Lawrence Welk, the bandleader who entertained millions of Americans over a generation of broadcasting his TV show, once received a patent: for a music-themed design of an ashtray.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7639588 | Optical disc drive apparatus The amount of reflected light from an adjacent layer in a multilayer optical disc is reduced by means of a combination of half-wave plates having different optical axes and a flat mirror. The polarization direction of the reflected light from a target layer is chang... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7417936 | Optical pickup reducing noise and polarization changer An optical pickup includes a laser light source, an objective lens which focuses light emitted from the laser light source on an optical information storing medium, an optical path changer which changes a proceeding path of the light emitted from the laser light sou... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7359308 | Fixing structure for optical element and optical head device A fixing structure for an optical element includes a first element face of the optical element, a second element face of the optical element which is orthogonal to the first element face, a first positioning plane of a fixed member which abuts with the first element... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7280459 | Device for correcting signal modulations A device for reading from and/or writing to optical recording media 10, on which information is present in the form of pits, with a linearly polarized light beam 2. A device for reading from and/or writing to optical recording media 10 w... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7251200 | Apparatus for reproducing information data from magneto-optical recording medium using linear polarized beam An apparatus is provided for reproducing optical disks. An optical head irradiates linearly polarized light onto an optical disk. A change of a polarization orientation of light that is transmitted or reflected from the optical disk is detected in accordance with a ... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7224661 | Wave plate and optical pickup unit using the same As a ½ wave plate constituted by laminating two wave plates, a wave plate where temperature dependence of a phase difference is reduced is provided. In a wave plate constituted by laminating a first wave plate having a phase difference τ1 (deg.) and an ... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7206069 | Optical analyzers of polarization properties A passive optical system substantially simultaneously separates light received at an optical input into three or more output light beams on optical outputs. The output light beams may have intensities that are proportional to intensities of optical projections of th... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7027223 | Optical element that is adjustable for optimizing extinction ratios An optical element such as a beam splitter for interferometer separates a heterodyne beam from the laser into separate beams having different the frequencies and orthogonal polarizations. Optical fibers can conduct the separate beams to a beam combiner for interfero... | 04/11/2006 |
| 7016290 | Readout method and apparatus for optical information medium In an optical information medium comprising an information recording layer having a mark train of marks and spaces, the mark train is read out by scanning it with a laser beam and detecting a light intensity change pattern of reflected laser beam. Provided that the ... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7006411 | Optical pickup unit having electro-optical element and information recording and reproduction apparatus An optical pickup unit includes a light source emitting a light beam, an objective lens focusing the light beam onto an information recording medium, a light detection part receiving the light beam reflected from the information recording medium, and a light blockin... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6940801 | Optical recording medium, optical recording and reproducing method and apparatus An optical recording medium, an optical recording and reproducing method, and an apparatus that can record and reproduce multilevel information at a high density and with a high S/N ratio. Recording light emitted from a light source is collimated by a collimation le... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6930974 | Phase compensation method and optical storage apparatus A phase compensation method uses a phase plate to compensate for an optical phase of a reproduced signal in a reproducing optical system which is provided with respect to the reproduced signal from an optical recording medium. The position of the phase plate is cont... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6920101 | Optical information processor and optical element An optical disk device has an aperture of an objective lens in an incoming path of a beam from a semiconductor laser to an optical disk formed larger than an aperture in a return path from the optical disk or an aperture is varied in recording and in reproduction. T... | 07/19/2005 |
| 6804185 | Optical pickup and information recording and/or reproducing apparatus including the same A variable optical unit is provided with at least two phase-shift regions for providing light with phase differences. Phase-shift amount of the phase-shift region is adjusted by the applied voltage in accordance with birefringence of an information medium. A light b... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6801491 | Focus error detecting apparatus of optical pickup with a light separating and astigmatism generation optical element and detection method thereof A focus error detecting apparatus and a focus error detecting method of an optical pickup in which the system is not easily influenced by track transversal noises and an optical disc thickness error and which can be used together with a 3-beam system or a DPD system... | 10/05/2004 |
| 6594042 | Optical element, optical pickup, information recording and reproducing method, and polarizing hologram An optical element that receives a first incident light and a second incident light through a main surface and allowing the first and second incident lights to be transmitted therethrough, the first and second incident lights being linearly polarized ligh... | 07/15/2003 |
| 6512733 | Optical recording method, optical recording apparatus, optical reading method, and optical reading apparatus The present invention provides an optical recording method, optical recording apparatus, optical reading method, and optical reading apparatus which are capable of high density recording an d high speed recording, and high speed reading. In recording, a r... | 01/28/2003 |
| 6504811 | Optical information storage unit An optical information storage unit for reproducing information recorded on lands and grooves of a magneto-optical recording medium by means of a reflected light obtained from a luminous flux which has been emitted from a light source, irradiated onto the... | 01/07/2003 |
| 6278681 | Optical head, method of fabricating optical head, and apparatus for fabricating optical head There is provided an optical head including a laser diode chip, a lens for focusing lights onto an object, an optical separator for separating lights reflected from the object, from an optical axis of a light directing towards the lens from the laser diod... | 08/21/2001 |
| 6266313 | Optical pickup for recording or reproducing system A light source is provided for emitting a first beam having a far-field pattern of an elliptic shape. The first beam is a linearly polarized light having a first polarizing direction in a major axis of the elliptic shape. A half-wave plate is provided for... | 07/24/2001 |
