Long‐span seek control system for hard disk drive without mode‐switching

Abstract

Abstract In hard disk drives (HDD) there are two control modes: the head positioning control mode and the other is the seek control mode. In the head positioning control mode, a feedback controller is optimally designed to suppress disturbances. In the long‐span seek mode, a velocity feedback control system is applied in order to move the heads fast. Thus, an HDD has multiple control systems, and the head is moved to the target position while changing from one control system to the other. However, changing the control system causes a discontinuous control signal, which activates the resonant mode of an actuator. Past methods can only decrease discontinuous control, and therefore a single control system that can be used for both a seek control mode and a head positioning control mode is necessary for a narrow track pitch. In the proposed method, the feedback controller is decomposed into an integrator and a phase compensator. The VCM model is updated by the output of the phase compensator, and the integrator and the output of the velocity feedback controller control the VCM. The validity of the proposed method was confirmed by numerical and experimental results using a miniature 2.5‐inch hard disk drive. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 171(3): 51–60, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20935