Patent attributes
A method and an apparatus for driving an optical recording medium for recording and/or reproducing various information for the optical recording medium, in which the output power ratio of the light source may be reduced for recording and reproduction, for optical recording media of different sorts, or for respective recording surfaces of a multilayered optical recording medium, so that optimum characteristics may be realized even with use of an easy-to-fabricate light source or a light source with a smaller light output rating. The intensity of a light beam emitted on an optical recording medium 102 by an optical head 104 is controlled by optical coupling efficiency varying elements 214, 215 depending on the sort of the optical recording medium 102, recording surfaces of a multi-layered optical recording medium, recording surfaces in the multi-layered optical recording medium or on the operating modes, in such a manner that the intensity of the light beam emitted on the optical recording medium 102 may be significantly varied without drastically increasing the output power ratio on the side light source 212.
