HK1079892B - A recording/reproducing method for multi-layered optical information storage medium - Google Patents

Description

Recording/reproducing method for multi-layered optical information storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a multi-layered optical information storage medium and a recording/reproducing method thereof, and more particularly, to a multi-layered optical information storage medium in which information on recording layers having the same reproduction channel characteristics or different reproduction channel characteristics is recorded, and a recording/reproducing method for the multi-layered optical information storage medium.

Background

Optical discs, which are optical information storage media, are widely used in optical pickup devices that record/reproduce information in a non-contact manner (non-contact). Types of optical discs are Compact Discs (CDs), Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs), and high-density DVDs (HD-DVDs). The optical disk capable of recording, erasing, and reproducing data is CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD + RW, or the like.

As the recording density of such optical discs increases, the number of recording layers in the discs increases. When such a multi-layer disc is produced and then its performance is checked, only some recording layers may satisfy the standard recording characteristics due to a problem caused during the production. For example, in the case of a two-layer disc having first and second recording layers L0 and L1, only the first recording layer L0 satisfies the standard recording characteristics. In this case, the second recording layer cannot be used, and the first recording layer can be used. The capacity of a dual layer disc is therefore equal to the capacity of a single layer disc. If such a disc having a plurality of recording layers, some of which can be used and others of which cannot be used, is to be discarded as a defective disc, a mass production loss occurs. Therefore, even when all the recording layers do not satisfy the predetermined recording characteristics, a method of utilizing the recording layers satisfying the recording characteristics needs to be found.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a recording/reproducing method of a multi-layered optical information storage medium, which uses recording layer information recorded as reproduction-only data by recording information on usable recording layers with respect to recording layers having different channel characteristics or the same channel characteristics, which is reproduced using a differential signal channel or a sum channel, and recording information on recordable recording layers, which is reproduced using the sum channel in a recordable area of an area other than a user data area.

In the multi-layered optical information storage medium, formal recording layer information is recorded on a reproduction-only area, and effective recording layer information is recorded in a recordable zone of an area other than a user data area.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for recording or reproducing data on or from an optical information storage medium including a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out area, and having a plurality of recording layers. In the method, formal recording layer information is recorded in a reproduction-only data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area. Effective recording layer information is recorded in a rewritable data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area. The disc drive recognizes the effective recording layer information, accesses an appropriate effective recording layer according to the effective recording layer information, and records data in the accessed effective recording layer.

Preferably, the formal recording layer information is recorded as data reproduced using a differential signal channel. Data reproduced using the differential signal channel is recorded in a high frequency wobble. Formal recording layer information is recorded in pits that are reproduced using a sum channel.

The effective recording layer information includes data reproduced using the sum channel.

The multi-layered optical information storage medium includes a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out area, and the effective recording layer information is recorded in a rewritable data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area.

The effective recording layer information is recorded as a recording layer flag or code using at least one bit or a bit combination of a predetermined byte in the rewritable data zone.

Effective recording layer information is recorded in each bit of a byte present in the rewritable data zone in such a manner that information on each recordable recording layer corresponds to each bit.

Drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of a lead-in area of an optical information storage medium according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a data structure of a portion of an optical information storage medium;

fig. 3 is a schematic view for explaining an optical information storage medium and a recording/reproducing method thereof according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic view for explaining an optical information storage medium and a recording/reproducing method thereof according to a second embodiment of the present invention; and

fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a method of determining a recordable recording layer in an optical information storage medium according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 schematically shows the structure of a lead-in area of an optical information storage medium including a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out (lead-out) area. The lead-in area is formed of pits or with a high frequency wobble (high frequency wobble) on the innermost circumference of the disc, and includes a reproduction-only data area 10, a connection area 20, and a rewritable data area 30. The reproduction-only data zone 10 contains basic information about the disc.

