Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates in general to optical disk storage systems and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing high speed optical disk recording.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    In recent years, optical disk devices have been used to record or reproduce large amounts of data. Optical disks are storage mediums from which data is read and to which data is written by laser. Each optical disk can store a large amount of data, typically in the order of 600-700 Mbytes. Such optical disk devices are under active technical developments for achieving higher recording density.  
           [0005]    There are generally two methods of controlling the rotating speed of an optical speed. The first is constant linear velocity (CLV) recording, in which constant linear velocity is provided during recording by varying the speed of the spindle motor when recording proceeds from the inner to the outer diameter of the disk. The second is constant angular velocity (CAV) recording, in which constant angular velocity is provided during recording, while changing the frequency of data recording when recording proceeds from the inner to the outer diameter of the disk.  
           [0006]    Current writable optical disks include spiral-shaped grooves in the dye coated layer (on the disk) that is sensitive to laser beams. The groove is not a perfect spiral, but wobbled in order to obtain motor control and timing information. Recording is implemented in the groove by locally heating up the sensitive layer with a laser spot. The laser output is modulated with the information to be recorded. The parts of the disc that were heated up during recording show a reflection decrease after recording and are called pits. The encoded Audio or Data information is stored in the length of these pits and in the distances between them. These lengths and distances only take discrete values.  
           [0007]    The data synchronization and address information for the disk is provided through a signal typically referred to as a wobble signal. The wobble signal is typically a frequency modulated signal with bi-phase coded address information called Absolute Time in Pre-Groove (ATIP).  
           [0008]    In CLV recording, the motor speed at the inner diameter is typically high, and gradually decreases as the optical head moves toward the outer diameter. In CAV recording, the spindle motor operates at a constant speed, but the data recording frequency varies as the optical head moves from the inner diameter to the outer diameter of the disk. The recording speed in optical disk recording is typically limited due to two factors. The first arises due to mechanical limitations in providing maximum rotational speed at the inner diameter. The second arises due to limitations in electronic data recording rate at the outer diameter.  
           [0009]    To increase the speed of writing on optical disks, some drives utilize a Zoned CLV recording in which the disc is divided into a few zones. In a given zone, the CLV speed, or the data rate is constant while rotational speed decreases. At the beginning of each zone, the rotational speed is the same and thus the method utilizes the maximum mechanical speed limitation. However, as the CLV recording speed, or the data rate increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for the servo loop to keep the recorded data in synchronism with the ATIP due to electromechanical limitations. In addition, the Zoned CLV recording requires stopping the recording at the zone boundary and going back to re-link the recorded segment of the previous zone. Similarly, as the CAV recording speed increases, it also becomes increasingly difficult for the electronic circuits to keep up the data rate and may reach the data rate limitation. In this situation, a seamless writing transition from CAV method to CLV method becomes very desirable. This is called a Partial CAV recording method.  
           [0010]    Currently, in partial CAV recording, a technique known as pseudo CLV motor speed control is typically utilized. In this technique, the motor speed control is provided while in CAV mode. The motor speed reference is gradually changed in steps according to a prescribed way to emulate CLV. In using such a technique, the ATIP address needs to be constantly monitored and the reference speed must be constantly changed, requiring additional servo overhead.  
           [0011]    Accordingly, there is a need in the technology to overcome the aforementioned problems. There is also a need in the technology to obtain maximum recording speed efficiency without interruption during writing on a disc.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0012]    A system and method for controlling the position of an optical head of a disc during high speed recording. In one embodiment of the method, an optical disc has a plurality of tracks. The method comprises implementing CLV recording by said optical drive, determining a wobble signal based on address information contained in said plurality of tracks of said optical disk and determining a wobble clock signal based on said wobble signal. The method further comprises decoding said wobble clock signal by a decoder, said decoder to provide a sync clock signal to an encoder loop circuit, said sync clock signal based on said wobble clock signal generating an encoder clock signal using said encoder loop circuit. In addition, the method comprises comparing said sync clock signal to said encoder clock signal to provide a position command to position the optical head of said optical drive.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of an optical disk apparatus provided in accordance with the principles of the invention.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the tracking CLV servo circuit  118  of FIG. 1.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of the Encoder Phase Lock Loop of FIG. 1.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]    One aspect of the invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing high speed recording on an optical medium. In one embodiment, a tracking CLV mode motor control technique is used during recording.  
