Optical pickup apparatus and optical disc apparatus using same

1. An optical pickup apparatus for irradiating a light flux onto an optical disc having a plurality of information recording layers which are laminated at a predetermined interval with each other to detect the light flux reflected from said optical disc, the apparatus comprising:

a light source;

an objective lens for focusing a light flux emitted from said light source on said optical disc;

a dividing element for dividing the light flux reflected from the optical disc into a plurality of light fluxes;

a condenser lens for condensing the plurality of light fluxes from the dividing element; and

a light detector for receiving the plurality of light fluxes condensed by the condenser lens by a plurality of light receiving parts thereof and converting the received light fluxes to electrical signals,

wherein said dividing element having:

a first divided region disposed almost in the center;

a second divided region comprising four regions which are divided by a first dividing line and are disposed along the direction of the first dividing line to sandwich said first divided region; and

a third divided region comprising four regions which are divided by a second dividing line perpendicular to said first dividing line and are disposed along the direction of said second dividing line to sandwich said first divided region,

wherein said second and third divided regions are each structured such that when a target information recording layer of said optical disc is brought into focus, a reflected light flux from said target information recording layer is focused on the light receiving part of said light detector and the light flux reflected from a recording layer other than said target recording layer is not irradiated onto said light receiving parts of said light detector;

wherein a diffraction grating is formed in each region of said dividing element;

wherein said light detector detects a signal for focus error according to a knife edge method by a minus first-order diffracted light which is diffracted in said second divided region;

wherein said light detector detects a signal for tracking error using plus first-order diffracted lights which are diffracted in said second and third divided regions and using a minus first-order diffracted light which is diffracted in said third divided region; and

wherein said light detector detects a signal for reproduction using a sum of the plus first-order diffracted lights which are diffracted in said second and third divided regions.

2. The optical pickup apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said diffraction grating is formed in each region such that a light amount of the plus first-order diffracted light that is diffracted in each region of said dividing element becomes larger than that of the minus first-order diffracted light.

3. An optical disc apparatus, comprising:

the optical pickup apparatus according to claim 1 ;

a laser driving circuit for driving said light source;

a servo signal generating circuit for generating a servo signal from an output signal of said optical pickup apparatus;

an information reproducing circuit for reproducing information recorded in said optical disc from the output signal of the light detector of said optical pickup apparatus; and

a system control circuit for controlling said laser driving circuit, said servo signal generating circuit and said information signal reproducing circuit.