Did You Know...
...that power steering was invented by independent inventor Francis W. Davis? As chief engineer in the 1920s of the truck division of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company, he saw how hard it was to steer heavy vehicles. So that he would be able to keep the profits from his future invention, Davis left his job, rented a small engineering shop in Waltham, Mass., and developed a hydraulic power steering system that led to power steering.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8018800 | Optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus having a high-sensitivity magnetic circuit A magnetic circuit and an optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus employing the magnetic circuit, having: a magnet with first and second magnetic portions adjacent to each other and opposite in polarity, and third and fourth magnetic portions surrounding the ... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8009524 | Optical pickup unit, apparatus for recording/reproducing data, method for controlling the apparatus, control method, and recording medium An optical pickup unit, an apparatus for recording/reproducing data, a control method, and a recording medium are disclosed. Each of the optical pickup unit and the recording/reproducing apparatus includes a near-field lens, and uses a high-refraction lens, conicall... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7929385 | Optical pickup apparatus An optical pickup apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information onto/or from information recording surface, the optical pickup apparatus comprises a laser light source, an objective lens for converging light beams from the laser light source onto the inform... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7701812 | Optical element driving apparatus An optical element driving apparatus includes a holder that holds a plurality of switchable optical elements for focusing light on a recording medium, a resiliently deformable supporting unit that supports the holder, a focusing driving unit that drives the holder i... | 04/20/2010 |
| 7672198 | Optical pickup head and electromagnetic actuating device thereof An optical pickup head and an electromagnetic actuating device thereof are provided. The electromagnetic actuating device is used to move an objective lens carrier having an objective lens assembly to form an optical pickup head. The electromagnetic actuating device... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7420892 | Optical head device, and optical recording/reproducing device A compact and light flying head type magneto-optical head apparatus is provided. The magneto-optical head apparatus (1) of the present invention comprises a suspension (12) whose one end is fixed to a lower surface of an arm (11), a slider (1... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7394732 | Object lens drive device, and disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus The present invention is directed to an object lens drive device adapted for moving an object lens in a focus direction of optical axis direction and in a tracking direction perpendicular to the optical axis direction, and includes a fixed position provided in such ... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7372786 | Optical pickup actuator The present invention provides an optical pickup actuator, in which a pair of lenses, e.g., BD lens and DVD lens, are loaded on one pickup to record/reproduce information on/from optical discs having various write capacities such as BD (Blu-ray disc), CD, DVD and th... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7349295 | Optical head device A lens holder (101) holds an objective lens (4) and a support shaft (103) is inserted in a bearing hole (101a) in the lens holder (101). Light that is emitted from a light source and reflected by an information recording med... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7342870 | Position adjustment apparatus, optical pickup apparatus and position adjustment method A chuck portion provided to keep a fixed positional relation with respect to a housing, holds a light source unit detachably. This chuck portion is displaced from an advanced position to a retracted position to displace the light source unit which is in a provisiona... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7327644 | Optical pickup and disc drive apparatus In order to simplify operation control and achieve smaller-sized apparatuses, the present invention provides an object lens drive apparatus having a fixed block, a movable block holding an objective lens, support springs connecting the fixed block and the movable bl... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7324412 | Actuator using focusing-substrate An actuator includes a focusing-substrate having a focusing coil pattern for generating focusing driving force, the focusing-substrate being provided with a land part and a hole through which laser beams pass, tracking coils for generating tracking driving force, th... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7317675 | Method of manufacturing optical head An integrated unit in which a light source and a light emitting diode are combined into one component is fixed to an optical bench. Then, relative position adjustment of an objective lens actuator is carried out with respect to the optical bench so that a desired de... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7307925 | Optical pickup actuator that removes phase dispersion by a rolling mode The present invention discloses an optical pickup actuator including a lens holder having an object lens, and a driving means for changing a position of the lens holder by using an electromagnetic force. The driving means includes multipolar magnets and tracking coi... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7305688 | Tilting movement optical pickup actuator and optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus using the same and method The optical pickup actuator includes a bobbin in which an objective lens is mounted, and suspension wires each having one end fixed on a side of the bobbin and the other end fixed to a holder disposed on a portion of a base to allow the bobbin to move with respect t... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7291942 | Autofocus actuator An autofocus actuator is provided with a yoke 320 that comprises an inner cylindrical portion 321 defining an insertion bore 35 through which a hollow body portion of a holder is adapted to be received and an outer cylindrical portion 322... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7285879 | Autofocus actuator An autofocus actuator 1 is provided with a yoke 300 that comprises an inner cylindrical portion 301 defining an insertion bore through which a hollow body portion of a holder is adapted to be received and an outer cylindrical portion 302 ... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7286448 | Actuator for use in pickup device in reducing lens distortion Provided is an actuator for use in a pickup device, which can improve the quality of the pickup device by reducing a lens distortion even when the frequency of an electromagnetic drive rises beyond a servo band and causes resonance of a lens holder. An adhesive laye... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7280442 | Slim-type optical pick-up actuator for recording/reproducing device An optical type pick-up actuator can include a lens holder having an object lens for condensing a light on an optical disc mounted at one side thereof and activated in a predetermined direction, and a plurality of yokes and magnets facing one another. A focusing coi... