JPH0711869B2 - Optical storage - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical storage device, and more particularly to an optical storage device suitable for a library file capable of quickly exchanging a storage medium.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there is not much need to update information as in the case of meteorological observation, documents, patent databases, etc., the call volume for one information is small, and a large amount of information storage is required.
For a so-called library file (also called an archival file), an optical disk device that has a faster access speed than a magnetic tape and a lower storage unit price than a magnetic disk has been used.

The storage unit price of an optical disk is low, because the medium can be exchanged as in the case of the magnetic tape. Therefore, by combining this with an autochanger mechanism that automatically exchanges a large amount of media for one recording / reproducing device, Although it is possible to configure, on the other hand, the time required for medium exchange will affect the final call volume of the system, and in order to handle more media with one recording / reproducing device and lower the storage unit price. It was necessary to shorten the medium exchange time.

That is, the medium exchange time is the time to stop the rotating disk device, the time to remove the medium, the time to store the medium in the warehouse, the time to remove the target medium from the warehouse, and the time to remove the medium to the spindle. It can be expressed by the mounting time and the spindle startup time. Therefore, in order to reduce the series of work time, it is possible to use a plurality of medium moving mechanisms (accessors) per spindle, but in any case, it takes time to start and stop the spindle. Absent.

Further, as a means for improving the performance of the device, it is conceivable to improve the rotational speed of the spindle in a steady state, but in this case, a constant start-up time is required more and more. That is, in order to shorten the start-stop time, there is a drawback that a high-power motor is required and additionally vibration suppression at the time of start, which is likely to occur in a high-power motor, is newly required. Further, it has been necessary to control so that the imbalance due to rotation does not occur in each of a large number of media.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, in the conventional optical storage device, it takes too much time to mount the medium every time the medium is exchanged and to start and stop the disk device for rotating the medium, resulting in a storage unit price increase. It becomes expensive.

An object of the present invention is to focus on the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to solve the problems, unlike a conventional optical disk device, an optical head is always rotated to reduce the time required for medium replacement. A storage device is provided.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, the present invention is supported by a rotating body so as to be independently movable in the radial direction and the rotation axis direction, and recording and reproduction are possible. A focus control unit capable of optical focus adjustment with respect to the storage medium, a unit for rotationally driving the rotating body, a unit for moving the focus control unit in the radial direction, and a unit for supporting the storage medium parallel to the rotating surface of the rotating body. And a means that is capable of finely moving the storage medium supported by the support means in parallel with the rotation surface to adjust the center of the track on the storage medium to the rotation center of the rotating body. Characterize.

[Operation] According to the optical storage device of the present invention, when the recording medium is exchanged, the focus control section involved in recording and reproduction is kept rotated by the rotating means, and the track center of the storage medium is simply rotated. Since it is only necessary to make a fine adjustment so that it coincides with the center of rotation of the body, it is possible to save the time required to start and stop the storage medium disk each time it is exchanged as in the conventional case, and to achieve high-speed access.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. Here, 1 is a rotary optical head mechanism (hereinafter simply referred to as an optical head), and 2
Is an optical path provided along the axis of the rotating portion 3 of the optical head 1,
Reference numeral 4 is a motor for rotating the optical head 1. Reference numeral 5 is a rotary transformer, 6 is an actuator attached to the top of the rotating portion 3, and the actuator 6 is provided with a focus control portion 7 and a balancer 8 symmetrically at the tip thereof.
The actuator 6 holds it so that it can extend freely.

9A and 9B are mirrors arranged in the optical path 2, 10 is a light emitting / receiving unit fixed to the apparatus, and 11 is a recording medium that is fixed so that its core is aligned with the axis of the rotating unit 3. Medium
The recording signal input to the recording medium 11 and the reproduction signal output from the recording medium 11 are transmitted and received by the light emitting and receiving unit 10. The optical signal passes through the optical path 2 provided at the center of rotation and the optical path in the actuator 6, and In addition, since it is reflected by the mirrors 9A and 9B, it is optically coupled to the rotating focus control unit 7, and thus the optical head 1 can have the same function as the optical head of the optical disk device. .

