Recording system having head transducers with controlled skew

Abstract

A magnetic recording system including a write head comprising a write transducer having a gap configured at an angular orientation with respect to direction of travel of an adjacent magnetic medium. Servo information is recorded by the write head into a servo, or higher coercivity, layer of the magnetic medium in a plurality of parallel, adjacent tracks and at an angle corresponding to the angular orientation of the write transducer. The servo information is at one of two frequencies, with adjacent tracks being at different frequencies with respect to each other. A read head includes a first transducer configured at an orientation corresponding to the angular orientation of the servo information. The first transducer and its related circuitry detect information from the parallel servo tracks, and generate an error signal indicating actual position of the second transducer as compared to its desired position with respect to the servo tracks. The error signal is used by a control circuit for positioning the first transducer. A second transducer is configured in tandem alignment to the first transducer, but is oriented at an angle sufficiently different from that of the first transducer so that the second transducer detects substantially none of the servo information. The second transducer reads and writes data in a data, or lower coercivity, layer of the magnetic medium. Circuitry is provided which uses the servo information for synchronization to achieve accurate reading and writing of data at a high level of lineal density in the magnetic medium.