Patent ID: 8665562

Claim:
A method of dynamic fly-height control in a disk drive, the method comprising: generating a data structure comprising a plurality of touch down heater powers, wherein each of the plurality of touch down heater powers corresponds to environmental parameters, the environmental parameters comprising temperature and pressure values, and wherein each of the plurality of touch down heater powers represents an estimated heater power required to expand an element into physical contact with a surface of a medium; measuring current environmental parameters including a temperature and a pressure; based on the data structure, determining an estimated touch down heater power that corresponds to the measured current environmental parameters, wherein said determining an estimated touch down heater power comprises interpolating the estimated touch down heater power from the data structure; determining an operation heater power based on the determined estimated touch down heater power; applying the operation heater power to adjust the fly-height of a head; and periodically updating the data structure based on environmental parameters measured during operation of the disk drive.