2010-024 - Embedded electrothermal microactuator head actuator for tracking control
Other Information
The servo system of a disk drive has two primary operations, namely track seek and track follow. Track seek is the operation of moving the head (containing the read transducer and the write transducer) from one data track to another. After the completion of a track seeks, the track follow operation maintains the read or write transducer close to the center of the data track. Challenges to keeping the transducer at the disturbances, windage disturbances (aerodynamic drag forces arising from laminar and turbulent air flow), and noise in the feedback measurements and electronics. This invention pertains to improving the performance of the track follow operation through the use of a second state stiff, high bandwidth electrothermal actuator integrated into the slider of the disk drive.