JPS62192030A - Optical card recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make an access into high speed, to improve reliability, and to reduce a cost, by using one laser for a recording and a reproduction, forming a laser beam source and a photosensor in an array shape, and recording and reproducing the required number of information bits with an electrical scanning. CONSTITUTION:A recording and reproducing light source 1 is a multilaser head in which a laser 11 arranged on a common substrate 11A in two- dimensionally is formed in the array shape. The laser to be lightened is selected with the recording information from an input terminal I at a modulation circuit included in an encoder 20, and is lightened with a driving signal from a scanning circuit 10. A lightened laser 11 is condensed with a lens and a photosensor 6 arranged in the array shape, and is detected as a monitor output at a detection circuit 30, then being fed back to the encoder 20, at the encoder 20, the information from the terminal I is compared with the feedback information, and when they are coincide, the next command is received. In an optical card 4, a recording medium 40 is adhered on a plastic board, and a recording bit is read with the sensor 6 and a detection circuit 62, and is decoded and reproduced at a decoder 63 as the information, then being outputted from an output terminal O.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an optical card recording and reproducing device, and particularly to an optical card recording and reproducing device suitable for a small general-purpose device.

[Background of the invention]

Optical card devices are devices that record information or read information that has already been recorded by shining a spotlight onto the surface of the card.Compared to IC cards, the storage capacity is 10 to 10 times larger. Because it has the characteristic of being several tens of times larger, IC
Its development is progressing as an alternative to cards.

A conventional optical card device is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-59542.
As described in the publication, a beam generated from a light source such as a laser is mechanically scanned by rotating a reflecting mirror or photographing, and information pits are recorded on the recording medium, or information that has been completely recorded is scanned mechanically. was supposed to be played.

However, since conventional devices perform beam scanning mechanically, the access time to information or the access time during recording is determined by the natural frequency of the scanning actuator, which limits high-speed access and requires the use of moving parts. Because of this, there were problems in terms of earthquake resistance, lifespan, complexity and size of the equipment, and unreliability.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical card recording and reproducing device that has quick access and high reliability.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact and sturdy optical card recording/reproducing device.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention includes a plurality of recording and reproducing light sources arranged at least one dimensionally, means for holding an optical card at a predetermined position with respect to the light sources, and a means for holding an optical card at a predetermined position with respect to the light sources, and all light emitted from the light sources onto a recording medium of the optical card. means for converging the light at a predetermined position on the recording medium; and means for detecting the light transmitted through the predetermined position t'{+- on the recording medium;
and means for controlling the light emitted from the light source in a predetermined order by electrical means, thereby increasing access to the optical card, improving reliability and mechanical strength, and reducing size and cost. It is characterized by the fact that it is fully contained.

[Embodiments of the invention] Embodiments of the present invention will be explained below with reference to Figures 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the schematic configuration of the mechanical part of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a partially sectional perspective view of a plane-emitting laser, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a reading light-receiving element suitable for this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a continuous circuit using the light-receiving element of FIG. 4.

In FIG. 2, a recording/reproducing light source IVi, a common substrate 11
The structure of the individual lasers 11 constituting the multi-laser head is preferably a multi-laser red in which n×m lasers 11 are arranged in a two-dimensional array with a pitch of several μm×several tens of μm on A. , for example, the 32nd Applied Physics Association Lecture (1
139 pages of lecture proceedings (March 29, 1985 - April 1, 1985). 3
1a-ZB-5, a planar emitting type coaxial orthogonal junction (Coaxial Transve
rse Junction: CTJ) type semiconductor laser/light emitting diode (2) structure is preferred.

As shown in FIG. 3, this laser 11 has a flat plate portion 12
It has a cylindrical protrusion in the center, and a laser beam is emitted from the tip as shown by the arrow.

The planographic part 12 has a Hoichi coating 12D, I) type QaAsl2A and n type kLGakS1 2 Bs n type GaAS 1 2
It has a horizontal/Ifi structure of C, and an adhesive brazing material hu/ae-Au ta for a heat sink is adhered to the bottom of the structure.

The laser to be lit is fa1 included in the encoder 20.
For example, three lasers are selected according to the recorded information supplied to the input terminal I of the four circuits, and are turned on or off.
It is determined as bit number 16 and is supplied to the scanning circuit 10.

Then, a laser drive circuit included in the scanning circuit 10 causes a current exceeding a threshold value to flow through the lighting laser.

