JPH06195755A - Optical tape and its manufacture and optical tape apparatus using the tape - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an optical tape easy to manufacture and to obtain an optical tape apparatus which records/reproduces data by an optical means with the use of the optical tape. CONSTITUTION:An optical tape 8 having a guide line layer 8d and a grating 11 of the same pitch as that of the guide line layer 8d are provided with an inclination of minute angles. The pitch of the guide line layer 8d is wider than that of tracks. Moires generated by the guide line layer 8d and the grating 11 when the optical tape 8 runs are detected by a photodetecting element 13 having at least a plurality of photodetecting surfaces 13a-13d. The position of the track is detected from the detecting signal. Accordingly, it is not necessary to provide a guide line for every track pitch, and the guide line layer 8d can be formed by a simple means such as printing or the like, whereby the productivity is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical tape used for optically recording and reproducing information on a tape-shaped recording medium, a method for manufacturing the same, an optical tape device using this optical tape, and further an optical tape. Regarding tracking of light spots above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known an optical tape device for recording / reproducing information on / from a tape-shaped information recording medium by using an optical means such as a laser beam. For example, FIG. 11 is a plan view of an optical tape disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-102439, in which 1 is an optical tape having an information recording film layer and 2 is an optical tape.
Is a guideline for tracking, and the guideline 2 is formed as parallel lines with an inclination in the width direction of the optical tape 1. As a method for forming the guideline 2, in the above-mentioned prior art document, a thin laser beam of 1 μm or less is applied to a thin film recording medium of AgZn system, and a change in reflectance due to a change in crystal that occurs when heating or quenching is used, or 1 μm.
A method of making a hole with a thin laser beam of m or less is described.

FIG. 12 shows "Optical Data S".
1 from page 120 of "Trage '91" (SPIE)
FIG. 28 is a format diagram of the optical tape shown on page 28, where 3 is a groove indicating the starting point and the ending point of information, 4 is a pit for tracking, 5 is recorded data, 6 is a light spot, and 7 is an information track. is there. The groove 3 and the pit 4 are previously formed on the optical tape.

Next, the operation will be described. In the first conventional example, the light spot 6 is followed along the guideline 2 formed as a change in reflectance or a hole. It is necessary to generate a tracking error signal to follow this, but the same method as the tracking sensor method used in the optical disk device can be used for the optical tape device.

In the second conventional example, a light spot 6 is formed so as to alternately pass through the left end and the right end of the tracking pit 4.
Are scanned to form the information track 7.

[0006]

Since the conventional optical tape and optical tape device are constructed as described above, the guideline and pit for tracking must be formed in advance. For this reason, it takes a lot of time to scan a laser beam of about 1 μm on the entire surface of the optical tape, and the productivity is unavoidably reduced.

Further, in order to set the information track pitch to about 1 μm, it is necessary to form guide lines and pits with high accuracy of 0.1 μm or less, and it is difficult to realize such accuracy. It was

Further, it takes a lot of time to inspect the formed guide lines and pits one by one.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and obtains an optical tape provided with a guideline which can be formed by a simple method, and an optical tape device using the optical tape. The purpose is to

[0010]

An optical tape according to the present invention has a guide line layer formed on a base surface in a striped pattern having different light reflectances in a direction perpendicular to the long tape direction.

A light reflection layer is provided between the guideline layer and the recording layer.

The guideline layer is formed on the base surface by printing or vapor deposition.

Further, the optical tape device according to the present invention illuminates the guideline formed on the optical tape, the grating arranged in proximity to the optical tape and inclined by a minute angle with respect to the guideline, and the guideline and the grating. Means and
A means for detecting the guideline illumination light to extract the track position and a means for scanning the track based on the extracted track position are provided.

In the optical tape device according to the invention of claim 4, a reflective layer is provided between the recording film layer and the guide line.

Further, a light emitting element is incorporated in the guide pin of the optical tape.

Further, a light receiving element is incorporated in the guide pin of the optical tape.

Further, a plurality of illumination lights are separately illuminated on the optical tape.

Further, the optical tape is moved for each track position.

