Back to results
US 6,307,832 B1Granted
Optical storage system with head cleaning mechanism based on a position-controllable optical interfacing surface in an optical head
AssigneeTerastor Corporation
InventorsVlad Novotny, Roger Hajjar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical disk drive having a cleaning mechanism to clean the optical head by contact with a selected surface or in close proximity of a surface of the storage medium.
Claims36
An optical disk drive adapted for retrieving data from or writing data to an optical disk, comprising:
- an optical head having a flat surface, an optically transparent mesa formed on said flat surface and having a transparent mesa surface to operate as an interfacing surface that couples optical signals to and from the disk, and a positioning element formed on said mesa adapted to shift said interfacing surface relative to said flat surface in response to a control signal;
- a detection unit disposed relative to said optical head to receive a first optical signal from said optical head that passes through said interfacing surface and to produce an indication of a distortion in said first optical signal;
- and
- a control unit coupled to said detection unit to compare said distortion against a predetermined distortion tolerance level, and operable to produce said control signal to cause said interfacing surface to contact the disk for removal of contaminants deposited on said interfacing surface when said distortion is above said distortion tolerance level.
1 more element
A method for operating a disk drive that has an optical head for coupling optical energy to and from a disk, comprising:
- placing the optical head over the disk by a predetermined spacing;
- monitoring a reflected optical signal from an optical surface of the optical head;
- determining an amount of contaminants on said optical surface based on distortion in said reflected optical signal;
- and
- supplying thermal energy to the optical head to momentarily expand a portion of the optical head that is connected to said optical surface so as to bring said optical surface into a contact with the disk to remove said contaminants when said distortion is above a predetermined tolerance level.
2 more elements
A method for operating a disk drive that has an optical head for coupling optical energy to and from a disk, comprising:
- placing the optical head over the disk to couple optical signals therebetween;
- monitoring a reflected optical signal from an optical surface of the optical head;
- determining an amount of contaminants on said optical surface based on distortion in said reflected optical signal;
- and
- controlling a position of said optical surface to momentarily bring said optical surface into a contact with the disk to remove said contaminants when said distortion is above a predetermined tolerance level.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.