Jerry Nelson Walker

US Patent:

45787867, Mar 25, 1986

Filed:

Jul 6, 1984

Appl. No.:

6/628687

Inventors:

Robert McIntosh - Longmont CO
Harlan P. Mathews - Boulder CO
David W. Rickert - Boulder CO
Paul Romano - Louisville CO
Jerry Walker - Boulder CO

Assignee:

Storage Technology Partners II - Louisville CO

International Classification:

G11B 700

US Classification:

369 44

Abstract:

A system and method for maintaining a prescribed track pitch in an optical storage system wherein a second radiation beam is aligned a desired distance from a first radiation beam, the first radiation beam being controllably steered to follow a previously written data track on a record carrier used within the optical storage system. A write alignment servo aligns the second radiation beam the prescribed distance from the first radiation beam in response to an offset signal. The offset signal is generated by optically measuring the distance between a pair of calibration tracks that have previously been placed on the disk so as to have the desired track pitch therebetween. The effect of variations or drift occurring in the optical or electrical components of either the write alignment servo or the optical track pitch measurement system is significantly reduced by regularly calibrating against the fixed track pitch of the calibration tracks.