Patent 7983132 was granted and assigned to TEAC on July, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An optical disk apparatus for enhancing time resolution of an RF sum signal. A reproduction sum signal (a signal A+a signal D) on the leading side and a reproduction sum signal (a signal B+a signal C) on the following side, which have been output from a four-quadrant photodetection section of an optical pickup, are supplied to first and second A/D converters. The first A/D converter samples a signal in accordance with a first clock signal CLK, and the second A/D converter samples a signal in accordance with a second clock signal CLK. The first and second clock signals CLK are out of phase with each other. By means of a phase difference between the clock signals, a phase difference between the leading-side reproduction signals and the following-side reproduction signals is compensated for. The phase difference between the first and second clock signals CLK is adjusted such that the quality of a reproduction signal, such as jitter, an error rate, or the like, is optimized.