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US 6,320,717 B1Granted
Velocity limited loading of read heads onto disk drive media
AssigneeIomega Corporation
InventorDai Feng
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A head loading apparatus for a disk drive device is disclosed that limits the velocity of the heads during loading of the heads onto the surface of a data storage medium. The apparatus is characterized by varying a voice coil current or voltage during the head loading process. The varying current or voltage nudges read-write heads off of a load ramp and onto the surface of a data storage medium.
Claims23
A head loading apparatus for a disk drive device that reads data from and writes data to a magnetic medium, said head loading apparatus comprising:
- an actuator movably disposed within said disk drive device;
- a read-write head in mechanical communication with said actuator, said actuator moving said head in response to an electrical signal, said read-write head detecting the completion of the loading by detecting a signal from said magnetic medium;
- a head load ramp for maintaining said read-write head in a parked position off of said medium;
- means in electrical communication with said actuator for moving said head from said parked position to said medium by applying said electrical signal;
- said electrical signal varying such that said head moves off of said load ramp toward said medium at a varying acceleration without measuring the velocity of the head movement;
- wherein said electrical signal comprises at least two on times and at least two off times, wherein said off times are selected such that said movement of said head from said parked position toward said medium substantially stops before the application of the next on time of the electrical signal.
3 more elements
A head loading apparatus, comprising:
- a load ramp;
- a load beam having a read-write head coupled to a distal end of said load beam;
- said load beam movable between a first position wherein said load beam is engaged with said load ramp and a second position wherein said load beam is disengaged from said load ramp;
- an actuator coupled to said load beam, for providing mechanical movement to said load beam;
- and
- control means in communication with said actuator for controlling the movement of said load beam from said first position to said second position, said control means providing a plurality of electrical pulses to said actuator to cause said head to move from said first position toward said second position without measuring the movement of said load beam on said load ramp, wherein at least two of the electrical pulses comprise an on time and an off time, wherein said off time is selected such that said movement of said load beam from said first position toward said second position substantially stops before the on time of the next pulse is applied.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.