| 6108280 | Optical information storage unit An optical information storage unit for reproducing information recorded on a magneto-optic recording medium having a land and a groove as recording tracks, is provided with at least one of first and second systems, where the first system includes a 1/2 w... | 08/22/2000 |
| 5987002 | Magneto-optical recording medium and method and apparatus for reproducing data therefrom A magneto-optical recording medium formed to record an information signal on both of lands and grooves provides a capability of reproducing an excellent signal with a small magnitude of crosstalk even by narrowing a track interval more. In the magneto-opt... | 11/16/1999 |
| 5920538 | Magneto-optical readout method and magneto-optical readout head and method for making same A magneto-optical readout head for reading out magnetically stored data has a high optical quality substrate and a transducer applied to the substrate formed by a Faraday rotator and a Kerr rotator, with the Kerr rotator facing the magnetic storage medium... | 07/06/1999 |
| 5790501 | Information reproducing device A laser beam emitted from a laser diode passes through a polarizing separating plane of a first polarization beam splitter and forms a beam spot on a magneto-optic disk. The plane of polarization of the laser beam that is reflected at a magnetic film prov... | 08/04/1998 |
| 5781524 | High density optical head assembly A magneto-optical (MO) head has a pair of Faraday rotators between a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) and an objective lens for focusing light onto a MO disk. The pair of Faraday rotators rotate the direction of polarization of the light by 90° or pass the... | 07/14/1998 |
| 5777974 | Optical head and magneto-optical reproducing apparatus using the same In an optical head for radiating a light spot on a magneto-optical recording medium and detecting light received via the medium, there are provided a light source, a condenser lens for condensing light from the light source, a photodetector, and a deflect... | 07/07/1998 |
| 5740147 | Phase compensation of optical elements by tilting a half wave plate in a magneto-optic disk head A laser beam emitted from a laser diode passes through a first polarization beam splitter to form a spot on a magnetic film of a magneto-optic disk. The plane of polarization of the laser beam reflected at the magneto-optic disk rotates, due to the Kerr e... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5712840 | Optical information recording/reproduciing apparatus having two-division detectors An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus is disclosed. In the apparatus, a light beam polarized in a predetermined direction is irradiated onto an opto-magnetic recording medium to which a pre-determined magnetic field is applied. The light ... | 01/27/1998 |
| 5708645 | Semiconductor laser device to detect a divided reflected light beam An optical device for detecting a magneto-optical signal can be simplified and miniaturized in arrangement. An optical device for detecting a magneto-optical signal includes an optical element in which a light-emitting portion and a light receiving portio... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5701279 | Optical information recording-reproducing apparatus including a light beam detector being divided by a division line extending in a direction perpendicular to an information track A minute light spot is irradiated on an information track on a recording surface of a recording medium from an optical head. When reproducing an information mark train recorded on the recording surface by the mark position recording method, light reflecte... | 12/23/1997 |
| 5668786 | Magneto-optic disk apparatus having means for eliminating fluctuation component in reproduction magneto-optic signal A magneto-optic disk apparatus for use with a magneto-optic disk in which a recording surface made of a magneto-optic information recording medium is formed on a transparent substrate having a birefringence. The magneto-optic disk apparatus includes an op... | 09/16/1997 |
| 5661701 | Optical pickup using split beams impinging on different photodetector areas Optical pickup apparatus using split beams impinging on different photo-detector areas includes optical structure for projecting a light beam polarized in a predetermined direction toward a recording medium where information is recorded. Optical separatin... | 08/26/1997 |
| 5629916 | Optical information reproducing device forming light spot on photo-detector with major axis along push-pull signal detection An optical information reproducing device for reading informations recorded on the opto-magnetic recording medium is disclosed. The device comprises a first beam splitter for separating an inward path from an outward path of the light and a second beam sp... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5621714 | Optical pick-up apparatus having hologram and beam splitter with birefringent member and polarizing film An optical pick-up apparatus for reproducing information recorded on a magneto-optical record medium including a semiconductor laser emitting a linearly polarized laser beam, and a polarizing film provided between a glass prism and a uniaxial birefringent... | 04/15/1997 |
| 5621719 | Optical disk and apparatus for reproducing the same An optical disk includes: an information recording surface; first surface-transformed portion array formed on the information recording surface and including first surface-transformed portions transformed in shapes, the first surface-transformed portion r... | 04/15/1997 |
| 5617398 | In-line optical pickup using Wollaston Prism and collimating lens directing polarized light components to detectors An optical pickup includes a Wollaston prism for passing incident light generated from a light source and splitting reflected light from an optical disk into two polarized components, and two photodetectors for receiving the split reflected light beams, t... | 04/01/1997 |
| 5581532 | Optical information recording/reproducing apparatus for accurately detecting magnetic domain edges An apparatus for recording and reproducing information on and from optical or opto-magnetic information recording media is disclosed. The apparatus comprises an irradiation device for irradiating a light beam polarized in a predetermined direction to an o... | 12/03/1996 |
| 5550798 | Enhanced optical beam splitter to increase the kerr rotation angle An optical head apparatus for a magneto-optical recording medium including a light beam source, an objective lens, a separating optical system, and a photodetector. The objective lens is provided for irradiating an output light beam from the light beam so... | 08/27/1996 |
| 5517480 | Magneto-optical information reproducing apparatus that splits a light beam into at least three light beams advancing in the same direction A magneto-optical information reproducing apparatus includes a device for irradiating a light beam polarized in a predetermined direction onto a recording medium having information magnetically recorded thereon, a device for splitting a reflected or trans... | 05/14/1996 |
| 5504722 | Magneto-optic information storage system utilizing a TE/TM mode controlling laser diode A semiconductor laser apparatus includes a semiconductor substrate, a first cladding layer, an active layer, a second cladding layer, a second electrode, and a pair of resonator mirrors. The semiconductor substrate has a first electrode on one surface. Th... | 04/02/1996 |