JPS62132251A - Optical type cassette tape and recording/reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the titled device high density and compact size by forming a recording media layer, which is a metal or an alloy to show the phase transformation accompanying heating and rapid cooling, on both surfaces of the substrate such as a resin tape or glass excellent in flexibility and light insulation. CONSTITUTION:On both surfaces of a resin-made or glass-made tape substrate 11, recording media 12 of a metal or alloy are formed, a protective layer 13 is laminated and a cassette tape 10 is made. When an optical head 22' to face with an optical head 22 sets a cassette 20, the position to sandwich the tape 10 inserted into the internal part of the cassette is obtained. A light 14 irradiated from a light source 25 of respective optical heads 22 and 22' is formed by a collimator 24, condensed through a mirror 28 by a condensing lens 15 and irradiated and recorded to the tape 10. At the time of reproduction, the optical displacement quantity of the surface of the tape 10 is focused through a lens 15, a mirror 28 and a half mirror 23 to a reproducing signal and a detector 27 as a reflecting light and made into reproducing signal. Between such facing optical heads, the tape 10 driven by a motor 26 is scanned and at least one of the recording, reproducing and deleting of the information is executed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an optical cassette tape and an information recording and reproducing device using the same. It is related to the device.

[Background of the invention]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION With the increasing density and diversification of information recording and reproduction, optical recording systems that use laser light or the like as a light source are attracting attention. This is a method in which information is recorded by heating a local area of the recording medium using optical energy such as a laser beam to change the local optical characteristics. As described in Industrial Rare Metals 480.1983 (Optical Disks and Materials), so-called optical disks, in which the recording medium is in the form of a disk, are capable of higher recording densities than magnetic disks, and are a promising future choice for information recording. This is a great method. There are three main types of this method. The first type is a playback-only type, which has been put into practical use as a compact disc. The second type is a write-once type, which allows recording only once and then only playback. The third type is a rewritable type, which allows recording and erasing any number of times. Since the optical disk is a two-dimensional flat medium, it has advantages such as random access, but it is advantageous to use a tape-like method to achieve higher density and compactness. As mentioned above, this optical tape is a high-density alternative to conventional magnetic tape.

It has advantages such as anti-magnetic environment. There are no major differences or problems in principle when using conventional optical disc media in the form of tape, and this optical tape was first developed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-335.
A sealed cassette method described in 47 has also been proposed,
Both use only one side of the tape, similar to magnetic cassettes. With magnetic tape, recording is performed using a magnetic field, so if both sides are used as the recording surface, the back side will be affected by the recording on the front side, so of course it is not possible to use only one side as the recording side.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical cassette tape and a recording and reproducing device thereof, and in particular, to provide a device that can achieve high density and compactness.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention resides in a cassette tape and its recording and reproducing apparatus, which utilizes the characteristics of optical tape and uses both sides of the tape as recording and reproducing surfaces. Figure 1 shows its outline and tape structure. The recording medium 12 is formed on both sides of the tape substrate 110, and the protective layer 13 is laminated thereon. Light 1 is focused by a condenser lens 15 in order to scan such a laminated tape 1o and perform at least one of recording, reproduction, and erasing from both sides of the tape.
Irradiate 4. Generally, a laser beam with high power density is suitable for this light source, and a semiconductor laser is particularly suitable for making the device compact. In principle, the laminated structure of the tape is shown in diagram K1 [It is a minimal structure, but in order to improve recording and erasing sensitivity, improve corrosion resistance, etc. It can also be used as a tape.

As a recording and reproducing device using the above-mentioned optical cassette tape, a type in which two light irradiation sections face each other is considered.
Figure 2 shows an overview of the cassette and optical head. Another feature of the present invention is that a recess into which an optical head is inserted is formed inside the cassette, and at least one of the optical heads is inserted into the recess to sandwich the tape for recording and reproduction. It is. That is, the optical head 22' facing the optical head 22 is connected to the cassette 2.
When set to 0, the tape is inserted into the cassette and the tape 10 is placed in the position. Each optical head 22.22'
(2) Light 14 emitted from the light source 25 (formed by a lever ν meter 24, passed through a mirror 28, condensed by a condensing lens 15, and irradiated onto the tape) The tape 10 is wound on a reel 21.

