Abstract:
A PTP test subsystem of a magnetic disk drive identifies an undesired pole tip protrusion (PTP) condition, and takes steps to prevent problems associated with PTP. A PTP stressing mechanism stresses the disk drive during a PTP test mode to induce a PTP condition. A disk contact detection circuit detects when a head of the disk drive contacts the disk. A PTP write current determining circuit is also provided which comprises a write current level detector to ascertain a write current level at which the disk contact detection circuit detects when the head of the disk drive contacts the disk while the disk drive is stressed during the PTP test mode.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION DATA  
       [0001]    Priority is hereby claimed to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/298,968 filed Jun. 18, 2001, the content of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     
    
     
       COPYRIGHT NOTICE  
         [0002]    This patent document contains information subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office files or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0004]    The present invention, in certain respects, may relate to the manufacture of magnetic disk drives. In other respects, the present invention may relate to methods and systems for determining when a magnetic disk drive read/write head is subjected to undesired PTP and for taking corrective action.  
           [0005]    2. Description of Background Information  
           [0006]    Magnetic disk drives are being manufactured with increased access speeds and storage capacities. Manufacturers of these (present day and future) improved-performance magnetic disk drives have decreased the distance between the magnetic disk drive&#39;s read/write heads and its disk media. As a result, slight variations in the positioning or dimensions of the heads or of the disk media can cause the heads and the disk media to collide. For example, such a collision can be caused by protrusion of the pole tips of the write portion of a given read/write head, a phenomenon referred to as pole tip protrusion (PTP).  
           [0007]    PTP happens when the disk head heats up causing part of the head&#39;s air bearing surface (ABS) to protrude and touch the disk. When this happens, a number of problems can result. Some such problems include off tracks, servo SAM and gray code errors, head damage, and disk damage.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    The present invention is provided to improve upon PTP detection systems and methods. This disclosure presents tools that can help disk manufacturers determine the occurrence of undesired PTP. Some of the tools presented capitalize on existing features of the magnetic disk drive; such existing features may comprise, for example, the processes provided in a typical magnetic disk drive read channel.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    The present invention is further described in the detailed description which follows, by reference to the noted drawings, by way of non-limiting exemplary embodiments, in which like reference numerals represent similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating certain elements of a magnetic disk drive, provided with a monitoring circuit for monitoring for PTP;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer system;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a PTP monitoring and correction process;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of PTP monitoring circuit;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a process to sense the head to disk contact; and  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a process to determine the PTP WC. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0016]    In the embodiments that follow, a magnetic disk drive is provided. That magnetic disk drive may comprise a unitary housing, and within that housing, a number of elements may be provided, including an input/output interface, a cache buffer memory, a controller, disk RAM, and disk ROM. In addition, the magnetic disk drive may have, within the same unitary housing, a spindle motor, a servo, disk media, and read/write heads. A motor control circuit is typically provided for controlling the spindle motor, and a servo control is typically provided for controlling the servo. In addition, read/write electronics and a read/write channel are each provided for facilitating the transfer of information to and from the disk media.  
         [0017]    A magnetic disk drive may be provided, which contains a complete subsystem for determining when there is an undesired PTP in the write portion of a read/write head and for taking corrective action upon the indication of such an undesired PTP condition. The magnetic disk drive may contain, within its unitary housing, a mechanism for automatically causing the burnishing of the pole tips to prevent the further occurrence of the PTP condition for the given head from which it was detected. Alternatively, magnetic disk drives may be provided which contain the elements for identifying the presence of an undesired PTP condition for a given read/write head as a part of a test mode, and a corrective action system (e.g., a burnishing system) may be provided which is separate (or separable) from the magnetic disk drive, e.g., so such can be utilized only during the initial setup or manufacture of the magnetic disk drives. Such a corrective action system may be provided only for the manufacture of the magnetic disk drive, and may not be provided as part of the resulting magnetic disk drive after it is fully assembled.  
         [0018]    Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, FIG. 1 shows a magnetic disk drive having a unitary housing schematically depicted by a rectangle  11 . Within the magnetic disk drive housing  11 , disk media is provided, including a stack of disk platters (not shown). A given disk platter  12  is shown in the simplified diagram. For each side of a disk platter, a different read/write head  10  is provided. Each read/write head  10  may comprise a read element  13  and a write element  14 . These elements are provided in some of the newer higher-performance magnetic disk drives which utilize a traditional U-shaped head for writing data onto the disk while using a magneto-resistive (MR) read element for reading data from the disk media. A PTP monitoring circuit  16  is provided.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 includes an enlarged portion which shows write element  14  comprising pole tips  17 . Write element  14  comprises a U-shaped head made of conductive material. The U-shaped member is wrapped with coils of wire. A magnetic field is generated and transferred to the disk media in accordance with disk drive write signals that are passed through the coils. By changing the polarity of the electric current passed through the coils, the polarity of the field generated is also changed. The pattern of such magnetic conditions is transferred to the surface of the disk media on disk platter  12  to form a pattern which comprises the resulting encoded version of the data to be retrieved at a later point.  
