JPH10334562A - Information recording and reproducing device, information recording medium, and storage medium in which program for controlling information recording and reproducing is recorded - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce information error rate in high density and high speed recording and to improve reliability by performing complete erasing processing making so-called 'residue of erasing' part a complete crystal state in an empty time in which recording request from the host control device is finished. SOLUTION: When an information recording medium 2 is loaded, an information recording and reproducing device 1 takes contents of recorded state information recorded in the information recording medium in indicator storage sections 14-17. Also, the device 1 monitors processing request from a host control device 13, when job of recording and reproducing request is finished, operation is transferred to complete erasing processing of a needless already recorded part based on information of the indicator storage sections 14-17. A DC erasing method or a repeating erasing method is performed as the complete erasing processing method, and phase variation material thin film layer is completely crystallized. When an instruction for unloading the information recording medium 2 is issued, contents of the indicator storage sections 14-17 are written in the indicator storage section, and the information recording medium 2 is unloaded from the information recording and reproducing device 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to an information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing information using a light beam such as a laser beam, such as an optical disk for a large-capacity file. About. This information recording and reproducing apparatus is suitable for recording and reproducing moving image information and the like.
Further, the present invention relates to an information storage medium on which data is written and read by an information recording / reproducing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An information recording medium such as an optical disk has very excellent characteristics as a storage device for a large amount of information, like a hard disk. Optical discs, in particular, record information
Since it is possible to carry out reproduction by a light beam and to carry only the information recording medium, it is most suitable as a medium for distributing and carrying multimedia information data such as moving image data requiring an extremely large capacity. Further, unlike the tape medium, since random access is possible, various useful controls can be performed.

A conventional optical disk information recording medium is 0.6
On a surface of a transparent substrate such as a disc-shaped polycarbonate having a thickness of mm, guide grooves of minute concave portions having a width of, for example, 0.56 μm and a pitch of 1.12 μ are spirally formed. GeSbTe or AgInS
A thin film of a phase change recording material such as bTe is formed. The thin film layer of the recording material is often sandwiched between protective film layers such as a transparent dielectric such as a mixture of ZnS and SiO2. Further, an Al alloy or Si or Si / A
In many cases, a reflective film layer such as a 1-alloy laminated film or a heat radiation layer is provided. Further, a protective film layer such as an ultraviolet curable resin is often provided thereon. These laminates may be bonded together with the transparent substrate facing outward.

The transparent substrate with guide grooves is formed by exposing a positive photoresist to a laser beam to cause a photoreaction, and then developing it to form a concave portion. A stamper is manufactured using the concave portion as a mold. And is copied in large quantities by injection molding.

[0005] In recording / reproducing information on this conventional optical disc information recording medium, a light beam is transmitted through a transparent substrate to one of a groove (concave portion) and a flat portion (convex portion) in the vicinity of an uneven guide groove. It is performed by irradiating as a track. This light beam is narrowed down to about 1 μm in diameter by an objective lens. Focus servo is performed to focus the light beam narrowed down to a thin film layer of a recording material. The guide groove is used for a track servo in which a light beam accurately positions and tracks an information track position. A displacement signal (track error signal) between the light beam and the guide groove is detected by a push-pull method or the like. That is, the far field pattern of the reflected light from the optical disk recording medium is detected by a two-divided photodetector having two light receiving areas, and the guide groove on the optical disk information recording medium is determined from the difference between the photocurrents detected in the two light receiving areas. And a light beam are detected.

The depth of the guide groove for the track servo is:
The value is set to a value in the vicinity of λ / 8 or a value in the vicinity of 3λ / 8 (where λ is the wavelength of the light beam in the transparent substrate) at which the track error signal is largest. This recording / reproducing information track is divided into one or a plurality of information recording unit sections in one round, and an address number is assigned to each section.