During playback, the amount of optical displacement on the surface of the tape 10 is used as reflected light, which passes through the lens 15, the mirror 28, and the 1-7 mirror 23 to become a playback signal, and is focused on the detector 27 as a playback signal.

The tape 10 driven by the motor 26 is scanned between the opposing optical heads through the tape feed roller 29, and at least one of recording, reproduction, and erasing of information is performed. The tape 10 may be exposed outside the cassette, but is preferably sealed within the cassette to prevent contamination of the tape. In this case, a light-transmissive material is placed in the portion where light is incident. If the light source is a semiconductor laser,
This material may be a general resin material such as glass, transparent acrylic, or polycarbonate.

The opposing optical head has a structure as shown in FIG. In (a), there is one light source, and by using a method such as a rotating mirror 32, it also serves as a light source for two optical heads. 3
1 is an illumination servo system. (b) is.

It has two different light sources: a recording light source 251 and an erasing light source 252. These two light sources differ in at least one point, such as power density, wavelength, and beam shape. Any of these light sources can be used as a reproduction light source, but a reproduction-only light source can also be provided separately.

FIG. 4 shows a method in which two optical heads are not opposed.

(a) is a system in which optical heads are arranged on corresponding sides outside the cassette 20, and (b) is a system in which two optical heads are located inside the cassette.

Compared to the former, the latter allows the entire device to be more compact.

Another feature of the present invention is a method for recording on both sides of the tape by irradiating light onto the tape through a roller-type transparent material. That is, as shown in FIG.
It is caught between the rollers 51.

It also serves as a tape feeder. In this case one of the rollers is (
It is located inside the cassette 20 as shown in a). The row 251 is made of a transparent material, and has an optical head built therein as shown in (C).

This is independent of the roller rotation and is always fixed in the direction in which the tape is irradiated with light. 52 is a rotation axis.

In this way, since the distance between the tape 10 and the condensing lens 15 is fixed, the drive of the fish gathering servo system 31 can be reduced. Furthermore, the influence of dust on the tape surface is also reduced. Note that in order to further reduce the influence of dust, brush rollers may be provided before and after the roller. Furthermore, even when the cassettes are not opposed as shown in FIG. 6, there is an advantage that the cassette structure is simple.

Various optical recording media can be used as the recording medium for the optical tape described above, but according to the inventor's experiments, it has been confirmed that a method using a metal or alloy that utilizes phase transformation is better. . Phase transformation induces changes in the shape of concave and convex surfaces, changes in spectral reflectance, refractive index, and transmittance, and information is recorded and reproduced based on these differences. Phase change materials include crystal-amorphous transition and crystal-crystal transition. The former are chalcogenide-based materials such as Te-based and 3e-based materials, and the latter include C"# l'Lge, U-based metallic alloys, and alloys such as 5e-based and In-based materials. In the case of double-sided recording, on the other hand, t;
It is also possible to use a medium that utilizes the magneto-optical effect. In that case, a coil for applying bias magnetization is provided near the optical head. Other media suitable for double-sided recording optical tapes include perforated media.

The above-described optical cassette tape and its recording and reproducing device are also effective in principle for reel type tapes.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Example 1 An optical tape was produced by sputtering and housed in a cassette, and a reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. 2 was assembled to carry out the present invention. A polyimide ribbon having a thickness of 20 μm was used as the tape substrate. As a recording medium, 'pe-3e system,
Se-In-3b-based and Ag-Zn-based alloys were deposited on both sides to a width of 3.8 wa h and a length of 30 tM. For the vapor deposition method, an R,F-magnet/tron type sputtering device was used. The film thickness was 50 to 7 Qnm, and a light absorption layer of about 50 to 70 μm was laminated between the protective layer and the medium layer. This layer used crzos.

A semiconductor laser with a wavelength of 830 nm and an output of 30 mW was used as a light source. A condenser lens with NA=0.46 was used. The motor used was from a conventional magnetic tape recorder, and the tape speed was 9.5 an/s.

