Method and apparatus for written-in tracking error compensation for linear tape drives

• US 20040218304A1
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quantum Corporation (Chi Ko Investment Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Certance LLC (Chi Ko Investment Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Goker, Turguy, Tan, Sanwu
• Granted Patent: US 6,943,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 360/77.12
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/584 for track following on tapes

Abstract

An arrangement and method for compensating for the written-in tracking error for a linear tape drive filters out spatial error components of a position error signal (PES). The position information contained within A, B pairs of servo stripes, and within C, D pairs of stripes is preserved. The timing between the A and C bursts and the C and A bursts is filtered, such as by low pass filtering, to filter out the error that can be written-in by a servo writer. The timing signal for the A, B bursts and C, D bursts are divided by the filtered timing signals for the AC and CA timing signals, respectively. This ratio provides the filtered PES signal used by a head positioner to precisely position the head with respect to the tape.

Claims

1. A tape drive comprising:

a servo mark detector to detect servo marks on a tape and generate a detection signal, the servo marks recorded on the tape in a first set of servo marks recorded simultaneously and a second set of servo marks recorded simultaneously and subsequently to the recording of the first set of servo marks; and

a position error signal (PES) determiner coupled to the servo mark detector to receive the detection signal, the PES determiner;

measuring a first time between servo marks within the first set of servo marks, and a second time between the first set of servo marks and the second set of servo marks;

filtering the second time; and

dividing the first time by the filtered second time to determine the PES.

2. The tape drive of claim 1, wherein the filtering is a low pass filtering.

3. The tape drive is of claim 2, wherein the PES determiner includes a finite impulse response (FIR) filter that performs the low pass filtering.

4. The tape drive of claim 2, wherein the PES determiner includes an infinite impulse response (IR) filter that performs the low pass filtering.

5. The tape drive of claim 1, wherein the first set of servo marks includes at least two servo marks oriented at different azimuth angles from each other and the second set of servo marks includes at least two servo marks oriented at different azimuth angles from each other.

6. The tape drive of claim 5, further comprising a head positioning system coupled to the PES determiner to receive the PES and adjust the position of a write/read head as a function of the PES.

7. The tape drive of claim 5, wherein the first set of marks includes positive azimuth angle marks (A) and negative azimuth angle marks (B), and the second set of marks includes positive azimuth angle marks (C) and negative azimuth angle marks (D).

8. The tape drive of claim 6, wherein the PES determiner measures the time between the A and B marks as the first time and the time between the A and C marks as the second time.

9. The tape drive of claim 8, wherein the PES determiner:

measures a third time between the C and D marks, and a fourth time between the C and A marks;

filters the fourth time; and

divides the third time by the filtered fourth time to determine the PES.

10. The tape drive of claim 8, wherein the filtering is a 30 sample averaging.

11. A method of compensating for written in format tracking error in a tape drive, comprising the steps of:

obtaining timing signals from detected servo marks on a tape;

filtering a spatial error component from the timing signals without filtering a lateral displacement component; and

determining a position error signal from the timing signals after the filtering of the spatial error component.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the timing signals include a first timing signal measuring a time between detection of servo marks previously recorded on the tape simultaneously and spaced apart from one another.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the timing signals include a second timing signal measuring a time between detection of servo marks previously recorded on the tape non-simultaneously and spaced apart from one another.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the filtering includes low pass filtering the second timing signal to form a filtered second timing signal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining a position error signal includes dividing the first timing signal by the filtered second timing signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the servo marks previously recorded on the tape simultaneously include a first set of servo marks including least one positive azimuth angle servo stripe and at least one negative azimuth angle servo stripe.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the servo marks previously recorded on the tape non-simultaneously include the first set of servo marks and a second set of servo marks recorded at a different time than the first set of servo marks, the second set of servo marks including at least one positive azimuth angle servo stripe and at least one negative azimuth angle servo stripe.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the low pass filtering includes 30 sample averaging.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising adjusting the position of a write/read head as a function of the position error signal.

20. A tape drive with a tracking servo system, comprising:

a servo mark detector; and

means for generating a position error signal (PES) with a filtered spatial error component.