The laser scanning circuit may be any known suitable one, for example,
Is it a so-called matrix-type switching means using group selection and individual selection as will be explained later with reference to FIG. 5? , 6, or selective on/off control means for switches connected in series with individual lasers.

The lighting of the laser is detected by the detection circuit 30 as a monitor output from a photosensor 6, which will be described later, and is fed back to the encoder 20 as monitor information. Note that a forward impedance monitor (one that detects the internal impedance of the laser), a well-known monitoring photodiode, etc. can be used as the above-mentioned monitoring means. The monitor information is compared with the recorded information commanded from the input terminal (2) by a comparison means provided in the encoder 20, and if the combination of lasers whose lighting is controlled correctly matches the recorded information, the next command is (recorded information) is received, and the 11th lighting laser is switched using the same procedure as described above.

As shown in FIG. 2, the optical card 4 has a recording medium 40 adhered to a plastic plate 41 serving as a base, and a transparent holder 442 is provided on the surface of the recording medium 40.

As the recording medium 40, for example, JP-A-60=46339
As shown in the above publication, an optical recording alloy that exhibits a change in transmittance and reflectance when worn at different temperatures can be used. Alternatively, pits may be made in the thin film using heat, and an increase in scattered light of the irradiated light may be utilized.

In addition, various other methods can be used, such as those that utilize recently researched crystal/amorphous phase transformations, or those that utilize shape 9 volume changes such as bubbles and irregularities.

The pits recorded as described above are read by the photosensor array 6 and the detection circuit 62, decoded and reproduced as information by the decoder 63, and output from the output terminal 0.

As shown in FIG. 2, the multi-laser head 1 as a recording light source is attached to an upper holding plate 13 facing downward, and a multi-lens 15 is provided between the optical card 4 and the optical card 4 on the lower surface thereof. will be placed.

As a matter of course, the multi-lens 15 has lens parts formed at the same pitch as the array pitch of the lasers 11 and positioned concentrically therewith.

An optical card 4 is stored under the multi-lens 15.

The optical card 4Vi housed here, which has a space for transportation, is slidably pressed against the multi-lens 15 by highly elastic columnar or spherical rotating bodies 100 and 101.

Therefore, the light from each laser 11 is transmitted to the multi-lens 15.
The light is focused by each lens section of the optical card 4, and is irradiated onto the recording medium 40 as a point several μm in diameter through the entire transparent substrate 41 of the optical card 4.

The energy of the irradiated light spot is converted into heat on the recording medium 40, and the irradiated portion of the recording medium 40 changes its reflectance and transmittance, for example. This reflection/transmittance change is read as an electrical signal by a photosensor array 6, which will be described later.

As clearly shown in FIG. 2, the photo sensor array 6 of the reproduction section is attached to the upper part of the lower holding plate 133, and a large number of photo sensors 65 are formed on the upper surface thereof. A multi-lens 651 is disposed above each photo sensor 6 and between it and the optical card 4.

Each lens of the multi-lens 651 and each photosensor of the photosensor array 6 are formed equal to the arrangement pitch of the lasers 11 and positioned coaxially with each laser 11. .

Recording medium 4 on which information pits are recorded as described above
In the recorded area above 0, the amount of light transmitted is different from that in the non-recorded area. Therefore, when the emitted light intensity of the laser 11 is adjusted to a level suitable for information reading, and the emitted light is focused and irradiated onto the information recording position on the recording medium 40 by the multi-lens 15, each information recording position is completely transmitted. The amount of light used differs depending on the presence or absence of recording (information pits).

The transmitted light is focused onto the photosensor array 6 through the lens array 601, converted into an electrical signal, supplied to the detection circuit 62, and further decoded and reproduced by the decoder 63.

The photosensor 65 has an integrated structure as shown in FIG. 4, for example. Reference numerals 601 and 602 are a photodiode pair consisting of 21 layers of /recon, on which a transparent electrode 603 such as InO□ is deposited on one photodiode 601, and the other photodiode 602 is covered with an opaque electrode 1604 such as a layer AL. 3゜In other words, it is only one photodiode 601 that feels the light.
Only. The other photodiode is used as an isolation diode as described below with respect to FIG.

605 is a common battery made of Gr film.

605 is a transparent electrode 603. This is an 8102 film that insulates the opaque electrode 604 and the common electrode. All of these photodiode pairs 601 and 602 are laminated on an insulating substrate 609 made of glass or the like.
For example, when configuring a -dimensional sensor, the number of information hints corresponding to the width direction of the recording medium 40 formed on the optical card 4 may be provided.

