Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval inventions 11/07

20070273992 - Servo demodulating circuit and method: Servo demodulation is performed by appropriately compensating for demodulation errors caused by fluctuation of the replayed signal amplitude of a phase servo pattern. A servo demodulating circuit comprises single waveform sampling means for reading into a register a single waveform of a servo burst signal included in a phase servo... Agent: Patrick G. Burns Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070273993 - Method and appartus for determining set value of write current of magnetic head: Embodiments of the present invention help to efficiently determine the appropriate setting of the write current of a magnetic head relative to temperature. According to one embodiment, a test computer determines the set value of a write current as a function of temperature for each head device portion from the... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070273995 - Data storage device and error processing method in its read processing: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention help a disk drive to effectively cope with a data address mark detection error. In one embodiment, a data sector is provided with plural data address marks and an read/write (RW) channel reads out the data sector using part of those data address... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070273996 - Reduced convolution for repetitive disturbance rejection: Methods according to some embodiments include writing servo patterns on a data storage medium including a plurality of timing patterns in response to phase correction values generated using a phase correction value (PCV) kernel having a length that is less than the number of timing patterns on the data storage... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070273997 - Method and system for removing signal defects in mr head signals: The disclosure describes a data storage system that includes a signal defect correction system for removing signal defects in magnetoresistive head playback signals. The signal defect correction system utilizes a matched finite impulse response (FIR) filter and digital signal processing algorithms. The matched FIR filter is designed with an impulse... Agent: Imation Corp. Attention: Eric D. Levinson

20070273998 - Mechanism for minimizing unload times in a tape drive system: In one embodiment, a method and apparatus for minimizing unload times in a tape drive system is disclosed. The method includes: writing to a tape in serpentine format; reaching a comparison point on the tape, wherein at the comparison point an actual capacity is compared to an expected capacity; utilizing... Agent: Sun Microsystems, Inc. C/o Dorsey & Whitney, LLP

20070274000 - Disk drive, method for controlling the same, and method for manufacturing the same: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention prevent abnormal action of the actuator of a disk drive. According to an embodiment of the invention, in the process of startup (power on reset (POR)), a hard disk drive (HDD) checks whether an arm electronics (AE) port table stored in an EEPROM... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070273999 - Storage device, data-assurance control device, and data assurance method: A data reading unit reads inner offset data from an offset reading in an inner direction toward a center of a storage medium and outer offset data from an offset reading in an outer direction toward a circumference of the storage medium. A data comparing unit compares the inner offset... Agent: Greer, Burns & Crain

20070274002 - Spindle motor: The present invention provides a spindle motor. The spindle motor 100 includes a rotor casing 142 for rotating a recording medium, a rotary shaft 141 securely mounted to the rotor casing 142, a bearing 115 for rotatably supporting the rotary shaft 141, a bearing holder 113 for securely supporting the... Agent: Staas & Halsey LLP

20070273994 - Recording medium, reproduction device, message acquisition method, message acquisition program, integrated circuit: The present invention provides a recording medium that allows the content provider to control messages. The recording medium is provided by a content provider and records thereon content and a program which is executed at the time of playback of the content by a playback apparatus. The program causes the... Agent: Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack L.L.P.

20070274001 - Band-pass delta-sigma ad modulator for ad-converting high frequency narrow signal with higher precision and lower consumption: The tape drive D accommodates within it a loading frame 28 for receiving and supporting each tape cartridge 40A, 40B being different in case thicknesses and a holder 29 for holding the tape cartridge 40A, 40B by pressing the cartridge. The side wall 31 of the loading frame is provided... Agent: Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch

20070274003 - Magnetic recording/reproducing system, and thin-film magnetic head: The invention provides a magnetic recording/reproducing system constructed such that until the skew angle is past the maximum skew angle αmax, the edges of the write shield layer and the edges of the lower read shield layer do not overlap on the same track, so that upon application of an... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

20070274004 - Thin film magnetic head having heating element: A thin film magnetic head is provided, in which the amount of protrusion in the periphery of an element portion can be reduced or a local temperature increase of electrode leads of a heating element can be prevented. The thin film magnetic head includes a playback element disposed between lower... Agent: Hunton & Williams LLP Intellectual Property Department

20070274005 - Top bond pad for transducing head interconnect: A slider according to the present invention includes a slider body, a plurality of insulators, and conductive traces. The slider body has a first side and edges defined substantially perpendicular to the first side. The plurality of insulators are each adjacent to the first side of the slider body. The... Agent: Kinney & Lange, P.A.

