1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical pickup apparatus mounted on, for example, an optical disk apparatus and capable of reading information of a medium such as an optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of one implementation of a conventional optical pickup apparatus.
A photodetector 510 is mounted on a housing 550. The housing means a box that can house a thing, such as a box-shaped object that houses components, or an object similar to a box.
The photodetector 510 is a photo detector 510 that receives a portion of reflected light from an optical disk (not shown) to generate a light reception current proportional to the light reception amount. The light reception current is a detected signal. The photodetector 510 is adapted to receive light, convert the light signal to an electric signal, and output a signal to make a servo mechanism (not shown) of a lens holder (not shown) of the optical pickup apparatus 501 operate. The servo or servo mechanism means a mechanism that measures a state of an object to be controlled and compares the measurement with a reference value to correct the error automatically. The photodetector (Photo Detector) is abbreviated to “PD”. The photo detector 510 is connected to a flexible circuit body 505. The photo detector 510 is fixed to a plate 520.
Description will be made of a process where the photo detector 510 is mounted on the housing 550. First, a light path position adjustment is performed for the photo detector 510. The X-axis of the photo detector 510, the Y-axis of the photo detector 510, and the Z-axis of the photo detector 510 are adjusted relative to an optical path (not shown) formed in the housing 550. After the attachment position of the photo detector 510 to the housing 550 is adjusted, a fixing adhesive (not shown) is applied to between the plate 520 mounted with the photo detector 510 and the housing 550 to form a bridge. Grooves 581 are made in fixing portions 580A, 580B of the housing 550 to allow the cured adhesive to exert an anchor effect for improving the adherence of the plate 520 with the photo detector 510 to the housing 550.
The conventional optical pickup apparatus 501 shown in FIG. 4 is similar to a photo detector attachment apparatus of an optical head, which alleviates instability factors in position accuracy of the photo detector, for example.
Such a conventional apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-251776 (page 3, FIGS. 1 and 2), for example.
However, in the conventional optical pickup apparatus 501 shown in FIG. 4, since the grooves 581 extend along only one direction, i.e., the X-direction, a displacement may occur at the fixing portions 580A, 580B in the case of the optical pickup apparatus 501 being used under severe usage/environments where vibrations are frequently applied, for example. If a displacement occurs at the fixing portions 580A, 580B, light is not incident on the photo detector 510 accurately. As a result, there is concern about the occurrence of the problem that the optical pickup apparatus 501 does not operate normally.