The Inner Workings of CD/DVD Drives episodes:

• January 01, 1990This podcast is drawn from the Virtual Lab presentations of WeCanFigureThisOut.org. The copyrighted material of this site was developed under funding from National Science Foundation CCLI, NIRT, MR

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• January 01, 1990All of the scenes together

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• January 01, 1990And this all fits inside a half cubic centimeter!

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• January 01, 1990If the disk drifts, one of the side beams blinks on the lane markers.

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• January 01, 1990There is just one more challenge: keeping the laser centered on the data track.

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• January 01, 1990As the disk moves, the astigmatic beam changes shape on the new detector.

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• January 01, 1990But most CD/DVDs use a more complicated scheme.

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• January 01, 1990We could use a circle and ring detector.

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• January 01, 1990Fold the path back up and see what happens at the photodetector.

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• January 01, 1990If the disk moves, the beam no longer emerges parallel.

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