Automatic Gain Control Method and Apparatus in Optical Disk System

The present invention relates to an automatic gain control method and apparatus in an optical disk system and, more particularly, to automatic gain control method and apparatus which can discriminate whether a data has been recorded in a certain area on an optical disk to record user's data or not.

Generally, in the optical disk system, a number of tracks are formed on an optical disk, each track is divided into a plurality of sectors, and information is recorded or reproduced on a sector unit basis. Each sector has a preformat portion in which control information such as identification (ID) and the like has previously been recorded and an information recording portion to record user's data.

Hitherto, as an optical disk apparatus having a function to discriminate whether a data has correctly been recorded in the information recording portion or not, for instance, there has been known a technique disclosed in JP-A-60-115073. According to such a technique, an envelope of a reproduction signal of the optical disk is detected, the level of the envelope signal is compared with a reference potential, a time duration of a period when the envelope signal level is deviated from the reference potential is counted, and when the time duration is shorter than the reference time duration it is determined that the data has correctly been recorded.

According to the above conventional technique, no consideration is made with respect to the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the information signal and there is a problem such that even if a good S/N ratio is obtained, the signal in which the absolute level of the amplitude is small cannot be recognized as data.

That is, in the above conventional technique, since it is considered that the fluctuation in amplitude itself indicates the data quality, there can occur a case where in spite of the fact that the S/N ratio is enough high, when the absolute amplitude of the signal S is merely small, it is determined that the data quality is bad, that is, the data is not normal. As such a case, for instance, there can be mentioned a case where in spite of the fact that the recording state of the user's data for the magnetooptic disk is good, although the S/N ratio is high, the signal level S decreases due to a deterioration in sensitivity of the disk by an ambient temperature, a reflectance of the disk, a deterioration in light source upon reproduction, and a variation in efficiency of a photodetector, or the like. In such a case, in the conventional technique, the data guality which is higher than it is needed is guaranteed.

On the other hand, generally, in the optical disk recording and reproducing apparatus, an automatic gain control method whereby an amplitude fluctuation of the reproduction signal is compensated to make the amplitude constant has conventionally been well known. However, in this case, as the reproduction signal amplitude (level) decreases, a gain of an amplifier of the gain controller is increased. Thus, there is a problem such that the noise whose amplitude (level) is small and the remaining signal component which was not erased when erasing the recorded data are also enhanced to predetermined levels and they are erroneously recognized as signals.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical information reproducing method and apparatus in which an amplitude of an information reproduction signal is made constant and the quality of the reproduction signal can be assured.

Another object of the present invention is to prevent the noise and the remaining signal which are not erased when erasing the recorded data from being erroneously recognized as an inherent reproduction signal.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic gain control method and apparatus which can accurately recognize whether a data has already been recorded in an area to record user's data or not.

According to one feature of the present invention, when an amplitude difference between a reproduction signal of information which has previously been recorded in an optical medium and a reproduction signal of information which was newly recorded is equal to or less than a predetermined value, that is, when the amplitude of the newly recorded information is not extremely smaller than the amplitude of the information which has previously been recorded, a second control value to control a gain of a variable gain amplifier is used. The second control value increases as the reproduction signal amplitude of the newly recorded information decreases. Even when the reproduction signal amplitude of the newly recorded information slightly decreased, the gain of the variable gain amplifier increases in accordance with the reproduction amplitude reduction and an output of the variable gain amplifier can be made constant. Therefore, even for a reproduction signal of a small amplitude, if the S/N ratio does not deteriorate, the quality can be assured. On the other hand, when the reproduction levels of both of the previously recorded information and the newly recorded information decreased due to a deterioration in intensity of the light source upon reproduction, a variation of the photodetector, or the like, the amplitude difference is maintained within a predetermined value range. Therefore, the output is similarly made constant and the quality of the reproduction signal can be assured.