For information recording, the optical disk information recording medium is moved at a predetermined speed, track servo is performed so that the light beam incident through the transparent substrate is positioned on the information track, and the information is recorded on the phase change material thin film layer. While performing focus servo so as to focus, the intensity of the light beam is modulated between an amorphization level and a crystallization level depending on information to be recorded, and overwriting is performed. That is, a mark in an amorphous state is formed in a section irradiated with a light beam having an amount of light enough to melt the phase change material thin film layer, and a section other than the amorphous mark is irradiated with a light beam having an amount of light not to be melted. To a crystallization state. Therefore, the section other than the amorphous mark is in a crystalline state regardless of whether the state before irradiation is amorphous or crystalline. Therefore, even when information is already recorded, overwriting (overwriting) is performed. ).

The information recorded on the optical disk information recording medium is reproduced by utilizing the fact that the reflectance and / or the phase difference are different between the amorphous state and the crystalline state. That is, the optical disk information recording medium is moved at a predetermined speed, track servo is performed so that the light beam incident through the transparent substrate is positioned on the information track, and focus servo is performed so that the phase change material thin film layer is focused. While irradiating a light beam with a constant intensity weaker than the intensity at the time of recording, the reflected light from the optical disk information recording medium is received by the photodetector, and the information is reproduced by a change in the reflected light amount.

[0009]

However, such an information recording method has a problem that an information error rate cannot be obtained at a practical level in the case of high-density high-speed recording. Further, if information recording is performed many times, there is a problem that the information error rate gradually deteriorates.

[0010]

An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording / reproducing apparatus capable of improving the disadvantages of the prior art, and in particular, reducing the information error rate in high-density high-speed recording and improving the reliability of data recording. To do so.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The inventor of the present invention has a disadvantage that the information error rate cannot be obtained at a practical level in the case of high-density recording, and the information error rate gradually increases when information recording is performed many times. The inventor has found that the problem of deterioration is caused by the fact that the crystallized state portion in the case of overwrite recording is not completely crystallized, and has reached the present invention. That is, when performing high-density high-speed recording, the time during which a light beam having a beam diameter of less than 1 μm irradiates each part of the phase-change material thin film is very short, and the amorphous state is completely changed to the crystalline state. Time is too short to change. For this reason, a place which was in an amorphous state before rewriting is generally in a so-called “erasable state” in which crystallization has been completed but the crystal has not been completely crystallized. Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problem by performing a complete erasure process for bringing the “erasable” portion into a completely crystalline state during the idle time when the recording request from the host controller has been completed.

More specifically, a head unit for writing and reading data to and from an information recording medium, a head driving unit for driving the head unit, and the head driving unit in response to a command from a host controller. And a control unit for reading out the recording state information stored in the information recording medium and specifying an unused information recording unit section based on the recording state information. Means and a re-erase processing means for re-erasing the area specified by the unused area specifying means during an idle time of a process in accordance with a command from the higher-level control device. . This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

The unused area specifying means specifies an information recording unit section from which data has been erased by referring to the recording state information stored in the information recording medium. Then, the re-erase processing means, during the idle time of the process according to the command from the host control device,
The erasing process is performed again on this erasing area. Then, the unerased residue caused by the repetition of normal overwriting is removed, whereby the S / N ratio at the time of reproduction is improved, and the information error rate at the time of recording and reproduction at high density and high speed is reduced. .

[0014]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a head unit that writes and reads data to and from an information recording medium, a head driving unit that drives the head unit, and the head unit that responds to a command from a higher-level control device. A control unit for controlling the driving unit. Moreover, the control unit reads out the recording state information stored in the information recording medium and specifies an unused information recording unit section based on the recording state information. Re-erasing processing means for re-erasing the area specified by the unused area specifying means during the idle time of the processing by the command. By providing the unused area specifying means, it is possible to obtain the usage history information of the information storage medium mounted on the information recording / reproducing apparatus, and to specify the unused area. Then, since the re-erasing processing means performs the erasing process again on the unused area, the erasing is completed and the S / N ratio at the time of reproduction is improved.

As the recording state information, a completely erased indicator indicating an area where the complete erasure has been performed by the re-erase processing means and a recorded indicator in which data is recorded by the head unit may be used. In this embodiment, an area that has not been recorded and has not been completely erased is specified, and a re-erasing process is performed. When data deletion is instructed from the host controller and the address information for this data is deleted, an erased indicator indicating an area that has been deleted but the data area has not actually been deleted is handled. Is also good. In this case, the re-erasing process is performed on the area specified by the erased indicator. These are optimally selected according to the data structure of the disk.

