Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd.

Yoshihiko Miyake

Hideaki Tanaka

Masaaki Matsumoto

Yoshiki Kato

Masaki Ohura

Kenichi Gomi

Youichi Inomata

Hiroshi Yashiki

Masayuki Kurita

Junguo Xu

Yuuichi Ootani

Sigeru Sano

Kiyoshi Hashimoto

Hiromitsu Tokisue

Noriaki Okamoto

Shinsuke Higuchi

Ryuji Tsuchiyama

Shoichi Sawahata

Mikio Tokuyama

Shoji Suzuki

Yoshinori Takeuchi

Hidekazu Kohira

Takeshi Harada

Yuzo Yamaguchi

Katsuaki Kikuchi

Norikazu Tsumita

Kousaku Wakatsuki

Teruyoshi Higashiya

Hiroshi Daito

Nobuo Nakagawa

Toyoji Okuwaki

Hiroyuki Sugimoto

Yoshihiro Moriguchi

Mikio Takada

Katsumi Kawamura

Toshinori Kazama

Hiroshi Nagai

Hatsuo Takahashi

Masanobu Honda

Muneo Iida

Shouichi Setone

Katuo Uda

Maki Kondo

Michihiro Nakanishi

Koosaku Wakatsuki

A magnetic disk apparatus includes a rotation mechanism for driving a magnetic disk, a magnetic head slider being floated in close proximity to a surface of the magnetic disk, a recording/reproduction element for performing recording and playback of information, a drive unit for causing a distance between the record/reproduction element and the magnetic disk to change, and an arrangement to effect position determination of the magnetic head slider, wherein the apparatus has a detection unit for permitting the drive unit to gradually reduce the distance between the record/reproduction element and the magnetic disk and for detecting occurrence of contact therebetween, and a control unit for controlling the drive unit in such a way as to cause, the record/reproduction element to shift in position by a fixed amount to thereby let the distance between this element and magnetic disk increase accordingly.

Magnetic disk apparatus and method of controlling the same

A magnetic disk apparatus includes a rotation mechanism for driving a magnetic disk, a magnetic head slider being floated in close proximity to a surface of the magnetic disk, a recording/reproduction element for performing recording and playback of information, a drive unit for causing a distance between the record/reproduction element and the magnetic disk to change, and means for performing position determination of the magnetic head slider, wherein the apparatus has a detection unit for permitting the drive unit to gradually reduce the distance between the record/reproduction element and the magnetic disk and for detecting occurrence of contact therebetween, and a control unit for controlling the drive unit in such a way as to cause, the record/reproduction element to shift in position by a fixed amount to thereby let the distance between this element and magnetic disk increase accordingly.

A magnetic disc apparatus includes a magnetic disc, a slider incorporating lifting rails or lifting pads, a magnetic head provided to a lifting rail or a lifting pad on the outflow end side, a suspension supporting the slider, and a carriage attached to the suspension. The slider has an inverted stepped wall formed in a shape such that it is caved in a direction from the inflow end to the outflow end of the slider, and a bleed surface formed at the outflow end side of the inverted stepped wall and caved from the lifting rails or the lifting pads. An action point of an equivalent load is located offset from the inverted stepped wall of the slider toward the inflow end of the slider.

Magnetic disc apparatus with slider having specified location of action point of equivalent load

Employed is a structure for moving by a micro-actuator not a read/write element but an air-bearing surface pad. The air-bearing surface pad is arranged nearer to the leading end than the read/write element. This arrangement allows the read/write element portion to have a sufficient size, making it possible to mount the currently used read/write element and associated wiring structure. The individual adjustment of a flying height leads to the increased recording density. Moving the read/write element away from the disk during loading/unloading operations can enhance reliability.

Magnetic disk drive with air bearing surface pad on movable portion and method of controlling

A decrease in the lift-up degree of the outflow end of a slider at an altitude of 3,000 m is set to be less than 2 nm or to be zero in order to set the lift-up degree of the outflow end to be less than 10 nm. There is provided a magnetic disc apparatus in which the action point of positive pressure is shifted toward the inflow end but the action point of negative pressure is shifted toward the outflow end so as to enhance the influence upon the outflow end by the negative pressure in order to effect an action in the increasing direction of the lift-up degree of the outflow end when the pressure is reduced. Further, it is possible to increase the lift-up degree of the outflow end when the pressure is decreased. The action point of the equivalent load is offset from the action point of positive pressure toward the inflow end, and the distance between the action point of the positive pressure and the action point of the equivalent load point is set to be greater than 0.1 times as large as the overall slider length.

Magnetic disc apparatus having slider which reduces variation in lift-up caused by change in air pressure

A magnetic disk includes a substrate, a magnetic layer, and a protective layer. At least one region of a surface of the magnetic disk has protrusions. A height of each of the protrusions is not less than 5 nm and not greater than 40 nm, and is within &plusmn;30% of an average height of the protrusions. A density of the protrusions is not less than 200/mm,and is not greater than 250,000/mm,. A width of a surface of each of the protrusions in a radial direction of the magnetic disk is not less than 0.1 &mgr;m and is not greater than 10 &mgr;m. The protrusions are discrete protrusions aligned in a spiral direction of the magnetic disk at a predetermined spacing in the radial direction of the magnetic disk. The at least one region of the surface of the magnetic disk includes flat areas between the protrusions. At least some of the flat areas extend continuously from an inner redius of the at least one region of the surface of the magnetic disk to an outer radius of t he at least one region of the surface of the magnetic disk.