The objective lens is moved for each track position.

Further, a mechanism for bringing the optical tape into contact with the optical tape at a position opposed to the optical spot with the optical tape sandwiched therebetween and moving in the optical axis direction of the optical spot, and a grating, an illuminating means and a detecting means are arranged in this mechanism. It was done.

Further, a transparent portion and a lattice portion are provided so as to face each other with the optical tape sandwiched therebetween, in the optical tape running portion of the cartridge for storing the optical tape.

[0022]

In the optical tape according to the first aspect of the present invention, the intensity of light passing through the guideline layer changes at a constant pitch.

In the optical tape according to the second aspect of the present invention, the intensity of the reflected light passing through the guideline layer changes at a constant pitch.

In the method of manufacturing the optical tape according to the third aspect of the invention, the guide layer is formed on the base surface by printing or vapor deposition, so that the manufacturing process is simplified.

In the invention of claim 4, moire fringes are generated by illuminating the guide line and the grating, and the displacement of the moire fringes at a constant interval is detected by the movement of light and dark.

According to the invention of claim 5, the guide pin and the grid are illuminated by the guide pin.

In the invention of claim 6, the guide pin detects the guide illumination light.

In the invention of claim 7, the optical tape is illuminated at a plurality of spots.

In the invention of claim 8, the tracks are sequentially scanned by the movement of the optical tape.

In the ninth aspect of the invention, the tracks are sequentially scanned by the movement of the objective lens.

In the tenth aspect of the invention, the light spot is focused by moving the optical tape.

In the eleventh aspect of the present invention, the moire fringes are formed by the lattice window provided in the cartridge.

[0033]

【Example】

Example 1. An optical tape device according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view and a circuit connection diagram of an optical system showing the configuration of the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 1. 8 is an optical tape, the base 8
e, a protective layer 8a, a recording film layer 8b, and a reflective layer 8c are laminated in this order on one surface, and a guideline layer 8d is formed on the other surface. As shown in FIG. 3, the guideline layer 8d is formed by forming gratings having different light reflectances in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the optical tape 8 at a constant pitch coarser than the track pitch.

Reference numeral 9 denotes an objective lens, which collects a laser beam from an optical head (not shown) to form a light spot 10 on the recording film layer 8b. Reference numeral 11 is a grid having the same pitch as the guideline layer 8d, and is arranged close to the guideline layer 8d so that the grid direction of the guideline layer 8d and the grid 11 are inclined by a minute angle. 1
Reference numeral 2 is a light emitting element arranged to illuminate the grating 11 and the guideline layer 8d at the same time. Reference numeral 13 denotes a light receiving element arranged so as to detect the illumination light of the grating 11 and the guide layer 8d, and here, it is a light receiving element having four light receiving surfaces 13a to 13d. 14 is a light receiving surface 13a-13
It is a track position detection circuit to which each output of d is connected.
Reference numeral 15 is a drive circuit to which the output of the track position detection circuit 14 is connected, and the output of the drive circuit 15 is connected to the lens actuator 16.

Next, the operation will be described. Moire fringes as shown in FIG. 3 are obtained from the guideline layer 8d and the grating 11. The fact that a linear scale can be constructed using Moire fringes is, for example, in “Sensor Handbook” (Baifukan) 4
It is described on page 33. In Example 1, the guideline layer 8d corresponds to the main scale and the grid 11 corresponds to the index scale. The guideline layer 8d moves and the grid 11 is fixed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing how the moire fringes change with the movement of the guideline layer 8d in four stages (A) to (D). The light receiving surface 13a detects the amount of light from the upper 1/4 range of the moire fringes, and hereinafter, from the light receiving surface 13b to 13d.
Up to 1/4 of the light amount from each range is detected. For example, focusing on the light-receiving surface 13a, there is almost no light amount in FIG. 4A, the light amount increases from FIG. 4B to FIG. 4C, and the light amount decreases in FIG. 4D. Similar changes in the amount of light are detected on the other light receiving surfaces, but the phases of the cycles are different.