20070274006 - Method of reworking magnetic head assembly in which electrode pad of magnetic head slider and electrode pad of suspension are soldered to each other: Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a method of reworking a magnetic head assembly in which an electrode pad of a magnetic head slider and an electrode pad of a suspension are soldered so as to be perpendicular to each other and in which a defective slider is replaced with... Agent: Hunton & Williams LLP Intellectual Property Department

20070274007 - Air razor and disk limiter for a hard disk drive: A disk drive that has an air deflector which deflects at least a portion of airflow away from an actuator arm assembly of the drive. The air flow is typically generated by a rotating disk of the disk drive.... Agent: Irell & Manella LLP

20070274008 - Pzt element and manufacturing method thereof, head gimbal assembly, and disk drive unit with same: A PZT element of the present invention includes a laminated structure which is laminated with electrode layer and PZT layer alternatively to define a thickness direction; wherein each PZT layer is sandwiched between two adjacent electrode layers; and at least one support element provided on a side portion of the... Agent: Nixon & Vanderhye, PC

20070274009 - Multilayered film, producing method thereof, and magnetoresistive head using them: Embodiments of the present invention provides sufficiently high exchange coupling with a magnetic layer and improve the yield and reliability of a magnetoresistive head. By using a tilted growth crystalline structured antiferromagnetic film manufactured by an oblique incident deposition method, a high exchange coupling field with a ferromagnetic film can... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070274010 - Magnetoresistive element including heusler alloy layer and method of manufacturing same: An MR element incorporates a nonmagnetic conductive layer, and a pinned layer and a free layer that are disposed to sandwich the nonmagnetic conductive layer. Each of the pinned layer and the free layer includes a Heusler alloy layer. The Heusler alloy layer contains a Heusler alloy in which atoms... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070274011 - Magnetoresistive effect element and a thin film magnetic head: The present invention relates to a magnetoresistive (MR) effect element which can effectively reduce a leakage of magnetic flux from a magnetic domain control layer, and a thin film magnetic head which has the MR effect element. The MR effect element has a pair of magnetic domain control layer, each... Agent: Frommer Lawrence & Haug

20070268607 - Charge remover for magnetic disk: A loading/unloading type magnetic disk unit includes a magnetic disk that is rotated or driven by a motor, and a head slider bearing a magnetic head and being movable above the magnetic disk owing to a driving mechanism. Herein, at least one projection made of a highly conductive material is... Agent: Greer, Burns & Crain

20070268615 - Closed loop fly height control: A distance between a head and a storage media is measured. An amount of power applied to a heater element in the head is adaptively adjusted based on a difference between the measured distance and a reference position indicating a desired distance between the head and the storage media. Related... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268609 - Control device of storage/reproduction mechanism: In order to provide a control device for a storage and reproduction mechanism that can acquire a constant error rate without being affected by changes of atmospheric pressure, a control device comprises a storage medium for storing data, a head for conducting a storage/reproduction process of data on the storage... Agent: Patrick G. Burns, Esq. Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070268611 - Controlling head heating based on upcoming data sector write pattern: A disk drive includes a rotatable data storage disk, a head, a heater element, and a controller. The disk includes a plurality of data sectors between servo spokes. The head is configured to fly on an air cushion relative to the rotating disk while writing data on the data sectors.... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268610 - Estimating residual temperature for flying height adjustment of read/write heads: Methods of estimating a flying height of a read/write head include determining an idle period of the head since a last selection of the head as a working head, estimating the residual temperature of the head in response to the idle period, and estimating the flying height of the head... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268612 - Estimation and control of head fly height: Various embodiments are disclosed that control head fly height based on estimates of head fly height. The fly height clearance between the head and a data storage media is estimated. Heating of the head by a heater element is then regulated in response to the estimated fly height.... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268614 - Head damage detection based on actuation efficiency measurements: An actuation efficiency for a head is determined based on a displacement of the head relative to a storage media responsive to excitation of a heater element. Damage to the head is detected based on the determined actuation efficiency. Related circuits and devices are also discussed.... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268608 - Head floating amount control method and unit, storage apparatus and computer-readable program: A head floating amount control unit control a head floating amount of each of a plurality of heads respectively having a heater, with respect to a recording medium, by detecting contact between each head and a corresponding recording medium by detecting a thermal asperity or a read error, and judging... Agent: Patrick G. Burns, Esq. Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070268613 - Regulating data writes responsive to head fly height: Write commands through a read/write head are regulated in response to head fly height. The head fly height is determined, and the rate at which the write command is carried out is regulated in response to the determined fly height. The rate may be regulated by inserting write inhibit gaps... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268618 - Regulating read/write transducer movement responsive to acoustics: Various methods and circuits are described for controlling movement of a read/write transducer. The acoustics that are generated when moving a read/write transducer are detected. Movement of the transducer is regulated in response to the detected acoustics.... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec, P.A.

