Spacing measurement improvement in the presence of track mis-registration

• Main Authors: SAITO KAZUHIRO, HANSON WELDON M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 07.06.2016
• Subjects: INFORMATION STORAGE; INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORDCARRIER AND TRANSDUCER; PHYSICS

Techniques for determining a relative spacing between a read head and a surface of a magnetic data storage device may use at least two magnetic spacing measurement patterns. A first magnetic spacing measurement pattern may be offset from a center of a data track by a first offset value and a second magnetic spacing measurement pattern may be offset by a second, different, offset value. A processor may determine a first harmonic tone and a second harmonic tone from each of the first and second magnetic spacing measurement patterns. The processor also may determine respective ratios between amplitudes of the first and second harmonic tones for each of the first and second magnetic spacing measurement patterns. The processor may determine which ratio is greater, and may utilize the greater ratio when determining relative spacing between the read head and the surface of the magnetic data storage device.