On the other hand, when the amplitude difference between the reproduction signals of the two kinds of information exceeds the predetermined value range, that is, when the amplitude of the newly recorded information is extremely smaller than the amplitude of the previously recorded information or the like, for instance, when an information unrecorded portion or a remaining signal which was not erased still exists or when a dust is adhered onto the disk or the like, the first control value is used. Since the reproduction level of the previously recorded information such as an ID and the like is sufficiently higher than the reproduction level of the newly recorded information, the first control value is sufficiently smaller than the second control value, so that the gain of the variable gain amplifier is suppressed to an extremely small value. Thus, a situation such that the noise and the remaining signal component which was not erased are erroneously recognized as an inherent signal or that the unrecorded portion is erroneously recognized as a recording portion does not occur.

On the other hand, as mentioned above, the first control value increases as the reproduction amplitude of the previously recorded information decreases, while the second control value increases as the reproduction amplitude of the newly recorded information decreases. Therefore, the amplitude difference between the previously recorded information and the newly recorded information corresponds to the difference between the first and second control values and can be discriminated by checking the difference between the first and second control values.

More practically speaking, an automatic gain control apparatus of an optical disk apparatus according to the invention comprises: first gain control means for controlling a gain of a variable gain amplifier for an information signal which has previously been recorded, for instance, a reproduction signal from a preformat portion of an ID and the like and for setting an amplitude of an output signal of the variable gain amplifier to a predetermined value; a first memory circuit to store a control value which gives the predetermined amplitude as a first control value; second gain control means for controlling the gain of the variable gain amplifier for information which was newly recorded, for instance, a reproduction signal from an area to record user's data and for setting an amplitude of an output signal of the variable gain amplifier to a predetermined value; a second memory circuit to store a control value which gives the predetermined amplitude as a second control value; discriminating means for discriminating whether an amplitude difference between the reproduction signal of the previously recorded information and the reproduction signal of the newly recorded information is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value or not; and control value setting means which is constructed in a manner such that when the newly recorded information is reproduced later; the control value of the variable gain amplifier is set on the basis of the second control value (for instance, the control value is set to the second control value itself) when it is determined that the amplitude difference is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value and that the control value of the variable gain amplifier is set on the basis of the first control value (for instance, the control value is set to the first control value itself) when it is determined that the amplitude difference exceeds the predetermined value.

The discriminating means can be also constructed so as to compare the first and second control values which were stored and to thereby discriminate whether the difference therebetween is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value or not.

On the other hand, in another preferred embodiment, the first and second gain control means can be also constructed by one common gain controller. Further, the first and second memory circuits are respectively constructed by, for instance, latch circuits. As a possible modification, those two memory circuits may be also constructed as a single memory.

According to the invention, when the amplitude difference between the reproduction signal of the previously recorded information and the reproduction signal of the newly recorded information is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, the control value (the first control value) to set the amplifier output amplitude for the previously recorded information to a predetermined value is used as a gain control value of the variable gain amplifier for reproduction, and when the reproduction amplitude difference is out of the predetermined value, the control value (the second control value) to set the amplifier output amplitude for the newly recorded information to a predetermined value is used as the gain control value. Therefore, when the reproduction signal amplitude of the newly recorded information is fairly large, even if the reproduction signal amplitude of the newly recorded information was slightly reduced due to a variation of the photodetector or the like, the predetermined output amplitude is obtained and the quality can be assured.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an automatic gain control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A to 2E are timing charts for explaining the operation of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a format of a prepit portion of an optical disk;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a variable gain controller (AGC circuit); and

FIGS. 5A and 5B are a diagram showing an example of an amplitude detecting circuit and a waveform of an AGC output signal, respectively.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinbelow with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating a construction of an embodiment. FIGS. 2A-2E show waveform diagrams for explaining the operation of FIG. 1.

In FIGS. 1 and 2A-2E, a reference numeral 1 denotes a light detection reproduction signal; 2 indicates a variable gain controller (AGC circuit); 2a an output signal of the AGC circuit 2; 3 an analog/digital (A/D) converter; 4 an amplitude detecting circuit; 5 a first memory circuit such as a latch circuit; 5a a first control value; 6 a second memory circuit such as a latch circuit; 6a a second control value; 7 an operating circuit; 7a a gain control value; 8 a control logic circuit using, for instance, a microcomputer; and 9 a digital data output.