Magnetic disk including protective layer having surface with protrusions, and substrate therefor

There is provided a magnetic disk apparatus comprising: at least one magnetic disk having a magnetic layer and a surface protective layer on a substrate; a magnetic head which faces the magnetic disk in a rotating state with a micro gap and is supported by a slider; rotating means for rotating the magnetic disk; and a actuator for moving and positioning the magnetic head to a predetermined position on the magnetic disk, wherein a plurality of protrusions each having a flat surface are formed in at least a region on the surface of the magnetic disk where a contact start/stop operation can be executed. According to the above magnetic disk apparatus, since the frictional force between the disk and the head is small and the flying height of the head can be reduced and the good floating stability is obtained, so that the excellent recording and reproducing characteristics are derived. Further, protrusions are formed on the protective layer of the magnetic disk and the protrusion shapes are changed in a accordance with a radial position of the magnetic disk depending on the flying height of the magnetic head. According to the above magnetic disk apparatus, since the change of spacing can be set smaller than the change of the flying height, high recording density can be achieved.

Magnetic disk including protective layer having surface with magnetic

A magnetic disk has a magnetic layer and a protective layer disposed on the magnetic layer. A multiplicity of lands having sizes within a predetermined range of sizes and generally equal heights within a predetermined range are formed on the surface of the protective layer at a density within a predetermined range. The lands serve to effectively remove contaminants attached to the floating surface of a magnetic head to ensure a desired sliding reliability and floating stability of the head during a long period of time even in the case of a high-density magnetic disk apparatus in which the extent of floating of the head is small. The reliability with which the magnetic disk apparatus operates is thereby improved. The lands are formed on the surface of the protective layer by a process of forming a mask of fine particles on the protective layer surface and etching the protective layer surface through this mask.

Magnetic disk, method of manufacturing the same and magnetic disk

Magnetic disk including protective layer having surface with protusions

There is provided a magnetic disk apparatus including at least one magnetic disk having a magnetic layer and a surface protective layer on a substrate; a magnetic head which faces the magnetic disk in a rotating state with a micro gap and is supported by a slider; rotating means for rotating the magnetic disk; and magnetic head positioning means for moving and positioning the magnetic head to a predetermined position on the magnetic disk, wherein a plurality of protrusions each having a flat surface are formed in at least a region on the surface of the magnetic disk where a contact start/stop operation can be executed, an area ratio of the protrusions per 1 mm.sup.2 lies within a range from 0.1 to 80%, a height of the protrusion of the maximum height among the protrusions lies within a range from 5 to 40 nm, and the magnetic layer is formed on the whole surface on the base plate. According to the above magnetic disk apparatus, the frictional force between the disk and the head is small, and the floating height of the head can be reduced, and good floating stability is obtained, so that excellent recording and reproducing characteristics are obtained.

Magnetic disk with surface protective layer having convex portions and

Protruding portions are formed on outflow ends of slider rails on a floating magnetic head slider. This floating magnetic head slider is of rails type. Each of the protruding portion extends farther to the outside as it approaches the outflow end. Or the external sides of the rails on the magnetic head slider are so arranged that angles formed thereat diverge from the side of the inflow end to the side of the outflow end, and a pressure adjusting aperture is formed on the outflow side of each of the rails. Because of the above arrangement, it is possible to provide a magnetic head unit in which particles, such as dust, adhering to the disk surface are effectively removed, and in which floating stability is not impaired. Removing the particles on the disk surface is not limited by seeking directions even while the magnetic disk unit is in operation.

Rail-type floating magnetic head slider

A magnetic head device has a magnetic head slider by means of which information is recorded in and read from a magnetic recording medium. The magnetic head slider is supported by a supporting structure having an internal cavity, an opening formed in a portion of the structure where the magnetic head slider faces the magnetic recording medium and communicating with the internal cavity, and a gas passage through which the gas introduced into the internal cavity through the opening is discharged to the exterior of the internal cavity. With this arrangement, the pressure acting on the back surface of the magnetic head slider is adjusted to keep the slider afloat, while removing dust suspended in the gas around the recording medium and the supporting structure.

Magnetic disk device having an auto-loading mechanism and a dust

An actuator for a magnetic disk device causes movement of a magnetic head in the radial direction of a rotating magnetic disk. Although this magnetic head is floated above the magnetic disk by a stream of air induced by the rotation of the magnetic disk at a high speed, an excessively high velocity of the air stream causes excessive vibrations of a soft gimbal resiliently supporting the magnetic head. In the actuator of the present invention, a head arm supporting the magnetic head through the gimbal is formed with a wind-breaking projection preventing direct impingement of the air stream against the gimbal and magnetic head, thereby minimizing vibrations of the gimbal and magnetic head.

Wind breaking assembly for a magnetic head

A method whereby the angle of attack formed by a slider acting as a floating magnetic head with respect to a magnetic member can be adjusted. The method includes selecting a speed of rotation of a magnetic member which is lower than the speed of rotation for normal operation of the member while the apparatus is in operation, rotating the member at approximately the preselected lower speed of rotation, and adjusting the angle of attack of the slider so that the slider will begin to float in the air approximately at the preselected lower speed of rotation.

Method for adjusting the angle of attack of a floating magnetic head

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Odawara, Japan

Yoshihiko Miyake