Patent ID: 9666229
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: G11B

Claim:
1. A system for providing reduced head-media spacing (HMS) in a hard disk drive (HDD), the system comprising: a disk having a magnetic data recording and reading surface; a read/write head having a magnetic transducer configured to read data from or write data to the magnetic surface of the disk; a z-axis actuator coupled to the read/write head and configured to control movement of the read/write head in a substantially orthogonal direction relative to the surface of the disk; and a servo controller in electrical communication with the z-axis actuator and configured to monitor positioning of the read/write head relative to the disk surface during rotation of the disk, the servo controller is configured to cause the z-axis actuator to adjust a position of the read/write head to prevent head-media spacing (HMS) between the magnetic transducer and the magnetic data recording and reading surface from falling below approximately 1.0 nm and exceeding approximately 10.0 nm; wherein the servo controller is configured to receive and process measurement data comprising one or more measurements of a flying height of the magnetic transducer of the read/write head relative to the disk surface during disk rotation, and wherein, based on the processing of the measurement data, the servo controller is configured to determine whether the magnetic transducer is positioned within the HMS range of approximately 1.0 nm to approximately 10.0 nm and further transmit a control signal to the z-axis actuator to cause movement of the read/write head to position the magnetic transducer within the HMS range if it is determined that the magnetic transducer is positioned outside of the HMS range.