Seiko Instruments Inc

Miraial Co., Ltd.

Other

Sumitomo Cement Co., Ltd.

Seiko Instruments R & D Center Inc.

Nobuyuki Kasama

Yasuyuki Mitsuoka

Takashi Niwa

Kenji Kato

Manabu Oumi

Norio Chiba

Susumu Ichihara

Hidetaka Maeda

Kunio Nakajima

Yoko Shinohara

Tadao Iwaki

Yukiya Funanami

Masataka Shinogi

Kazuo Sato

Shuhei Yamamoto

Yukihiro Hyobu

Toshiharu Takesue

Tsuyoshi Nagashima

Yasuhiro Takemura

Mitsuhiro Shikita

Terunao Hirota

Toshifumi Ohkubo

Kiyoshi Itao

Hiroshi Hosaka

Mamabu Oumi

Yasayuki Mitsuoka

Yasuyki Mitsuoka

Disclosed is a gas purge filter used in a housing container provided with a container main body and a lid body. The gas purge filter has a filter housing having a ventilation space where gas outside the housing container and gas of a housing space can be ventilated, and a pad formed outside the housing space of the filter housing to cover an outer peripheral face of a nozzle portion that forms a part of the ventilation space. The pad is formed of an elastic body.

Gas purge filter

A near-field optical head for recording and reading-out information on and from a recording medium by utilizing near-field light produced from a very small aperture. The very small aperture is formed at an apex of a taper formed by an optical propagation member having a tip pointed toward a recording medium. A light introducing part is connected directly to the optical propagation member for propagating light along an optical path extending in a direction generally parallel to the recording medium. The optical propagation member is formed of a uniform dielectric layer in the light introducing part and inside of the taper. A light reflection layer reflects light propagated through the light introducing part toward the very small aperture.

Near-field optical head having tapered hole for guiding light beam

A wafer-retaining unit has a plurality of vertically superimposed single-wafer retaining sections, each having a wafer-retaining frame abutting against only a lower end edge portion of the outer periphery of a semiconductor wafer, a wafer-securing frame disposed vertically movably relative to the wafer-retaining frame to abut against only an upper end edge portion of the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer, and wafer lift members that lift the semiconductor wafer to a position where it is upwardly separate from the wafer-retaining frame and keeps the semiconductor wafer in this position. Consequently, a plurality of semiconductor wafers can be accommodated efficiently and safely without increasing the space between each pair of mutually adjacent semiconductor wafers. At the same time, the semiconductor wafers can be loaded and unloaded satisfactorily.

Semiconductor wafer container

A near-field optical head has a planar substrate having a first surface, a second surface disposed opposite to the first surface, and an inverted pyramidal hole extending through the first and second surfaces. The inverted pyramidal hole has at least one fine aperture formed at an apex thereof and disposed in the first surface and having at least one curved slant surface. An optical waveguide extends into the inverted pyramidal hole of the planar substrate for propagating light along an optical path. A mirror is disposed in the optical waveguide for bending in the direction of the fine aperture the optical path of the light propagated through the optical waveguide.

An information reproducing apparatus has a medium with a linear tracking mark extending in a scanning direction and a linear data mark extending in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction. A light control unit irradiates the data mark with a first near-field light polarized in the scanning direction and irradiates the tracking mark with a second near-field light polarized in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction. A detector detects light scattered by the data mark and the tracking mark irradiated with the first near-field light and the second near-field light, respectively. A signal processing unit processes a first output signal from the detector corresponding to the detected light scattered by the data mark and processes a second output signal from the detector corresponding to the detected light scattered by the tracking mark. The signal processing unit has a control circuit that carries out tracking control in accordance with an intensity of the second output signal and that carries out access control in accordance with an intensity of the first output signal.

Information reproducing apparatus and information reproducing method

An elastic wafer-retaining cushion sheet is disposed at a wafer retaining position on the top of a wafer tray. The wafer-retaining cushion sheet has a releasably suction-adhering surface that releasably adheres by suction to the wafer tray. Consequently, there is no likelihood of the semiconductor wafer being damaged during transport or the like. In addition, the wafer-retaining cushion sheet can be readily attached to and detached from the wafer tray for washing or replacement according to need.

Wafer container with cushion sheets

A wafer container with wafer-mounting cushion sheets prevents breaking and damage of semiconductor wafers due to impacts or repetitive warping by maintaining the semiconductor wafer in a flat state and enables the semiconductor wafer to be removed safely and easily without damage. The surface of each wafer-mounting cushion sheet includes a self-sucking portion for exerting a removable vacuum on the semiconductor wafer and a non-sucking portion for enabling separation of the semiconductor wafer.