In one embodiment, the head section modulates the intensity of the light beam between the amorphization level and the crystallization level according to the information recorded on the phase change material thin film layer of the information recording medium. And a light beam output means for outputting. That is, in this embodiment, information is recorded depending on whether the phase change material thin film layer is amorphous or crystallized. Then, the re-erase processing means has a DC erase control function of irradiating the light beam with an intensity near the low light intensity corresponding to the crystallization to the area specified by the unused area specifying means. As a result, complete erasure of the erased region is performed, and for example, the crystal state becomes good.
Further, in place of the DC erasure control function, it is possible to repeatedly irradiate the light beam with an intensity lower than the low light intensity corresponding to crystallization to the area specified by the unused area specifying means repeatedly for a predetermined number of times. A control function may be provided.

Further, depending on the recording density and the rotation speed of the information recording medium, the unused area specifying means specifies the number of erasures of each information recording unit section by referring to the recording state information stored in the information recording medium. It is preferable to provide a function of specifying the number of times of erasure. And the re-erase processing means,
An erase frequency control function is provided for controlling the number of times of irradiation of the light beam for re-erasing with reference to the erase frequency specified by the erase frequency specifying function. In this case, the erasure is completed by performing the erasure processing a certain number of times. Further, by referring to the information on the number of times of erasure, data may be preferentially recorded from a region where the number of times of erasure is large and the crystal state is stable.

Further, the unused area specifying means has a rewrite number specifying function for specifying the number of rewrites of each information recording unit section with reference to the recording state information stored in the information recording medium, and the re-erasing processing means. However, a rewriting frequency-specific control function for controlling the number of irradiations of the light beam for re-erasing with reference to the rewriting frequency specified by the rewriting frequency specifying function may be provided. As a result, the erasing process can be preferentially performed on a region where the number of rewrites is large and the crystal state is not good. Then, the reliability of the entire device can be improved.

The following program may be supplied to a control program storage area of a normal information recording / reproducing apparatus. That is, the program stored in the rewritable ROM is overwritten via various computer networks and various storage media. A program stored in such an information recording / reproducing apparatus and controlling the information recording / reproducing apparatus drives a head unit of the information recording / reproducing apparatus to read out recording state information stored in an information recording medium, and to execute the recording. An unused area specifying command for specifying the erased information recording unit section based on the state information, and an area specified by executing the unused area specifying command during an idle time of normal processing of the information recording and reproducing apparatus. And a re-erase processing command for performing the erase processing again. As a result, the unused area specifying means and the erasing processing means are realized again.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an information recording / reproducing device. The information recording medium 2 is rotated by a spindle motor 3. The motor driver 4 drives the spindle motor 3. The optical head (head unit) 5 is disposed so as to face the first incident surface of the information recording medium 2, and is driven by an optical head driver (head driving unit) 6 to move in the radial direction of the information recording medium 2. The optical head controller 7 controls the optical head driver 6, controls the optical head 5 so as to focus on the recording surface of the information recording medium 2, and follows the recording track of the information recording medium 2. The optical head 5 is controlled.

The laser driver 8 supplies a laser driving signal necessary for a recording operation on the information recording medium 2 and a laser driving signal necessary for a reproducing operation to the optical head 5. The detection signal processing section 9 processes a signal read from the information recording medium 2 by the optical head 5 to obtain digital data. The address detector 10 detects address information from the address-related signal obtained by the detection signal processor 9 and sends the information to the optical head controller 7 and the information recording / reproducing device controller 11.

Information recording / reproducing device control unit (control unit) 11
Is connected to the host controller 13 via the interface 12. The information recording / reproducing device control unit 11 supplies information relating to a recording / reproducing address to the optical head control unit 7, supplies information relating to recording / reproducing laser driving to the laser driver 8, and supplies a recording / reproducing information to the motor driver 4. Gives information about the motor drive. When a recording / reproducing request from the host control device 13 such as a personal computer enters the information recording / reproducing device, recording / reproducing is performed according to the request.

