A videographic method of measuring lateral tape motion in a linear tape drive

摘要

The ever-increasing demand for greater storage capacity is prompting the development of data storage tapes with higher areal density. Read/write errors occur when a lateral tape motion (LTM) event exceeds the width of the track causing data to be overwritten during writing or a read error during reading. A method of tape position measurement using a video camera is described and compared to the traditional optical edge probe. This new technique is intended to eliminate the edge defect contribution to the measured LTM leaving only the true component.