International Business Machines Corporation

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hitachi Global Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hitachi Global Technologies

Naoyuki Kagami

Gaku Ikedo

Akira Tokizono

Jaesoo Byoun

Hideaki Ito

Hiroaki Kubo

Brian A Johnson

Sri Muthuthamby Sri-Jayantha

Hien Phu Dang

Arun Sharma

Yuzo Nakagawa

Hiroki Watanabe

Hiroshi Uchida

Tetsuo Semba

Brian Johnson

Tatsuya Sakai

Nobuya Matsubara

Keiichi Okada

Makoto Takekoshi

Isao Yoneda

Brian Kenneth Tanner

Kenji Okada

Kiyoshi Satoh

Takashi Kuroda

Masayuki Kanamaru

Mirei Hosono

Shunichiroh Ohta

Toshihiko Tsunokawa

James Jinshi Ng

Akinori Yuba

Gordon James Smith

Vijayeshwar Das Khanna

Fu-Ying Huang

Gerard McVicker

Shingo Tsuda

Masayuki Murakami

Hiroki Kitahori

Jenghung Chen

Kuang-Yang Tu

Kexiu Liu

Yoshitaka Kakizaki

Kaoru Umemura

Hideo Ueno

Eiji Soga

Yasuhito Shimizu

Akihiro Ohyama

Ryoheita Hattori

Tetesuya Kokubo

Akiro Hatano

Kohji Nakase

Yasunori Fukuyama

A data storage device comprises a lead actuator that actuates a first read-write head over a first disk and a support actuator that actuates a second read-write head over a second disk. A spindle motor rotates the first and second disks. In response to an emergency power off (EPO) event, a processing device retracts and parks the actuators using an internal supply voltage generated from a back electromotive force (BEMF) voltage of the spindle motor, and brakes the spindle motor. The spindle motor is not braked until both the lead and support actuators have been retracted and parked.

Data storage device having dual actuators and method for emergency power off retract (EPOR) of dual actuators

Various illustrative aspects are directed to a data storage device comprising one or more disks, an actuator arm assembly comprising one or more disk heads and a voice coil motor (VCM), the VCM configured to operate in a PWM mode and a linear mode, and one or more processing devices configured to: seek the VCM towards a target track in the PWM mode; transition the VCM from the PWM mode to the linear mode, wherein the transitioning comprises switching an offset compensation value from a first offset compensation value to a second compensation offset value to compensate for a transition offset induced while transitioning the VCM from the PWM to the linear mode, wherein the first and the second offset compensation values correspond to the PWM and linear modes, respectively, and seek the VCM towards the target track in the linear mode for a linear mode time.

VCM PWM to linear mode transition offset optimization to improve PES

A data storage device has a closed loop extended park mode during spin down operation. A data storage device comprises a spindle motor configured to rotate one or more disks, and one or more processing devices. The one or more processing devices are configured to determine a value of current that is discharged from the spindle motor over time during a spin down of the spindle motor, and control a braking duty cycle for braking the spindle motor during the spin down such that the value of current discharged from the spindle motor over time does not exceed a selected current limit.

Data storage device with closed loop extended park mode during spin down operation

Various illustrative aspects are directed to a data storage device comprising one or more disks, an actuator arm assembly comprising a voice coil motor (VCM), the VCM configured to operate in a first mode and a second, different mode, wherein the first mode corresponds to at least a first and a second setting, and a control circuitry configured to cause the VCM to seek towards a target track in the first mode using the first setting for a first duration, control transition of the VCM from the first to the second setting in the first mode, cause the VCM to seek towards the target track using the second setting for a second duration, and control transition of the VCM from the first to a second mode, wherein controlling the transitioning comprises seeking the VCM toward the target track in the second mode for a third duration.

Optimize power, RTV, and coupled PES during seek operations

Various illustrative aspects are directed to a data storage device comprising a disk and a spindle motor configured to rotate the disk wherein the spindle motor is powered by a drive voltage generated in response to a host voltage. The data storage device includes a head configured to be actuated over the disk by a head actuator and control circuitry comprising an isolation field effect transistor (ISOFET) configured to prevent a reverse current from flowing from the drive voltage to the host voltage when the host voltage falls below a threshold. The control circuitry sets a turnoff current level at which the ISOFET is directed to turn off to prevent the reverse current from flowing determines a drain-source on resistance Rdson of the ISOFET, and calculates a voltage turnoff threshold at which the ISOFET is turned off from the turnoff current level and the determined Rdson.