The information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of storage units for storing the recording state information 25 read from the information recording medium 2. That is, the information recording / reproducing device control unit 11 is provided with a completely erased indicator storage unit 14, a recorded indicator storage unit 15, an erasure count indicator storage unit 16, and a rewrite count indicator storage unit 17.

The completely erased indicator storage unit 14 stores information of a completely erased section among the information recording unit sections on the information recording medium. The recorded indicator storage unit 15 stores information of a section in which user information is recorded among information recording unit sections on the information recording medium. Erasing number indicator storage unit 16
In the information recording medium section, information on the number of times of erasure 27 at the present time in a section which is not completely erased and which is not a section in which user recording has been performed among information recording unit sections is stored. If the repeated erasing method is not used as the unnecessary recorded portion erasing method, the storage section 16 may not be provided. The number-of-rewrites indicator storage unit 17 stores the number-of-rewrites information 28 which is information on the number of times of rewriting in each information recording unit section on the information recording medium.

In this embodiment, an optical disk as an information storage medium is used. As shown in FIG. 2, the optical disc 20 includes a data storage area 21 in which data is written and read in units of information recording units and a management data storage area 22 in which management data for managing the data is stored. Prepare. Then, the management data has recording state information 25 indicating the use state of the data storage area, and the recording state information 25 includes unused information indicating whether the information recording unit section of the data storage area is unused. 26
And erase count information 27 indicating the number of erases for each information recording unit section of the data storage area. The unused information 26 may include a recorded indicator and a completely erased indicator. Further, if the information storage unit section of the data storage area is provided with the rewrite frequency information 28 indicating the number of rewrites, the medium usage history indicating whether or not the data has been written more than a certain number of times is stored in the medium. Therefore, even when used in another information recording / reproducing device, the re-erasing process is performed favorably.

The operation of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 described above will be described with reference to FIG. First, the information recording medium 2
Is loaded (inserted) into the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 (S
1) The contents of the indicators (recording state information) recorded on the information recording medium 2 are loaded into the indicator storage units 14 to 17 in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 (S2). A processing request from the higher-level control device 13 is monitored (S4), and when a recording / reproduction request is output from the higher-level control device 13, normal recording / reproduction processing is performed (S6). If the job of the recording / reproduction request has been completed, the erasing process of the unnecessary recorded portion of the present invention is performed (S5). When an instruction to unload the information recording medium 2 is issued (S3), the contents of the indicator storage units 14 to 17 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 are written into the indicator storage unit of the information recording medium 2 (S3).
7) The information recording medium 2 is ejected from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 (S8).

As a complete erasing method, there are a DC erasing method and a repeated erasing method. The DC erasing method is a value near the lower light intensity corresponding to crystallization at the time of overwriting recording.
The entire area of the user information section in the information recording unit section is irradiated to crystallize the phase change material thin film layer. In the repeated erasing method, erasing is repeated a predetermined number of times at a light intensity slightly lower than the light intensity of the DC erasing method.

The information in the indicator storage unit of the present invention is used as a means for managing which information recording unit partition should execute the complete erasure process. That is, during the idle time when the recording request from the host controller is completed, the completely erased indicator storage unit 14 and the recorded indicator storage unit 1
5, the information recording unit section that has not been erased and has not been recorded is completely erased.

The information recording unit section which has been completely erased is registered in the completely erased indicator. When the repeated erasing method is used as the complete erasing process, the number of times of repeated erasing in each information recording unit section may be registered. When the user information is recorded, it is registered in the recorded indicator. It is desirable to register the number of overwrite rewrites performed in each information recording unit section in the rewrite number indicator. When a predetermined number of rewrites have been performed, the information recording unit section is to be completely erased.