         [0017]    Referring now specifically to the figures, FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of an optical disk apparatus  100 . The optical disk apparatus  100  includes an optical disk  102  that is rotated by a spindle motor  104 . An optical pickup  106  scans the tracks on the rotating optical disk  102  with a laser beam  110   a.  The optical pickup  106  comprises an optical system, including a laser  108  that provides a light source and an objective lens  110 . The laser  108  is driven by a laser driver  120  to emit the laser beam  110   a.  The laser beam  110   a  is incident on the objective lens  110  via optical elements (not shown) such as a collimator lens and a beam splitter. The laser beam  110   a  is focused on the recording surface of the optical disk  102  by the objective lens  110  to form a small spot on the recording surface.  
         [0018]    The light reflected from the optical disk  102  propagates back to the objective lens  110  and is separated from the incident laser beam by the beam splitter (not shown). The reflected light beam may then be detected by the photodetector  122 , which is able to convert the reflected light beam into electric signals. The electric signals may then provided to a preamplifier  124 , which amplifies and conditions the electric signals. Based on the received electric signals, the preamplifier  124  generates a plurality of signals, including a Wobble signal (W). The Wobble signal (W) is a timing marker that also provides address information. In one embodiment, the Wobble signal (W) is a frequency modulated Frequency Shift Key signal with bi-phase coded address information called ATIP. It is understood that additional signals may be provided by the preamplifier  124 .  
         [0019]    The spindle motor  104  is rotated by motor driver  114 . The motor driver  114  may be controlled by a CAV Servo circuit  116  or a tracking CLV Servo circuit  118 . In one embodiment, the motor driver  114  has a terminal S0 and is coupled to switch S via terminal S0. The switch S further comprises two terminals S1 and S2. The terminals S1 and S2 are coupled to the CAV Servo circuit  116  and tracking CLV Servo circuit  118 , respectively. The switch S may, under the direction of system controller  130 , operate in a CAV Mode, which connects S0 to S1, or in a Tracking CLV Mode, which connects S0 to S2. In one embodiment, switch S is directed by the system controller  130  to connect the motor driver  114  to the CAV Servo circuit  116 , by connecting S0 to S1, when the optical pickup  106  is in a seek mode. When the optical pickup  106  is positioned and ready for a write operation and a CLV recording process is selected, system controller  130  may direct switch S to couple S0 to S2, thereby connecting the motor driver  114  to the tracking CLV Servo circuit  118 . Alternatively, if a CAV recording process is selected, the motor driver  114  may be coupled to the CAV Servo circuit  116 .  
         [0020]    In one embodiment, clock synthesizer  140  generates the appropriate clock signals (C1 and C2) for the CAV Servo circuit  116  and the CLV Servo circuit  118  via signal lines  142  and  144 , respectively. These clock signals, C1 and C2 become the reference clocks for the CAV and CLV servo loops, respectively. The clock synthesizer  140  may also generate clock signal C3 for the Encoder Phase Lock Loop (Encoder PLL)  150 , as provided via the multiplexor (MUX)  152 . The system controller  130 , which is coupled to the clock synthesizer  140 , controls the timing of clock signals C1, C2 and C3. For example, the system controller  130  may generate C1 and C2 based on the programmed CAV and tracking CLV servo circuit  116  and  118  requirements.  
         [0021]    When the optical pickup  106  is in motion (i.e., during the seek mode), there is no Wobble signal (W) for the Encoder PLL  150  to lock onto. However, the system controller  130  has information on the target track and the target Wobble frequency. As a result, the clock signal C3, provided to the Encoder PLL  150  via signal line  148 , is selected by the system controller  130  for the Encoder PLL  150  to lock onto while the optical pickup  106  is in motion. When the optical pickup  106  is on track, the system controller  130  directs the MUX  152  to latch clock signals from ATIP Decoder  160 .  
         [0022]    When the optical pickup  106  is positioned for recording (i.e., during tracking mode), the Wobble signal (W) is provided by the preamplifer  124  to the CLV Servo circuit  118  via signal line  126 . The Wobble signal (W) is further processed by the CLV Servo circuit  118  to provide a Wobble clock signal (Wo), which may then be used as the feed back signal  128  for the CLV servo loop. In one embodiment, Wo is decoded by an ATIP decoder  160  to provide ATIP Sync Clock signals via signal line  132 , ATIP Sync signal via signal line  134  and ATIP data signals via signal line  136 . The ATIP sync clock signals are latched into the MUX  152  under the control of system controller  130 , and provided to the Encoder PLL  150 . The Encoder PLL  150  generates an Encoder clock signal C E  and a target Wobble center frequency signal CF. The Encoder clock signal C E  is provided to a Write Strategy Encoder Block  170  via signal line  154 , which also receives the ATIP sync signal from the ATIP decoder  160  via signal line  134 . Based on these two signals, the Encoder Block  170  may then generate an output signal to direct the laser driver  120  to position the optical pickup  106 . In addition, the target Wobble center frequency signal CF may be provided to the preamplifier  124  via signal line  137 .  