Data storage device with smart ISOFET threshold voltage automatic tuning

A data storage device comprises a lead actuator that actuates a first read-write head over a first disk and a support actuator that actuates a second read-write head over a second disk. A spindle motor rotates the first and second disks. In response to an emergency power off (EPO) event, a processing device retracts and parks the actuators using an internal supply voltage generated from a back electromotive force (BEMF) voltage of the spindle motor, and egresses data from a volatile to a non-volatile semiconductor memory. Egress is throttled before the actuators are retracted and parked when the internal supply voltage falls to or below a first egress throttling threshold voltage. Egress is throttled after the actuators are retracted and parked when the internal supply voltage falls to or below a second egress throttling threshold voltage.

Data storage device having dual actuators and method for data egress throttling during emergency power off retract (EPOR)

Various illustrative aspects are directed to a data storage device comprising a first spindle motor configured to rotate one or more disks in a first stack of disks, a second spindle motor configured to rotate one or more disks in a second stack of disks, and one or more processing devices configured to detect back electromotive force (BEMF) voltages generated by the first spindle motor and the second spindle motor. In other aspects the one or more processing devices can control speeds of the first spindle motor and the second spindle motor based on the detected BEMF voltages.

Dual spindle motors and dual spindle motor control for data storage

Various illustrative aspects are directed to a data storage device comprising one or more disks; an actuator arm assembly comprising one or more actuator arms, and configured to position the one or more actuator arms over disk surfaces of the one or more disks; one or more fine actuators, disposed on the one or more actuator arms; and one or more processing devices. The one or more processing devices are configured to: output a driver current to the one or more fine actuators, wherein the one or more processing devices are configured to rate limit a rise of the driver current over time during an activation of the driver current to within a selected rate limit of current rise over time.

Data storage device with soft on-disk activation of fine actuators

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a voice coil motor (VCM) configured to actuate a head over a disk. The data storage device further comprises control circuitry comprising a digital current control loop including a windowed delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to control the VCM. A vibration of the data storage device is measured, and at least one of a gain or a window of the windowed delta-sigma ADC is configured based on the measured vibration.

Data storage device using windowed delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter in digital current control loop

A data storage device is disclosed wherein an elevator actuator is controlled to move a head along an axial dimension toward a first disk surface of a first disk while processing a proximity signal generated by a proximity sensor. A first actuator position is detected when the actuator arm is proximate the first disk surface of the first disk based on the proximity signal.

Calibrating elevator actuator for disk drive

The present disclosure generally relates to an electronic circuit and method of operating thereof to back up write cache data on DDR memory in data storage devices during an emergency power off (EPO). The method involves using a power management integrated circuit (PMIC), a combo driver and one MOSFET for regulator output. The method involves detecting a voltage value that is below a predetermined threshold value, retracting a write head away from a hard disk drive (HDD), backing up data, and then resetting the HDD after the backup is complete. The backing up and retraction may occur in parallel or in sequence. The method utilizes the spindle back-electromotive force (BEMF) power to have sufficient power to make the backup. If the power from the spindle BEMF is too low, then the retraction is suspended and a high impedance is present to lighten the load until the BEMF recovers before the power on reset. As such, the back-up data is not reset and volatized by a lack of power.

Write data protection at emergency power off

A hard disk device includes a servo control unit that constitutes a servo loop for a head seek for performing read/write of data from/to a recording medium, a correction signal generation unit for generating a correction signal for correcting a control by the servo control unit based on an output of a predetermined sensor, and a correction signal control unit for estimating an effect of supplying the correction signal to the servo loop and for controlling whether or not the correction signal is to be supplied to the servo loop in response to a result of the estimation. Moreover, the gain of the sensor is dynamically controlled in response to the above estimation result.

Data storage device, control device, off-track control method, and control method

Growing community of inventors

Fujisawa, Japan

Naoyuki Kagami