As a result, the "unerased remaining" is eliminated.
Even if high-density high-speed recording is performed, a signal quality that can be used is obtained. According to the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present embodiment, the information error rate is low even when recording at high density and high speed, and the information recording / reproducing can be performed with the information error rate kept low even if information is recorded many times. Becomes

[0032]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to the present invention, the unused area specifying means refers to the recording state information stored in the information recording medium, and the information recording in which the data is erased is performed. The unit section is specified, and the re-erase processing means determines whether or not the idle time of the processing by the command from the higher-level control device
Since the erasing process is performed again on this erasing area, it is possible to remove the unerased residue caused by the repetition of the normal overwriting, thereby improving the S / N ratio at the time of reproduction. In the past, the information error rate at the time of recording and reproduction at high density and high speed was reduced, and the information error rate was such that it could be reproduced by normal code error processing. It is possible to provide an excellent information recording / reproducing apparatus which is not provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a data structure of an information storage medium used in the information recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information recording / reproducing apparatus 2 Information recording medium 3 Spindle motor 4 Motor driver 5 Optical head (head part) 6 Optical head driver (head driving part) 7 Optical head control part 8 Laser driver (head driving part) 9 Detection signal processing part 10 Address detection unit 11 Information recording / reproducing device control unit (control unit) 12 Interface 13 Host control unit 14 Completely erased indicator storage unit 15 Recorded indicator storage unit 16 Erase count indicator storage unit 17 Rewrite count indicator storage unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A head unit for writing and reading data to and from an information recording medium, a head driving unit for driving the head unit, and controlling the head driving unit in response to a command from a host controller. An information recording / reproducing apparatus including a control unit, wherein the control unit reads out recording state information stored in the information recording medium and specifies an information recording unit section in which no data is recorded based on the recording state information. Unused area specifying means, and re-erasing processing means for performing an erasing process again on the area specified by the unused area specifying means during an idle time of a process according to a command from the higher-level control device. Characteristic information recording / reproducing device. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the head modulates the intensity of the light beam between an amorphization level and a crystallization level in accordance with information recorded on a phase change material thin film layer of the information recording medium. DC erasing control, comprising: a light beam output unit for outputting the light beam; and the re-erase processing unit irradiating the light beam to an area specified by the unused area specifying unit with an intensity near a low light intensity corresponding to the crystallization. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a function. 3. The head section modulates the intensity of a light beam between an amorphization level and a crystallization level according to information recorded on a phase change material thin film layer of the information recording medium. Light beam output means for outputting, the re-erasing processing means, the light beam with a lower intensity than the low light intensity corresponding to the crystallization, a predetermined number of times in the area specified by the unused area specifying means 2. An information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a repetitive erasure control function for repeatedly irradiating. 4. An erasure number specifying function for specifying the number of erasures of each information recording unit section by referring to recording state information stored in the information recording medium, wherein the unused area specifying means includes: 4. The erasure control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit includes an erasure frequency control function for controlling the number of times of irradiation of the light beam for re-erasing with reference to the erasure frequency specified by the erasure frequency specification function. An information recording / reproducing apparatus as described in the above. 5. The non-use area specifying means has a rewrite number specifying function of specifying the number of rewrites of each information recording unit section by referring to recording state information stored in the information recording medium; 4. A rewriting frequency-specific control function for controlling the number of times of irradiation of the light beam for re-erasing with reference to the rewriting frequency specified by the rewriting frequency specifying function. An information recording / reproducing apparatus as described in the above. 6. A storage medium which is stored in an information recording / reproducing apparatus and stores a program for controlling the information recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the program drives a head unit of the information recording / reproducing apparatus and stores the program in the information recording medium. An unused area identification command for reading stored recording state information and identifying an unused information recording unit section based on the recording state information, and an unused area identification instruction for an idle time of normal processing of the information recording / reproducing apparatus. A storage medium storing a program for controlling an information recording / reproducing device, comprising: a re-erase processing command for performing an erasure process again on an area specified by executing an area specifying command. 7. An information storage device comprising: a data storage area in which data is written and read by an information recording / reproducing apparatus in units of information recording units; and a management data storage area in which management data for managing the data is stored. A medium, wherein the management data has recording state information indicating a use state of the data storage area, and the recording state information indicates whether or not an information recording unit section of the data storage area is unused. An information storage medium for an information recording / reproducing apparatus, comprising: usage information; and erasure count information indicating the erasure count for each information recording unit section of the data storage area. 8. The information storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the recording state information includes rewrite number information indicating the number of rewrites for each information recording unit section of the data storage area.