         [0023]    As will be described in more detail below, the Encoder PLL  150 , while recording in either a CAV and Tracking CLV mode, may provide the basic write clock signal that is locked to the ATIP Sync clock derived by the ATIP Decoder  160  from the Wobble signal that is extracted from the disk. The ATIP decoder  160  may further include an ATIP Clock Phase Lock Loop to extract the ATIP Sync clock. In one embodiment, the ATIP Phase Lock Loop has a low pass filter to block the ATIP data and to pass the higher frequency component (such as the ATIP Sync clock). When the Wobble signal encounters defects (after the ATIP Sync clock has been filtered), the ATIP Sync clock tends to free run, and supplies a continuing ATIP Sync clock for a period corresponding to the low pass filter. For instance, at the lowest CLV speed, the wobble clock is 22.05 KHz and ATIP Sync clock is 6.3 KHz, maintaining a 3.5 to 1 ratio. The low pass filter is generally set below 4 KHz. At higher speeds, these parameters each increase proportionally. If a defect in the disk causes up to four or five wobble signals, ATIP Clock phase lock loop will lose input to the phase lock loop. However, the output of the phase lock loop will change at a rate controlled by the low pass filter and the ATIP Sync clock will supply the Sync clock for a time corresponding to the filter bandwidth. In addition, while performing either a partial or a full CLV recording operation, the same method used in the CAV mode for generating the Encoder Sync clock may also be used in a Tracking CLV mode.  
         [0024]    Another aspect of the present invention is to use a Tracking CLV mode to control motor speed. As will be described in more detail below, the Wobble signal from the disk may be used to control the disk motor speed while in a Tracking CLV mode. To improve the speed accuracy, Automatic Phase Control loop  210  (APC) is added to the Automatic frequency Control (AFC) loop  220 . When operating under the tracking CLV mode motor speed control, the Encoder PLL  150  is locked to the ATIP Sync clock and generates an Encoder clock signal for the recording process. Thus, in one embodiment, the Encoder PLL  150  may track the mechanical clock geometry on the individual disk and write data to the disk synchronously.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a detailed block diagram of the Tracking CLV Servo Circuit  118  of FIG. 1. The Tracking CLV Servo Circuit  118  receives inputs from the Clock Synthesizer  140  and the Preamplifier  124 . In particular, the Tracking CLV Servo Circuit  118  receives clock signal C2 via signal line  144  from the Clock Synthesizer  140  and the Wobble signal (W) via signal line  126  from preamplifier  124 . In one embodiment, the clock signal C2 operates at three times the rate of the Wobble Signal (W). The Wobble Signal (W) is first digitized by a digitizer  200  and then divided by divider  202  to provide W′. In one embodiment, W is divided by 3 so that W will match the clock rate C2. It is understood that W may be divided by any positive nonzero integer, as determined by the designer. The resulting signal W′ is received by comparator  204 , which also receives clock signal C2 as one input. The comparator  204  compares the signals C2 and W′ and provides the resulting signal to two loops. In particular, comparator  204  provides C2 and W′ to the Automatic Phase Control circuit (APC)  210  and an Automatic Frequency Control circuit (AFC)  220 . The APC circuit  210  comprises a divider  212  and a Gain circuit  214 , while the AFC circuit  220  comprises a gain circuit  222 . In one embodiment, Wp is the gain of the APC circuit  210  while Wv is the gain for the AFC circuit  220 . In one embodiment, Wp is between 6.28 and 188.4, while Wv is between 2 and 3. The divider  212  divides the incoming signal to provide a wider phase range comparison. For example, in one embodiment divider  212  uses a denominator of between 12 and 24 in dividing the incoming signal. The outputs of the APC circuit  210  and circuit  220  are added by summer  230  and provided to a modulator  240 . In one embodiment, the modulator is a pulse-width modulator. The modulator modulates the summed signals and generates an output that is provided to the motor driver  114  via switch S.  
