Low acoustic noise seeking method and apparatus

• Main Authors: COUNTS; GARY E, ANDREWS, JR.; THOMAS L
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.1994
• Edition: 5
• Subjects: INFORMATION STORAGE; INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORDCARRIER AND TRANSDUCER; PHYSICS

A silent seek servo controller is used in a low profile miniature disk drive to minimize acoustic noise and the problems associated therewith. The silent seek servo controller of this invention reduces acoustic noise generation at the expense of seek performance. Since the silent seek servo controller of this invention minimizes acoustic noise, the controller helps to eliminate vibrations within the computer. The silent seek servo controller is a one mode continuous position servo seek controller that accelerates and decelerates the actuator using a smooth, continuous and completely symmetric acceleration trajectory. Specifically, for a seek time t, the disk drive actuator is accelerated for one-half the seek time, i.e, time t/2, and decelerated for the other half of seek time t. The peak acceleration occurs at time t/4 and the peak deceleration occurs at time 3t/4. The symmetry of each acceleration phase assures that any acoustic noise generated by uneven acceleration is eliminated.