reason as the case of the diameter. Thus, the recess 1
By providing 60, at least the area occupied by the conventional clamp portion can be suppressed to about half.

The material used for the recording layer 170 differs depending on the recording method. In this embodiment, for example, a TbFeCo-based material protected by a dielectric layer is used.
An nSbTe-based material, a TbFeCo-based material, or the like can be alternatively used. The rewritable optical disc 100 used in this embodiment uses the phase change recording layer 170.
The recording by the phase change is performed by irradiating the recording layer 170 in a crystalline state with a relatively strong laser beam (for example, about 11 mW) for a short time to raise the temperature of the recording layer 170 to a high temperature (about 600 ° C.) to be melted. This is done by quenching later. Due to the rapid cooling, the recording layer 170 becomes amorphous and the reflectance decreases. The recording is erased by irradiating the recorded area with a laser beam of medium intensity (for example, about 6 mW), heating to a temperature slightly higher than the crystallization temperature, and gradually cooling to crystallize. . The reflectance is restored by crystallization. At the time of reproduction, the fact that the reflectance differs between the crystalline state and the amorphous state is used. At the near-infrared wavelength, the crystalline state has a reflectivity higher by about 20%. The intensity of the laser beam during reproduction is adjusted to about 1/10 of that during recording (for example, about 1.5 mW).

The protective film 180 is provided to protect the recording area. In this embodiment, the protective film 180 is made of an acrylic ultraviolet curable resin and has a thickness of about 10 μm. As another material of the protective film 180, for example, a transparent silicon-based or epoxy-based resin can be used.

The recording layer 170 and the protective film 180 are formed by, for example, a spin coating method. Here, the spin coating method is a method in which a liquid material (the recording layer 170 or the protective film 180) is dropped on a substrate 150 rotating at a high speed, and the material is spread on the substrate using the centrifugal force. is there.
Since the optical disc 100 of the present invention has no through hole,
A liquid material can be dropped on the center of the optical disc 100,
It is possible to easily apply a uniform layer on the entire disk surface by spin coating. As a result, the high-quality recording layer 170 and the protective film 180 having a uniform thickness can be easily formed, and cost and work time can be reduced. In addition, in the formation of the thin film,
A sputtering method or the like is also used.

The optical disc 100 is roughly classified into a read-only type, a write-once type, and an erasable (rewritable) type depending on the recording method. The read-only optical disk is a music CD (C
D-DA) and LD, the user cannot write information, but once a master is manufactured, any number of copies can be made from it. Therefore, it is most suitable as a large distribution type media. Write-once CD-R
(CD-recordable) and DVD-R adopt a method of forming a burn mark (pit) on a recording layer with a laser. This method is suitable for storing and storing important data because it is not possible to overwrite an area once recorded. CD-RW (CD-rewritable),
Rewritable types such as DVD-RAM and magneto-optical disk (MO) use a phase change method or a laser beam and a magnetic field, and new information can be repeatedly written in a once-recorded area. .

The drive mechanism 200 of the optical disc 100 according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing the structure of a driving mechanism 200a as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of a drive mechanism 200b as an exemplary embodiment of FIG. Each of the drive mechanisms 200a and 200b (hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, the reference numeral 200 is a general description thereof) is provided on each of the spindle 2
Reference numerals 10a and 210b (hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, the reference numeral 210 is a general description thereof), and clamps 220a, 220b (hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, the reference numeral 220 is a general description thereof. ). In addition, according to FIG.
The light passes through the objective lens 230a from below 0 and is irradiated. According to FIG. 4, the laser beam passes through the objective lens 230b from above the optical disc 100 and is irradiated.

