Disk drive multiplexing read signal and fly height signal to a transmission line
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorsTeik Ee Yeo, Piero Giaccone, Khoa Xuan Bui
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk comprising a plurality of servo tracks defined by servo sectors, and a head actuated over the disk, wherein the head comprises a read element operable to generate a read signal. The disk drive further comprises a fly height sensor operable to generate a fly height signal for the head, and control circuitry comprising a multiplexer operable to multiplex the read signal and the fly height signal to a transmission line. The multiplexer is configured to select the read signal when reading the servo sectors of a servo track, and configured to select the fly height signal when reading a segment of the servo track between consecutive servo sectors.
Claims19
A disk drive comprising:
- a disk comprising a plurality of servo tracks defined by servo sectors;
- a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a read element configured to generate a read signal;
- a fly height sensor configured to generate a fly height signal for the head;
- and
- control circuitry comprising a multiplexer configured to multiplex the read signal and the fly height signal to a first transmission line, the control circuitry configured to:
- configure the multiplexer to select the read signal when reading the servo sectors of a servo track;
- and
- configure the multiplexer to select the fly height signal when reading a segment of the servo track between consecutive servo sectors.
A method of operating a disk drive, the disk drive comprising a disk comprising a plurality of servo tracks defined by servo sectors, a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a read element configured to generate a read signal, a fly height sensor configured to generate a fly height signal for the head, and a multiplexer configured to multiplex the read signal and the fly height signal to a transmission line, the method comprising:
- configuring the multiplexer to select the read signal when reading the servo sectors of a servo track;
- and
- configuring the multiplexer to select the fly height signal when reading a segment of the servo track between consecutive servo sectors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.