20070268620 - Magnetic disk apparatus: A magnetic disk apparatus comprises an electrically conductive enclosure which accommodates at least a magnetic storage medium and a head for writing/reading information on the magnetic storage medium, an electrically conductive damping plate which is attached via an insulating member to one face of the electrically conductive enclosure in order... Agent: Patrick G. Burns Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070268605 - Algorithm to detect the touch down of the flying head on disk: A disk drive that contains a fly on demand head (FOD) and a process for determining contact between the FOD head and a disk. The head includes a heating coil that can receive various levels of power. The process may include a routine to determine head position estimate error data.... Agent: Irell & Manella LLP

20070268606 - Storage apparatus and control method therefor: A storage apparatus comprises at least one housing A in which a storage device and a controller are provided, at least one housing B in which a storage device and a peripheral device are provided, and a transmission path for connecting the storage device and the controller of the housing... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew, LLP

20070268616 - Tri-state servowriter driver with slow return to zero: A method and apparatus for writing timing-based magnetic servo band patterns on magnetic storage media. The apparatus includes a magnetic head and a tri-state driver. The driver is adapted to control three magnetic head states including two writes states having positive and negative current outputs, respectively, for performing a write... Agent: Frederick W. Gibb, Iii Gibb & Rahman, LLC

20070268617 - Magnetic media having a servo track written with a patterned magnetic recording head: A thin film magnetic recording head utilizing a timing based servo pattern is fabricated using a focused ion beam (FIB). The recording head is fabricated by sputtering a magnetically permeable thin film onto a substrate. A gap pattern, preferably a timing based pattern, is defined on the thin film and... Agent: Dorsey & Whitney LLP Intellectual Property Department

20070268619 - Angularly spaced spiral erase for media: Embodiments of the present invention allow for media erasure. Various embodiments allow for controlling an actuator based on feedback signal measurements and disk phase to seek a head across a surface of a disk systematically for an erasure operation. Also, in various embodiments, a substantially repeatable seek motion of a... Agent: Foley & Lardner

20070268621 - Two-stage sealing of a data storage assembly housing to retain a low density atmosphere: In accordance with various embodiments, a data storage device comprises a sealed housing which encloses a data storage medium. The sealed housing comprises a substantially planar first housing plate with respective length, width and thickness dimensions and a circumferentially extending first peripheral edge, a substantially planar second housing plate with... Agent: Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens

20070268622 - Dual thickness carbon overcoat: A transducer carrying structure includes a first portion carrying the transducer, a second portion spaced from the transducer, and a spacing control actuation system operable to adjust a position of the first portion of the transducer carrying structure. An overcoat is provided on a surface of the transducer carrying structure.... Agent: Kinney & Lange, P.A.

20070268623 - Magnetic write head design for reducing wide area track erasure: A magnetic write design for reducing Wide Area Track Erasure (WATEr). The write head design includes a magnetic pole and a non-magnetic, electrically conductive eddy current confining structure (ECC structure) formed adjacent to the write pole at the air bearing surface (ABS). The design can be embodied in a longitudinal... Agent: Zilka-kotab, PC

20070268625 - Method for manufacturing a magnetic write head having a trailing shield with an accurately controlled trailing shield gap thickness: A method for constructing a magnetic write head for use in perpendicular magnetic recording, the write head having a write pole with a trailing shield. After forming a magnetic write pole such as by masking and ion milling a magnetic write pole layer, a thin layer of alumina is deposited.... Agent: Zilka-kotab, PC

20070268628 - Abs through aggressive stitching: Aggressive (i.e. tight tolerance) stitching offers several advantages for magnetic write heads but at the cost of some losses during pole trimming. This problem has been overcome by replacing the alumina filler layer, that is used to protect the stitched pole during trimming, with a layer of electro-plated material. Because... Agent: Saile Ackerman LLC

20070268624 - Dual polarity bias for prolonging the life of a heating element in magnetic data storage devices: A magnetic read/write head having a heating element to induce a desired amount of thermal protrusion in the read and write elements to control the fly height of the read and write elements over a magnetic medium. The heating element is connected with circuitry that provides an electrical bias (voltage... Agent: Zilka-kotab, PC

20070268627 - Method for manufacturing a self-aligned, notched trailing shield for perpendicular recording: A perpendicular magnetic write head having a notched, self aligned trailing shield for canting a magnetic field emitted therefrom.... Agent: Zilka-kotab, PC

20070268626 - Perpendicular magnetic recording head and magnetic disk apparatus: According to one embodiment, a perpendicular magnetic recording head includes a main pole which generates a recording magnetic field, a return pole which forms a closed magnetic circuit for the recording magnetic field, and a side shield magnetically spaced from the main pole in a cross-track direction in which a... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP Eric S. Cherry - Docketing Supervisor

20070268629 - Suspension buckling limiter: Apparatuses and a method are provided to prevent buckling damage to a disk drive flexure when the read/write heads are subjected to high stiction loads and when backward rotation of the disks occur. Excessive flexure displacements due to the buckling loads are prevented by transferring some of the force of... Agent: Sheridan Ross PC

20070268630 - Asymmetric actuator bearing: A method is provided for maintaining the aggregate stiffness of a pivot bearing assembly generally employed along with an actuator assembly of a magnetic disk drive, while increasing the stiffness in a predetermined direction. More specifically, bearing cartridges used in conjunction with actuator assemblies of the prior art employ at... Agent: Sheridan Ross PC