The spindle 210 is a member for holding and fixing the optical disc 100 from below, and is connected to a motor shaft of a motor (not shown). Therefore, when the spindle 210 rotates, the optical disc 100 rotates synchronously. According to FIGS. 3 and 4, the tip of the spindle 210 is provided with a holding portion 212 (which collects 212a and 212b) and a fixing portion 214 (which collects 214a and 214b). The holding unit 212 hits and holds the disk 100. In order to stably hold the disc 100, the holding section 212 and the disc 10
It is preferable to increase the contact area with zero. For example,
According to FIG. 3, since the laser beam is irradiated from below the optical disc 100, the objective lens 230a is also
It is installed below. In order to enlarge the recording area, the objective lens 230a must be able to move as close to the inner periphery as possible.
10a) needs to be reduced. The reduction of the holding part 212a is achieved by bringing the contact surface between the holding part 212a and the optical disc 100 as close to the inner peripheral part as possible. On the other hand, when the laser light is emitted from above the disk 100 as shown in FIG. 4, it means that the installation positions of the holding unit 212b and the objective lens 230b are different. As a result, the holding unit 21
2b has a larger contact surface between the holding portion 212b and the optical disc 100, and can be provided on the outer peripheral portion.
Thereby, the accuracy of holding and rotating the optical disc 100 can be improved.

The fixing portion 214 has a convex shape as shown in FIG. 3, and corresponds to the concave portion 160 of the optical disc 100.
Fit. Thereby, the center of the disc 100 and the center of the fixed part 214 coincide, and the eccentricity of the optical disc 100 is prevented. Here, the eccentricity of the optical disk 100 has a problem that the laser light is deviated from the track when information is recorded, and the accuracy is lacking. The fixed part 214 enables accurate information recording. Further, the holding part 212 and / or the fixing part 214 may have a projection (not shown) for the disk 100 to rotate without idling. Such projections are also provided on the optical disc 100, and the rotation of the motor can be transmitted to the disc using the engagement between the projections.

The clamp 220 is a member for holding the optical disc 100 between itself and the spindle 210. According to FIG. 3, the clamp 220a has a retaining portion 222a, a ball bearing 224a, a ball receiver 226a, and a leaf spring 228a. The retaining portion 222a is made of metal or plastic (resin), and
Direct contact with the center of zero. The fastening part 222a also
It rotates in synchronization with the optical disc 100.

The ball bearing 224a and the ball receiver 226a are members for rotating the optical disc 100 freely. Since the clamp 220 fixes the disk 100 by applying a force from the upper surface, the rotation is not free if the applied force is too large. For this reason, the rotating retaining portion 222a, the non-rotating force applying member (the plate spring 228a in the present embodiment) and the ball receiver 226a
The rotation of the disk 100 is stabilized by providing the ball bearing 224a between the two. Leaf spring 22
8a is a force applying member. The force applied in the spindle direction by the leaf spring 228a is
Using the shape (sphere) of 24a, it overlaps with the rotation axis of the spindle 210a. By these components, the clamp 2
20a allows the optical disc 100 to be fixed and rotated with high precision.

The objective lens 230 can move up and down with the radius of the disk 100. The laser light must be converted to spot light when incident on the disk 100. For this purpose, the objective lens is provided between the laser irradiation port and the disc 100, and has a role of converting incident light into spot light. Also, make the light spot smaller,
In order to increase the recording density, the laser beam must be focused on the recording layer. Therefore, the objective lens 230
Can move up and down with respect to the surface of the disk 100 to form an appropriate focal point, and also follow a surface runout due to the rotation of the disk 100, so that it can be focused at an appropriate position.

The objective lens 230 and the laser irradiation light are provided below the disk in FIG. 3 and above the disk in FIG. The feature of the drive mechanism 200b of FIG. 4 is not the substrate surface of the disc 100 but the recording layer 17b.
0 and the laser light is incident from the surface on which the protective film 180 is formed. As a result, the substrate 150 that is not used for reflecting the laser light can use a substrate that is thicker than the disk illustrated in this embodiment. For example, the thickness of the substrate may be 1 mm or more. In addition, as the layer thickness increases, the depth of the concave portion 160 provided in the substrate 150 can be increased. Recess 16
When the depth of 0 becomes deeper, the corresponding spindle 21
The fixed portion 214b of Ob also becomes longer, and the coincidence accuracy between the center of the disk 100 and the rotation axis becomes higher. Further, as described above, the spindle 210b and its holding portion 212
b has a larger contact surface between the holding portion 212b and the optical disk 100 and can be provided on the outer peripheral portion, thereby preventing problems such as surface runout when the disk 100 rotates.

