Seagate Technology Incorporated

Lanshi Zheng

Lowell James Berg

Moshe Olim

Weimin Qian

Lance Eugene Stover

John Stuart Wright

Scott Edward Ryun

Jianxin Zhu

Ling Wang

Youping Mei

Yu-Li Chang

James Ronald Krolnik

James J Stolte

Jeffrey K Berkowitz

A method of contouring a surface of a slider for supporting a transducer relative to a data storage medium includes applying a lithographic resist layer to the slider surface. The resist layer is then exposed through a single mask having 3a mask pattern defined by variation in an optical density through the mask. The resist layer is exposed in an exposure pattern corresponding to the mask pattern. Portions of the resist layer are removed as a function of the exposure pattern to produce a vertically contoured resist layer. The slider surface is etched through the vertically contoured resist layer during a single etching step to form a vertically contoured surface feature within the slider surface.

Disc head slider having vertically contoured features and method of fabricating vertically contoured features on a slider

A microfabricated slider assembly used in a disc drive is disclosed. The slider assembly has a slider body having a stator and a rotor, wherein the rotor and the stator are integrally formed from a single substrate. The rotor has a head supporting portion movable both laterally and vertically in relation to the stator to facilitate positioning the transducer head accordingly. The slider assembly also has a microactuator for actively moving the rotor. In one embodiment, the slider assembly has microactuators for actively moving the rotor both laterally and vertically.

Micro-actuated micro-suspension(MAMS) slider for both fly height and tracking position

A disc head slider supports a transducer relative to a data storage disc. The slider includes a slider body having a disc-facing surface with a leading slider edge, a trailing slider edge, and first and second slider corners at opposing ends of the trailing slider edge. First and second rails are disposed on the disc facing surface about a central recess and form first and second bearing surfaces, respectively. The central recess has a depth measured from the first and second bearing surfaces. First and second recessed surfaces are positioned between a trailing edge of the first and second rails and the first and second slider corners, respectively, and are generally coplanar with the central recess. Third and fourth recessed corner surfaces are positioned at the first and second slider corners, respectively, and are recessed from the first and second recessed surfaces.

Disc head slider having deeply recessed corners

A self-loading disc head-slider has a slider body, with a leading slider edge and a trailing slider edge, and first and second raised rails. Each raised rail has a leading rail edge, inside and outside rail edges and a bearing surface. A cavity dam extends between the first and second raised rails. A subambient pressure cavity trails the cavity dam, between the first and second raised rails. A stepped leading taper extends from the leading slider edge to the bearing surfaces of the first and second raised rails. The stepped leading taper is formed of first and second steps. The first step is positioned along the leading slider edge. The second step wraps around the leading rail edges of the first and second raised rails and extends along a portion of the inside and outside rail edges of the first and second raised rails. The first and second steps have a step height of 0.05 to 1.5 microns.

Self-loading disc head slider having multiple steps approximating a leading taper

An assembly and method for micropositioning a disc drive head is described. An implementation of the assembly includes a gimbal, a piezoelectric element bonded to the gimbal and electrically connected to a voltage source, and a slider connected to the piezoelectric element. The assembly may also include at least a second piezoelectric element bonded to the gimbal and connected to the slider. The piezoelectric elements may be made of PZT material, and each may be in a monomorph or bimorph configuration.

Piezoelectric assembly for micropositioning a disc drive head

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Eden Prairie, MN, United States of America

Lanshi Zheng