Wafer container with cushion sheet

The object of the present invention is to provide an information recording/reproduction device for implementing high-density information recording and reading using mutual interaction of a recording medium with near field light, and particularly to a near field optical head with a high optical efficiency and a manufacturing method thereof. This is achieved by enabling an energy propagation mechanism via a plasmon by forming a layer dispersed with metal particulate at a microscopic opening generating near field light, and therefore increase optical efficiency.

Near field optical head and optical recording device

A near-field optical probe has a planar substrate formed with a through-hole and a phase shifter layer translucent to light having a wavelength of illumination light used to illuminate the substrate for producing near-field light. The phase shifter layer is effective to cause a shift of phase in the illumination light by 180 degrees and is provided on the substrate so as to cover one opening of the through-hole to form a microscopic aperture for producing near-field light.

Near-field optical probe for reproducing information on a recording medium using near-field light

A near-field optical head has a planar substrate having a first surface, a second surface disposed opposite to the first surface, and an inverted conical or pyramidal hole extending through the first and second surfaces. The conical or pyramidal hole has at least one fine aperture formed at an apex thereof and is disposed on the first surface of the planar substrate. An optical waveguide is disposed on the second surface of the planar substrate for propagating light. A light reflection film is disposed in the optical waveguide for reflecting in the direction of the fine aperture light propagated through the optical waveguide.

A wafer-retaining cushion sheet () has a wafer suction-adhering surface (C) formed on a surface thereof, which adheres by suction to a semiconductor wafer (W). A wafer tray () is provided with a plurality of bottom openings () opening to the reverse side of the wafer-retaining cushion sheet (), an air chamber () communicating with the bottom openings, and an air inlet () for supplying pressurized air into the air chamber () from the outside. Consequently, when pressurized air is supplied into the air chamber () through the air inlet () to increase the air pressure in the air chamber (), the wafer-retaining cushion sheet () is elastically deformed into an inflated form at regions facing the bottom openings (), thus causing separation between the semiconductor wafer (W) and at least a part of the wafer suction-adhering surface (C) of the wafer-retaining cushion sheet ().

An information reproducing apparatus has a light source for generating linearly polarized light, a medium having linear marks disposed in overlapping relation to one another, and an optical head disposed between the light source and the medium and having a fine aperture. A polarized light control portion in the light source controls the linearly polarized light to pass through the fine aperture of the optical head to generate near-field light having a preselected polarization direction and to irradiate the linear marks of the medium with the near-field light so that the preselected polarization direction of the near-field light is orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of each of the linear marks. A detector detects light scattered by the linear mark irradiated with the near-field light.

Near-field information reproducing apparatus and near-field information reproducing method

An optical microcantilever for a scanning near field microscope comprises a support section, a cantilever-shaped optical waveguide, and a light blocking wall. The optical waveguide has a free end, a fixed end fixed to the support section and terminating in a light input/output end, and a tip formed at a side of the free end of the cantilever and having a microscopic aperture at an end thereof. The light blocking wall blocks the transmission of light scattered from a region of the light input/output end in the direction of the tip of the optical waveguide.

Optical microcantilever

A near-field optical head has a main surface confronting a recording medium during use of the near-field optical head. A sharpened tip is disposed on the main surface and has an optical aperture at a front end thereof. An opaque film covers the sharpened tip and has a plastically deformed portion in the vicinity of the optical aperture. The front end of the sharpened tip projects from the plastically deformed portion of the opaque film. At least one stopper is disposed in the vicinity of the sharpened tip and has a height substantially equal to a height of the sharpened tip. At least one air-bearing surface is disposed on the main surface.

Method for forming optical aperture, near-field optical head, method for fabricating near-field optical head, and information recording/reading apparatus

In a recording apparatus for reproducing information recorded on a recording medium by utilizing near-field light, the recording apparatus realizes reliable information reproduction with a simple structure. Illumination lightis illuminated to the recording mediumto create near-field light on a surface of the recording medium. The created near-field light is scattered by a microscopic apertureformed in the aperture elementso that scattering light (propagation light) thereof is detected to create a reproduced signal. Derived from the created reproduced light a distance control signal representative of a distance between the microscopic apertureand the recording medium. Based on the distance control signal, the aperture elementis controlled in position. Due to this, the microscopic apertureis brought into proximity to the recording medium

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Nobuyuki Kasama