This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-34135 filed Jun. 18, 2002 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk drive, and more particularly, to an optical disk drive which removes a static electricity of an optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
Where the tray 20 slides in the case 10, the tray 20 is locked as a hook step 20a formed on a bottom surface of the tray 20 is hooked by a hook portion 13a of a rotary lever 13 connected to a solenoid 12. Thus, where the optical disk D is placed on the turntable 21 and the tray 20 is pushed into the case 10, as shown in
Where the tray 20 is ejected from the case 10, the solenoid 12 is driven to rotate the rotary lever 13 in a direction in which the hook step 20a is unlocked from the hook portion 13a. A spring 23 is provided on a lower surface of the tray 20. The spring 23 is elastically deformed where the tray 20 slides in, and is elastically returned to the original state and pushes the tray 20 outside the case 10 where the hook portion 13a disengages with the hook step 20a. That is, the tray 20 is ejected by a restoring force of the spring 23.
Reference 30 denotes a disk stopper that provides a braking force to the tray 20, so as to prevent the tray 20 from being ejected beyond a predetermined distance, as the disk stopper 30 makes a frictional contact with an edge of the optical disk D, as shown in FIG. 3. Where the tray 20 slides into the case 10, the edge of the optical disk D contacts the disk stopper 30. Since the braking force is generated due to the frictional contact, the tray 20 can be pushed into the case 10 with a small amount of force. The disk stopper 30 is made of a material such as a rubber, a plastic, a vinyl, a cloth, and a leather.
Where the optical disk D rotates at a high speed in the optical disk driver having the above structure, a static electricity may be generated on a surface of the optical disk D due to a friction with air. Where the static electricity is generated on the surface of the optical disk D, the static electricity attracts a foreign material such as dust so that the surface of the optical disk D is easily contaminated by the foreign material. As a result, the foreign material may hinder a recording or a reproducing operation with respect to the optical disk D. Where the amount of the static electricity is small, it may not adversely affect the optical disk D. However, as the optical disk D is repeatedly used, the static electricity is accumulated and a degree of dust attachment is increased. In this case, a recording and/or a reproduction operation may be adversely affected by the foreign material.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide an optical disk drive which removes a static electricity of an optical disk, before use.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and/or other aspects of the present invention, there is provided an optical disk drive for driving an optical disk, comprising a case, a tray which receives the optical disk and slides in and out of the case, and a ground member which is electrically connected to the case and contacts one side of the optical disk in response to the tray sliding in or out of the case.
The ground member may provide a braking force to stop the optical disk as the optical disk comes into a frictional contact with the ground member, where the tray is ejected from the case.
The ground member may comprise a combination of a metal material which provides an electrical connection with the case and a non metal material which provides the braking force.
The metal material may include at least one selected from aluminum, silver, copper, nickel, stainless steel, a conductive material in which a metal powder and carbon are mixed with a synthetic resin and a synthetic rubber, a metal thread, and a material in which a metal tread and a non metal thread are mixed. The metal material may be an attachment metal tape.
These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.
Where the tray 200 slides into the case 100, the tray 200 is locked as a hook step 201 formed on a bottom surface of the tray 200 is hooked by a hook portion 131 of a rotary lever 130 connected to a solenoid 120. Where the tray 200 is ejected from the case 100, the solenoid 120 is driven to rotate the rotary lever 130 in a direction to unlock the hook step 201 from the hook portion 131. The tray 200 is ejected out of the case 100 by a restoring force of a spring 230 installed on a lower surface of the tray 200.
Reference 300 denotes a disk stopper which provides a braking force to the tray 200 to prevent the tray 200 from being ejected beyond a predetermined distance by the restoring force, as the disk stopper 300 contacts an edge of the optical disk D. In the present invention, the disk stopper 300 also functions as a ground member. That is, since the edge of the optical disk D contacts the disk stopper 300, where the tray 200 slides in, a static electricity of the optical disk D can be removed by providing a ground function to the disk stopper 300. Accordingly, at least a part of the disk stopper 300 is made of a metal so as to be electrically connected to the case 100. In other words, since the case 100 is typically made of a metal material such as aluminum or stainless steel and the disk stopper 300 is installed on the case 100, by making at least a part of the disk stopper 300 out of a conductive metal material, the static electricity of the optical disk D is grounded to the case 100 as the edge of the optical disk D contacts the disk stopper 300.
In an optical disk drive having the above structure, where the optical disk D is placed on the turntable 210 of the tray 200 and the tray 200 is pushed into the case 100, as shown in
As described above, in an optical disk drive according to the present invention, by removing a static electricity remaining on an optical disk through a predetermined ground member, where a tray is loaded into the optical disk drive, foreign materials such as dust can be prevented from adhering to the optical disk. Thus, a stable and an accurate optical signal processing is guaranteed and the reliability of the optical disk drive and the optical disk is improved.
Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2002-34135 | Jun 2002 | KR | national |
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5684775 | Tanaka et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
5864447 | Matsumoto et al. | Jan 1999 | A |
6594110 | Kimura et al. | Jul 2003 | B2 |
6603723 | Minase | Aug 2003 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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4-325985 | Nov 1992 | JP |
6-302080 | Oct 1994 | JP |
11-45493 | Feb 1999 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20030231560 A1 | Dec 2003 | US |