ARCUATE SCAN READ/WRITE ASSEMBLY WITH ENCODED SIGNAL TRANSMISSION THROUGH A ROTARY TRANSFORMER

摘要

A circuit having a stationary portion and a rotating portion suitable for an arcuate scan assembly in a storage device is disclosed. The circuit includes a stationary encoder outputting an encoded write signal; a power supply; and a rotary transformer comprising a stator and a rotor. The stator has at least one stator winding and the rotor has at least one rotor winding, with the stationary encoder coupled to the stator winding. A decoder is provided and includes an input coupled to said at least one rotor winding and rotating with the rotor. The input receives an encoded write signal, and the decoder further has an output. Also provided is an amplifier coupled to receive the decoder output, and further being coupled to the power supply via the rotating transformer. The amplifier rotates with the decoder and the rotor. Also, at least one read/write head is included and is coupled to receive an amplifier output from the amplifier and return a read data signal to the amplifier. Also disclosed is a method for reading and writing data to a tape storage medium. The method may include the steps of: providing a rotating head drum adjacent to the tape, the head drum including at least one read/write head and an amplifier coupled to the head; encoding preamplifier control signals and the data in a synchronous signal; transmitting the synchronous signal through a rotating transformer to the head drum; transmitting a clock signal through the rotating transformer; transmitting a power to the preamplifier; and decoding the synchronous signal so that the preamplifier is directed to write the data to the tape.