Other

Antek Peripherals, Inc.

Flextor, Inc.

James W White

Anil K Nigam

A data storage device uses a foil disk platter with significantly reduced inertia and weight as compared to the thick aluminum or glass disk platter in a typical hard disk drive. The reduced rotating inertia of the foil disk enables faster spin-up performance which can be used to reduce decrease the power consumed by the unit. In portable appliances that use disk drive storage devices battery life can be extended significantly and the unit can be made thinner and lighter. Certain parameters of the foil disk substrate may be determined, to provide improved control of disk flutter, from a range parameter defined by 

High capacity disk drive using thin foil disks at elevated rotational speeds

A slider assembly for supporting a recording element in operative relation to a flexible moving recording medium is disclosed. The slider may have a face including air bearing surfaces positioned toward the recording medium. A recording element may be in an air bearing surface near the trailing edge of the face, wherein there is no other slider or other supporting surface on an opposite side of the recording medium. A vacuum cavity may be formed in the face for creation of sub-ambient pressure to attract the slider toward the recording medium. An air bearing surface may be provided with a transverse pressure contour (TPC) along at least one of its edges for providing flying height control, with the TPC having a step geometry. A mounting device may mount the slider in a biased manner toward the recording medium and urge the slider toward the recording medium.

Air bearing slider-disk interface for single-sided recording on a metal foil disk

A metal foil disk offers some of the best characteristics of both the hard disk and floppy disk for digital data storage. One embodiment uses an opposed slider air bearing arrangement that provides advantages when used with a high speed metal foil disk in either a fixed or removable format. Use is made of the fact that the opposing sliders interact through their influence on the flexible disk that is sandwiched between them. Asymmetry of opposing air bearings may be created by etching the air bearing pad opposite the recording element pad to a depth sufficient that the flying height and air film stiffness of the opposing pad reach desired levels. The result is an air bearing interface with low flying height and high stiffness over the recording element opposed by a high flying height and low stiffness on the other side of the disk. This air bearing interface provides an enhanced dynamic flexibility to the metal foil disk when it is subjected to mechanical shock. As a result, the opposed slider arrangement with metal foil disk is able to avoid contact and impact when subjected to substantial levels of mechanical shock. Thus, wear and damage to slider and disk surfaces are reduced as well as the possibility of lost recorded data. This makes the metal foil disk a strong candidate as a rotating storage medium for mobile and portable applications where a shock environment is common.

Asymmetric opposed slider air bearings for high speed recording on a metal foil disk

The invention provides an exemplary slider arrangement for supporting read and/or write elements in operative relation to a first and a second side of a flexible moving recording medium. The slider arrangement comprises a first slider having leading edge, a trailing edge and a longitudinal axis therebetween. The first slider comprises a first longitudinal rail and a second longitudinal rail. The first and second longitudinal rails each have a face positioned toward the first side of the recording medium. A second slider is provided having an leading edge, a trailing edge and a longitudinal axis therebetween. The second slider comprises a third longitudinal rail and a fourth longitudinal rail which each have a face positioned toward the second side of the recording medium. The first and second sliders are mounted generally opposite each other with the first rail being generally opposite the third rail and the second rail being generally opposite the fourth rail. Further, the first and fourth rails each include at least one longitudinal slot to partition the first and the fourth rails each into at least two sub-rails. At least one of the sub-rails of the first and the fourth rails houses at least one read and/or write element and has at least one portion which varies in width.

Shaped rail opposed slider air bearing configuration for increased

The invention provides exemplary magnetic recording media, and in particular, flexible metal foil disks, read/write systems having such disks, and methods for making such disks. In one exemplary embodiment, a recording medium is provided which comprises a metallic substrate and at least one sputter deposited film of magnetic material on the substrate. The recording medium has a thickness that is less than about 0.010 inch and the substrate occupies at least 80% of the thickness. Further, the sputter deposited film is adapted to record and reproduce high areal densities of digital data. In one embodiment, such a recording medium is included in a read/write system to provide a unique recording interface that can resist mechanical shock.

