Pulse or digital communications – Synchronizers – Self-synchronizing signal
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-27
2002-09-17
Phu, Phuong (Department: 2631)
Pulse or digital communications
Synchronizers
Self-synchronizing signal
C375S359000, C375S360000, C360S027000, C369S043000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06452990
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for storing, detecting, and synchronously detecting servo information stored on disk drive media, and in particular to apparatus and methods useful within partial response, maximum likelihood detection channels and magnetic disk media.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
By reading servo information recorded within data tracks on a disk surface, a disk drive head positioner servo system is able to estimate data transducer head position. The recorded servo information typically includes track (i.e. cylinder and head) addresses and servo bursts. Each circumferential data track on a disk surface has a unique track address, which is recorded in servo sectors embedded in the track, and servo burst patterns frequently repeat every two or more tracks. When a disk drive is seeking to a radial track location, the track addresses are used as coarse positioning information to approximately estimate the position of the read head and the servo bursts are used as fine positioning information to position the head precisely on the desired radial location.
At seek time while reading track addresses, the head may be positioned between two adjacent tracks. In this situation, the head may receive a superposition of signals from both tracks. One solution to this ambiguity is to encode the track addresses into Gray-coded addresses so that the encoded addresses of any two adjacent tracks differ from each other by only in a single bit position. With this solution, when the head is reading between two tracks, the ambiguity after decoding the address is one track, and an error of one track can be resolved during seek settle time, by reference to the servo burst or fine-position pattern.
In accordance with one known technique, each data track is divided into plural sectors. Each sector includes a header section, followed by a data section. The header section may typically include a DC erase field, a preamble field, a header synchronization character, a track address field (coarse servo information) and a servo burst field (fine servo information). The data section may typically include another preamble field, a data synchronization character, a block of user data, and error correction bytes. In this example, the header section is recorded at the same data rate as the data section, and synchronous peak detection through a single read channel structure in the disk drive is employed to read the information in both the header section and the data section. An example of this approach is found in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,408 to Leis et al., entitled: “High Efficiency Disk Format and Synchronization System”, the disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference.
Another known technique is to employ radial zones or bands of concentric data tracks, each zone having a data transfer rate associated with disk radius of the zone. In this example, data areas are separated by a series of radially extending embedded servo sectors which are factory recorded with servo information at a single data transfer rate. A servo data recovery circuit asynchronously (i.e. without phase lock to incoming servo data) recovers a servo address mark, a track number and fine position information from information read by the data transducer while passing over each sector. The servo recovery circuit is separate from the read channel electronics employed for peak detection of user data information. This example is described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,730 to Moon, et al., entitled: “Servo Data Recovery Circuit for Disk Drive Having Digital Embedded Sector Servo”, the disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference.
One factor which has limited data storage densities in magnetic recording employing peak detection techniques has been intersymbol interference, arising when flux transitions are increasingly close to each other. One technique for increasing flux densities in magnetic recording while still accurately reading recorded data is to employ synchronous sampling data detection. This technique, frequently referred to as “partial response, maximum likelihood” (PRML) signaling, has provided some improved data storage densities, at the expense of increased circuit complexity, including a fast analog to digital conversion process, and channel equalization, either on the analog side or on the digital side of the signal stream, or both. An example of a disk drive employing PRML is given in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,342, to Abbott et al., entitled: “Disk Drive Using PRML Synchronous Sampling Data Detection and Asynchronous Detection of Sector Servo”, the disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference. The approach described in this patent enabled special circuitry within the synchronous sampling data detection channel to asynchronously detect track number values in embedded servo sectors recorded at a constant servo data rate whereas the user data rate differed by radial data zone across the recording disk. The servo bursts were read and processed using conventional peak detection, and sample and hold techniques.
An improvement over the asynchronous servo sampling technique taught by the Abbott et al. patent referred to above is found in a later, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,671 to Fisher, entitled: “PRML Sampled Data Channel Synchronous Servo Detector”, the disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference. In this approach a timing loop of the synchronous sampling data detection system is phase locked to servo information, the servo information including track address and fine position information is synchronously sampled and decoded. In this approach the servo preamble field is recorded as a conventional ¼T sine wave pattern, which corresponds to a 2T pattern in a peak detection channel (T representing a unit sample cell or interval).
While these prior approaches have worked well in their respective times, increasing data storage capacities and data transfer rates per unit size disk have led directly to a hitherto unsolved need for an improved disk drive head servo format and synchronous sampling servo detection method and architecture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION WITH OBJECTS
A general object of the present invention is to provide improved and simplified methods, apparatus, and data format for providing information for positioning data transducer heads relative to data tracks in a disk drive including a partial response, maximum likelihood (PRML) synchronous sampling data detection channel.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a servo format and apparatus for a PRML disk drive which does not require separate peak-detection hardware for detecting embedded servo information.
Yet another object of the present invention is to reduce impact of radial incoherence upon a head position servo system of a disk drive thereby facilitating higher track densities in a manner overcoming limitations and drawbacks of the prior art.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a synchronous sampling servo information estimation method and apparatus which makes substantial use of circuit elements of a PRML synchronous sampling data detection channel, thereby reducing overall circuit complexity and cost while providing for robust recovery of the servo information.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a simplified address decoding method and apparatus within a PRML sampling data detection disk drive.
One more object of the present invention is to provide a more compact and higher efficiency servo address format enabling use of higher code rates, smaller cell times and less redundancy within embedded servo sectors which are synchronously sampled and detected within a PRML disk drive.
Yet another object of the present invention is to employ a species of bi-phase self-clocking code, known as “wide bi-phase code” for encoding head position servo information recorded within embedded servo sectors on a storage disk surface of a disk drive including a PRML synchrono
Akin, Jr. William R.
Ehrlich Richard M.
Fisher Kevin D.
Henson James A.
Leis Michael D.
Maxtor Corporation
Phu Phuong
LandOfFree
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