         [0020]    Poles  17  are positioned very close to the surface of disk platter  12 , and are maintained at a specified distance from the surface of the disk platter  12  by an air bearing. If there is contact, or if the distance between the surface of the disk platter  12  and the pole tips  17  becomes unacceptably small, there can be problems with the disk. The head or the disk media can be damaged, and errors can be encountered when retrieving the data and reading the data from the disk media.  
         [0021]    Such contact between the pole tips and the disk media occurs when there is pole tip protrusion. Pole tip protrusion (PTP) can be caused by high frequency writing which causes thermal expansion of the pole tips  17  due to, for example, the combined effects of eddy current heating and coil heating. Such PTP phenomena can cause problems while writing data onto the disk media, such as off track writing, due to frictional forces, as well as high servo PES (position error signal), because the pole tip is dragging the head. These effects could cause drive failure.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a personal computer system. The illustrated computer system has a magnetic disk drive  17 . The illustrated magnetic disk drive  17  comprises, among other elements, disk media  46 . In the illustrated embodiment, disk media  46  comprises magnetic media sputtered onto a metal substrate (the metal may be aluminum).  
         [0023]    The illustrated computer system comprises a host system  23  and a magnetic disk drive  17 . Magnetic disk drive  17  comprises a unitary magnetic disk drive housing which houses an input/output interface  26 , a cache buffer memory  28 , a controller  30 , a RAM (random access memory)  36 , and a ROM (read only memory)  34 . Input/output interface  26  is connected to cache buffer memory  28 , which is connected to controller  30 . Each of the RAM and ROM portions  36 ,  34  is coupled to controller  30 .  
         [0024]    The magnetic disk drive housing further houses motor and servo mechanisms  38 , read/write electronics  40 , and a read channel  42 . Read channel  42  is coupled to read/write heads  44 , which interact with disk media  46 . Read/write heads  44  and disk media  46  are also provided within the unitary magnetic disk drive housing (depicted with a schematic dotted line).  
         [0025]    Input/output interface  26  may comprise a SCSI, IDE, or ADA interface, just to name a few examples. While a cache buffer memory  28  is not required, such is common.  
         [0026]    In the embodiment, controller  22  serves as a control portion of the magnetic disk drive. Motor and servo control portions (not shown) of motor and servo mechanisms  38 , read/write electronics  40 , and read channel  42  collectively comprise hardware interaction circuitry coupling controller  30  to a head/disk assembly, which comprises a spindle motor (not shown), a servo (not shown), read/write heads  44 , and disk media  46 .  
         [0027]    In the illustrated embodiment, magnetic disk drive  17 , has in its housing, internal memory, including RAM  36  and ROM  34 . All or a portion of such memory (and any other devices or mechanisms that may be provided in the magnetic disk drive and that serve as memory) may serve as the internal memory for the magnetic disk drive, and may contain information pertinent to the functions and operation of the magnetic disk drive.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a PTP test process performed by the illustrated disk drive when it is in a PTP test mode. In an early act  50 , the PTP write current (WC) is determined (by a process to be more fully explained below). The PTP WC is the WC at which head disk contact occurs due to PTP.  
         [0029]    Then, in act  52 , the write current (for normal disk drive operation, outside of the PTP test mode) is limited to a value equal to the PTP WC less a specified margin—to provide a “buffer” against undesired PTP in the disk drive. In act  54 , a determination is made as to whether the PTP WC less the margin (the write current limit) is too low. This can be determined by checking if the BER (bit error rate) is unacceptable, a result of having a WC that is too low.  
         [0030]    In act  56 , if the write current limit was too low, corrective action is taken. In this act, the head is burnished and/or the data rate is decreased (thereby decreasing the BER).  
         [0031]    The PTP WC is determined at act  50  while the disk drive is placed under a PTP stress condition—per act  53 . This can be accomplished, e.g., by continuously writing for a given period of time, ideally with missing revolutions. Alternatively (or in addition), the track detection may be expanded (or the bias changed), to include time after the negation of the write gate (WG). This helps when the pole tip motion away from the disk is faster than the motion towards the disk. Another way to add PTP stress is to increase the data rate of the write operation.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a PTP monitoring circuit. The illustrated circuit  16  comprises a disk contact detection mechanism and a write current (WC) level detector  20 . The circuit  16  is active when the drive is in a PTP test mode per an input  60 . The WC level that occurs when the disk contact is detected due to an undesired PTP condition is stored at storage  22 . As illustrated in FIG. 4, the PTP monitoring circuit  16  may be part of read channel  15 .  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a process to sense head to disk contact.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a process to determine the PTP WC.  
         [0035]    While the invention has been described with reference to certain illustrated embodiments, the words which have been used herein are words of description, rather than words of limitation. Changes may be made, within the purview of the appended claims, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention in its aspects. Although the invention has been described herein with reference to particular structures, acts, and materials, the invention is not to be limited to the particulars disclosed, but rather extends to all equivalent structures, acts, and materials, such as are within the scope of the appended claims.