FIG. 5A shows this state, and FIG. 5A is a graph showing the relationship between the movement of the guideline layer 8d and the amount of light detected on each light receiving surface. The track position detection circuit 14 extracts a pulse signal as shown in FIG. 5B from the detection signals of the respective light receiving surfaces 13a to 13d, for example, with the comparator level at the point where the light amount is almost maximum. Since one cycle of the signal detected by one light receiving surface corresponds to the pitch of the guide line, for example, if there are four light receiving surfaces, a pulse signal is generated corresponding to the displacement of each quarter of the guide line pitch. Since the change in the moving speed of the optical tape 8 can be obtained from the pulse train based on this pulse signal by an electric means, the objective lens 9 is displaced by the lens actuator 16 so as to cancel the change in the moving speed. Thus, it is possible to record and reproduce information while maintaining a predetermined track pitch.

Further, instead of displacing the objective lens 9, the feeding speed of the optical tape 8 may be controlled to be a constant value.

By increasing the number of light-receiving surfaces of the light-receiving element, a large number of pulse trains can be generated within one guideline pitch, so that each pulse position can be set as a track position. This indicates that the conventional optical tape has one guideline for each track, whereas the present invention only needs one guideline for a plurality of tracks, and the guideline pitch can be increased. There is.

If the pitch of the guideline can be increased,
It is possible to easily form guide lines having different reflectances or transmittances by a method such as printing or vapor deposition without requiring a fine forming means such as a laser beam.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, in the reflection type in which the light emitting element 12 and the light receiving element 13 are arranged on one side of the optical tape, the reflective layer 8c of the optical tape 8 is provided from the guideline layer 8d of the illumination light. It operates so as to increase the reflected light rate and the reflected light rate of the light spot 10 and separate the lights from each other.

Example 2. Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 6 is a plan view of an optical system showing the configuration of the second embodiment, and reference numerals 9 to 13 are the same as those in FIG. Reference numeral 17 is an optical tape, 17a is a protective layer, 17b is a recording film layer, 17c is a base, and 17d is a guideline layer. The grating 11 and the light receiving element 13 are sequentially arranged facing the guideline layer 17d. Further, the light emitting element 12 is built in a guide pin 18 formed of a translucent material. The guide pin 18 is arranged on the opposite side of the grating 11 with respect to the optical tape 17.

Next, the operation will be described. Optical tape 1
7 travels via a guide pin 18. The guide pin 18 is made of a light-transmissive material, and the light from the light emitting element 12 incorporated therein passes through the guide pin 18 and is applied to the optical tape 17. Irradiation light is optical tape 1
The light passes through the grating 7 and the grating 11 and is detected by the light receiving element 13. Therefore, as described in the first embodiment, the guideline layer 17
Moire fringes are formed by d and the grating 11, and the optical tape 1
The running amount of 8 is detected.

Example 3. Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a plan view of an optical system showing the configuration of the third embodiment, which is represented by reference numerals 9 to 13 and
17 is the same as FIG. The grating 11 and the light emitting element 12 are sequentially arranged facing the protective layer 17a. Further, the light receiving element 13 has a guide pin 19 made of a light-transmitting material.
Is built into. The guide pin 19 is arranged on the opposite side of the grating 11 with respect to the optical tape 17.

Next, the operation will be described. Optical tape 1
7 travels via a guide pin 19. Light emitting element 1
2 illuminates the grating 11 and the optical tape 17. This irradiation light passes through the guideline layer 17d of the optical tape. The guide pin 19 is made of a translucent material, and the light receiving element 13 incorporated therein detects the transmitted light from the guideline layer 17d. Therefore, as described in the first embodiment,
Moire fringes are formed by the guideline layer 17d and the grating 11, and the running amount of the optical tape 18 is detected.

Example 4. Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 8 is a plan view of an optical system showing the configuration of the fourth embodiment, and reference numerals 11, 13, and 17 are the same as those in FIG. Reference numeral 20 denotes a light-emitting element having light-emitting points corresponding to the number of light-receiving surfaces of the light-receiving element 13, and a lens 21 that focuses the light flux emitted from each light-emitting point is provided. The light emitted from the lens is sequentially transmitted through the optical tape 17 and the grating 11, and is detected by each light receiving surface of the light receiving element 13.