FIG. 3 shows a sector construction on a track of an optical disk. Generally, in an optical disk which is specified by the ISO (International Standard Organization), one track is divided into a plurality of sectors and each sector is constructed such that an ID portion (for example, six byte length) and a data recording portion are continuously arranged after a sector mark. As shown in the diagram, the ID portion is also called a prepit portion or a preformat portion and is a portion in which control information has previously been recorded. The subsequent information recording portion is a recording portion to, for instance, magnetooptically record user's data. The recording portion of the optical disk is preliminarily magnetized and data is recorded into the magnetized information recording portion by irradiating a laser beam thereto. The ID portion is a portion in which necessary control information such as addresses, sync information, and the like has previously been recorded by physically forming pits (namely, holes) into the optical disk. In the ID portion, a change in light quality of the reflected lights from the pits which are obtained when a light was irradiated onto the optical disk is used as a photo detection signal 1. That is, light quality changes due to the presence or absence of the pits in the ID portion and the signal 1 including the control information is reproduced.

In the case of a magnetooptic disk, in the magnetooptic recording portion, when the light was irradiated onto the optical disk, a rotation amount of the light due to the Kerr rotation by the Kerr effect is detected and used as a photo detection signal 1. Ordinarily, since a sector mark exists before the ID portion, the ID portion is detected after the elapse of a time T.sub.1 (FIGS. 2A-2E) from the detection of the sector mark and the area of the information recording portion is detected after the elapse of time T.sub.2.

In FIG. 1, the photo detection signal 1 is inputted to the AGC circuit 2 and is amplified in accordance with the gain control value 7a. As shown in a practical example of the AGC circuit 2 in FIG. 4, the AGC circuit 2 can increase the gain every dB by 16 steps from 0 dB to 15 dB in accordance with the control value 7a of, e.g., four bits.

It is now assumed that the gain control value 7a was first set to the lowest limit value by the operating circuit 7 at time T.sub.1, so that the gain of the AGC circuit 2 was set to the lowest value (e.g., 0 dB). Then, the operating circuit 7 increases the gain control value 7a one step by one at predetermined period (for instance, one-bit period of the reproduction signal 2). Thus, the gain of the AGC circuit 2 is increased one dB by one and the output signal 2a shown in FIG. 2B is obtained from the AGC circuit 2. When the output signal 2a has reached a predetermined amplitude, such a state is detected by the amplitude detecting circuit 4.

FIG. 5A shows a practical example of the amplitude detecting circuit 4. In the Figure, the output signal 2a of the AGC circuit 2 is compared with a predetermined voltage E.sub.1 which is divided by resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2. As shown in FIG. 5B, when the level of the AGC output signal 2a is smaller than the predetermined voltage E.sub.1, an output of a comparator 41 is set to the low level and a constant current circuit I.sub.1 is turned off. Since a voltage level of a +side input of a comparator 42 is lower than a voltage which is divided by resistors R.sub.4 and R.sub.5, an output 4a of the comparator 42 (namely, an output of the amplitude detecting circuit 4) is set to the low level. When the level of the AGC output signal 2a is larger than the predetermined voltage which is divided by the resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2, the output of the comparator 41 is set to the high level, the constant current circuit I.sub.1 is turned on, a capacitor C is charged, and the level of the + side input of the comparator 42 is larger than the -side voltage. Thus, the output 4a of the comparator 42 (i.e., the output of the amplitude detecting circuit 4) is set to the high level. By properly selecting the value of the capacitor C, when the AGC output signal 2a is set to a predetermined amplitude, the output 4a of the comparator 42 can be set to the high level.

When the fact that the output signal 2a has reached the predetermined amplitude is detected by the amplitude detecting circuit 4 as mentioned above, the first memory circuit 5 and the operating circuit 7 are made operative by the detection signal, namely, the output 4a of the amplitude detecting circuit 4. The gain control value 7a at that time is stored as a first control value 5a into the first memory circuit 5. After that, while the information is reproduced from the ID portion, by using the stored first control value 5a as a gain control value 7a, the gain of the AGC circuit 2 is controlled to a desired gain, so that the output signal 2a of a predetermined amplitude is derived. That is, the envelope of the reproduction signal 2a from the ID portion is maintained to a predetermined level.

