Rejecting Rotational Disturbances on Small Disk Drives Using Rotational Accelerometers

Abstract Small disk drives are inherently designed for portable applications and thus must be able to reject external shock and vibration. This paper expands on previous efforts at using the signal from a rotational accelerometer to minimize the the effects of these disturbances by dealing with several issues that come up; accelerometer beam resonances, low sample rate of the embedded servo on the disk drive, and widely varying accelerometer gains. The resulting algorithm is both simple and effective, making it practical for in drive use. Experimental data is provided.