Dual writer head design utilizing two writers of different sizes for writing interlaced data tracks

• US 10,210,891 B1
• Filed: 01/20/2017
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Tian, Wei, Xue, Jianhua, Zhu, Wenzhong, Cross, Ralph W., Guzman, Javier
• Primary Examiner(s): Evans, Jefferson A
• Application Number:
  US15/411,085
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 360121
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/012 Recording on, or reproducing or erasing from, magnetic disks G11B17/00, G11B19/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/29 Structure or manufacture of unitary devices formed of plural heads for more than one track G11B5/33, G11B5/49 and subgroups take precedence; in thin film structure G11B5/31
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/3116 Shaping of layers, poles or gaps for improving the form of the electrical signal transduced, e.g. for shielding, contour effect, equalizing, side flux fringing, cross talk reduction between heads or between heads and information tracks G11B5/3113, G11B5/245 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/3967 Composite structural arrangements of transducers, e.g. inductive write and magnetoresistive read G11B5/3906 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/4886 relative to rotating disc
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/5539 Skew adjustment, e.g. adjustment of the position of the first sector in each track with respect to the other tracks, for improving, e.g. access performance

Abstract

A storage device includes a storage medium and a transducer head with two writers positioned to write to a same surface of the storage medium. The two writers are separated from one another along a down-track direction of a data track on the storage medium and independently controllable to write data.

Claims

1. A storage device comprising:

a storage medium; and

a transducer head including two writers of different sizes separated from one another and aligned along an axis parallel to a down-track direction of the storage medium when the transducer head is at a position of zero skew angle; and

a storage controller that selectively engages a first writer of the two writers when writing data to a first subset of data tracks on the storage medium and selectively engages a second writer of the two writers when writing data to a second different subset of data tracks, the second different subset including at least one data track interlaced with the first subset of data tracks on the storage medium.

2. The storage device of claim 1, further comprising at least one reader positioned between the two writers and separated from each of the two writers in the down-track direction.

3. The storage device of claim 1, further comprising two readers positioned between the two writers and separated from each of the two writers in the down-track direction.

4. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the two writers have centers aligned along an axis in the down-track direction when the transducer head is at the position of zero skew angle.

5. The storage device of claim 4, wherein the transducer head further includes at least one reader with a center aligned with the centers of the two writers along the axis in the down-track direction.

6. The storage device of claim 4, wherein the two writers include non-identical write poles.

7. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the storage controller is configured to write to a first set of alternating data tracks with a first of the two writers and to write to a second set of alternating data tracks interlaced with the first set of alternating data tracks with a second of the two writers.

8. Apparatus comprising:

a storage medium;

a transducer head with two writers of different sizes separated from one another and aligned along an axis parallel to a down-track direction of an adjacent storage medium when the transducer head is at a position of zero skew angle; and

a controller to selectively engage one of the two writers to record data of a write operation on the storage medium, the controller configured to selectively engage a first writer of the two writers when writing data to a first subset of data tracks on the storage medium and to selectively engage a second writer of the two writers when writing data to a second different subset of data tracks including at least one data track interlaced with the first subset of data tracks on the storage medium.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising at least one reader positioned between the two writers and separated from each of the two writers in the down-track direction.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the two writers include non-identical write poles.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the two writers have centers aligned with one another along an axis in the down-track direction when the transducer head is at the position of zero skew angle.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to write to a first set of alternating data tracks with a first one of the two writers and to write to a second set of alternating data tracks interlaced with the first set of alternating data tracks with a second one of the two writers.

13. A method comprising:

selecting one of two writers of different sizes on a transducer head to write data to a storage medium to write data of a write command based upon a target data track of the write command, the two writers separated from one another and aligned along an axis parallel to a down-track direction of the storage medium when the transducer head is at a position of zero skew angle, wherein a first one of the two writers is selected when writing data to a data track of a first set of data tracks and a second one of the two writers is selected when writing to a second set data tracks, the second set of data tracks including at least one data track interlaced with the first set of data tracks; and

passing a current through a write coil of the selected one of the two writers.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transducer head further includes a reader positioned between the two writers.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

writing to a first set of alternating data tracks with a first one of the two writers and writing to a second set of alternating data tracks interlaced with the first set of alternating data tracks with a second one of the two writers.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the two writers have centers aligned with one another along an axis in the down-track direction when the transducer head is at the position of zero skew angle.