JP2009070485A - Hard disk drive and temperature control method for hard disk drive - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress a temperature increase in a casing without causing any noise or increasing power consumption with a compact and simple structure. <P>SOLUTION: In controlling heat generation of the hard disk drive 1 which houses a voice coil motor 9 for driving a head arm 10 integrated with a head 11, and the head 11 for writing/reading data in a magnetic disk 13 in a casing in a sealed state, the temperature in the casing is detected by a temperature sensor 12, a driving current to the voice coil motor 9 is controlled by a hard disk controller 2 based on the detected temperature, and by varying the driving speed of the head arm 10, a temperature increase in the casing is suppressed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a hard disk drive device and a temperature control method for a hard disk drive, and is suitable for application to, for example, suppressing a temperature rise inside a housing in a hard disk drive device.

  Conventionally, generally, a personal computer, a video recorder, and the like are equipped with a hard disk drive device as a recording device.

  In this hard disk drive device, the magnetic disk that is rotated by a spindle motor, the voice coil motor that drives the head arm at high speed, and the head that writes data to and reads data from the magnetic disk maintain the cleanliness inside the housing. It has a structure accommodated in a sealed state as much as possible.

  In recent years, in hard disk drive devices, the head arm has been driven at a higher speed in order to achieve faster access by quickly moving the head to the target track of the magnetic disk.

  In order to realize high-speed driving of the head arm, it is necessary to flow a large current to a voice coil motor which is a driving source for moving the head arm at high speed in the hard disk drive device.

  However, this leads to an increase in the amount of heat generated by a motor driver IC (Integrated Circuit) for driving a voice coil motor provided in the housing of the hard disk drive device or the voice coil motor.

  In this case, in the hard disk drive device, the temperature rise inside the sealed housing seriously affects the life of the device itself. Specifically, in an environment where continuous operation is performed for a long time, the write head element portion and the read head element portion are thermally expanded due to a temperature rise inside the housing and protrude toward the magnetic disk surface. Become.

  Therefore, in the hard disk drive device, the gap between the write head element or read head element and the magnetic disk surface is reduced, and the risk of contact between the write head element or read head element and the magnetic disk surface increases. Therefore, it becomes a cause of a decrease in reliability and failure.

  In order to solve such problems, devices equipped with conventional hard disk drive devices have been devised such as installing a cooling fan motor to exhaust the interior of the device, or covering the hard disk drive device with a heat sink to enhance the heat dissipation effect. Yes.

  As another method, the write head element section generates heat due to continuous writing of data. Therefore, continuous write is not performed, and write after read is performed after writing, thereby suppressing the temperature rise inside the housing. Things are also done.

On the other hand, in a hard disk drive device, a fan motor or the like is not provided in the device in which the hard disk drive device is mounted, but the spindle motor is controlled by controlling the rotational speed of the spindle motor for rotating the magnetic disk. The amount of generated heat is reduced to suppress the temperature rise inside the housing (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2006-114124 A

  By the way, in the hard disk drive device having the above-described configuration, when exhaust is performed by a fan motor, there are problems such as an increase in noise, an increase in power consumption, and an increase in cost due to the provision of the fan motor. .

  Further, in the hard disk drive device, when the heat dissipation effect is enhanced by covering the hard disk drive device with a heat sink, there is a problem that space restriction such as requiring an occupied space of the heat sink inside the device is also caused.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and a hard disk drive device and a hard disk drive temperature control capable of suppressing a temperature rise inside the housing without increasing noise and power consumption with a small and simple configuration. We are going to propose a method.

  In order to solve such problems, in the present invention, a head arm integrated with a head for writing or reading data on a disk-shaped recording medium and a voice coil motor for driving the head arm are hermetically sealed. When controlling the temperature of the hard disk drive housed inside the body, the temperature inside the housing is detected, the drive current to the voice coil motor is controlled based on the temperature, and the drive speed of the head arm is varied. Control the temperature inside the enclosure.

  As a result, the voice coil is designed so that the drive speed of the head arm is slowed when the temperature inside the sealed casing rises and the drive speed of the head arm is restored when the temperature inside the casing falls. By controlling the drive current to the motor, the temperature rise inside the housing can be suppressed.

  According to the present invention, the driving speed of the head arm is decreased when the temperature inside the sealed casing rises, and the driving speed of the head arm is restored when the temperature inside the casing decreases. By controlling the drive current to the voice coil motor, the temperature rise inside the housing can be suppressed, and thus the temperature inside the housing rises without increasing noise and power consumption with a small and simple configuration. It is possible to realize a hard disk drive device and a hard disk drive temperature control method capable of suppressing the above.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(1) Configuration of Hard Disk Drive Device In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a hard disk drive device according to the present invention as a whole, and the hard disk drive device according to a program read out from a flash ROM (Read Only Memory) by a hard disk controller 2 having a microcomputer configuration. It is designed to control the whole.