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7272840 | Objective lens driving apparatus used with an optical pickup An objective lens driving apparatus used with an optical pickup includes a base, a holder provided on the base, a blade on which an objective lens is mounted, an elastic support body elastically supporting the blade and which is capable of moving with respect to the... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7251819 | Optical pickup device employing magnet and tracking coil to drive objective lens in tracking direction An optical pickup device includes an objective lens holder having a pair of tracking coils and an objective lens fixed thereto, and a pair of magnets. The pair of tracking coils are rectangular or square in geometry. When the objective lens is not displaced in a tra... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7225452 | Optical head A relay lens driving device provided in an optical head moves a relay lens in the direction of an optical axis thereof to correct a spherical aberration that may be caused by an error in the thickness of a cover layer of an optical disk. The relay lens driving mecha... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7209411 | Method of manufacturing optical head An integrated unit in which a light source and a light emitting diode are combined into one component is fixed to an optical bench. Then, relative position adjustment of an objective lens actuator is carried out with respect to the optical bench so that a desired de... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7200075 | Optical disc apparatus switching focus point between layers A focus jump technique enables focus control on recording layers of a disc in such a manner that its effect is not absorbed by disturbance or a variation in the movement speed of an objective lens. The technique involves monitoring level of a focus error signal and ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7193937 | Objective lens driving device and optical disk apparatus Tracking coils are attached to outer surfaces of two focusing coils. Inside the focusing coils, a first magnet and a second magnet are arranged respectively. A third magnet is arranged so as to face the first magnet and the second magnet via the tracking coils. An o... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7194748 | Objective lens driver and disk drive device comprising the same The present invention relates to an objective lens driver including: a support base formed of a magnetic material, comprising a base portion, a support shaft projected from the base portion, and a pair of yokes respectively projected in the same direction as the sup... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7181751 | Objective-lens driving apparatus and optical disk apparatus An objective-lens driving apparatus, includes an objective lens for converging light on a recording surface of an optical disk, a focusing coil having four edges for enclosing the objective lens, and two pairs of permanent magnets. The two pairs of permanent magnets... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7168082 | Optical actuator An optical actuator according to this invention includes a focusing lens for focusing a laser beam on a information disk, a lens holder for holding the focusing lens, a focusing coil for driving the focusing lens in an axial direction of the laser beam, a tracking c... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7131129 | Objective lens driver and optical memory device An objective lens driver and an optical memory device with the respective polarities of magnetic circuits used for the focusing and tracking operations are set such that a repulsive force works in a direction opposing the gravitational force. Respective differing po... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7113458 | Optical disc apparatus In an optical disc apparatus for recording and/or reproducing data on an optical disc, a lens holder for holding an objective lens is dynamically moved not only in a direction perpendicular to a data recording face of an optical disc but also in a direction parallel... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7106668 | Disk drive apparatus A disk drive apparatus for a disk having helically-formed or concentric circle-like formed tracks includes a spindle motor for controlling a rotation of the disk; a pick-up device for recording or reproducing information on or from the disk; a stepping motor for mov... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7085200 | Stepping motor controlling method and disk apparatus A disk apparatus includes a pick-up for reading/writing signals from/on a disk; a pick-up base provided with the pick-up; a traverse motor for moving the pick-up in a radial direction of said disk; a feed screw rotated by the traverse motor and provided with a threa... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7082084 | Optical pickup apparatus It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical pickup apparatus appropriate for the notebook PC that can prevent structural resonance of the lens holder by arranging the focus coil and the tracking coil in a way to stabilize the weight balance, enabl... | 07/25/2006 |
| 7062775 | Actuator for an optical pickup A magnet used for an actuator of an optical pickup has a magnetization pattern with two different pole areas adjacent each other. At a corner part defined by the boundary line of the two pole areas, the pole area inside the corner part has a projection area, project... | 06/13/2006 |
| 7054078 | Objective lens driving device When a lens holder 2A is in a neutral position, a ratio of a gap between opposing surfaces of one tilt magnet 10a, 10b and one tilt coil 5 which oppose to each other, to a radial direction thickness of the tile magnet 10 | 05/30/2006 |
| 7046590 | Objective lens drive device, and disk recording and/or reproducing device The present invention is directed to an object lens drive device adapted for moving an object lens (21) in a focus direction of optical axis direction and in a tracking direction perpendicular to the optical axis direction, and comprises a fixed portion (1... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7038977 | Optical pickup actuator An optical pickup actuator includes a base having a holder installed at one side thereof, a moving portion in which an objective lens is installed at the periphery thereof and a guide hole is formed, a bobbin coupled to the guide hole, a magnetic driving portion pro... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7024061 | Optical scanning device An optical scanning device (21) is for scanning with a radiation beam a substantially circular track of an information layer (22). The device includes: (i) a radiation source (26) for providing the radiation beam (34), (ii) a lens system ... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7002879 | Lens driving apparatus A lens driving apparatus for driving a movable body in a focus direction and a tracking direction is provided with: a holder, to which a focus coil, a tracking coil and a lens are installed, to thereby constitute the movable body; and a magnetic circuit for applying... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6996037 | Pickup head actuator A pickup head actuator for carrying a plurality of near-field optical I/O elements, far-field optical I/O elements, or magnetic I/O elements. Besides performing focusing and tracking servo, the attraction due to magnetic inductor and tracking magnet enables a base t... | 02/07/2006 |