Hereinafter, an optical disk 100a and a drive mechanism 200c as another exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing the structure of a drive mechanism 200c and an optical disc 100a as a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Optical disc 100 used in this embodiment
a has a laminated structure similar to that of the optical disc 100 described with reference to FIG. 2, and includes a substrate 150a, a concave portion 160a,
It has a recording layer 170a and a protective film 180a. Also,
The materials used, the molding method, and the like are the same, and thus redundant description will be omitted. In particular, the features of the optical disc 100a appear in the recess 160a, and the shape of the entire substrate is formed instead of a part of the substrate as in the recess 160 of FIG. For this reason, the optical disc 100a is not a flat disk like the disc 100, but has a protruding shape at a portion corresponding to the clamp portion.

For such an optical disc 100a, there is a drive mechanism 200c as a suitable holding and fixing member. The driving mechanism 200c has a fixing portion 214c corresponding to the characteristic shape of the concave portion 160a and different from the driving mechanisms 200a and 200b. As shown in FIG.
4c has a contact portion 216c and a spring 218c. The contact portion 216c has its own tapered shape to correspond to the tapered shape of the concave portion 160a, and contacts the inclined surface as shown in the figure to fix the disk 100a. At this time, a spring 218c is used to bring the contact portion 216c into accurate contact. The spring 218c connects between the spindle 210c and the contact portion 216c, and applies a force in a direction to separate them. Since the spindle 210c is fixed, the spring 218c applies a force in a direction to push the contact portion 216c upward. as a result,
When a force is applied to fix the disc 100a from above to below by the leaf spring 228c of the clamp 220c, the force and the force (from below to above) of the spring 218c repel each other, and the contact portion 216c and the concave portion The contact at 160a becomes strong. Therefore, the center of the disk 100c and the rotation axis coincide with each other with high accuracy, and eccentricity due to rotation is prevented. Here, if the force applied by the spring 218c upward is greater than the force applied by the leaf spring 228c downward, the disk 210a is clamped by the clamp 210c.
Must be considered when selecting the spring 228c.

Referring to FIG. 6, a driving mechanism 200d according to still another exemplary embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 shows an optical disc 100 of the present invention and a driving mechanism 2 as a fourth exemplary embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a schematic exploded view for explaining the relationship of 00d. The driving mechanism 200d includes the driving devices 200a to 200
Unlike c, a vacuum mechanism 240 for holding, fixing, and rotating
Having. The vacuum mechanism 240 is provided for the optical disc 10 of the present invention.
0 can be vacuum-adsorbed, fixed and rotated. According to FIG. 6, the vacuum mechanism 240 includes a holding rotating unit 242,
It has a vacuum space 244 and a base 246. The holding and rotating unit 242 is a member that holds and rotates the outermost periphery of the optical disc 100. For example, the holding and rotating unit 242 may be provided with a holding unit and a rotating unit separately. Further, a member may be further provided not only at the outer peripheral portion of the disk 100 but also at the central portion. The vacuum space 244 is formed by being surrounded by the disk 100, the holding rotation unit 242, and the base 246. The vacuum space 244 is decompressed using a decompression pump (not shown) and fixes the optical disc 100. Such a vacuum space 244 may be formed on the entire lower surface of the disk 100 as shown in FIG. 6, or formed in a donut shape if the holding and rotating unit 242 is also provided at the center of the disk. You may.

The base 246 has a path connecting the vacuum space 244 and the vacuum pump. After the disk 100 is set on the holding rotating unit 242, the vacuum space 2
The air in 44 is sucked and decompressed, and the disc 100 is fixed. At this time, the pressure in the vacuum space 244 is, for example, about 250 Pa. Vacuum mechanism 240 shown in FIG.
, A guide for the disc 100 may be provided to make the rotation axis coincide with the center of the disc.