The reproduction-only data zone 10 includes a disc information zone 10a in which the size of the disc, the version number of the disc, recording conditions, or the like is recorded. Information regarding a format recording layer of the disc may also be recorded in the disc information area 10 a. The format recording layer information of the disc indicates information on a recording layer determined in a format that specifies the disc. For example, information on the number of recording layers or information on which recording layers are accessible by a pickup is recorded in the disc-related information area 10 a. The recording layer information regarding the format of the disc, which is reproduction-only data, may be recorded in land pre-pit (LPP) or pits, or recorded in high frequency wobble. In this regard, a high frequency wobble signal is disclosed in korean patent application No. 2001-023747 filed by the applicant of the present invention and represents a wobble signal having a relatively high frequency compared to a wobble signal formed in a user data area.

The formal recording layer information recorded as a high-frequency wobble is reproduced using a differential signal channel ch2 using a push-pull signal. The recording speed information is reproduced using the sum channel ch1 in the form of pit recording. In recording data on the disc, the formal recording layer information of the recording disc as described above is recognized by the disc drive, and then the pickup accesses the data and records the data in the recordable layer.

The connection zone 20 may include a transition zone connecting the reproduction-only data zone 10 and the rewritable data zone 30. The connection area 20 may be a mirror area (mirror zone) or may be replaced by a wobbled groove area.

The rewritable data zone 30 may include a disc test zone 30a, a drive test zone 30b, a disc control data zone 30c, and a defect management zone 30 d. The disc control data zone 30c includes at least one disc control area in which information regarding disc control is recorded. For example, first to fourth disk control areas 30c-1, 30c-2, 30c-3, and 30c-4 are included. At least one reserved area, e.g., two reserved areas 30c-5 and 30c-6, may also be included for recording other information in the future.

Since the lead-out area has a similar structure to the lead-in area, the lead-out area will not be described in detail.

Ideally, the optical information storage medium must be capable of recording data in all recording layers according to formal recording layer information recorded in the disc-related information area 10 a. However, in practice, due to errors occurring during the production of the optical information storage medium, not all recording layers satisfy the predetermined recording characteristics conforming to the formal recording layer information about the disc. Therefore, some recording layers cannot record data. In this case, information on a layer that is recordable and actually satisfies predetermined recording characteristics, instead of formal recording layer information, needs to be re-recorded. Hereinafter, information on a layer that is actually recordable is referred to as effective recording layer information.

In the recording/reproducing method for an optical information storage medium according to the first embodiment of the present invention, effective recording layer information is recorded in a recordable zone of an area other than a user data area. For example, in an optical information storage medium including a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out area, and including a plurality of recording layers, information regarding recordable recording layers is recorded in a rewritable data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area. For example, the effective recording layer information may be recorded in a predetermined area of the rewritable data zone 30. Here, effective recording layer information, which is data reproduced using the sum channel ch1, may be recorded in the same manner as data is recorded in the user data area.

Referring to fig. 2, the rewritable data zone 30 includes a plurality of bytes, and the effective recording layer information may be recorded in one byte among the plurality of bytes. For example, in the rewritable data zone 30, the recordable recording layer flag may be recorded using at least one bit of a zero Byte Position (BP)35 existing on a predetermined area, or the recordable recording layer code may be recorded using a bit combination of a predetermined byte. Although the effective recording layer information is recorded in the zero BP 35 in fig. 2, it may be recorded in an expected BP other than the 0 zero BP. The effective recording layer information may also be recorded using a plurality of bytes instead of one byte.

Looking at the internal structure of the zero BP 35, as shown in fig. 3, the 0 zero BP 35 includes 8 bits, i.e., the zeroth to seventh bits b0 to b 7. For example, effective recording layer information regarding a disc having a dual-layer recording layer may be recorded using the seventh and sixth bits b7 and b6 as follows. For example, if the seventh and sixth bits are recorded as 00b, it indicates that both the first and second recording layers L0 and L1 can be used. If they are recorded as 01b, it means that only the first recording layer L0 can be used. If they are recorded as 10b, it means that only the second recording layer L1 can be used. Since the dual layer disc as an example does not use many bits for recording effective recording layer information, other bits are reserved.

