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US 6,445,520 B1Granted
Method for detecting mechanical damage in a parking zone of a hard disk drive
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsWonchoul Yang, Kangseok Lee, Haesung Kwon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for detecting an asperity in a non-data parking zone of a disk in a hard disk drive. The method includes the steps of moving the heads of the disk drive adjacent to the parking zones of the disks, and then detecting asperities in the parking zones with a thermal asperity detection circuit.
Claims18
A hard disk drive, comprising:
- a disk that has a parking zone;
- a spindle motor that rotates said disk;
- a head that is coupled to said disk;
- an actuator arm that is coupled to said head;
- a voice coil motor that is coupled to said actuator arm and can be activated to move said head relative to said disk;
- a thermal asperity detection circuit that is coupled to said head and can detect an asperity on said disk;
- a controller that is coupled to said voice coil motor and said thermal asperity detection circuit, said controller causes said voice coil motor to move said head into and across said entire parking zone so that said thermal asperity detection circuit can detect an asperity in the parking zone.
4 more elements
A method for detecting an asperity in a parking zone of a disk located within a hard disk drive, comprising:
- rotating a disk that has a parking zone;
- moving a head to the parking zone, said head providing a signal;
- and
- detecting an asperity in the parking zone from the signal provided by the head while moving the head across the entire parking zone.
1 more element
A circuit for a hard disk drive that has a head which is coupled to a disk, the disk has a parking zone, the head provides a signal, comprising:
- a controller that can move the head to and across the entire parking zone of the disk;
- and,
- a thermal asperity detection circuit that receives the signal from the head and can detect an asperity in the parking zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.