The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 01, 1979
Filed:
Mar. 21, 1977
Kenneth Louth, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Ampex Corporation, Redwood City, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus is disclosed for use in a record/playback system for providing improved alignment between a transducer and a track on a recording medium on which track information has been recorded. The direction and magnitude of any misalignment between the transducer and the track is represented by an error signal. When the error signal indicates substantial alignment between the transducer and the track, a train of equally spaced pulses is generated. When the error signal indicates misalignment between the transducer and the track, at least one pulse is either added or deleted from the train of pulses, depending on the direction of misalignment indicated by the error signal. The pulse train is then used to generate a drive signal for effecting relative motion between the transducer and the track, the phase of the drive signal varying in response to the addition or deletion of pulses from the pulse train. The drive signal has a constant phase when the pulses are equally spaced, and has its phase altered in one of two selected directions when pulses are either added or deleted from the pulse train. By thus varying the phase of the drive signal, alignment between the transducer and the track is improved.