20070268631 - Method to achieve both narrow track width and effective longitudinal stabilization in a cpp gmr read head: Biasing schemes used for CIP GMR devices were previously thought to be impractical for CPP devices due to current shunting by the abutted hard magnets. In the present invention the CPP stripe is a narrow conductor directly above the free layer. The resistivity of the latter is made to be... Agent: Saile Ackerman LLC

20070268632 - Magnetoresistive element, magnetic head, magnetic storage unit, and magnetic memory unit: A CPP-type magnetoresistive element including a fixed magnetization layer, a non-magnetic metal layer, and a free magnetization layer that are stacked, and a diffusion prevention layer is disclosed. The free magnetization layer includes CoMnAl. The diffusion prevention layer is provided between the non-magnetic metal layer and the free magnetization layer... Agent: Westerman, Hattori, Daniels & Adrian, LLP

20070268633 - Novel process and structure to fabricate cpp spin valve heads for ultra-high recording density: A CPP-GMR spin value sensor structure with an improved MR ratio and increased resistance is disclosed. All layers except certain pinned layers, copper spacers, and a Ta capping layer are oxygen doped by adding a partial O2 pressure to the Ar sputtering gas during deposition. Oxygen doped CoFe free and... Agent: Saile Ackerman LLC

20070263309 - Method of determining optimal write current parameters of magnetic recording device and storage device using the method: Optimal write current of a data storage device is determined by writing test data with an initial write condition and evaluating a performance related to the pole tip protrusion (PTP) of a magnetic head. A PTP control duration is determined as a duration between where the test data is initially... Agent: Stanzione & Kim, LLP

20070263314 - Apparatus and method for head gimbal assembly sharing power to slider amplifier and micro-actuator in a hard disk drive: The head gimbal assembly includes a slider and a micro-actuator assembly sharing power for the micro-actuator assembly to aid in positioning the slider and for an amplifier included in the slider to generate an amplified read signal when the slider read accesses data on a rotating disk surface included in... Agent: Gregory Smith & Associates

20070263315 - Disk device with bi-directional communication function: A plurality of HDDs 12-1˜12-n connected around a host 10 can be made to directly communicate with each other. For example, an HDD 12-1 makes another HDD to perform long distance seek using this communication line and measures the influence of vibration caused at that time. The measurement result is... Agent: Greer, Burns & Crain

20070263316 - method and apparatus for supporting and orienting a workpiece and a workpiece for use therewith: A method and apparatus for supporting and orienting a workpiece and a workpiece for use therewith. In one form, the apparatus for supporting and orienting the workpiece includes a body having first and second mating structures for connecting the apparatus to a data recorder and connecting the workpiece to the... Agent: Fitch Even Tabin And Flannery

20070263319 - Fill-port sealing assembly: A fill-port sealing assembly for sealing a housing, such as a hermetically sealed housing of a data storage device. A fill port body extends through an opening in a substrate and has a central bore communicating between a first side and a second side of the substrate. A compression member... Agent: Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens

20070263320 - Magnetic disk apparatus: An embodiment of a magnetic disk apparatus in accordance with the present invention includes a magnetic recording medium, a magnetic head assembly having a magnetic head which reads and writes data on the magnetic recording medium, and a motor coil assembly rotationally driving a spindle motor rotation body, in which... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070263308 - Contact printing of magnetic media with mechanically reinforced and/or gas venting stamper: (a) a stamper/imprinter including a body formed of at least one magnetic material having a high saturation magnetization Bsat and a high permeability, including an imprinting surface adapted to be placed in intimate contact with a surface of a magnetic layer, the imprinting surface comprised of a plurality of patterned... Agent: Seagate Technology LLC C/o Mcdermott Will & Emery LLP

20070263310 - Disk drive: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic disk drive capable of achieving error recovery stably in a simple configuration in the event of thermal asperity (TA) and minimizing the error recovery time required, and a method for controlling the disk drive. According to one embodiment, if TA... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070263311 - Position determination using circular shift codes: A shift code that consists of N-symbol code words is provided as an L-symbol “master sequence” in which no sub-sequence of N symbols repeats, where L≦SN and S is the number of code symbols. A decoder determines a location in the code from N decoded symbols. The code locations may,... Agent: Cesari And Mckenna, LLP

