Apparatus and methods to reduce hard disk drive manufacturing test time

• US 9,142,246 B1
• Filed: 10/10/2014
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Trantham, Jon, Cole, Christopher Thomas, Haapala, Kenneth, Sosseh, Raye A
• Primary Examiner(s): Agustin, Peter Vincent
• Application Number:
  US14/511,771
• Time in Patent Office: 347 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/048 Testing of disk drives, e.g. to detect defects or prevent sudden failure
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/127 Structure or manufacture of heads, e.g. inductive
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/455 Arrangements for functional testing of heads; Measuring arrangements for heads

Abstract

An apparatus includes a plurality of magnetic read/write heads, a system controller and a switching network. Each of the magnetic read/write heads includes a read sensor element configured to perform a read operation and a write element configured to perform a write operation. The switching network is coupled between the plurality of magnetic read/write heads and the controller. Further, the switching network is configured to substantially simultaneously select elements from at least two of the plurality of magnetic read/write heads in response to a command from the controller such that the operations of the selected elements are performed substantially simultaneously to establish a manufacturing parameter of a disk drive.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of magnetic read/write heads, wherein each of the magnetic read/write heads includes a plurality of read sensor elements each configured to perform a read operation and a write element configured to perform a write operation;

a controller; and

a switching network coupled between the plurality of magnetic read/write heads and the controller, the switching network configured to substantially simultaneously select elements from at least two of the plurality of magnetic read/write heads in response to a command from the controller, and wherein the operations of the selected elements are performed substantially simultaneously.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is utilized to establish a manufacturing parameter of a disk drive.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selected read sensors comprise disparate read sensors from different magnetic read/write heads.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a multi-head controller that is interchangeable with a standard controller.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selected elements comprise a write element from a first magnetic read/write head and a write element from a second magnetic read/write head.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the switching network comprises a single preamplifier.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the switching network comprises a tiered switching network that includes a head select network and a sensor select network.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the switching network comprises a pair of substantially similar preamplifiers.

9. A method comprising:

performing a manufacturing test on a disk drive having a plurality of magnetic read/write heads each comprising a plurality of read sensor elements and a write element, wherein performance of the manufacturing test comprises substantially simultaneously utilizing at least two of the plurality of read/write heads of the disk drive to establish a manufacturing parameter of the disk drive.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the manufacturing test comprises substantially simultaneously utilizing at least three of the plurality of read/write heads of the disk drive to establish a manufacturing parameter of the disk drive.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the manufacturing test comprises substantially simultaneously utilizing at least four of the plurality of read/write heads of the disk drive to establish a manufacturing parameter of the disk drive.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising selecting a magnetic read/write head from which to read or to which to write using a switching network.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the switching network comprises a tiered switching network that includes a head select network and a sensor select network.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the switching network comprises a pair of substantially similar preamplifiers.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the manufacturing test is implemented through use of a multi-head controller that is swappable with a standard controller.

16. A system comprising:

a disk drive, comprising;

a plurality of magnetic read/write heads, wherein each of the magnetic read/write heads includes at least one read sensor element that produces an output in response to the magnetization of a storage media and at least one write element that produces an output suitable for magnetic recording to a storage media; and

a controller system comprising a multi-head controller and a standard controller; and

a switching network configured to substantially simultaneously select elements from at least two of the plurality of magnetic read/write heads in response to a command from the controller system, and configured to substantially simultaneously connect the selected elements to the controller system where upon a manufacturing parameter of the disk drive is recorded; and

a host communicatively coupled to the controller system and configured to receive the manufacturing parameter from the multi-head controller and download the manufacturing parameter to the standard controller.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein only one of the multi-head controller and standard controller are within the disk drive at a time.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the multi-head controller and the standard controller are within the disk drive at the same time.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the selected elements are disparate elements.

20. A method comprising:

installing a multi-head controller in a disk drive;

performing a manufacturing test on the disk drive and recording the results of the manufacturing test on the multi-head controller;

transferring the results of the manufacturing test from the multi-head controller to a host;

installing a standard controller in the disk drive; and

downloading the results of the manufacturing test from the host to the multi-head standard controller.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein installing the standard controller comprises replacing the multi-head controller with the standard controller.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein installing the standard controller comprises co-installing the standard controller with the multi-head controller.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising performing an additional manufacturing test with the standard controller.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the manufacturing test is selected from a group consisting of:

coherent run-out characterization, adaptive fly-height adjustment, thermal asperity scan, repeatable run-out cancellation, defect scan, format, or security format.