Metal foil disk for high areal density recording in environments of high

The invention provides a magnetic head slider with flying height that is uniform over a recording surface and is relatively insensitive to altitude changes when used in a data storage device. In one embodiment, a slider platform carries two or more gas bearing pads in the form of TPC type pads, each having a transverse pressurization contour along at least one side edge of its face, at least one NP type pad provided with a bearing face and a recess which develops a subambient pressure level, and an ambient pressure reservoir separating each TPC type pad from each NP type pad for preventing hydrodynamic interaction between the pads. The ambient pressure reservoir defines a cavity having a depth with respect to the face of each TPC pad sufficient to maintain substantially ambient pressure in the cavity during movement of the recording medium. In another embodiment, the gas bearing pads take the form of a combination of pads with transverse pressurization contours and pads without TPC effects.

Methods for operating a gas bearing slider

The invention provides a magnetic head slider with uniform and controllable flying height through a range of skew angles. According to the invention, a transverse and negative pressure contour (TNP) slider comprises a support structure which carries at least two TPC type pads, each having a transverse pressurization contour along at least one side edge of its face, at least one NP type pad provided with a bearing face and a recess which develops a subambient pressure level, and an ambient pressure reservoir separating each TPC type pad from each NP type pad for preventing hydrodynamic interaction between the pads. The ambient pressure reservoir defines a cavity having a depth with respect to the face of each TPC pad sufficient to maintain substantially ambient pressure in the cavity during movement of the recording medium.

Transverse and negative pressure contour gas bearing slider

Opposed magnetic head sliders 22, 24 for dual sided recording on a flexible disk 26 include one or more slots 32 provided longitudinally in one of the opposed rails in order to allow the slotted rail 28 to fly and reduce flying height relative to a flexible disk 26 operating at an elevated rotational speed. The sliders additionally have a diagonally blended contour 96 for urging contaminants away from the film interface between the head sliders 22, 24 and the flexible disk 26.

Non-contact magnetic head assembly for a flexible medium disk drive

A slider assembly for flying a magnetic head at very low clearances on a fluid film over a moving recording medium. This improved slider assembly provides stability and uniformity of flying height and increased damping characteristics when the slider assembly is subjected to dynamic forces. The slider assembly has, in most embodiments, a pair of rails each having a tapered forward end to provide a converging inlet to achieve the fluid film. Most of the static load is carried by the flat surface of the rails rearward from that tapered forward end. Each rail of the slider assembly has at least one longitudinal transverse pressurization contour (TPC) along corresponding edges of the rails to provide this stability of flying height. When only one TPC per rail is used, the particular edge chosen for the TPC depends upon the disk size and skew angle distribution over the recording zone. The TPC's can be of step construction, a linear taper or a convex configuration. For each, the 'average' angle as determined by the height and width of the TPC is about 0.05 to about 5 degrees.

Uniform flying height slider assembly with improved dynamic air bearing

A slider head assembly for flying a magnetic head at very low clearances on a fluid film over a moving recording media. This improved slider head assembly has at least one air bearing surface that flies above the recording medium due to pressurization of air under that bearing surface as the recording medium is rotated. The air bearing surface is provided with a transverse pressurization contour (TPC) along each side edge of the bearing surface such that any air flow from the side of the slider assembly, due to skew angle operation and/or access velocity, produces pressurization adjacent to one side edge and expansion adjacent to the other side edge of each air bearing surface. The pressure distribution across each air bearing surface is substantially symmetrical from side to side. This construction makes the slider assembly flying height and roll angle essentially insensitive to skew angle and/or access velocity. One of the embodiments utilizes a TPC having a linear taper of generally less than one degree. This embodiment is produced with a minor modification to conventional fabrication techniques.

Growing community of inventors

Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

James W White