         [0026]    One aspect of the invention involves the use of an Encoder PLL  150  to lock the Encoder clock to the Wobble signal W through the ATIP Sync clock. In one embodiment, the ATIP decoder  160  provides the Encoder PLL  150  with an ATIP Sync clock signal (AC) via signal line  132  as a dynamic reference clock. The Encoder PLL  150  multiplies clock signal (AC) by a number (Nc) to generate the Encoder clock signal (C E ). In one embodiment, Nc is 343. The Encoder PLL  150  can also be locked to the Wobble clock. In the latter case, clock signal (AC) has to be multiplied by 196 to generate the same Encoder Clock signal (C E ).  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a detailed block diagram of the Encoder PLL  150  of FIG. 1. The Encoder PLL  150  receives the ATIP clock signal (AC) via signal line  138 , and generates the encoder clock signal C E  as an output, where clock signal C E  tracks the Wobble signal (W) on the disk. The Encoder PLL  150  comprises a filter  300 , a dividing circuit  310 , a comparator  320 , a phase detector  330  and a variable clock oscillator (VCO)  340 . In one embodiment, the filter  300  comprises capacitors CC1 and CC2, which are arranged in parallel, and resistor R which is coupled in series with capacitor CC2. In a further embodiment, the filter defines a type II PLL which has double poles at the origin, as is understood by one of skill in the art. The phase detector  330  has a gain (Kp) while the VCO  340  provides a gain (Kv). In one embodiment, Kp=(2/6.28) μA per radian, Kv=(80×6.28) M radian/volt, CC1 is 0.0027 μF, CC2 is 0.047 μF and R is 4.3 Kohms.  
         [0028]    When operating in the Tracking CLV mode, the Encoder PLL  150  has to track the spindle motor speed and provide true Constant Linear Velocity recording regardless of any instantaneous speed variation in the disk motor. The disk motor disturbance frequency is typically under 200 Hz and thus the Encoder PLL  150  will electronically track the mechanical inaccuracies in the disk motion. Accordingly, at the start of the write mode during Tracking CLV Mode, a reference Encode Sub-code Frame Sync (ESFS) signal is phased locked with the ATIP sync clock signal. Thereafter, the ATIP Sync clock signal may only be monitored for irregularities of the disk, such as large disk defects. If a large defect occurs, the writing stops and the system skips over the defect. The recording reinitiates at the start of the next ATIP SYNC mark.  
         [0029]    The present recording technique may also be implemented in a CAV recording process. This may be initiated by directing the switch S to connect S0 to S1, such that the system operates in the CAV servo mode, where the disk motor operates at a constant speed, while the frequency of the data recording varies. In this mode, the Encoder PLL  150  will track the ATIP sync clock, which will constantly vary as the optical head  106  moves from the inner to the outer diameter of the disk. The power of the recording write laser beam  110   a  depends on the writing speed N, where N is typically an integer. In a CAV recording process, the power required during the write process changes with the address in ATIP. The multi-speed media compliant disk has a linear write power requirement based on N. In one embodiment, the lowest speed occurs at N=1. A typically value of N is 48. If the CAV speed at the inner diameter is N1 and the final CAV position is N2, then the write power has to be changed linearly for the power value corresponding to N1 to the power value corresponding the N2. The power change may be updated at intervals of every 30 s or less. The following expression may be used to compute the required power level at a corresponding ATIP location:  
         N   x     =     KRPM   *         ATIPSS   +   K2     K1                               
 
         [0030]    where,  
         [0031]    N=the speed factor at the ATIP location;  
         [0032]    ATIPSS=the ATIP in sum of seconds;  
         [0033]    KRPM=thousands of revolutions per minute;  
         [0034]    K1=179.14 multiplied by the stamped wobble speed as measured when initiating to write to the disk (m/s); and,  
         [0035]    K2=1226.5625 divided by the stamped wobble speed (m/s).  
         [0036]    If the drive components in the system are such that there is no electronic recording data rate limitation, then the drive can perform full CAV write on an entire disc. If the drive has a recording data rate limitation, then the drive may proceed with a CV recording until it reaches a point where a predetermined data rate limitation point has been reached by monitoring the ATIP address. When it reaches this point, the drive may continue writing at a tracking CLV mode without interruption in writing, maintaining a seamless write process. This type of recording is called a partial CAV recording.  
         [0037]    One aspect of the present invention is to use a mixed mode of recording, such as a partial CAV recording mode. In one embodiment, a CAV recording process is implemented until the optical head detects an ATIP location where the data rate limit is reached, and CLV recording is desired. At this point, the switch S is coupled to terminal S2, so that the motor driver  114  is coupled to the Tracking CLV servo circuit  118 . The encoder clock source is unchanged from the CAV recording mode, which tracks the mechanical motion of the disk. The mechanical disturbances which may occur while changing servo modes from CAV to Tracking CLV does not affect the timing accuracy of the encoder clock as the Encoder PLL bandwidth far exceeds the slow mechanical motion disturbances. As a result, recording is uninterrupted throughout the entire disk recording process while maximizing the time efficiency in recording.  
         [0038]    While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art.

Technology Category: 3