Measurement of dynamic azimuth of moving media in tape drives

The motion of magnetic tape relative to the read-write heads, as it is transported in a tape path, places limits on the achievable data storage densities. This paper presents a new method of measuring the dynamic azimuth of moving magnetic media using a simple magnetic read/write head arrangement. Measurements were made for a variety of tape media and heads and for various operational parameters. The acquired data was processed and the dynamic azimuth information was extracted. The experimental results presented in this paper pertain to the qualification of the measurement procedure, including estimation of the noise floor and measures to improve the signal-to-noise ratio such that the technique is useful for measurements on actual tape drives.