20070263313 - Storage apparatus, defect check method, and program: A check data write/read unit writes and reads check data of defects in data frame units between servo frames recorded on a medium. A read channel of the check data write/read unit outputs defect detection data in which analog variations due to medium defects such as levels and shifts of... Agent: Patrick G. Burns, Esq. Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070263312 - Track pitch examination method of storage apparatus, program, and storage apparatus: Track pitches of all the tracks of a disk medium provided in a storage apparatus are examined in a manufacturing examination step. First of all, a target position path which varies a target track position so that the position crosses the tracks is generated, and a head actuator is subjected... Agent: Patrick G. Burns, Esq. Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070263317 - Method and apparatus for balanced dual stage actuators in a head stack assembly of a hard disk drive: Head stack assembly coupling at least two micro-actuators sharing lateral control signal. Any two adjacent micro-actuators respond to lateral control signal by opposite lateral directions. With pairs of micro-actuators, lateral motion of the micro-actuators will be cancelled, essentially leaving head stack assembly without induced torque. With odd numbers of micro-actuators,... Agent: Gregory Smith & Associates

20070263318 - Magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus: It is an object of the invention to provide a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus in which a special motor for driving the head cleaning mechanism is eliminated, and space can be saved with low cost. An end of a tape accommodated in a tape cassette 2 has a coupling element 8,... Agent: Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP

20070263321 - System and method for integrated spindle balance and contamination control for disk drives: A disk drive comprising a combination disk drive counterbalance and disk clamp seal is provided. The disk drive comprises a spindle for rotating a disk, the spindle comprising a hub. The disk drive further comprises a disk clamp for clamping the disk to the hub and a clamp seal coupled... Agent: Wagner, Murabito & Hao LLP

20070263322 - Magnetic devices having magnetic features with cmp stop layers: A magnetic device having a magnetic feature, the magnetic feature including a magnetic portion comprising a magnetic material, a region of non-magnetic material adjacent to the magnetic portion, and a stop layer disposed above the region of non-magnetic material, defining a planar upper boundary of the magnetic portion.... Agent: Kinney & Lange, P.A.

20070263323 - Magnetic head assembly and magnetic disk drive: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic head assembly in which a slider can be removed with deformation of a suspension suppressed and the posture angle of a magnetic head can be maintained stably, and a magnetic disk drive mounted with the magnetic head assembly. A head... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070263324 - Perpendicular magnetic recording write head with notched trailing shield and method for making: The invention is a perpendicular magnetic recording write head with a write pole, a trapezoidal-shaped trailing shield notch, and a metal gap layer between the write pole and notch. The write pole has a trailing edge that has a width substantially defining the track width and that faces the front... Agent: Thomas R. Berthold

20070263325 - Slider supporting apparatus and manufacturing method therefor: A slider supporting apparatus is provided with a flexure formed of a metal plate having spring characteristics. The flexure comprises a gimbals portion including a tongue, a first support portion which supports one longitudinal end of a slider, a second support portion which supports the other end of the slider,... Agent: Frishauf, Holtz, Goodman & Chick, PC

20070263326 - Apparatus and method for including amplification of read signal in slider of a hard disk drive: A slider used to access data on a rotating disk in a hared disk drive, including a read-write head providing a read differential signal pair to an amplifier to generate an amplified read signal reported when read accessing a rotating disk surface near the slider, which includes a read head... Agent: Gregory Smith & Associates

20070263327 - Gmr sensor having an under-layer treated with nitrogen for increased magnetoresistance: A magnetoresistive sensor having a substrate that has been treated with nitrogen (nitrogenated). The nitrogenated substrate includes an alumina base layer and a thin top layer of crystalline alumina that has had a very small amount of nitrogen deposited on top. The amount of nitrogen deposited on top of the... Agent: Zilka-kotab, PC

20070258164 - Hard disk drive, method for controlling fod voltage thereof, and computer readable recording medium recording the method: A flying on demand (FOD) voltage of a hard disk drive (HDD) is controlled by detecting a shock occurring to the HDD on which a magnetic head that records data on a disk or reproduces data from the disk is mounted, and if the shock is detected, controlling the FOD... Agent: Volentine & Whitt PLLC

20070258161 - Data storage device with bit patterned media with staggered islands: A data recording device employs a bit patterned data recording medium that has an array of rows that are offset to one another. The rows are offset such that the bits are staggered in a direction that is normal to the direction in which the rows extend. The increased bit... Agent: Mcdermott, Will & Emery

20070258162 - Method for erase process on recording surface of disk and disk drive apparatus: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention erase a desired area on a recording surface of disk or disk drive apparatus. According to an embodiment, a hard disk drive (HDD) performs erase on a recording surface by moving a head element unit at one-half a servo track pitch with reference... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070258163 - Magnetic disk drive and a loading/unloading method: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic disk drive with sufficiently low noise. A digital/analog converter supplies to a voice coil motor (VCM) driver a control voltage comprising a first preset voltage value, a second preset voltage value, and a transition voltage value of a substantially cosine... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070258165 - Third order curve fit for head skew in a hard disk drive: A hard disk drive that utilizes a third order curve fit equation to generate a skew table for a head of a hard disk drive. The skew table is used to compensate for offset between a write element and a read element of the head at different radial positions of... Agent: Irell & Manella LLP

