Disk drive decreasing head temperature to increase fly-height during seek operation
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorsDalwinder Singh, Gregory B. Thelin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk having a plurality of tracks, and a head actuated over the disk. Control circuitry heats the head in order to reduce a fly-height of the head, and computes a target servo sector to begin a preheat period. The control circuitry decreases the heat so that the fly-height is increased during at least part of a seek operation to seek the head from a first track to a second track. When the head reaches the target servo sector, the control circuitry increases the heat to decrease the fly-height during the preheat period.
Claims27
A disk drive comprising:
- (a) a disk comprising a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a plurality of servo sectors;
- (b) a head actuated over the disk;
- and
- (c) control circuitry operable to:
- heat the head in order to reduce a fly-height of the head;
- compute a target servo sector to begin a preheat period;
- decrease the heat so that the fly-height is increased during at least part of a seek operation to seek the head from a first track to a second track;
- and
- when the head reaches the target servo sector, increase the heat to decrease the fly-height during the preheat period.
A method of operating a disk drive, the disk drive comprising a disk having a plurality of tracks each comprising a plurality of servo sectors, and a head actuated over the disk, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) heating the head in order to reduce a fly-height of the head;
- (b) computing a target servo sector to begin a preheat period;
- (c) decreasing the heat so that the fly-height is increased during at least part of a seek operation to seek the head from a first track to a second track;
- and
- (d) when the head reaches the target servo sector, increasing the heat to decrease the fly-height during the preheat period.
A method of operating a disk drive, the disk drive comprising a disk having a plurality of tracks, and a head actuated over the disk, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) heating the head in order to reduce a fly-height of the head;
- (b) estimating a seek time to move the head from a first track to a second track during a seek operation;
- and
- (c) if the seek time is greater than a predetermined threshold, controlling the heating of the head so that the fly-height is adjusted during at least part of the seek operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.