Recording was attempted by applying a 100 KHz signal to a semiconductor laser to run the tape and passing through the vapor deposited area. Thereafter, the recorded area was observed using an optical microscope. Clear traces of recording were seen in both cases.

Example 2 A roller-type optical head as shown in FIG. 5 was assembled and a recording experiment similar to that in Example 1 was conducted. Thickness II for transparent parts
I tried using DI glass tubes and acrylic tubes.

An aluminum tube was used for the rotating shaft, which was bonded with adhesive to form the exterior of the roller optical head. The internal optical head has almost the same specifications as in Example 1, but a mirror 28 and a half mirror are used.
23 and the exterior was assembled with blackened aluminum. The roller exterior parts were connected by gears so as to synchronize with the tape feed speed.

The other parts have the same specifications as the first embodiment. As a result of recording experiments using the above device, good recording was confirmed.

Note that it is also possible to use a method of guiding the laser beam to the optical tape using an optical fiber, and FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram thereof. The laser beam is guided to the optical fiber 60 through the collimator 24 and directly irradiated onto the surface of the optical tape 10.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The present invention provides an optical cassette tape capable of high-density double-sided recording and its recording/playback device, and therefore can be applied to various information devices that require long-term information recording/playback using a compact device. It can be said that the effects of the present invention in the field of information equipment are extremely large.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) show an overview of double-sided recording on an optical tape and its tape lamination structure. Figure 2 shows the opposing optical head and cassette for double-sided recording (a)
and its cross-sectional schematic diagram (■) are shown. FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show opposing optical head structures, and FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) show non-corresponding optical head positions and their cassette structures, respectively. Figures 5 (a), (b) and (C) show a roller type optical head and its cross-sectional structure, Figure 6 shows the structure of a cassette using this, and Figure 7 shows a laser beam using an optical fiber. FIG. 10... Tape, 11... Tape substrate, 12...
Recording medium, 13... Protective layer, 14... Light, 15...
- Condensing lens, 20... Cassette, 21... Reel, 22... Optical head, 23... Half mirror 12
゛4...Collimator, 25...Light source, 26...Tape feeding motor, 27...Reproduction signal detector, 28...
...Mirror, 29...Tape feeding roller, 31...
・Illuminating point servo system, 32...One rotation mirror, 251...
- Recording light source, 252... Erasing light source, 50... Transparent roller type optical head, 51... Transparent roller, 52.
... Rotating axis, 60... Optical fiber.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An optical cassette tape for optically recording and reproducing information, comprising a substrate and recording medium layers formed on both sides of the substrate. 2. The optical cassette tape according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is a resin tape or glass having excellent flexibility and light resistance. 3. The optical cassette tape according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the recording medium is a recording medium capable of at least recording and reproducing information optically. . 4. The optical cassette tape according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the recording medium is a metal or an alloy that exhibits a phase transformation upon heating and rapid cooling. 5. Claim 1, characterized in that a heat absorption layer and an interference layer are formed on the recording medium.
The optical cassette tape according to any one of Items 1 to 4. 6. The optical system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a protective layer having excellent wear resistance and corrosion resistance is formed on the outermost layer of the cassette tape. cassette tape. 7. In an apparatus for optically recording and reproducing information using an optical cassette tape having recording medium layers formed on both sides, a drive device for running the optical cassette tape;
a light source that generates light for recording, playback, and erasing;
1. An optical cassette tape recording and reproducing device comprising: an optical head that irradiates light onto the traveling cassette tape. 8. The optical head comprises at least a pair of rollers, at least a portion of which is in contact with the cassette tape is transparent, and which irradiates the cassette tape with light from a light source for recording, reproduction, and erasing from the inside; 8. The optical cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the optical cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus has a structure that also serves as a driving device for running the tape. 9. The optical system according to claim 8, wherein the optical head comprises at least two fixed heads, and at least one of the heads is inserted into a recess provided inside the cassette. Cassette tape recording and playback device. 10. According to any one of claims 7 to 9, the light source that generates the light for recording, reproducing, and erasing comprises at least two light sources with different wavelengths. Optical cassette tape recording and playback device.