Subsequent to the reproduction of the information from the ID portion, the newly recorded information, namely, the newly recorded user's data is read out of the information recording portion after time T.sub.2. At this time (at time T.sub.2), the gain control value 7a is separated from the first control value 5a, the gain control value 7a is similarly set to the lowest limit value, and the gain of the AGC circuit 2 is set to the lowest value (for example, 0 dB). After that, the gain control value 7a is increased by one step at a predetermined period (e.g., one-bit period) and the gain of the AGC circuit 2 is increased one dB by one. When the amplitude of the output signal 2a increases and reaches a predetermined amplitude, the amplitude detecting circuit 4 generates the detection output signal 4a in a manner similar to the above. The second memory circuit 6 and the operating circuit 7 are made operative by the detection signal 4a and the gain control value 7a at that time is stored as a second control value 6a into the second memory circuit 6. In the ordinary case, in other words, when the difference between the first and second control values lies within a predetermined value range, for instance, as will be explained hereinlater, the second control value 6a is used as a gain control value 7a to control the gain of the AGC circuit 2 while the information is being reproduced from the subsequent information recording portion, so that the output signal 2a of a predetermined amplitude is derived. That is, the envelope of the reproduction signal 2a of the information recording section which was newly recorded is maintained to a predetermined level.

Subsequent to the storage of the second control value 6a, until a time T.sub.3 (a time which is set in a predetermined time after the sector mark was detected), the difference between the first and second control values 5a and 6a is calculated by the operating circuit 7. The operating circuit 7 detects the difference between the first gain control value 5a to set the amplitude of the reproduction signal, i.e., signal 2a of the ID portion having relatively high reliability to a predetermined value and the second gain control value 6a to set the amplitude of the reproduction signal of the information recording portion whose S/N ratio is lower than that of the ID portion to a predetermined value. The difference between the control values 5a and 6a corresponds to the difference between the photo detection reproduction signal 1 from the ID portion and the signal 1 from the information recording portion. In order to discriminate whether the difference between the first and second control values 5a and 6a lies within a predetermined range or not, the difference is transferred to the gain switching control logic circuit 8 comprising, for instance, a microcomputer, if it is determined by the discriminating circuit in the control logic circuit 8 that the difference lies within the predetermined range, that is, when the reproduction level of the data recorded in the information recording portion is not extremely lower than the photo detection signal level of the ID portion, the second control value 6a is set as it is as a gain control value 7a at time T.sub.3 and is used after that. For example, the case where the photo detection signal level of the ID portion is larger than the signal level of the information recording portion by 2 dB will now be considered. Now, assuming that the first gain control value 5a is set to "4", the second gain control value 6a is set to "6". For instance, when a condition such that (.vertline.6a-5a.vertline.2) is set, since the condition is now satisfied, the second gain control value 6a (the value of "6") is directly used as a control value 7a and the reproduction signal is set to a predetermined amplitude.

On the other hand, as shown by broken lines in FIG. 2A, when the amplitude of the reproduction signal 1 of the information recording portion remarkably decreased, the result of the discrimination of the control logic circuit 8 indicates that the difference is out of the predetermined range (that is, the above condition is not satisfied). As shown by broken lines in FIG. 2E, the gain control value 7a is switched from the second control value 6a to the first control value 5a at time T.sub.3 by the control logic circuit 8 and is set. For instance, when the photo detection signal of the ID portion is larger than the signal of the information recording portion by 3 dB, .vertline.6a-5a.vertline.=3, so that the difference is out of the predetermined range in the above condition. Therefore, in such a case, the value "4" as a first control value 5a is used as a control value 7a. Thus, it is avoided that the gain of the AGC circuit 2 unnecessarily increases and it is prevented that the amplitude of the output signal 2a unnecessarily increases.

