International Business Machines Corporation

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Francis Chee-Shuen Lee

Tzong-Shii Pan

Lee K Dorius

Ullal Vasant Nayak

Robert Nolan Payne

Gurinder P Singh

Timothy C O'Sullivan

Pantelis Alexopoulos

Michael Lee McGhee

Salvador Navarro

Thomas R Albrecht

Toshiki Hirano

Fu-Ying Huang

Randall George Simmons

Wing Chun Shum

Ian Robson McFadyen

Charles Mathew Mate

Long-Sheng Fan

Ross N Mills

Frank E Talke

Hang Fai Ngo

Eric Christian O'Brien

Gary Scott Keller

Gary Scott Beardsley

Ullai Vasant Nayak

A lead routing module for interconnecting two devices in a suspension assembly. The suspension assembly including at least a suspension, a slider/head assembly, and a lead routing module. The suspension assembly may also include a microactuator. The lead routing module routes electrical signals between at least two devices in the suspension assembly such that the termination leads and/or pads of each device may be conveniently located. The suspension assembly may be used in a disk drive system, or alternatively, in a disk test system used for testing disks.

Interconnect module for use in a suspension assembly

The present invention provides a non-actuatable, self-limiting wear contact pad slider and method for making the same. A protruding element surrounding the transducer is fabricated using a third etch step so that the protruding element has a height that is greater than or equal to the designed fly height of the aerodynamic lift surface minus the disk roughness.

Self-limiting wear contact pad slider and method for making the same

A magnetic recording disk drive achieves continuous contact recording with a head-suspension assembly that compensates for the moment generated from an adhesive force between the head carrier or slider and the disk. The slider pivot point, which is the point where the load force is applied to the flexure that supports the slider, is located closer to the front end of the slider than the net force applied by the air-bearing surface of the slider when the disk is rotating at its operational speed. This assures that the net air-bearing force generates a moment about the pivot point to partially counteract the flexure moment and the moment generated from the adhesive force between the disk and the slider's contact pad.

Magnetic recording disk drive with continuous contact air-bearing slider

A method and apparatus for providing a low cost contact burnish slider is disclosed that can remain in contact or at the initial low flying heights even as the pad surfaces and leading edges wear. The burnish slider includes a body having a leading edge and a trailing edge and an air bearing surface being configured at the leading edge of the body to cut disk asperities as the slider flies and configured away from the leading edge to maintain a flying attitude wherein the leading edge is near the data recording surface and to provide restoring forces to maintain the flying attitude. The air bearing surface may include a front pad proximal to the leading edge and a rear pad distal to the leading edge. Alternatively, the air bearing surface may include two front pads proximal to the leading edge on opposite sides of the body and two rear pads distal to the leading edge and disposed on opposite sides of the body. The front and rear pad(s) extends substantially across the body of the slider. An offset pivot is provided for constraining the moment balance of the slider to provide a low pitch flying attitude. The rear pad(s) further includes a mechanical taper proximal to the trailing edge to minimize load/unload damage. The air bearing surface configuration away from the leading edge provides a force that restores the flying attitude to the slider when an impulse lifting the leading edge is encountered.

Method and apparatus for providing a low cost contact burnish slider

A rotary microactuator includes a stationary electrode formed on a substrate, a movable electrode in proximity to the stationary electrode, a flexure mechanically connecting the stationary electrode to the movable electrode, and a plurality of limiters anchored to the substrate. Each limiter has an in-plane limiter portion and an out-of-plane limiter portion. The in-plane limiter portion limits movement of the movable electrode to a predetermined in-plane distance in a direction parallel to a surface of the substrate. The out-of-plane limiter portion limits movement of the movement of the movable electrode to a predetermined out-of-plane distance.

Integrated 3D limiters for microactuators

An air bearing slider for supporting a magnetic read/write head on a moving disk includes at least one front force carrying pad located in front of a suspension pivot point of an air bearing slider, at least one rear force-carrying pad located behind the suspension pivot point of the air bearing slider, and a trailing-edge pad having a magnetic read/write head embedded in a rear portion of the trailing-edge pad. Each front force-carrying pad carries a front air bearing force that is generated by a relative motion between a surface of the disk and the slider when the surface of the disk has a predetermined disk velocity with respect to the slider. Each rear force-carrying pad carries a rear air bearing force that is generated by the relative motion between the surface of the disk and the slider. The trailing edge pad carries substantially no air bearing force. According to the invention, as an atmospheric pressure associated with the air bearing slider decreases, a flying height associated with each front force-carrying pad and each rear force-carrying pad decreases so that a pitch angle of the air bearing slider decreases and a flying height associated with the trailing-edge pad at the magnetic read/write head changes by less than 5 nm at a predetermined disk velocity.

Altitude insensitive air bearing using pitch compensation for data

A magnetic recording disk drive uses a rotary actuator with an elastomeric damping member located on the actuator arm. The actuator head support arm has a pair of rails that extend from the actuator pivot to the distal end where the read/write heads are supported. A lateral cross-member extends between and interconnects the rails. The cross-member contains a recess, and elastomeric damping material is located in the recess. The recess is a cut completely through the cross-member so that the cross-member is formed as two stubs extending from respective rails with a gap between the stub ends. The damping material is located in the gap and damps vibration of the actuator arm.

Disk drive rotary actuator having arm with cross-member containing

A system is provided for obtaining enhanced quality grayscale printing using standard printer architecture. An image to be printed is scanned to produce several bit maps for image pixels having different optical intensities. The different bit maps are handled by a standard print engine separately, in the same manner as multicolor bit maps would be handled. The image is then printed using a print head assembly having separate print heads for grayscale printing using different optical intensities. Thus, a printed image having enhanced resolution and quality, because of the optical intensity discrimination, is produced using a printer architecture which is the same as a standard multicolor printer architecture except for the front end, which scans for optical intensity, and the print head assembly, which has different print heads designed to produce different optical intensities. The print heads use either different ink dot sizes, inks having different pigment concentrations, or other suitable techniques for varying the optical intensity.

Grayscale printing system

An ink jet drop-on-demand printing system having gray scale capability comprising a transducer having a plurality of separately actuable sections. Print data is provided which defines a selected drop volume and control means is provided which is operable in response to the print data to produce drive signals to selectively actuate a particular combination of the separately actuable sections of the transducer to produce a drop of the volume specified by the print data. To provide further control over the drop volume while maintaining the drop velocity within selected limits, the amplitude of the drive signals can also be varied. A further refinement can be provided by varying not only the amplitude of the drive signals but also the pulse width of the drive signals. In a first embodiment the transducer sections are of equal length, while the sections are of unequal length in a second embodiment.

Gray scale printing with ink jet drop-on demand printing head

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Francis Chee-Shuen Lee