12A and 12B are paired moving mechanisms which are respectively arranged at axially symmetrical positions in two directions orthogonal to each other, and both are movably held by a guide rail 13, and the moving mechanisms 12A and 12B have a circular shape. Clamp members 14 are provided to hold the plate-shaped recording medium from four sides.

Since the signal and power for focus control and minute track following are transmitted through the rotary transformer 5, the structure of the focus control unit 7 is no different from that of the optical head in the conventional optical disk device. The optical path 2 may be a cavity or an optical fiber. Further, although the light emitting / receiving unit 10 naturally includes a beam splitter and the like (not shown) provided in the conventional optical head, it is omitted because it is not directly related to the operation description of the present invention.

In the optical storage device configured as described above, the focus control unit 7 can be extended in the radial direction of rotation by the actuator 6, so that an arbitrary track can be selected from a large number of tracks provided on the medium 11. Electric power for driving the actuator 6 is also sent to the rotating unit 3 via the rotary transformer 5, and signal transmission / reception via such a rotary transformer 5 is well known in VTR and the like. When the focus control unit 7 is moved in the radial direction of rotation, the rotational mass balance is disturbed and the rotary spindle is adversely affected. However, the balancer 8 having the same mass as the focus control unit 7 is axially symmetric. Balancer 8 because it is located in the position
Is moved by moving the focus control unit 7 at the same time.

Further, concentric tracks or spiral tracks pregrooved with respect to one rotation center are formed on the medium 11, but when replacing the medium 11, how to position the medium 11 with high accuracy. Even if held, it is difficult to make the center of rotation of the track on the medium 11 already recorded coincide with the center of rotation of the rotary optical head 1. Therefore, in this example, the medium clamp member holding the exchanged medium 11 is slightly displaced by the moving mechanisms 12A and 12B, and the rotational primary synchronization component of the reproduced track position error is controlled to be zero. The centers of rotation can be matched. Here, since the moving mechanisms 12A and 12B basically move only a small amount of the medium 11 when the medium is mounted, there is no need for a high-speed moving mechanism such as a voice coil motor, and low power consumption such as a piezoelectric element and a step motor is required. Things are enough.

Therefore, in the case of this example, first, the selected medium 11 is transferred from the medium warehouse to the recording / reproducing unit, and the center of the concentric track or spiral track is mounted and positioned along the guide rail 13, Approximately match the center of the rotation axis of. After that, the focus control unit 7 previously retracted (defocused) to a safe distance is moved to the medium 11
(Focus), try to reproduce the track position information, measure the center deviation amount, and move the clamp member 14
It is slightly displaced by 12A and 12B. During this time, since the rotary optical head 1 continues to rotate at a constant speed, no start-up time is required. When exchanging the medium, it suffices to defocus the focus control unit 7 to detach the medium, and it is not necessary to stop the rotation. In this case, since there is no medium shake (runout) due to medium rotation, the defocus amount can be small. Further, since there is a small amount of high-order off-track that remains after the centers of rotation are matched, the track-following mechanism built in the focus control section 7 can follow it, so there is no problem. This track following mechanism may be one that shifts the focus lens or one that moves the mirror. Furthermore, in this example, since there is no need for the track following mechanism to follow the eccentric component, which is a problem in a normal optical disc, the following range can be reduced, and the mechanism can be simplified. is there. Further, with respect to focus adjustment, it is necessary to always follow a medium shake (runout) due to rotation in an ordinary optical disc.
Since 11 is stationary, there is no concern about the occurrence of a medium runout, and the required focus adjustment range is therefore small, so that the focus control unit 7 can be made small.

Furthermore, since the spindle motor basically rotates continuously, the spindle motor may be small enough to maintain the rotation.
In addition, in this example, the inertial mass of the rotating portion changes with the movement of the focus control unit 7 in the rotation radius direction only by taking the dynamic balance of the rotating unit. Since the speed in the focus control unit 7 which is a mass intensive in general is kept almost constant, this is a constant linear velocity (CL
It can be said that this is a form suitable for performing the memory reproduction of the V) type at high speed. Of course, since it is not a perfect lumped mass system, there is some linear velocity fluctuation, but it is known in the speed matching buffer of a magnetic disk device that the fluctuation can be controlled within an allowable range by using some buffer memory. Is.