In the fourth embodiment, due to the converging action of the light emitting element 20 having a plurality of light emitting points and the lens 21, only the moire fringe portion detected by each light receiving surface of the light receiving element 13 is
Locally illuminated.

Example 5. Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 9 is a plan view and a circuit connection diagram of the optical system showing the configuration of the fifth embodiment, and reference numeral 8
1 to 13 are the same as those in FIG. Reference numeral 22 is a focusing guide made of a translucent material.
The light emitting element 12 and the light receiving element 13 are arranged in the same manner as in FIG. Reference numeral 23 is an actuator for finely moving the focusing guide 22 in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the optical tape 8. Reference numeral 24 is an optical head unit including the objective lens 9, 25 is a focusing servo circuit, and the output signal is connected to the actuator 23.

Next, the operation will be described. The moire fringe detection operation is the same as in the first embodiment. An optical head 24 for recording / reproducing information on / from the optical tape 8 detects an error signal indicating a focus error between the optical tape 8 and the light spot 9. This is because surface run-out of the optical tape 8 occurs during running, and unless the focus error is suppressed, the quality of the recording signal deteriorates. Therefore, the focusing servo circuit 25 operates based on the focus error signal to drive the actuator 23. The focusing guide 22 fixed to the actuator 23 directly pushes and pulls the optical tape 8 and is controlled so that the surface of the optical tape 8 is always at the position of the light spot 9.

Example 6. Next, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a plan view of an optical system showing the configuration of the sixth embodiment, which is represented by reference numerals 9, 10, 12,
Reference numerals 13, 17, and 24 are the same as those in FIGS. 26
Is a light emitting / receiving element, and the light emitting element 12 and the light receiving element 13 are arranged in the same manner as in FIG. 27 is an optical tape 17
And a reel 28.
The cartridge 27 is provided with windows 28 on both sides so as to sandwich the optical tape 17 in a part of the path along which the optical tape 17 travels. The window portion 28 has a transparent window 29 on the recording layer 17b side of the optical tape 17, and the guideline layer 1 of the optical tape 17 is provided.
The 7d side is the lattice window 30. The optical head 24 is provided on the transparent window 29 side, and the light emitting / receiving element 26 is provided on the grating window 30 side. The cartridge 27 is a light emitting / receiving element 26.
The portion in which is arranged has a hollow shape.

In the sixth embodiment, since the lattice window 30 is arranged facing a guide line layer 17d in a part of the path along which the optical tape 17 runs, moire fringes are formed by the illumination light from the light emitting and receiving element 26. Further, the light and shade of the stripe is detected by the light receiving element 13. Further, since the transparent window 29 is provided on the opposite side of the lattice window 30 with the optical tape 17 interposed therebetween,
Recording and reproduction of information is performed by the optical head 24.

In the above embodiment, the guideline 8d
In the above, an example was shown in which the optical tape was formed in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the optical tape and over the entire width, but it is not necessarily required to be vertical, and it is not necessary to form over the entire width.

[0053]

According to the invention of claim 1, the track position can be extracted by the moire fringes formed by the guide line and the fixed grid on the optical tape, and a plurality of tracks can be included in one guide line pitch. Therefore, there is an effect that the guideline pitch can be made coarse.

According to the inventions of claims 2 and 3,
The effect is that the guideline can be easily created.

According to the invention of claim 4, there is an effect that the light spot on the recording layer does not illuminate the guideline and the light can be optically separated from the illumination light.

According to the invention of claim 5, since the guide pin and the light emitting element can be integrated, there is an effect that the structure can be simplified.

According to the invention of claim 6, since the guide pin and the light receiving element can be integrated, there is an effect that the structure can be simplified.

According to the seventh aspect of the invention, there is an effect that only the portion necessary for detecting the moire fringes can be efficiently illuminated.

According to the invention of claim 8, there is an effect that it is not necessary to follow the objective lens.

