An optical head of a type useable in a optical disk reader/writer is provided.
The optical head has a low profile, e.g., in a vertical direction parallel to the
disk spin axis, such as less than about 5 mm preferably less than about 3 mm. Substantially
all components of the optical system, including a laser source, objective lens,
intervening optics and photo detector are provided in the optical head and mounted
in a fixed position with respect to one another. Substantially all optical components
of the optical head are moved as a unit, e.g., during tracking and/or focusing.
Preferably, the optical head is fabricated using wafer scale and/or stacking technologies,
e.g., stacking substantially planar components to achieve the final optical head configuration.
