Hard disk drive manufacturing optimization

Rapid increase in demand for high hard disk data storage density is forcing R&D centers and manufacturing companies to focus on continuous improvement of hard disk drive (HDD) performance. Current HDD records data on the magnetic disk or platter by controlling a magnetizing ferromagnetic material directionally. The data are read from the disk using a magnetic head by detecting the transitions in magnetization and decoding the originally written data pattern. To extract the best performance from these improved materials, manufacturing process, and design of platter and magnetic head, this article proposes a real time control method for the magnetic head by controlling the arm actuator. This can guarantee fast and accurate positioning performance and larger storage capacity. The control algorithm is based on a modified simplex method and can be implemented online and run in real-time control.