MAGNETIC TAPE, MAGNETIC TAPE APPARATUS, SERVO PATTERN RECORDING APPARATUS, MAGNETIC TAPE PRODUCING METHOD, AND MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDING METHOD

• US 20090161249A1
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kumagai, Seiji, TAKAYAMA, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 8,089,716 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 360/77.120
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/584 for track following on tapes

Abstract

Provided is a magnetic tape that includes a data band, including servo patterns, data, and a guard space. The servo patterns is formed along a longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape with an interval provided between each of the servo patterns, each of the servo patterns formed across a full width of the data band. The data is disposed between the servo patterns. The guard space is disposed between each of the servo patterns and the data.

Claims

1. A magnetic tape that includes a data band, comprising:

servo patterns formed along a longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape with an interval provided between each of the servo patterns, each of the servo patterns formed across a full width of the data band;

data disposed between the servo patterns; and

a guard space disposed between each of the servo patterns and the data.

2. The magnetic tape according to claim 1,

wherein the servo patterns are formed along the longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape at regular intervals.

3. The magnetic tape according to claim 1,

wherein each of the servo patterns is constituted of, on the data band, at least two segments arranged in a width direction of the data band, and

wherein adjacent segments are recorded with different azimuth angles.

4. A magnetic tape apparatus, comprising:

a recording head to record data between servo patterns formed on a magnetic tape along a longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape with an interval provided between each of the servo patterns, each of the servo patterns formed across a full width of a data band of the magnetic tape, via a guard space; and

a reproducing head to reproduce the data recorded on the magnetic tape.

5. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein at least two channels from among data channels of the reproducing head are used for reproducing the servo patterns, and

wherein at least one of positioning information of one of the recording head and the reproducing head, deformation information of the magnetic tape, and tilt information of the magnetic tape is detected based on a correlation between reproduction servo signals from the data channels, magnetic tape velocity information, and channel information of the reproducing head.

6. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein at least two channels from among data channels and servo assisting channels of the reproducing head are used for reproducing the servo patterns, and wherein at least one of positioning information of one of the recording head and the reproducing head, deformation information of the magnetic tape, and tilt information of the magnetic tape is detected based on a correlation between reproduction servo signals from the channels, magnetic tape velocity information, and channel information of the reproducing head.

7. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein, when a segment having a 0-degree azimuth angle exists within the servo pattern in a case of phase-locking the magnetic tape, a cycle of an output servo pattern of a channel that reproduces the segment is divided as necessary to thus be phase-compared with a reference signal.

8. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein, when a segment having a 0-degree azimuth angle is absent within the servo pattern in a case of phase-locking the magnetic tape, a cycle of an output servo pattern of a reproducing channel corresponding to a segment having a positive azimuth angle is divided by a predetermined frequency division ratio to thus be phase-compared with a first reference signal, a cycle of an output servo pattern of a reproducing channel corresponding to a segment having a negative azimuth angle is divided by the same frequency division ratio to thus be phase-compared with a second reference signal, and an operation that takes into account an absolute value of the azimuth angles is carried out on an output of each phase comparator, thus locking the phase of the magnetic tape.

9. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the reproducing head that is piggybacked on the recording head disposed upstream is used to reproduce the servo patterns during recording of the magnetic tape.

10. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the reproducing head disposed downstream is used to reproduce the servo patterns at a time of reproducing the data.

11. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein identification information of at least one of the data band and a path is inserted at a predetermined position in a region for each path as a constituent element of a data region interposed between the servo patterns.

12. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein a data region interposed between the servo patterns, one of the servo patterns adjacent to the data region, and a guard space attached thereto are considered as a unit for each path, and an integral multiple of the unit is handled as a physical block.

13. The magnetic tape apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein a data region interposed between the servo patterns, one of the servo patterns adjacent to the data region, and a guard space attached thereto are considered as a unit for each path, and at least one unit is used as a tape mark.

14. A servo pattern recording apparatus, comprising:

a recording head including a recording gap that has the same shape as a boundary between magnetization transitions of servo patterns to be recorded on a magnetic tape, the recording head used to record the servo patterns across a full width of the magnetic tape; and

a controlling means for controlling, in recording the servo patterns across the full width of the magnetic tape by the recording head, the number of changes in a recording current of the servo patterns to be one of all odd and all even.

15. The servo pattern recording apparatus according to claim 14,

wherein, in recording the servo patterns across the full width of the magnetic tape by the recording head, a timing of each of the changes in the recording current is modulated so that one of binary data and a unique synchronization signal is expressed within each of the servo patterns.

16. A servo pattern recording apparatus, comprising

a recording head including a recording gap that has the same shape as a boundary between magnetization transitions of servo patterns to be recorded on a magnetic tape, the recording head used to record the servo patterns across a full width of the magnetic tape;

and

a full-width deleting head subsequent to the recording head, to form each of the servo patterns by deleting a part of the servo patterns recorded on the magnetic tape by the recording head in advance, to thus form a data recording region.

17. The servo pattern recording apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein, in deleting, by the subsequent full-width deleting head, the part of the servo patterns recorded on the magnetic tape by the recording head in advance to thus form the data recording region, modulation of a recording current and an operation timing of the subsequent full-width deleting head are controlled so that one of binary data and a unique synchronization signal is expressed within each of the servo patterns.