Pickup drive unit and information playback apparatus including the same

Abstract

A pickup drive unit is provided including at least a rack portion provided thereon with gear teeth to be engaged with grooves of a lead screw; a plate-shaped connecting portion made of a flexible material for connecting the rack portion to a fixing portion tightened to a pickup and for supporting the rack portion in a cantilever fashion to be deformable in a direction of either bringing close to, or removing from, the lead screw; and a compressed coil spring for applying a force pressing the rack portion against the lead screw; in which the distance on the plate-shaped connecting portion from an end on the side of the fixing portion to the contact portion between the gear teeth and the lead screw is made smaller than the distance from an end on the side of said fixing portion to another end on the side of the rack portion. With the present construction, the gear teeth provided on the rack portion can be prevented from riding across the grooves on the lead screw, which is caused by a frictional force from the rotation of the lead screw in the tangential direction. In addition, the reduction of frictional loads, the increase in record/playback signal qualities, high speed access, and miniaturization can be achieved for the pickup drive unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.