  The hard disk controller 2 of the hard disk drive device 1 is used in a state of being mounted on a personal computer, a video recorder or the like, and is connected to other devices mounted on the personal computer or video recorder via an ATA (AT Attachment) interface. Connected.

  The hard disk controller 2 of the hard disk drive device 1 performs servo control on the data recording surface of the magnetic disk 13 with the head 11 provided at the tip of the head arm 10 via the servo control circuit 4.

  Next, the hard disk controller 2 calculates the current head moving speed of the head 11 from the servo control circuit 4, obtains the target speed from the distance to the target track, and subtracts the current head moving speed from the target speed to obtain the voice coil motor. 9 is determined. Next, the hard disk controller 2 converts a digital value corresponding to the amount of current into an analog value via the digital / analog converter 5, and sends it to the power amplifier 6.

  The power amplifier 6 amplifies a voltage value proportional to the current value to a predetermined voltage level, and sends it to the motor driver IC 8 of the disk enclosure 7 constituting the housing part of the hard disk drive device 1. The motor driver IC 8 generates a drive current for driving and controlling the head arm 10 according to the voltage value supplied from the power amplifier 6, and supplies this to the voice coil motor 9.

  The voice coil motor 9 seeks the head arm 10 in accordance with the drive current supplied from the motor driver IC 8, and moves the head 11 provided at the tip to the target track to be written.

  Further, at the time of data reading, the hard disk controller 2 receives a signal read from the head 11 via the head preamplifier 14 and the read channel (read demodulation circuit) 15 and outputs it via the ATA interface.

  Further, in the hard disk drive device 1, the temperature inside the housing is detected by the temperature sensor 12 attached to the head 11, and the detection result is notified to the hard disk controller 2 via the read channel 15.

(2) Temperature Control Processing Procedure Next, a temperature control processing procedure for suppressing a temperature rise inside the housing in the hard disk drive device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The hard disk controller 2 of the hard disk drive device 1 enters from the start step of the routine RT1 and proceeds to the next step SP1 to detect the temperature inside the housing indicated by the disk enclosure 7 by the temperature sensor 12 attached to the head 11. The process proceeds to the next step SP2.

  In step SP2, the hard disk controller 2 determines whether or not the temperature inside the housing is equal to or higher than 70 ° C. If a negative result is obtained, the process proceeds to the next step SP3.

  In step SP3, the hard disk controller 2 can determine that the temperature inside the housing is 70 ° C. or less, and that there is little possibility of seriously affecting the life of the device itself, causing a decrease in reliability, or causing a failure. Then, a drive current having a normal current value (200 mA) is supplied to the voice coil motor 9 via the motor driver IC 8, and the process proceeds to the next step SP4.

  In step SP4, the hard disk controller 2 supplies a drive current having a normal current value (200 mA) to the voice coil motor 9 in step SP3, so that the head arm 10 is sought at a normal drive speed and the process proceeds to the next step SP5. To finish the process.

  On the other hand, if an affirmative result is obtained in step SP2, this means that the temperature inside the housing is 70 ° C. or higher, seriously affecting the life of the device itself, or causing a decrease in reliability or failure. This indicates that the possibility is high, and at this time, the hard disk controller 2 proceeds to the next step SP6.

  In step SP6, the hard disk controller 2 lowers the regular current value (200 mA) supplied to the voice coil motor 9 in steps of 50 mA at predetermined time intervals, and proceeds to the next step SP7.

  In step SP7, the hard disk controller 2 seeks the drive speed of the head arm 10 to be reduced stepwise by decreasing the drive current supplied to the voice coil motor 9 in step SP6. The amount of heat generated from the driver IC 8 and the voice coil motor 9 is reduced, and the process proceeds to the next step SP8.

  In step SP8, the hard disk controller 2 determines whether the temperature inside the casing detected by the temperature sensor 12 is still 65 ° C. or higher. If an affirmative result is obtained here, this means that there is still a high possibility of seriously affecting the life of the device itself, causing a decrease in reliability and causing a failure. The controller 2 returns to step SP6 and repeats the above process.

  On the other hand, if a negative result is obtained in step SP8, this means that the temperature inside the housing becomes 65 ° C. or lower, seriously affecting the life of the device itself, or causing a decrease in reliability or failure. This means that the possibility is low. At this time, the hard disk controller 2 proceeds to the next step SP9.

  In step SP9, the hard disk controller 2 increases the drive current supplied to the voice coil motor 9 via the motor driver IC 8 to the normal current value (200 mA), and goes to the processing of step SP3 and step SP4 described above, and then step SP5. To end the process.

(3) Operation and Effect In the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 3, the hard disk drive device 1 is controlled by the hard disk controller 2 when the inside of the housing indicated by the disk enclosure 7 exceeds the specified upper limit temperature of 70 ° C. Then, the drive current to be supplied to the voice coil motor 9 is gradually reduced by 50 mA from the normal current value (200 mA).