Hereinafter, the conventional drive mechanisms 200e and 200f will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the structure of a driving mechanism 200e as one conventional example. FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the structure of a driving mechanism 200f as another conventional example. The drive mechanism 200e is called mechanical mounting, and can mechanically hold, fix, and rotate the disk 100b. Here, the detailed description of the driving mechanism 200e is as follows.
The description is omitted because it is the same as above. On the other hand, the driving mechanism 2
00f is called “magnet mounting”, and the disk 100b
Can be fixed and driven by magnets (magnets 250 and 252). As shown in FIG. 8, since the magnet 250 of the spindle 210f and the magnet 252 on the lower surface of the disk 100b are provided so as to face each other, the disk 100b can also be rotated in synchronization with the rotation of the spindle 210f by the magnetic force. .

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention can be variously modified and changed within the scope of the invention. For example, in the present embodiment, the description has been made with reference to the rewritable disc.
A write-once type may be used. Further, the rewritable disk may be, for example, a magneto-optical recording type.

Needless to say, the write-once type is not limited to the phase change type, but can be applied to a punch type, an alloy type, and a bubble type. Here, a punch type refers to a method in which a recording layer is melted with a laser beam, holes (pits) are formed in the recording layer by surface tension, signals are recorded, and a difference in reflectance between a holed portion and a flat portion is measured. A method of reproducing a signal by using the same. The recording layer is made of a Se—Te alloy film, a Te alloy (TeC, PbTeSb).
And organic dye films such as cyanine.
The alloy type refers to a method in which a multilayer film is alloyed with a laser beam to record a signal, and a signal is reproduced by utilizing a difference in reflectance between an alloy portion and a non-alloy portion, and a low oxide of Te (TeOx ) Or Sb-Se / Bi-Te can be used for the recording layer. The bubble type is a method of forming a bubble (bubble) in a recording layer by irradiating a laser beam, recording a signal, and reproducing a signal by utilizing a difference in reflectance between a bubble portion and a non-bubble portion. A two-layer film in which a film and a metal reflection film are stacked can be used for the recording layer.

Hereinafter, a schematic configuration of a drive device (removable memory drive) 300 as an exemplary embodiment compatible with the optical disc 100 and the drive mechanism 200 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, FIG.
FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a driving device 300. Drive device 30
0 is configured as an optical disk drive connected to an external device 400 embodied as a personal computer in this embodiment, and includes a control unit 310 and a memory 320
, A head 330, and a signal processing device 340. In addition, the driving device 300 can include input means such as buttons and a keyboard (not shown) and display means such as a liquid crystal display.

The control section 310 controls the operation of the head 330 and the signal processing device 340 under the control of the firmware stored in the memory 320. Here, “firmware” refers to software stored in the memory 320 regardless of the name. The firmware includes a utility program for formatting the optical disc 100, a utility program for reading the optical disc 100, a utility program for writing on the optical disc 100, and a security program for performing security management.

The utility program and the security program are programs supplied from the manufacturer of the drive device 300 or a company entrusted by the manufacturer. According to this embodiment, the user can use the normal format and the security format. The purpose of the security program is to prevent a user who does not have an authorized right from accessing not only user data but also the optical disk 100. Details of the firmware processing will be described later.

The head 330 reads out management data, security data and user data of the optical disc 100 and sends them to the signal processing device 340. However, as described later, when the security data is present on the optical disc 100, the head 330 according to the present embodiment controls the control unit 31 according to the firmware stored in the memory 320.
0, the security data or the management data is first extracted and subjected to a predetermined process, and then the external device 400 is allowed to access the user data. It is not supplied to the device 340. The signal processing device 340 is connected to the SCSI interface 412 of the external device 400, and can demodulate management data, security data, and user data to extract original information.

The external device 400 includes a PCI bus 410,
SCSI interface 412 and IDE bus 414
, A main memory 420, a control unit 430, a hard disk drive 440, a removable memory drive 450, a removable memory 452, and a display 460. Note that the removable memory 45
2 and 100, removable memory drives 450 and 30
0 may be the same.