20070258166 - Expandable magazine-based library: Described herein is a mobile data storage magazine for interacting with a docking station. The magazine can include a magazine frame containing a plurality of operatively interconnected disk drives, a first contact element associated with the magazine frame capable of conducting electrical power to at least one of the plurality... Agent: Spectra Logic C/o Hiscock & Barclay, LLP

20070258167 - Perpendicular magnetic write head having a magnetic write pole with a concave trailing edge: A magnetic write head for perpendicular magnetic recording having a write pole with a concave trailing edge. The magnetic write pole can have a trapezoidal shape with first and second laterally opposed sides that are further apart at the trailing edge than at the leading edge. The write head may... Agent: Zilka-kotab, PC

20070258168 - Apparatus and method for preventing excessive thermal pole tip protrusion in slider of a hard disk drive: Slider used to access data on rotating disk in hard disk drive, including heating element as vertical micro-actuator coupled to deformation region including read-write head and to expansion chamber, plate thermally coupled to heat sink. Slider further includes vertical control signal stimulating heating element coupled to film to alter vertical... Agent: Gregory Smith & Associates

20070258169 - Apparatus and method for piezoelectric layer as vertical micro-actuator in slider of a hard disk drive: Slider used to access data on rotating disk in hard disk drive, including vertical micro-actuator forming piezoelectric layer perpendicular to air bearing surface and coupled to deformation region including read-write head. Slider further includes vertical control signal stimulating vertical micro-actuator to alter vertical position. The vertical control signal stimulates vertical... Agent: Gregory Smith & Associates

20070258170 - Magnetic tunnel junction device and method of manufacturing the same: A single-crystalline MgO (001) substrate 11 is prepared, and then an epitaxial Fe (001) lower electrode (first electrode) 17 with a thickness of 50 nm is grown on a MgO (001) seed layer 15 at room temperature. Annealing is then performed in ultrahigh vacuum (2×10−8 Pa) at 350° C. A... Agent: Reed Smith LLP

20070258171 - Thin film magnetic head: When exogenous noise is applied to the ground wire of a thin film magnetic head, crosstalk noise occurs in a lead line and a ground lines located near the ground wire. Embodiments in accordance with the present invention avoid this by providing a common terminal near the central portion of... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253087 - Hard disk drive protection apparatus and method, and device having the same: A hard disk drive (HDD) protection apparatus includes a signal receiving unit to receive an incoming alert signal and to generate a notice signal, and a controller to receive the notice signal and to control operations of the HDD and an alert generator based on the notice signal.... Agent: Stanzione & Kim, LLP

20070253089 - Disk drive: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a disk drive that ensures quieter rotational acceleration of a recording disk. Certain embodiments relate to a hard disk drive that detects the vibration of an enclosure by monitoring, via a driver, a counter electromotive voltage generated in a voice coil motor.... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253093 - Active protection system: Method and apparatus for actively protecting a device from damage due to an impact or other acceleration condition. An active protection system is provided with a sensor which outputs an acceleration signal in relation to an acceleration state of the device. A circuit processes the acceleration signal in relation to... Agent: Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens

20070253092 - Information-recording/reproducing apparatus and method of detecting the gap between a head and a recording medium: A method of detecting a gap between a head and a recording medium in an information-recording/reproducing apparatus that uses the head to record and reproduce information in and from the recording medium. In the method, the gap between the head and the recording medium is alternately increased and decreased, thereby... Agent: Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP

20070253094 - Head position control method, head position control device and disk device: A head position control device controls the position of a head with respect to a disk where post code is assigned to a servo frame. Servo frames of a disk is constituted by a servo frame not having a post code recorded in an inner side zone and a servo... Agent: Greer, Burns & Crain

20070253095 - Pattern write method and demagnetization state determination method: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention control pitch variations that are not observed in self servo write (SSW). According to one embodiment of the present invention, an outer radius side area of a magnetic disk is erased using an external magnetic field, and an inner radius side area is... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253096 - Adaptively adjusting seek function control parameters based on off-track write events: A rate of occurrence of off-track write events is determined. A seek function control parameter for a head is adaptively adjusted based on the determined rate of occurrence of the off-track write events. Related circuits and devices are also discussed.... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec

20070253097 - Microactuator control adjustment using temperature sensor measurements: Embodiments of the present invention allow for controlling a microactuator based at least in part on an output of a temperature sensor. Also, embodiments of the present invention allow for adjusting a control of a microactuator so as to compensate for changes in a gain of the microactuator due to... Agent: Foley & Lardner

20070253099 - Controlling seeks using non-linear switching curves: Controlling seeking of a transducer includes accelerating the transducer to a seek velocity, generating a linearized switching curve defining a position and velocity of the transducer at which deceleration should begin, and controlling the velocity of the transducer in response to the current position and seek velocity of the transducer... Agent: Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec

20070253098 - Seek control method, seek control device and disk device: A seek control device controls the seek of a plant to prevent the position shift due to an error between a model for generating seek current and a model of the plant. When the seek trajectory is provided by seek trajectory generation for controlling the seek of a plant, the... Agent: Greer, Burns & Crain