The number of bits may be increased to record recording layer information on a disc designed in two or more layers. In other words, the effective recording layer information may be recorded using at least one bit or a bit combination of bytes in the rewritable area. It is obvious that a plurality of bytes can be used instead of one byte.

As described above, the effective recording layer information is recorded in a predetermined area of the rewritable data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area. Then, the disc drive records data in each recording layer of the disc according to the effective recording layer information. In particular, in the above-described dual-layer disc, if all recording layers set in one format are determined to be available, the dual-layer disc can be directly delivered to the market without additional recording of 00 b.

Preferably, the effective recording layer information may be recorded in at least one of the disc control data areas 30c-1, 30c-2, 30c-3, and 30c-4 of the disc control data zone 30 c. On the other hand, effective recording layer information may be recorded in the reserved areas 30c-5 and 30 c-6. In the above, the case where the recording layer information is recorded in the rewritable data zone of the lead-in area has been described. However, the recording layer information may be recorded in a rewritable data zone of the lead-out area disposed on the outer circumference side of the storage medium.

In order to increase reliability, effective recording layer information may be redundantly recorded in the recordable data zones of both the lead-in and lead-out areas.

Meanwhile, the optical information recording medium according to the first embodiment of the present invention records effective recording layer information in a predetermined area of a rewritable area of at least one of the lead-in and lead-out areas. The effective recording layer information may be recorded as a speed flag or a code using at least one bit or a bit combination of a predetermined byte. On the other hand, a plurality of bytes may be used to record the effective recording layer information.

Although the above has described the case where the effective recording layer information is recorded in the 0 zero BP, it is natural that the effective recording layer information may be recorded in a BP other than the 0 BP.

In the recording/reproducing method for a multi-layered optical information recording medium according to the second embodiment of the present invention, effective recording layer information is recorded in each bit of a recordable area constituting an area other than a user data area. For example, in an optical information storage medium including a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out area, and including a plurality of recording layers, effective recording layer information is recorded in each of bits of a rewritable data zone constituting at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area. Preferably, the effective recording layer information is recorded as data reproduced using the sum channel ch 1.

For example, the effective recording layer information may be recorded in a predetermined area of the rewritable data zone 30. Here, the rewritable data zone 30 is also included in the lead-out area.

The effective recording layer information may be recorded in a predetermined area, for example, disc control data areas 30c-1, 30b-2, 30c-3, and 30c-4, or reserved areas 30c-5 and 30c-6 in the rewritable data zone 30. Referring to fig. 4, the disc control data areas 30c-1, 30c-2, 30c-3, and 30c-4 or the reserved areas 30c-5 and 30c-6 include a plurality of bytes. The effective recording layer information is recorded using all 8 bits constituting each byte. Here, effective recording layer information, which is data reproduced using the sum channel ch1, may be recorded in the same manner as data is recorded in the user data area.

To be more specific, each recording layer corresponds to each bit of a predetermined BP, and information on each recording layer is recorded in the corresponding bit. For example, the correspondence between the recording layer and the bit may be specified as table 1.

Bit Position (BP)	Recording layer
		7b	First recording layer
6b	Second recording layer
		5b	Third recording layer
4b	A fourth recording layer
		3b	Fifth recording layer
2b	Sixth recording layer
		1b	Seventh recording layer
0b	Eighth recording layer

Referring to table 1, all the effective recording layers may be referred to by recording information on each recording layer in a corresponding bit position. That is, if 0b is recorded in the seventh bit 7b, it indicates that data can be recorded in the first recording layer. If 1b is recorded in the seventh bit 7b, it indicates that data cannot be recorded in the first recording layer. If 0b is recorded in the sixth bit 6b, it indicates that data can be recorded in the second recording layer. If 1b is recorded in the sixth bit 6b, it indicates that data cannot be recorded in the second recording layer. The same principle is applied to the fifth to zeroth bits 5b, 4b, 3b, 2b, 1b and 0b so that each bit records information on a corresponding recording layer.