In addition, if high-density recording is required, the photo sensor 6
5 may be arranged in a staggered manner, and the interval between adjacent photosensors may be made small.

In addition, the vertical (longitudinal direction of the optical card) is set to 8 bits, and the horizontal (longitudinal direction of the optical card) is set to 8 bits.
By configuring a two-dimensional array sensor and a two-dimensional array multi-laser head 1 in which the number of pits (in the width direction of the optical card) is determined by the width of the recording medium 40, the recording and reading speed of information can be increased.

Here, with full reference to FIG. 5, a reading operation by the photosensor array 6 employing the configuration shown in FIG. 4 will be described.

Pairs of photodiodes 601 and 602H are integrated as required depending on the size of the array 6, and are connected in series between one contact point of the block changeover switch Y and one contact point of the individual changeover switch X, respectively, with opposite polarities.

Each diode pair has the same number of groups A and B.

C..., one end of the diode pair in each group is connected in common and connected all at once to each corresponding contact of the changeover switch Y, and the other ends of the diode pairs in corresponding positions in each group are common to each other. and are collectively connected to the respective corresponding contacts of the changeover switch X.

That is, each diode pair has both switches X.

7 are connected in a so-called matrix.

First, by operating block changeover switch Y, block 8 is connected to block power supply VT, and other blocks B and C are connected.
...is grounded.

The diode pairs in the block A are selected in order from one end to the other by an individual changeover switch X, and connected one by one to a readout circuit (amplifier) RK. At this time, assuming that the light from the laser 11 whose readout level has been adjusted is hitting the 1°-open photodiode 601, which is grounded by the individual changeover switch X except for the selected diode pair, this is in a conductive state. Therefore, the current from the block power supply VT flows through the block diode 6602 and the photodiode 60.
1, passes through a, a, and is further read out via the corresponding contact of the individual changeover switch X.

Point a is also connected to the photodiodes of blocks B and C, but these blocks are not connected to the power supply ■↑, and the photodiodes are not irradiated with readout light, so the M and current of these diode pairs are is prevented.

Therefore, only the information of the photodiode 601 of block A connected to point a is read out from readout circuit R.

By sequentially switching the individual changeover switches X and sequentially selecting the diode pairs in the block A from the right end to the left, the information of each photodiode is read out in time.

After that, switch to block B with block changeover switch Y.

By sequentially selecting Ch4- and operating the individual changeover switch X in the same manner as described above, the pair of block diode 602 and photodiode 601 is selected and scanned from the right end to the left end.

The readout circuit outputs a corresponding electrical signal depending on whether the selected photodiode is irradiated with light or not.

In Fig. 5, it is not necessarily necessary to ground the blocks and photodiodes that are not selected by the changeover switches X and Y6. The diameter of the light focused by the multi-lens 15 above is several μm.
Since the size of the optical card 4 is extremely small, in order to achieve correct recording and reading by irradiating light onto the correct information recording position, the optical card 4 is stopped at a predetermined position in the housing 90 as shown in FIG. A holding mechanism is required.

For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 1, the guide grooves 45 and 46'i formed in advance on the optical card 4 are detected by photo sensors (not shown) provided in the housing 90 corresponding to the guide grooves 45 and 46'i. Based on this detection output, first, while slightly moving the optical card 4, its initial position 1h is set.

This initial position setting work is performed by a fine movement mechanism (not shown), so it takes about 0.1 seconds, but once the relative positions of the optical card 4, multi-laser head 1, and photosensor 6 have been initialized, , based on the address information counted during positioning, it is only necessary to electrically scan the required location of the photosensor array or multi-laser head, so it is possible to record the necessary information in an extremely short time, or to record the desired information location. '6 can be read.

Next, the first. An outline of the operation when recording and reproducing information using the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the optical card 4 is loaded into a predetermined space in the housing 90, the guide grooves 45 and 46'i are detected by the initial position setting photosensor (not shown), and the appropriate slight movement is detected. The mechanism initializes the optical card.

In this case, regarding the Y direction position in FIG.
The detection outputs of the guides @-45 and 46 are used for the X-direction position.