  At this time, the hard disk drive device 1 decreases the seek speed with respect to the head arm 10, but the amount of heat generated from the motor driver IC 8 and the voice coil motor 9 can be decreased. The specified lower limit temperature is 65 ° C or lower.

  Then, the hard disk drive device 1 returns the drive current to be supplied to the voice coil motor 9 to the normal current value (200 mA), and causes the head arm 10 to seek at the normal drive speed.

  In other words, the hard disk drive device 1 can be controlled so as to suppress the temperature change in the housing in the range from the specified lower limit temperature of 65 ° C. to the specified upper limit temperature of 70 ° C., which has a serious effect on the life of the device itself. The risk of giving or causing a decrease in reliability or failure can be avoided.

  By the way, the hard disk drive 1 lowers the drive speed to be supplied to the voice coil motor 9 from the normal current value (200 mA) step by step by 50 mA, thereby lowering the seek speed of the head arm 10 and slightly reducing the writing speed. Will do.

  However, in the hard disk drive 1, since data to be written can be stored in the buffer memory before writing to the magnetic disk 13, an underflow does not occur immediately.

  The hard disk drive 1 immediately returns the drive current to be supplied to the voice coil motor 9 to the normal current value (200 mA) when the inside of the housing falls below the specified lower limit temperature of 65 ° C. Therefore, the writing speed only needs to be temporarily reduced.

  According to the above configuration, the hard disk drive 1 controls the drive current to be supplied to the voice coil motor 9 when the inside of the housing exceeds the specified upper limit temperature of 70 ° C. under the control of the hard disk controller 2. The temperature rise inside the housing can be suppressed by simply reducing the current from 200 mA in steps of 50 mA.

  Further, the hard disk drive device 1 has a process that only controls the drive current to be supplied to the voice coil motor 9, so that the temperature inside the housing rises without increasing noise and power consumption with a small and simple configuration. Can be suppressed.

(4) Other Embodiments In the above-described embodiment, the case where the specified upper limit temperature is set to 70 ° C. and the specified lower limit temperature is set to 65 ° C. has been described. Various other specified upper and lower temperature limits may be set such that the specified upper limit temperature is 65 ° C. and the specified lower limit temperature is 60 ° C.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the temperature sensor 12 is provided in the vicinity of the head 11 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the head can be used as long as the temperature inside the housing can be detected. It may be provided not only in the vicinity of 11 but also in various other places such as being provided at a predetermined position on the head arm.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the hard disk drive device 1 according to the present invention is configured by the temperature sensor 12 as the temperature detection means and the hard disk controller 2 as the temperature control means has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the hard disk drive device according to the present invention may be configured by temperature detecting means and temperature control means having various other configurations.

  The hard disk drive device and the hard disk drive temperature control method according to the present invention are not limited to a hard disk drive device of a type mounted as a recording device such as a personal computer or a video recorder, and are also applicable to a removable hard disk drive device. be able to.

1 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration of a hard disk drive device. It is a flowchart with which it uses for description of a temperature control processing procedure. It is a characteristic curve figure of the experimental result which shows the temperature change inside a housing | casing.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Hard disk drive device, 2 ... Hard disk controller, 3 ... Flash ROM, 4 ... Servo control circuit, 5 ... DA converter, 6 ... Power amplifier, 7 ... Disk enclosure, 8 ... Motor driver IC , 9: Voice coil motor, 10: Head arm, 11 head, 12: Temperature sensor, 13 magnetic disk, 14: Head preamplifier, 15: Read channel circuit.

Claims (6)

A hard disk drive device in which a head arm integrated with a head for writing / reading data to / from a disk-shaped recording medium and a voice coil motor for driving the head arm are housed in a sealed state. And
Temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature inside the housing;
Temperature control means for controlling the drive current to the voice coil motor based on the temperature detected by the temperature detection means, and for controlling the temperature inside the housing by varying the drive speed of the head arm. A hard disk drive device comprising: The hard disk drive device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature control unit supplies the drive current to a voice coil motor driver that drives and controls the voice coil motor. 2. The hard disk drive device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature control unit decreases the current value of the drive current in a stepwise manner when the temperature becomes equal to or higher than a specified upper limit temperature. 2. The hard disk drive device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature control unit increases the current value of the drive current to a normal current value when the temperature falls below a specified lower limit temperature. 3. The hard disk drive device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature detection unit is provided in the vicinity of the head. Temperature control of a hard disk drive in which a head arm integrated with a head for writing / reading data to / from a disk-shaped recording medium and a voice coil motor for driving the head arm are housed in a sealed state A method,
A temperature detecting step of detecting the temperature inside the housing by a predetermined temperature detecting means;
Based on the temperature detected by the temperature detection step, the drive current to the voice coil motor is controlled by predetermined temperature control means, and the temperature inside the housing is controlled by varying the drive speed of the head arm. A temperature control method for a hard disk drive, comprising: a temperature control step.

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