20070253100 - Magnetic disk drive: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic disk drive with reduced noise during seek operation without causing any delay in control response. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a control circuit of a magnetic disk drive controls the drive power supplied to a voice coil... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253101 - Disk-drive-equipped electronic apparatus and the disk drive: According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a housing having a receptacle, a disk drive removably housed in the receptacle of the housing, and a shock-absorbing rubber member, which is elastically deformable and interposed between the receptacle and the disk drive. The shock-absorbing rubber member is provided on the... Agent: Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP

20070253102 - Disc clamp having laser reflectivity: A component in a manufacturing process is provided. The manufacturing process makes use of laser position sensing devices to determine a position of components being manufactured. The component includes a body having an exterior surface including a plurality of angled surfaces. The component also includes a surface roughness formed on... Agent: Seagate Technology LLC C/o Westman Champlin & Kelly, P.A.

20070253084 - Systems and methods for estimating time corresponding to peak signal amplitude: Various systems and methods for peak signal detection. As one example, a method for peak signal detection that includes receiving a signal is disclosed. The received signal includes a signal region where the signal is increasing in amplitude, another signal region where the signal is decreasing in amplitude, and a... Agent: Hamilton And Desanctis

20070253086 - Method and a system for maintaining an acceptable level of relative humidity inside of a disk drive: Embodiments of the present invention pertain to maintaining an acceptable level of relative humidity inside of a disk drive. According to one embodiment, clean dry air is blow over a cover of the disk drive. The cover includes an unsealed servo write slot. The amount of clean dry air blown... Agent: Wagner, Murabito & Hao LLP

20070253085 - Optically writing to and reading from housings of recordable data storage cartridges: A mass-media storage device includes a number of storage slots, a read/write mechanism, and an optical labeling mechanism. The storage slots are receptive to cartridges. Each cartridge has a housing encasing a recordable data storage medium. At least a portion of a surface of the housing of each cartridge is... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20070253088 - Data storage apparatus and method: A method is provided for storing data on a tape by means of data storage apparatus programmed to record the data in accordance with a format specifying a log of tape-usage information and a series of recording regions to store the data. Errors in the recorded data are detected and... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20070253091 - Hard disk drive protection system and method: A hard disk drive protection system comprises a sensor configured to detect an impending shock event and a hard drive protection module configured to determine whether to issue a fast park command for a hard disk drive in response to detecting the impending shock event based on a permissible quantity... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20070253090 - Method and apparatus for detecting slider/disk fly-height modulation in a hard disk drive: A method and apparatus for detecting slider/disk fly-height modulation in a hard disk drive is provided. A slider is electrically isolating from an electrically grounded suspension. A signal line is coupled to the slider, the signal line for providing an alert signal when a modulation in fly-height between the slider... Agent: Wagner, Murabito & Hao LLP

20070253103 - Soft magnetic underlayer in magnetic media and soft magnetic alloy based sputter target: A magnetic recording medium that includes a substrate, an underlayer deposited above the substrate, the underlayer comprised of a magnetically soft alloy containing at least one soft ferromagnetic element and at least one corrosion inhibitor element that is selected from the group consisting of chromium (Cr), tungsten (W), molybdenum (Mo),... Agent: Mcdermott Will & Emery LLP

20070253107 - Perpendicular recording magnetic head: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a perpendicular recording magnetic head whose dimensional dependency on the nonuniformity of magnetic field strength and distribution during manufacture is minimized, with narrowed tracks and without attenuation or erasure of adjacent track data while maintaining high magnetic field strength. According to one... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253104 - Thin-film magnetic head having magnetic layer with non-magnetic portion: Provided is a thin-film magnetic head capable of suppressing ATE while ensuring sufficient controllability of the magnetic pole width and sufficient write field intensity. The head includes an electromagnetic coil element comprising: upper and lower magnetic layers; a write gap layer; and a write coil layer, the lower magnetic layer... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

20070253106 - Magnetic head apparatus and magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus: A magnetic head apparatus is provided which is capable of recording data in a recoding layer having high coercive force with high accuracy without heating. A magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus is also provided which has the magnetic head apparatus. A recording head has: a main magnetic pole; a recording-side... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070253108 - Magnetic head, method of manufacturing the magnetic head, and magnetic disk device: A magnetic head used in a lamp load type magnetic disk device is disclosed. The magnetic head includes a head slider having a recording element and/or a reproducing element, and a suspension that supports the head slider. The suspension includes a magnetic head support unit arranged at its tip portion.... Agent: Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP

20070253105 - Thin film magnetic head and fabrication process: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a thin film magnetic head for preventing a short-circuit failure during formation of a track portion or a stripe-height portion and improving a yield. In one embodiment, a stripe-height direction is first formed, and then a track-width direction is formed. A third... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253109 - Recordable data storage cartridge having optically writable label surface: A recordable data storage cartridge includes a housing and a recordable data storage medium. The recordable data storage medium is at least partially encased within the housing. The housing has an optically writable and optically readable surface.... Agent: Hewlett Packard Company

