JPH1097781A - Optical disk drive - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a small-sized optical disk drive device for recording and reproducing information by inserting a card-type cartridge containing a small-sized optical disk therein. SOLUTION: An optical disk drive 1 is a PCMC.
It has a main body 10 corresponding to the IA standard and a connector 12. The tray 2 is opened and closed via a hinge 22 on the main body 10.
The optical disk cartridge 50 is inserted through the opening 24 of the tray 20. The optical disk cartridge 50 is of a card type, and the optical disk 60 is mounted so as to be deviated to one short side of the cartridge. Since a recording / reproducing device member including the drive motor 70 and the recording / reproducing head 80 of the optical disk can be disposed so as to face the optical disk located at a position distant from the connector 12, a space required for the recording / reproducing device member can be easily secured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disk recording / reproducing device using magneto-optical recording.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of digital technology, data to be handled is increasing. For this reason, data recording / reproducing media suitable for each application have been developed. Recording and playback media used in computers, etc.
Examples include a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, and a tape device. Among them, the recording / reproducing media using the optical disk is excellent in low cost per capacity by replacing the optical disk, random accessibility, ease of manufacturing of the disk when it is dedicated to reproduction, and the like.

[0003] On the other hand, there is a demand that hardware using such a recording / reproducing medium should be carried not only indoors but also carried and used. For example, a mini personal computer, a portable information terminal, a handy game machine, a handy karaoke, an electronic still camera, and the like correspond to this. At this time, when the amount of information is small, a semiconductor memory is used as the data recording medium. A semiconductor memory has advantages such as low power consumption, no failure due to no mechanism, and high data transfer speed, but it has a high cost per capacity and is not suitable for a large-capacity recording medium.

On the other hand, among magnetic disk devices, a device called a hard disk is not as good as a semiconductor memory, but has a high transfer speed and a low cost per capacity, and is therefore suitable for a large-capacity recording medium. Recording and reproduction are performed by bringing the magnetic head close to the hard disk and rotating the disk at a high speed, so a mechanism is required. Hard disk devices using 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch hard disks have also been developed. However, a certain degree of miniaturization is also feasible.

[0005]

In the prior art, the semiconductor memory is small, power-saving, and high-speed transfer, but has a high cost per capacity, and is not suitable for large-capacity recording and reproduction.
In the case of a hard disk, the transfer speed is high and the cost per capacity is low. However, since the hard disk cannot be replaced by itself, the capacity cannot be increased later, and it is necessary to replace the hard disk including the recording / reproducing drive. Because of this, the small, large capacity available for portable hardware,
There has been a need for replaceable media that achieves low cost.

On the other hand, PCMCIA (hereinafter, referred to as a PC card) is used as a small hardware interface.
PC Car that uses card-shaped media called
There is a standard called dStandard, which has a PC card connector on the main unit. When a SCSI interface PC card is connected, a hard disk drive or an optical disk drive can be driven. Can transfer each other.

[0007] However, these hard disk devices and optical disk devices cannot be stored in a mini personal computer, which hinders portability. On the other hand, there are products in which a hard disk device and a semiconductor memory are directly compliant with a PC card, and these can be stored in a mini personal computer. However, as described above, it is costly to increase the capacity of a PC card using a semiconductor memory. In the case of a hard disk drive using a 1.8-inch hard disk,
The maximum thickness of the PC card for a disk drive motor, a magnetic recording head feed mechanism, etc. is 10.
Since it is 5 mm, it is necessary to increase the number of hard disks in the PC card in order to increase the capacity. However, this is difficult, and it is difficult to increase the capacity with a PC card-based magnetic disk device. The present invention provides an optical disk drive for an optical disk cartridge that solves the above problems.

[0008]

The optical disk drive according to the present invention comprises, as basic means, a connector conforming to the PCMCIA standard and an external shape continuous with the connector.
An optical disk drive body formed in a shape corresponding to the CCMIA standard, a tray which is openably and closably mounted on the optical disk drive body and stores a cartridge containing an optical disk, an optical disk cartridge stored in the tray, and an optical disk drive body And a recording / reproducing device member for recording / reproducing information on / from the optical disc of the cartridge.

The optical disk cartridge has a card-type cartridge housing and an optical disk that is housed inside the cartridge housing so as to be deviated to one rectangular side of the cartridge housing. The optical disk in the optical disk cartridge is biased to the side opposite to the connector. Further, the optical disk cartridge includes an opening for allowing a recording / reproducing device member to approach the built-in optical disk, and the opening includes a drive motor connecting portion provided at the center of the optical disk on the surface of the optical disk. It is formed in a rectangular shape exposing at least one plane including the radial perpendicular direction with the above area. According to this configuration, the optical disk recording / reproducing device members in the optical disk cartridge are arranged irrespective of the optical disk cartridge, so that the optical disk drive device can be equipped with a small size.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of an optical disk drive of the present invention. An optical disk drive device, generally designated by reference numeral 1, has a card-shaped main body 10,
One rectangular side of the main body 10 has a connector 12 corresponding to a PC card. The outer shape of the main body 10 on the connector 12 side has a shape that can be inserted into a PC card slot provided in an electronic device. The portion 14 connected to the main body 10 provided outside the slot can be formed, for example, by increasing the thickness of the main body 10 in the thickness direction to form the storage section 14 for accommodating the recording / reproducing equipment member of the optical disk device. .

On the upper surface of the main body 10, a tray 20 for housing a cartridge containing an optical disk is provided. The tray 20 can be opened and closed around a hinge 22 attached to the body 10 on the side opposite to the connector 12, and the end of the tray 20 opposite to the hinge 22 has
An opening 24 for inserting a cartridge is formed.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which the tray 20 of the optical disk door live apparatus 1 is opened upward from the main body 10 around the hinge 22. When the tray 20 is open, the cartridge 50 containing the optical disk in the opening 24 can be pulled out.

