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US 6,396,783 B1Granted
Mechanism for controlling spacing between optical head and storage medium in optical storage systems
AssigneeTerastor Corporation
InventorsBernard W. Bell, Jr., Vlad Novotny, Hossein Moghadam, Roger Hajjar, Yung-Chieh Hsieh, Brian Tremaine
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical disk drive having a thermal control mechanism on the optical head to control the spacing between the optical head and the surface of the storage medium.
Claims41
An optical disk drive, comprising:
- an optical head having an optically transparent interfacing surface that couples radiation to and from an optical storage disk;
- a detection unit to receive and detect a signal from said optical head that includes information indicating a spacing between said interfacing surface and the disk;
- an electrical heater disposed in said optical head to receive an electric current to supply heat to thermally shift said interfacing surface relative to the disk along a direction substantially perpendicular to the disk to control said spacing;
- and
- a control circuit coupled to receive said spacing information from said detection unit and to control said electric current to maintain said spacing at a desired value.
2 more elements
A method for operating an optical disk drive, comprising:
- positioning an optical head over a disk to suspend the head by an air-bearing action, wherein the optical head includes an optical interfacing surface to couple optical signals;
- measuring a spacing-indicating signal from the optical head that indicates a spacing between said interfacing surface and the disk;
- and
- supplying heat to the optical head to change a position of the interfacing surface by thermal expansion so as to maintain the spacing between the interfacing surface and the disk at a desired value by adjusting the heat according to the spacing-indicating signal.
1 more element
A method for operating an optical disk drive, comprising:
- positioning an optical head over a disk to suspend the head by an air-bearing action, wherein the optical head includes an optical interfacing surface to couple optical signals;
- measuring a spacing-indicating signal from the optical head that has a dependence on a spacing between the interfacing surface and the disk;
- determining an actual spacing between the interfacing surface and the disk according to the spacing-indicating signal;
- and
- supplying heat to the optical head to change a position of the interfacing surface by thermal expansion so as to reduce a difference between the actual spacing and a desired spacing.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.