Seek Reliability Enhancement in Optical and Magneto-Optical Disk Data Storage Devices

Seek reliability in optical and magnetooptical disk drives is relatively poorer than in magnetic disk drives due to the technological challenges stemming from narrow track pitch, new and imperfect media, low bandwidth actuators and higher revolution per minute requirements. An imperfectly executed seek function adversely impacts the access time and hence enhanced seek reliability is of prime interest. In this paper, we shall propose an integrated architecture that effectively combines the use of low pass filtering techniques with a phase locked loop design to overcome degradations in the seek function resulting from the presence of defects on the recording medium. A performance evaluation study is included to demonstrate the superior performance delivered by the present scheme over a wide range of seek velocities.