The present invention relates to a method of decoding digital information and to a data storage device.

Optical storage systems such as DVD-RAM and DVD-RW offer the ability to store large amounts of digital information. Derived from earlier Compact Disc technology, information is stored along a single groove spiralling along the disc. For writeable and rewriteable systems, addressing information must be provided which allows the single long spiral to be divided into storage segments. In DVD-RAW and DVD-RAM systems, disk address information may be encoded in missing pulses in a high frequency wobble signal placed along the recording groove.

Detecting these missing pulses in the high frequency wobble signal is made more difficult by cross-talk from other signals and noise inherent in the system, such as that introduced by the tracking process.

The present invention seeks to provide improved information storage and retrieval.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of decoding digital information as specified in claim 1.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data storage system as specified in claim 7.

In the preferred embodiment, address information encoded in a high frequency wobble signal in an optical storage subsystem is detected as missing pulses in the high frequency wobble signal using an homodyne synchronous detector. The input signal from an optical pickup is fed to a zonal band-pass filter then processed by a limiter. The input signal is also fed through a high pass filter to eliminate low frequency components. An analogue multiplier forms the product of these two signals. The output of the analogue multiplier is passed through low pass and high pass filters to remove noise, then passed to a threshold detector which outputs a signal indicating a missing wobble pulse.

An embodiment of the present invention is described below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

• Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a portion of an embodiment of optical storage subsystem,
• Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the missing wobble detector,
• Fig. 3 shows the zonal band-pass filter in greater detail.

Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of a portion of an optical data storage subsystem. For simplicity, large blocks not pertinent to this description, such as head tracking, data encoding and decoding, power supplies, and the like are not shown. Laser 110 illuminates 120 rotating optical storage medium 130. Reflected light 140 is detected by optical pickup 150. Optical pickup 150 is typically divided into quadrants, producing a number of different signals. Normaliser 160 produces a variety of signals from optical pickup 150, such as normalised radial push-pull and tangential push-pull signals of constant amplitude. In one embodiment, the normalised push-pull signal is passed to missing wobble detector 170, producing output signal 180, a digital bit stream containing the address information.

Fig. 2 shows the missing wobble detector 170 of Fig. 1 in greater detail. Buffer 210 is optional and drives zonal band-pass filter 220 and high pass filter 250. While shown as a unity gain device, an amplifier with a gain larger than one may be used if needed. Any high performance operational amplifier, such as the CLC44O from National Semiconductor may be used for buffer 210.

In one embodiment of the present invention the normalised push-pull tracking error signal from optical pickup 150 and normaliser 160 of Fig. 1. contains a mixture of different signals and noise. The high frequency wobble signal of interest is a sinusoid near 3 megahertz (MHz) in a constant linear velocity (CLV) system, and ranges from approximately 3 to 7 MHz in a constant angular velocity (CAV) system. Noise and cross-talk from data along with other signals, such as the much lower frequency tracking error signal, are also present. Information is encoded in the wobble signal in the form of missing pulses. One or more cycles of the sinusoid are missing in a pattern to denote data.

The signal from buffer 210 of Fig. 2 is passed to zonal band-pass filter 220. This filter has two functions. The first is to pass only the frequency band of interest. For a CLV implementation, this is a fixed frequency of approximately 3 MHz. For a CAV system, the frequency varies and zonal band-pass filter 220 must be either wider or a tracking filter or PLL centred on the expected wobble frequency. The preferred embodiment will be described with particularity for the CLV approach. Zonal band-pass filter 220 attenuates frequencies away from the wobble frequency and also includes phase adjustment 230. Phase adjustment 230 allows the phase of the signal to be shifted to match the phases 0£ the signals input to analogue multiplier 260.

Zonal band-pass filter 220 also has sufficient "Q" to cause the wobble signal to ring through missing wobbles, providing sufficient signal to limiter 240 to produce a continuous wobble signal even during missing pulses. When a tuned circuit is being excited at its resonant frequency and the signal is removed, the tuned circuit continues to ring at that frequency for a number of cycles, decaying over time. In the preferred embodiment, a Q of 3 or greater is sufficient to provide a signal to limiter 240 so that it produces a continuous square wave output at the wobble frequency even in the presence of missing pulses. Limiter 240 may be any high speed comparator, such as the MAX903 from Maxim used in the preferred embodiment.

The output of buffer 210 is also sent through high pass filter 250 to remove low frequency noise, typically track wander interference. In the preferred embodiment this is a simple first order filter with a cut-off frequency of 300 kHz, an order of magnitude less than the resonant frequency of zonal band-pass filter 220.

Analogue multiplier 260 forms the product of the input signal from high pass filter 250, the wobble signal with missing pulses, and the carrier signal from limiter 240, a square wave at the wobble signal frequency with no missing pulses. This product has the appearance of a full wave rectified signal of only the frequency of interest, that of zonal band-pass filter 220, eliminating noise at other frequencies. In the preferred embodiment, analogue multiplier 260 is a Gilbert cell multiplier, the MC1496 from Motorola.

Low pass filter 270 smoothes the output of analogue multiplier 260 and attenuates high frequency noise; in the preferred embodiment it is a first order filter with a cut-off of 500 kHz. For better performance a linear phase response filter of higher order, such as a Bessel filter may also be used.

The signal is further filtered by high pass filter 280, which rejects low frequency variations arising from changes in the amplitude of the input signal to buffer 210. In the preferred embodiment this is also a first order filter with a cut-off frequency under 10 Hz, effectively a DC block.

The resulting filtered signal is an envelope which is near zero when the wobble is present and non-zero in its absence; this filtered signal is passed through threshold comparator 290, triggering at the level set by threshold adjustment 300.

The output of threshold comparator 290 is a digital signal indicating the presence and absence of the wobble signal.

Fig. 3 shows one embodiment of the zonal band-pass filter 220 in greater detail. The zonal band-pass filter consists of the parallel resonant circuit made from inductor 340, capacitor 330, and Q setting resistor 320. Capacitor 310 blocks any DC levels present at the output of buffer 210. The zonal band-pass filter passes energy at the frequencies of interest by providing a high impedance at the resonant frequency of the LC combination 340 and 330. The impedance of this LC network decreases away from the resonant frequency, attenuating signals out of the desired band. Resistor 320 sets the Q, or shape factor for the filter. In the preferred embodiment, the Q is approximately 3, sufficient to ring through missing pulses. Resistor network 350 and 360 forms phase adjustment 230, allowing the phase shift through the network to be varied.

For a reference frequency of approximately 3 MHz, capacitor 310 is 100 nanofarads. Resistor 320 is 100 ohms. Capacitor 330 is 3.9 nanofarads and inductor 340 is 680 nanohenries. Resistor 350 is 1 kohms and variable resistor 360 is 5 kohms. These component values may be scaled as is known in the art.

An alternative embodiment of the zonal band-pass filter is the use of a Phase Locked Loop (PLL). Using a PLL to filter the input signal allows the filter to track a wider range of frequencies, while providing the ability to provide a continuous signal during missing pulses.

The foregoing detailed description of the present invention is provided for the purpose of illustration and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise embodiments disclosed.

The disclosures in United States patent application no. 09/183,832, from which this application claims priority, and in the abstract accompanying this application are incorporated herein by reference.