FIG. 3 shows the cartridge 50 in the tray 20.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the optical disc apparatus 1 in which is inserted.
It is an arrow view. Tray 20 of optical disk drive 1
When the cartridge 50 containing the optical disk 60 therein is inserted therein and the tray 20 is closed with the hinge 22 as a center, the optical disk drive device 1 returns to the card shape inserted into the slot for the PC card.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a part of information recording / reproducing equipment members provided in the optical disk drive 1, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a view on arrow B in FIG. 5. The main body 10 has an optical disc 60 contained in a cartridge 50 inserted into the tray 20.
And a head 80 for recording and reproducing information on and from the optical disk 60. The head 80 is attached to a carriage 82, and the carriage 82 is guided by a guide 84 to
Move in the radial direction.

Drive motor 70 disposed on main body 10
The recording / reproducing equipment members such as the recording / reproducing head 80
0 is mounted on the side opposite to the connector 12 side.
Since the main body 10 has a shape conforming to the PC card standard, the space that can be used for the recording / reproducing equipment members is extremely limited.

The storage section 14 provided as necessary continuously to the main body 10 is arranged outside the PC card slot of the partner device into which the optical disk apparatus 1 is inserted, so that the storage section 14 has a shape larger than the opening shape of the slot. Can be provided. Therefore, by arranging a part or all of the recording / reproducing equipment members in the adjacent storage unit 14, the degree of freedom in design can be improved.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the cartridge 50, and FIG. 8 is a view taken in the direction of arrow C in FIG. The cartridge 50 has a box-shaped main body having a card-like planar shape, and has an internal space 52.
Is provided with a disc-shaped optical disk 60.

The cartridge 50 has a rectangular opening 56 facing the optical disk 60, and a shutter 54 for opening and closing the opening 56 is attached. This shutter 5
Reference numeral 4 is slidably attached in the direction of arrow S. The shutter 54 opens the opening 56 by the operation of inserting the cartridge 50 into the tray 20, and the shutter 54 closes the opening 56 by the operation of pulling out the cartridge 50 from the tray 20.

An opening 56 provided in the cartridge 50
Has a large dimension that is at least half the surface area of the optical disc 60 to be mounted, has a dimension including the central drive section 62 that comes into contact with the drive motor of the optical disc 60, and has a continuous planar dimension orthogonal to the radial direction. Have.

Therefore, by opening this large opening 56 when the cartridge 50 is inserted into the tray 20, the drive motor 7 mounted on the main body 10 side can be opened.
0, the recording / reproducing equipment member including the head 80 can be moved to the optical disc 60 inside the cartridge 50 through the opening.
Side, and the thickness of the main body can be designed in the thickness direction without being hindered by the cartridge housing for arranging the recording / reproducing equipment members, and the degree of freedom in mounting the recording / reproducing apparatus can be improved. .

[0021]

As described above, the optical disk drive device of the present invention has a connector and a main body corresponding to the PCMCIA standard, and can record and reproduce information by detachably storing a card-type optical disk cartridge. it can. P
By complying with the CCMIA standard, it is possible to transmit information by inserting it into slots of various electronic devices, and since the optical disk cartridge is exchangeable,
Can be used for many applications.

Then, the optical disk contained in the card type cartridge is disposed so as to be biased toward one of the rectangular cartridges, and when the cartridge is inserted into the drive device, the recording / reproducing equipment member is separated from the connector. The insertion direction of the cartridge is determined so as to be in the position.
Therefore, in the case where the storage unit 14 is actively used, for example, it is desired to respond to demands for high performance of recording / reproducing equipment members provided in the main body of a small optical disk drive device and cost reduction by adopting large components. In this case, the degree of freedom in design and mounting can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an optical disk drive according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state where a tray of the optical disk drive of the present invention is used.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a state where an optical disk cartridge of the optical disk drive device of the present invention is stored.

FIG. 4 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a part of a recording / reproducing apparatus member of the optical disk drive device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view as seen from the arrow B in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the optical disk cartridge.

FIG. 8 is a view taken in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Optical disk drive device 10 Main body 12 Connector 14 Storage part 20 Tray 22 Hinge 24 Opening 50 Optical disk cartridge 54 Shutter 56 Opening 60 Optical disk 70 Drive motor 80 Recording / playback head

Claims (3)

[Claims] A connector compliant with the PCMCIA standard; an optical disk drive body having an external shape continuous with the connector formed into a shape compliant with the PCMCIA standard;
A tray, which is openably and closably attached to the optical disk drive main body and stores a cartridge containing an optical disk, an optical disk cartridge stored in the tray,
The optical disc drive includes a recording / reproducing device member that is provided in the main body of the optical disc drive and records and reproduces information on and from the optical disc in the cartridge. The optical disc cartridge is a card-shaped cartridge housing and is biased toward one of the rectangular sides of the cartridge housing. An optical disk drive having an optical disk inserted therein and having an optical disk cartridge stored in a tray and mounted on an optical disk drive body, wherein the optical disk in the optical disk cartridge is deviated to the side opposite to the connector; apparatus. 2. A tray for storing a cartridge, which opens and closes around a hinge provided on the side of the optical disk drive main body opposite to the connector, and inserts the cartridge at an end on the connector side or at a position close to the end. The optical disk drive device according to claim 1, further comprising a unit. 3. A tray for storing a cartridge, which has a storage portion provided continuously with the optical disk drive main body, and has an opening for opening and closing around a hinge provided on the side opposite to the connector and for inserting the cartridge from the connector side. The optical disk drive device according to claim 1.