When the initial position setting is completed, in the case of recording mode, the emission intensity of the laser 11 is set to the recording level, and recording information (for example, character information) is supplied to the input terminal I. This recorded information is converted into, for example, 8-bit binary information in the encoder 20, and is transmitted to the scanning circuit 10 as parallel 8-bit information.

The scanning circuit 10 searches and determines all the recording addresses on the optical card 4 as necessary, and supplies the entire drive current to the corresponding laser in the multi-laser head 1 according to the parallel 8-bit information.
Generates recording radar light.

The recording laser beam is detected by a photosensor 65 disposed coaxially with the laser, and its detection output is fed back to the detection circuit 30. The detection circuit 30 converts the detection output into a binary signal and sends it back to the encoder 20.

The encoder 20 compares and contrasts the returned binary 100 with the corresponding parallel 8-bit information, and when the two match, the next recording information is taken in and the same recording operation is repeated. If they do not match, an appropriate display or alarm can be generated.

When the device is in the playback mode, after the initial position setting is completed, the emission intensity of the laser 11 is set to the reading level to generate a reading laser beam, and all parallel 8-bit information from the photosensor array 6 is detected by the circuit 62. Read with The 8-bit information is sent to a decoder 63 and output as characters, symbols, etc.

In the above embodiment, the laser light source 1 and the photo sensor array 6 are shown as having a two-dimensional array of 1 row and m columns. It is clear that it can be a dimensional array,
In this way, the recording/reproducing device f' can be made smaller and at lower cost.

In the embodiments described above, increasing the area of the photosensor array may become a bottleneck in terms of cost. However, thin-film photosensors made entirely of polysilicon are relatively low-cost, and we can expect the cost of photosensors to decrease further in the future as solar cells and other devices that use the same amorphous silicon as photosensors become larger in area.

As another modification, 1/2 to 11 of the area of the recording medium 40
A sensor array covering the optical card 5 and a recording/reproducing laser light source array are prepared, and the optical card 4 is mechanically inserted 2 to 5 times.
It is also conceivable to perform relative positioning between the photo sensor array 6 and the photo sensor array 6.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, one laser is used for both recording and reproduction, and the laser light source and photosensor are formed in an array, and the required number of information pins are mainly electrically scanned.
Since the optical card is used for playback, it is possible to provide an optical card recording/playback device with short access time and high recording and playback speeds.

According to the present invention, access to information pits is performed mainly by electrical scanning, and mechanical scanning is either eliminated or becomes an auxiliary function, so the scanning unit can be made smaller, more earthquake resistant, and more durable. A compact and highly reliable optical card device can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the schematic configuration of the mechanical part of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a partially sectional perspective view of a planar emitting laser, and FIG. 4 5 is a sectional view of a reading light-receiving element suitable for this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a reading circuit using the light-receiving element of FIG. 4.

Claims (7)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of recording and reproducing light sources arranged in at least one dimension, means for holding an optical card at a predetermined position with respect to the light sources, and a means for directing light emitted from the light sources onto a recording medium of the optical card. The recording medium includes means for condensing light at a predetermined position, means for detecting light transmitted through a predetermined position on the recording medium, and means for controlling light emission from the light source in a predetermined order by electrical means. An optical card recording and reproducing device characterized by: (2) The optical card recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording and reproducing light source is a laser light source. (3) The optical card recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording and reproducing light source is a planar light-emitting coaxial orthogonal junction type semiconductor laser light source. (4) An optical card is characterized in that it consists of a medium, a recording medium adhered to a base, and a protective film covering the recording medium. The optical card device described in . (5) a plurality of recording/reproducing light sources arranged in at least one dimension; means for holding an optical card at a predetermined position relative to the light sources; and a means for directing light emitted from the light sources onto a recording medium of the optical card. means for condensing light at a predetermined position; means for detecting light transmitted through a predetermined position on the recording medium; an encoder for receiving information to be recorded and converting it into pit information; means for electrically controlling the lighting of a plurality of recording/reproducing light sources in a scheduled order according to pit information; and means for comparing the lighting control information with pit information of corresponding recording information. and,
An optical card recording and reproducing apparatus, characterized in that the optical card recording and reproducing apparatus comprises means for enabling reception of the next recorded information when the lighting control information and the pit information of the recorded information match as a result of the comparison. (6) The optical card device according to claim 5, wherein the recording/reproducing light source is a laser light source. (7) The optical card device according to claim 5, wherein the recording/reproducing light source is a planar light emitting type coaxial orthogonal junction type semiconductor laser light source.