In the invention, for instance, the following three methods are considered as a method where the photo detection reproduction signal 1 is outputted from the ID portion and the information recording portion and the AGC is executed to the photo detection reproduction signal 1. The first method relates to the case of what is called a "Read After Write" in which after data was recorded into the information recording portion, it is regenerated to check the recording quality of the data. The second method relates to the case of what is called "Read After Erase" in which after data was erased, the erasing quality is checked. The third method relates to the case of ordinary "Read". In the ordinary "Read", there are obviously a case where data whose recording quality was checked exists in the information recording portion (magnetooptic recording portion) and a case where the erasing quality is checked and no data exists and an optical disk noise, a remaining noise which was not erased when erasing the data, and the like merely exist as a photo detection reproduction signal.

As mentioned above, in the ordinary case, that is, in the case where data is normally recorded in the information recording portion, i.e., in the magnetooptic recording portion and the reproduction amplitude of the data is not so largely low as compared with the reproduction amplitude of the ID portion, the gain of the AGC circuit 2 is controlled by using the second control value 6a such that the photo detection reproduction signal from the newly recorded portion (data portion of the information recording portion) is set to a predetermined amplitude after time T.sub.3. Therefore, the input (output 2a of the AGC circuit) of the A/D converting circuit 3 which is connected to the AGC circuit 2 becomes stable. The saturation of the circuit due to an excessive amplitude and the influence by the offset voltage due to the too small amplitude are eliminated. The deterioration of the data quality can be prevented.

On the other hand, generally, in the unrecorded case such as case where the magnetooptic recording portion (information recording portion) of the rewritable type optical disk is not recorded, case where the data was erased as mentioned above, case where an intensity (light emission amount of the laser) of the light beam when new data is written into the magnetooptic recording portion remarkably decreased due to some reasons (life and the like) and the data of the necessary lowest limit level could not be written (for instance, failed), or the like, the noise of the unrecorded portion is amplified after time T.sub.2. Thus, the second control value 6a reaches a value near the highest limit value (broken line in FIG. 2D). The difference between the second control value 6a and the first control value 5a as a gain control value of the ID portion increases. Thus, the control value 7a is set to the first control value 5a at time T.sub.3. Therefore, since the gain of the AGC circuit 2 corresponding to the unrecorded portion is suppressed to a lower value (than the value when the second control value 6a is used as it is), the noise of the magnetooptic recording portion and the level of the remaining signal which was not erased are also suppressed to enough low values and are not erroneously recognized as the normal signal data. That is, the case where the data has normally been recorded and the case where data is not recorded can be clearly distinguished. The case where a data is not recorded can be considered to be the case where the photo detection reproduction signal 1 shown by the broken line in FIG. 2A, extremely decreases. Therefore, the second control value 6a extremely increases and the value of .vertline.6a-5a.vertline. remarkably increases. However, since the gain control value 7a is eventually set to 5a instead of 6a, the noise is not amplified and no data is transmitted, so that such a case is determined to be the unrecorded portion.

The series of gain control operations mentioned above are repeated every sector constructing the track of the optical disk. That is, whenever the sector mark is detected, the gain control value 7a is initialized to the lowest value and the above operations are executed from that timing.

Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but many variations and modifications of the invention are possible.

For instance, in the above embodiment, as a gain control value 7a of the amplifier (AGC circuit) 2 for the portion which was newly recorded at time T.sub.3, either one of the control values 5a and 6a stored at that time is used.

Therefore, there is also considered a modification of such a case. That is, as gain control values 5a and 6a (particularly, 6a) which are stored, a plurality of control values before them (for instance, regarding a few sectors) are previously obtained and the average value or intermediate value of those control values is used or the like (preferably, a function of the gain control value for the reproduction signal of the previous information is used), so that the quality guarantee can be also improved for a detect and the like of the disk. By using the above method, the unrecorded portion can also be further easily detected.

On the other hand, the average level of the ID portion in one sector is detected and a desired gain control value corresponding to the average value can be also set to the first control value.

As further another modification, the memory circuits 5 and 6 in the above embodiment can be also physically constructed by one memory.

On the other hand, although the above embodiment has been described with respect to the reproduction of the information from each sector of the rewritable type optical disk, for instance, magnetooptic disk or the gain control, the invention can be also applied to an unrewritable type optical disk, for instance, write once type optical disk to which information can be written once.

Further, the invention is not limited to the optical disk apparatus but can be also applied to other apparatus for optically recording and reproducing information, for instance, an optical card apparatus or the like.