Of course, it is also possible to perform recording / reproduction in the constant angular velocity (CAV) type like a conventional magnetic disk. FIG. 2 shows such an embodiment. In this embodiment, it is of a double rotation type so that the inertial mass of the rotating optical head portion is always constant.

That is, 16 is a rotary arm attached to extend in the radial direction from the rotary unit 3, and a swing actuator 17 is provided at the tip P1 of the rotary arm.
A second swing arm 18 having the tip P1 as an axis is swingably supported by 17 on the axis. Reference numeral 19 is a second balance member attached to the other end of the swing arm 18 with respect to the focus control section 7 arranged at one end thereof.

In the CAV type optical storage device configured as described above, the focus control section 7 is arranged so that the second balance member 19 and the inertial mass are balanced around the tip end portion P1. The portion supported by the rotary arm 16 including the swing actuator 17 for swinging through
Maintains a balanced inertial mass with the balance member 8 mounted on the opposite side of 16. Therefore, the swing arm 18 is rotated by the swing actuator 17 while rotating the rotating portion 3 at a constant angular velocity.
Thus, recording / reproduction can be performed on a recording medium disk (not shown) by swinging the recording medium disk in either direction of arrow S.

Further, although the disk-shaped medium 11 is illustrated in FIG. 1, it is not necessary to balance the dynamic inertial mass with a circular shape because the medium is arranged almost statically in the present invention. Any shape can be used as long as it is convenient for medium replacement and medium positioning. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, a handle 15 may be provided in a part for convenient attachment / detachment to / from the medium auto changer. In short, there is a problem as long as the rotary optical head has a dynamic balance. Also, it is one of the advantages of the present invention that the dynamic balance of a large number of used media 11 does not pose a problem. Here, T indicates a track.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when the medium is exchanged, the spindle start-up / stop time required in the conventional optical disk is not required, so that the library apparatus requiring a large amount of information storage can be used. High-speed access can be achieved as appropriate.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the basic structure of a recording / reproducing unit of an optical storage device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the basic structure of a recording / reproducing unit according to another embodiment of the present invention. The figure is a perspective view showing another example of the medium shape. 1 ... Optical head, 2 ... Optical path, 3 ... Rotating part, 4 ... Motor, 5 ... Rotating transformer, 6 ... Actuator, 7 ... Focus control part, 8 ... Balancer, 9A, 9B ... Mirror, 10 ... Light emitting / receiving unit, 11 ... Recording medium, 12A, 12B ... Moving mechanism, 13 ... Guide rail, 14 ... Clamping member, 15 ... Handle, 16 ... Rotating arm, 17 ... Shaking Dynamic actuator, 18 ... Swing arm, 19 ... Second balance member, P1 ... Tip, T ... Track, S ... Swing direction.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A focus control unit which is movably supported in a radial direction and a rotation axis direction independently of each other by a rotating body, and which is capable of adjusting an optical focus of a recording medium capable of recording and reproducing, and the rotating unit. Means for rotationally driving a body, means for moving the focus control unit in the radial direction, means for supporting the storage medium in parallel with a rotation surface of the rotation body, and the storage medium supported by the support means. The optical storage device further comprising: a means that is capable of finely moving in parallel with the rotation surface to adjust the center of the track on the storage medium to the rotation center of the rotating body. . 2. The optical storage device according to claim 1, wherein a constant linear velocity recording / reproducing is performed by the rotating body, a means for driving the rotating body, and a means for moving the focus control unit in a radial direction. An optical storage device characterized in that it is made possible. 3. The optical storage device according to claim 1, wherein constant angular velocity type recording / reproducing is performed by the rotating body, means for driving the rotating body, and means for moving the focus control unit in a radial direction. An optical storage device characterized by being made possible.