Optical pick-up units and laser drivers with increased functionality

A chip-set to be located on an optical pick-up unit (OPU) that can communicate with components on a main board over a flex cable, the chip-set comprising:

• a laser driver integrated circuit (LDIC) adapted to drive a laser diode, the LDIC including:
• an automatic power controller (APC);
• a running optical power controller (ROPC);
• and
• a power monitor integrated circuit (PMIC) to monitor the laser diode, the PMIC including its own dedicated offset, gain and sample-and-hold circuitry;
• and
• a photo-detector integrated circuit (PDIC) to detect light produced by the laser diode after the light has been reflected from an optical media, the PDIC including its own dedicated offset, gain and sample-and-hold circuitry.

A laser driver integrated circuit (LDIC) to drive a laser diode that is located on an optical pick-up unit (OPU) with the LDIC, the LDIC including:

• an automatic power controller (APC) to control an output of the laser diode to compensate for changes in characteristics of the laser diode;
• a running optical power controller (ROPC) to control the output of the laser diode to compensate for variations in an optical media;
• and
• wherein the APC and ROPC each include there own dedicated offset, gain and sample and hold circuitry, thereby reducing an amount of analog signals to be sent over a flex cable between the OPU and a main board.