Calculating a heater power that compensates for laser induced writer protrusion for a heat-assisted magnetic recording device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10607646-B2
Application number	US-201916423594-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 28, 2019
Priority date	Aug 17, 2018
Publication date	Mar 31, 2020
Grant date	Mar 31, 2020

Abstract

A method includes moving a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) slider relative to a magnetic recording medium. The slider comprises a writer, a writer heater, and a near-field transducer (NFT). For each of a plurality of different head-to media spacings a test tone is written to a track of the medium, the test tone is read and a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of an amplitude of the read test tone is captured. A first DFT curve is generated at a beginning of writing the test tones. A second DFT curve is generated at a saturated state of writing the test tones. An amount of horizontal shift between the first and second DFT curves is computed. The amount of horizontal shift corresponding to writer heater power required to compensate for NFT clearance offset due to laser induced writer protrusion.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
moving a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) slider relative to a magnetic recording medium, the slider comprising a writer, a writer heater, and a near-field transducer (NFT);
for each of a plurality of different head-to-medium spacings:
writing a test tone to a track of the medium; and
reading the test tone and capturing a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the read test tone;
generating a first DFT curve at a beginning of writing the test tones;
generating a second DFT curve after generating the first DFT curve; and
computing an amount of shift between the first and second DFT curves, the amount of shift corresponding to writer heater power required to compensate for NFT clearance offset due to laser induced writer protrusion.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein reading the test tone and capturing a DFT of the read test tone further comprises capturing a DFT of an amplitude of the read test tone.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing an amount of shift between the first and second DFT curves comprises computing an amount of horizontal shift between the first and second DFT curves.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising adjusting the writer heater power based on the computed amount of shift.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of head-to-media spacings are in a range of about 0 nm to about 6 nm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing an amount of shift comprises determining a difference in writer heater power used to achieve a same head-to media spacing for the first DFT curve and the average DFT curve.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising erasing the track before writing the test tone to the track.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a second DFT curve after generating the first DFT curve comprises generating a second DFT curve at a saturated state of writing the test tones generating a second DFT curve after generating the first DFT curve.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second DFT curves are captured over one revolution.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein for each head-to-medium spacing a preheat level is set to be substantially the same as a write-heat level.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the horizontal shift includes local laser induced writer protrusion (LLIWP).

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the laser induced writer protrusion comprises a first region having a first thermal time constant and a second region having a second thermal time constant;
the second region is closer to the medium than the first region; and
measuring comprises measuring the magnitude of at least the second region.

13. An apparatus comprising:
a slider movable relative to a magnetic recording medium, the slider comprising a writer, a heater, a near-field transducer, and an optical waveguide for communicating light from a laser diode to the near-field transducer; and
a controller coupled to the slider and configured to:

for each of a plurality of different head-to-medium spacings:
write a test tone to a track of the medium; and
read the test tone and capturing a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the read test tone;
generate a first DFT curve at a beginning of writing the test tones;
generate a second DFT curve after generating the first DFT curve; and
compute an amount of shift between the first and second DFT curves, the amount of shift corresponding to writer heater power required to compensate for NFT clearance offset due to laser induced writer protrusion.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to capture a DFT of an amplitude of the read test tone.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to compute an amount of horizontal shift between the first and second DFT curves.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the controller is further configured to adjust the writer heater power based on the computed amount of horizontal shift.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the plurality of head-to-media spacings are in a range of about 0 nm to about 6 nm.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to determine a difference in writer heater power used to achieve a same head-to media spacing for the first DFT curve and the average DFT curve.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the controller is further configured to erase the track before writing the test tone to the track.

20. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein generating a second DFT curve after generating the first DFT curve comprises generating a second DFT curve at a saturated state of writing the test tones.

Assignees

• Seagate Technology Llc

Inventors

• Wei Zhen
• Liu Hua

Classifications

• G11B2005/0021

  Thermally assisted recording using an auxiliary energy source for heating the recording layer locally to assist the magnetization reversal · CPC title

• G11B5/607 Primary

  using thermal means · CPC title

• G11B20/1816

  Testing · CPC title