Abstract
Recently, data transfer rates of optical disc drives have been dramatically increasing. To obtain the high data transfer rates, disc rotation speed and laser power also need to be increased. Therefore, to develop the next generation optical disc drives effectively, enhanced cooling system of the optical pick-up unit which includes the laser diode is indispensable. The cooling performance of the pick-up unit is directly influenced by the inside air-flow induced by the disc rotation. To maximize the effect of the air-flow around the pick-up unit, we applied the combination of PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation. It was made clear that making the opening near the pick-up unit could increase the cooling performance of the optical disc drive very effectively.
