International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Hewlett-packard Company

Seagate Technology Incorporated

James Howard Eaton

Thomas R Albrecht

Robert G Biskeborn

Robert Carl Barrett

Glen Alan Jaquette

Nhan Xuan Bui

Kazuhiro Tsuruta

Eiji Ogura

Mark Allan Taylor

Junichi Fukuda

Jaquelin K Spong

Wayne Isami Imaino

Jeffrey S McAllister

Armando Jesus Argumedo

Robert Ralph Heinze

John Anthony Hamming

Carl R Hoerger

Thomas W Von Alten

Geoffrey W Mansbridge

Glynda Williams Eaton, Legal Representative

Michael J Doscher

Richard C Chu

Tzong-Shii Pan

Robert Allen Hutchins

Edwin Ralph Childers

William Marvin Dyer

David Harper

Steven L Felde

Douglas W Johnson

David Howard Flores Harper

Leif Stefan Kirschenbaum

Don G East

Johnny Lynn Teale

Ralph E Meagher

Darrell G Follett

Luis H Palacios

Andrew J McKee

Thomas Robert Albrecht

A tape drive system according to one embodiment includes a magnetic head. The magnetic head includes first and second beams each having a tape bearing surface, a face, a recess in the tape bearing surface thereof, the faces of the beams facing either towards each other or away from each other; a first chip being positioned in the recess of the first beam; and a second chip being positioned in the recess of the second beam, wherein each chip has circuitry selected from a group consisting of read elements, write elements, and combinations thereof, wherein a tape bearing surface of each chip is generally aligned with the tape bearing surface of the associated beam, and wherein an end of each chip is generally aligned with the face of the associated beam. The system also includes a drive mechanism and a controller.

Embedded chip tape head

A tape head has first and second beams each having a recess in a tape bearing surface thereof, a face where the faces of the beams either face each other or face away from each other. A first chip is positioned in the recess of the first beam, and a second chip is positioned in the recess of the second beam. Each chip has circuitry selected from a group consisting of read elements, write elements, and combinations thereof. A tape bearing surface of each chip is generally aligned with the tape bearing surface of the associated beam. Also, an end of each chip is generally aligned with the face of the associated beam. Where closures are used, this eliminates the need to aligning the closure to skiving edges of the beam.

Tape head with facing beams each having a head chip positioned in a recess thereof

An integral recording head, for use in a linear tape drive system, includes a circumferentially grooved roller guide assembly and a recording head actuator assembly. The circumferential groove feature is incorporated on the surfaces of the roller guide assembly, and provides a substantial frictional contact force that acts to reduce the lateral motion, and further attenuates high frequency lateral disturbances of the magnetic tape. The reduced high frequency content of the lateral disturbances significantly improves the ability of the actuator to achieve a desired track following control. The grooved roller guide assembly is formed integrally of two solid cylindrical contact surfaces separated by a circumferential slot that accommodates the recording head actuator assembly.

Tape roller guide with integral recording head

A multi-channel tape recording head or apparatus that has cable connection pads aligned along a direction that runs substantially perpendicular to a multi-channel tape recording head actuation direction, which allows a ribbon-type external cable, connected to the cable connection pads, to bend in its most flexible direction when the multi-channel tape recording head moves.

Tape recording head promoting lateral motion

A magnetic write head and method for bulk fabrication of the same are provided. A trench is formed in a nonmagnetic substrate. A first magnetically permeable layer is deposited in the trench of the substrate. An optional first insulating layer is deposited in the trench. A conducting circuit is defined in the trench. The conducting circuit creates the magnetic flux. An optional second insulating layer is deposited in the trench. Writer gaps are patterned and then a second magnetic layer is added over the second insulating layer. The substrate is divided to form individual write heads.

