STMicroelectronics Assigned Patent

STMicroelectronics S.r.l., Agrate Brianza, Italy, has been assigned a patent (12355385) developed by Galbiati; Ezio, Agnadello, Italy, for “method of operating a hard disk drive, corresponding controller, hard disk drive and processing device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In accordance with an embodiment a method includes: receiving a slow down command to slow down a speed of a voice coil motor (VCM) in a hard disk drive; in response to receiving the slow down command, operating the VCM in a discontinuous mode by switching on and off a current through the VCM with a duty-cycle, wherein operating the VCM in the discontinuous mode reduces the speed of the VCM; sensing the speed of the VCM while operating the VCM in the discontinuous mode; and varying the duty-cycle of the switching on and off the current through the VCM as a function of the sensed speed of the VCM operated in the discontinuous mode, wherein varying the duty-cycle comprises reducing the duty-cycle in response to a reduction of the sensed VCM speed.”

The patent application was filed on 2023-03-01 (18/176778).