The PCI bus 410, the SCSI interface 412, and the IDE interface 414 are well-known in the art, so that detailed description is omitted here. The main memory 420 includes, for example, a RAM and a ROM, and a program necessary for the operation of the control unit 430 is temporarily loaded from the hard disk 440 or an input from an input unit (not shown) such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a joystick. It is temporarily stored or stores information necessary for system operation. The control unit 430 controls the operation of each unit, and the hard disk 440 stores an OS such as Windows 98 and other programs (various drivers and the like) necessary for the operation of each unit. The removable memory drive 450 and the removable memory 452 can be used for recording and reproducing user data. The display is composed of, for example, a CRT display.

[0047]

According to the optical disc as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the recording area on the optical disc can be increased more than before by not providing a through-hole which is a non-recording area. It is possible to prevent the recording area from being reduced as a result. In addition, since no through-hole is provided on the disk, the recording layer and the protective film can be easily applied and formed, so that the cost and the working time can be reduced.

According to the optical disk drive mechanism as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, even an optical disk having a recess as a substitute for a through hole can be driven by the spindle and the clamp. Therefore, such a mechanism can be driven by the drive mechanism itself without disturbing the recording area even if the disk is small and has a large recording area.

Further, according to the optical disk drive mechanism as another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, even if the optical disk has no through hole, only one side of the disk is used by using the magnetic or vacuum function. Can be driven. Therefore,
With such a mechanism, if the laser beam is irradiated from above the disk, almost the entire surface of the disk may be the recording area, and the recording area can be further expanded.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an optical disc 100 as an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the optical disc 100 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing a structure of a driving mechanism 200a as a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing the structure of a driving mechanism 200b as a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing a structure of a driving mechanism 200c and an optical disc 100a as a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic exploded view for explaining the relationship between the optical disc 100 of the present invention and a driving mechanism 200d as a fourth exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a conventional optical disk drive mechanism 2 according to an exemplary embodiment.
It is the schematic sectional drawing which showed the structure of 00e.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view showing the structure of another conventional optical disc driving mechanism 200f according to another exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a driving device 300.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 optical disk 110 data area 120 holding section 130 groove 140 pit 150 substrate 160 concave section 170 recording layer 180 protective film 200 drive mechanism 210 spindle 220 clamp 230 objective lens 240 vacuum mechanism 250 magnet 252 magnet

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Fujikawa 1-1-88 Ushitora, Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture Inside Hitachi Maxell Co., Ltd. (72) Koichi Otsuka 1-188 Ushitora, Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture Hitachi Maxell stock Company F term (reference) 5D029 PA07 5D038 CA13 DA04 EA01 5D090 CC14 CC16 DD03 DD05 FF11 HH03 LL09

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium comprising: a disk-shaped substrate having no through-hole; and a recording layer provided on the substrate and forming a recording area. 2. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is an optical disk for recording and / or reproducing information by light. 3. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium has a concave portion for connecting to a driving unit for driving the recording medium.
The recording medium according to the above. 4. The concave portion has a tapered shape.
The recording medium according to the above. 5. The recording layer according to claim 1, wherein the recording layer has a convex shape.
The recording medium according to the above. 6. A drive mechanism comprising: a rotating unit that rotates a recording medium having no through-hole; and a support unit that rotatably supports the recording medium. 7. The drive mechanism according to claim 6, wherein the recording medium has a concave portion into which the rotating section is partially inserted. 8. The drive mechanism according to claim 6, wherein said support section comprises a vacuum suction mechanism. 9. The drive mechanism according to claim 6, wherein the support has a magnet. 10. A recording apparatus comprising: a driving mechanism for driving a recording medium; a head for recording and / or reproducing the recording medium; and a signal processing device connected to the head and processing an output of the head. And a drive unit configured to rotate the recording medium having no through-hole, and a support unit rotatably supporting the recording medium. 11. The recording medium according to claim 10, wherein said head is an optical head for optically recording and / or reproducing information. 12. The recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the recording medium has a concave portion into which the rotating section is partially inserted. 13. The recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the support section has a vacuum suction mechanism and / or a magnet. 14. The recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the head is provided on a side of the recording medium opposite to the rotating unit.