In the second embodiment, if the number of formal recording layers is 8 and only the fifth to seventh recording layers satisfy the predetermined recording characteristics, the effective recording layer information may be recorded as 111110001b with reference to table 1.

In order to increase reliability, effective recording layer information may be redundantly recorded in the recordable data zones of both the lead-in and lead-out areas.

In the first and second embodiments, since the effective recording layer can be both mentioned, more accurate, specific recording layer information can be provided.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a method of determining an accessible effective recording layer in a multi-layered optical information storage medium according to the present invention. To record information on the disc, first, the disc is loaded on a disc drive, and a recording speed is read from a predetermined area of the disc using the sum channel ch1 or the differential signal channel ch2 using a push-pull signal as a piece of disc-related information and stored in a memory. Next, the effective recording layer information is read from at least one of the lead-in and lead-out areas using the sum channel ch 1. Finally, the pickup accesses an appropriate recording layer according to the effective recording layer information read by the sum channel and performs recording. When disc-related information corresponding to the recording conditions is read, the recording conditions relating to a specific recording layer specified on the disc are provided.

The speed flag or code indicating such effective recording layer information must be recorded only by the disc manufacturer and prevented from being changed or erased by the disc drive after the disc is released to the market.

As described above, the multi-layered optical information storage medium and the recording/reproducing method performed in the storage medium according to the present invention can cope with a case where all recording layers cannot satisfy formal recording layer information due to an error occurring during the production of the storage medium. More specifically, with the recent trend toward higher recording capacities, the necessity of the present invention is increased.

Industrial applicability

In the multi-layered optical information storage medium and the recording/reproducing method therefor according to the present invention, a disc defect rate can be reduced and loss of user data due to application of inaccurate recording layer information can be prevented.

Claims (11)

1. A method of recording or reproducing data in or from an optical information storage medium, the optical information storage medium including a lead-in area, a user data area, and a lead-out area, and having a plurality of recording layers, the method comprising:

recording formal recording layer information in a reproduction-only data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area;

recording effective recording layer information in a rewritable data zone of at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area; and

the disc drive recognizes the effective recording layer information, accesses an appropriate effective recording layer according to the effective recording layer information, and records data in the accessed effective recording layer.

2. The recording/reproducing method of claim 1, wherein the formal recording layer information is recorded as data reproduced using a differential signal channel.

3. The recording/reproducing method of claim 2, wherein the data reproduced using the differential signal channel is recorded in a high frequency wobble.

4. The recording/reproducing method of claim 1, wherein the formal recording layer information is recorded in pits that are reproduced using a sum channel.

5. The recording/reproducing method of any of claims 1 through 4, wherein the effective recording layer information is recorded as data reproduced using a sum channel.

6. The recording/reproducing method of any of claims 1 through 4, wherein the effective recording layer information is redundantly recorded in the rewritable data zones of the lead-in and lead-out areas.

7. The recording/reproducing method of any of claims 1 through 4, wherein the rewritable data zone includes a disc control data zone having at least one disc control data area in which disc control data is recorded and a reserved area, and the effective recording layer information is recorded in any of the at least one of the disc control data area and the reserved area.

8. The recording/reproducing method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the effective recording layer information is recorded as a recording layer flag or code using at least one bit or a combination of bits of a predetermined byte in the rewritable data zone.

9. The recording/reproducing method of claim 5, wherein the effective recording layer information is recorded as a recording layer flag or code using at least one byte or a byte combination of predetermined bytes in the rewritable data zone.

10. The recording/reproducing method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the effective recording layer information is recorded in each bit of a byte present in the rewritable data zone in such a manner that information on each recordable recording layer corresponds to each bit.

11. The recording/reproducing method of claim 5, wherein the effective recording layer information is recorded in each bit of a byte present in the rewritable data zone in such a manner that information on each recordable recording layer corresponds to each bit.