Method for fabricating magnetic write heads

A method for fabricating a multi-track thin-film magnetoresistive tape head with precisely-aligned read/write track-pairs fabricated on a monolithic substrate wafer is provided. The wafer is fabricated using modified standard thin-film processes for fabricating direct access storage device heads and modified substrate lapping procedures. Gap-to-gap separation within each read/write track-pair is reduced to nearly the thickness of the substrate wafer. Fabricating on both sides of the wafer, may enable hundreds or thousands of head elements to be aligned in one step of the fabrication process while reducing the number of pieces in the completed head assembly.

Method of making a monolithic magnetic read-while-write head apparatus

A recording head to simultaneously read or write data to and from a plurality of tracks on magnetic tape, while compensating for shrinkage or expansion caused by moisture, temperature, creep caused by tension in the tape, creep caused by dimensional instability of the tape, as well as other causes. A recording head in accordance with the invention includes a leading module and a trailing module. In order to accommodate fluctuation in tape dimensions due to expansion or shrinkage, the leading and trailing modules may be offset with respect to one another. By offsetting one module with respect to the other, selected read and write elements from one module may more closely align with certain tracks of an expanded or shrunk tape, while other read and write elements from the other module may more closely align with other tracks on the tape.

Recording head compensation for tape shrinkage and expansion

In a tape having separate servo bands of patterns positioned laterally across the tape, the patterns of a separate servo band have at least one differentiating characteristic with respect to patterns of another of the separate servo bands. The differentiating characteristic allows identification of the separate servo bands. For example, the patterns of a separate servo band have differing azimuthal orientations of detectable transitions with respect to another servo band, such as being laterally inverted. In another, variations in the width of gaps of patterns are made with respect to another servo band. In another, variations are made in the number of the detectable transitions of patterns with respect to the patterns of another servo band.

Identification of laterally positioned servo bands employing differentiating characteristics of servo patterns

A system and method for analyzing a coil actuator of a type having a coil and a magnet. A current source selectively applies a first current to a coil of a coil actuator for setting a moveable part of the coil actuator to a first position. A recording system captures data corresponding to a back electromotive force voltage produced by oscillation of the coil actuator upon movement of the moveable part of the coil actuator to a second position. A processor applies a curve fit to the back electromotive force data for calculating a frequency characteristic and damping response of the coil actuator.

Characteristic measurement of an actuation drive coil and associated damping mechanism

Embedded wire planar write head system and method

In magnetic tape having separate longitudinal servo bands of servo information with superimposed data information, the separate servo bands have selected different superimposed data information, to identify the separate servo bands for independent addressability. The servo information comprises non-parallel laterally extending transitions to indicate lateral positioning, and the selected different superimposed data information may comprise a lack thereof in portion(s) of the servo bands. Where the superimposed data information is longitudinal position information of the tape, the selected different superimposed data information may comprise different longitudinal position information of one or more servo band(s). The selected different superimposed data information may comprise a band identifier in the superimposed data information of one or more of the servo bands.

Tape servo information with superimposed data information providing servo band identification

A servo writer generates a linear servo track timing based servo pattern comprised of transitions that extend laterally of the track. At least three spaced apart write elements, two of parallel azimuthal orientation, and at least one of a different azimuthal orientation, write patterns corresponding to the write elements, fixing both the distance between transitions having different azimuthal orientation, the 'A' distance, and the distance between transitions having parallel azimuthal orientation, the 'B' distance. The fixed distances provide precise sensing of lateral position based on a measure of time over the &#x201c;A&#x201d; distance compared to time over the &#x201c;B&#x201d; distance.

Timing based servo with fixed distances between transitions

The invention is a non-contact optical tape tension sensor for a tape drive. A light source directs an incident beam to the tape in a region of the tape path near where the tape bends. The amount of divergence of the reflected light is related to the curvature of the tape, and thus to the tape tension. The reflected light is passed through an aperture to a photodetector that detects the amount of the divergent beam passing through the aperture. The photodetector output is input to the tape drive controller that controls the currents to the supply and take-up motors to thereby maintain the tape tension within the desired range.

Tape drive with non-contact optical tape tension sensor

Growing community of inventors

Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

James Howard Eaton