Optical pickup for discriminating between and reading different types of optical discs

An optical pickup comprising:

• a light source for radiating a light beam;
• a diffraction element for separating said light beam into at least three beams, including a main beam and two side beams;
• an objective lens, driven by an objective lens driving unit, for converging the light beams separated by said diffraction element on a signal recording surface of an optical recording medium;
• a light receiving unit having a first light receiving portion for receiving said main beam reflected by the recording surface of the optical recording medium, and second and third light receiving portions arranged on both sides of said first light receiving portion for respectively receiving the side beams reflected by the recording surface of the optical recording medium;
• a first tracking circuit for generating a first tracking signal based on output of said first light receiving portion and a second tracking circuit for generating a second tracking signal based on outputs of said second and third light receiving portions;
• and
• a disc discriminator for determining a type of said optical recording medium, wherein said discriminator routes one of said first or second tracking signals to said lens driving unit based on said type of optical recording medium.