ELECTROSTRICTIVE CONTROL FOR THE WIDTH OF A TAPE-HEAD-ARRAY

The present disclosure generally relates to tape heads for use in a tape drive system. The tape head includes a plurality of servo elements and a plurality of data elements disposed between the servo elements. An electrostrictive material is present in the tape head. Electrodes are coupled to the electrostrictive material to permit a voltage to be distributed across the electrostrictive material. The voltage causes the electrostrictive material to expand, and thus expand the tape head. By expanding the tape head by adding voltage, or contracting the tape head by lowering voltage, the spacing between adjacent data elements can be adjusted to match the spacing between adjacent data tracks on a tape.