20070253110 - Asymmetrical storage disk for a disk drive: A storage disk for a hard disk drive includes a homogeneously-formed body region, a first side region and a second side region. The body region includes a first body side and a second body side opposite the first body side. The first side region is secured to the first body... Agent: The Law Office Of Steven G. Roeder

20070253111 - Magnetic head slider: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic head slider capable of securing a larger flying margin even when position variations occur at the time of flying. Embodiments of the present invention also provide a magnetic head slider having an excellent flying following capability. A read element and... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253112 - Read/write system for a hard drive: A read head unit and a write head unit are fixed in place with respect to a rotating disc which rotates beneath the fixed head units. Each head unit includes a plurality of elements to read data from, or write data onto, the disc as appropriate.... Agent: Donald R. Schoonover

20070253113 - Ramp made of polyoxymethylene resin: A ramp for hard discs which is obtained by molding a resin composition containing (A) a polyoxymethylene resin, and (B) at least one polymeric lubricant selected from the group consisting of (b-1) a polyolefin resin, and (b-2) a polymer obtained by polymerizing an isocyanate compound and a polyalkylene oxide, and... Agent: Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch

20070253114 - Magnetic disk device: A magnetic disk device comprises a magnetic disk in which a data zone is formed. An actuator has a voice coil and a head slider carrying a magnetic head, the actuator being swung to move the magnetic head over the disk between an innermost position of the data zone and... Agent: Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP

20070253115 - Micro-actuator, micro-actuator suspension, and head gimbal assembly with the same: A micro-actuator for a head gimbal assembly includes a support frame integrated with a suspension flexure of the head gimbal assembly, a block, and a pair of PZT elements. The support frame includes a bottom support, a top support adapted to support a slider of the head gimbal assembly, and... Agent: Nixon & Vanderhye, PC

20070253116 - Magnetic reading head: A magnetic head includes a pair of ferromagnetic electrodes, namely, a first ferromagnetic electrode layer which is in contact with a portion of a first electrode layer with a first insulating barrier layer interposed in between; and a second ferromagnetic electrode layer which is in contact with another portion of... Agent: Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus, LLP

20070253117 - Magnetic head and method for fabricating the same: Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a sensor to produce high output with a small track width. Particular embodiments include forming a magnetoresistive sensor of a read head to be substantially vertical in its upper portion and gently upwardly convexly curved in its lower portion.... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20070253122 - Magneto-resistive element and method of manufacturing the same: A magneto-resistive element includes: a first magnetic layer having a substantially fixed magnetization direction; a thin film layer disposed on the first magnetic layer and having at least one of oxide, nitride, oxynitride, and metal; and a second magnetic layer disposed on the thin film layer and having a substantially... Agent: Nixon & Vanderhye, PC

20070253120 - Magnetoresistive effect element and magnetic memory: It is possible to provide a magnetoresistive effect element which has thermal stability even if it is made fine and in which the magnetization in the magnetic recording layer can be inverted at a low current density. A magnetoresistive effect element includes: a magnetization pinned layer having a magnetization pinned... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

20070253121 - Spin accumulation device and magnetic sensor applied with spin current confined layer: A spin accumulation device with high output, high resolution, and low noise. A spin current confined layer is located between a voltage-detection magnetic conductive material and a nonmagnetic conductive material. A spin current alone flows through the spin current confined layer. Due to the confinement of the spin current, since... Agent: Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus, LLP

20070253119 - Current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (cpp) magnetoresistive sensor with antiparallel-free layer structure and low current-induced noise: A current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) magnetoresistive sensor has an antiparallel free (APF) structure as the free layer and a specific direction for the applied bias or sense current. The (APF) structure has a first free ferromagnetic (FL1), a second free ferromagnetic layer (FL2), and an antiparallel (AP) coupling (APC) layer that couples... Agent: Thomas R. Berthold

20070253123 - Read sensors of the cpp type having nitrogenated hard bias layers and method of making the same: A read sensor of the current-perpendicular-to-the-planes (CPP) type includes a sensor stack structure formed in a central region between first and second shield layers which serve as leads for the read sensor; insulator layers formed in side regions adjacent the central region; seed layer structures formed over the insulator layers... Agent: John J. Oskorep, Esq. One Magnificent Mile Center

20070253118 - Tunnel magnetic resistance device, and magnetic memory cell and magnetic random access memory using the same: Provided is a high-speed, super-low-power-consumption nonvolatile memory with a high thermal stability. A nonvolatile magnetic memory is equipped with high-output tunnel magnetic resistance devices to each of which a free layer with a high thermal stability is applied, while a writing method by spin transfer torque is applied to the... Agent: Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus, LLP