According to the invention of claim 9, there is an effect that it is not necessary to run the optical tape at each track pitch.

According to the tenth aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the optical tape surface is held at the light spot position.

According to the invention of claim 11, since the lattice portion is formed in the cartridge, there is an effect that the structure can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view and a circuit connection diagram of an optical system of an optical tape device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view and a circuit connection diagram of an optical system of the optical tape device according to the first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing moire fringes generated in the optical tape device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing changes in moire fringes in the optical tape device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a relationship between the movement of the guide line layer 8d and the light amount detected on each of the light receiving surfaces 13a to 13d in the optical tape device according to the first embodiment, and a pulse signal extracted from the detection signals from each of the light receiving surfaces 13a to 13d. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of an optical system of an optical tape device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of an optical system of an optical tape device according to Example 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of a light emitting element in an optical tape device according to Example 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a plan view and a circuit connection diagram of an optical system of an optical tape device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of an optical tape device according to Example 6 of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a plan view of an optical tape in a conventional optical tape device.

FIG. 12 is a format diagram of an optical tape in a conventional optical tape device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 8 optical tape 8a protective layer 8b recording film layer 8c reflective layer 8d guideline layer 8e base 9 objective lens 10 light spot 11 grating 12 light emitting element 13 light receiving element 13a light receiving surface 13b light receiving surface 13c light receiving surface 13d light receiving surface 14 track position detection circuit 15 Drive circuit 16 Lens actuator 17 Optical tape 17a Protective layer 17b Recording film layer 17c Base 17d Guideline layer 18 Guide pin 19 Guide pin 20 Light emitting element 21 Lens 22 Focusing guide 23 Actuator 24 Optical head 25 Focusing servo circuit 26 Light emitting / receiving element 27 Cartridge 28 Window 29 Transparent window 30 Lattice window

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] June 28, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Claim 9

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0014

[Correction method] Delete

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An optical tape comprising a recording layer formed on a base surface, and a guideline layer formed in a striped pattern having different light reflectances in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the base. 2. A recording layer formed on the base surface, a guide layer formed in a striped pattern having different reflectances in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the base, and between the guide layer and the recording layer. An optical tape having a light-reflecting layer formed on. 3. A method for producing an optical tape, wherein a guide line layer formed in a grid pattern having a different light reflectance in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the base is formed on the base surface by printing or vapor deposition. . 4. A reflectance different from that of a non-guideline portion in an optical tape device for recording and reproducing information optically by focusing a light beam from a light source on a tape-shaped recording medium with an objective lens to form a light spot. An optical tape provided with a grid-like guide line, a grid arranged close to the optical tape, having the same pitch as the guide line, and the guide line being inclined at a minute angle to each other; And means for illuminating the guideline, optical means for independently detecting the transmitted light flux of the illumination light on a plurality of light receiving surfaces arranged in a line, and the position of the information track from the output signal of the optical detection means. And a means for controlling the light spot to scan a predetermined position based on the detected track position. Optical tape device. 5. The optical tape device according to claim 4, wherein the running means of the optical tape is a translucent guide pin, and the illuminating means is built in. 6. The optical tape device according to claim 4, wherein the running means of the optical tape is a translucent guide pin, and the optical detecting means is built in. 7. The illumination means has as many light-emitting points and light-beam focusing means as the plurality of regions detected by the optical detecting means,
5. The focused light flux illuminates the optical tape and is detected by the optical detecting means.
The optical tape device described in 1. 8. The optical tape device according to claim 4, wherein the scanning means moves the optical tape to a predetermined track position. 9. The optical tape device according to claim 4, wherein the scanning means moves the optical tape to a predetermined track position. 10. The illuminating means and the optical detecting means are held by one transparent body, and the transparent body is arranged on the opposite side of the objective lens with the optical tape in between and in contact with the optical tape, Further, an optical tape device characterized by being capable of finely moving in the optical axis direction of the objective lens. 11. A cartridge for storing an optical tape, wherein a recording layer side of the optical tape is a transparent portion and a guide line side of the optical tape is a lattice portion in a part of a traveling path of the optical tape. Optical tape device.