The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 05, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 18, 1998
Karl Louis Enarson, Yukon, OK (US);
Deanne Sue Grover, Oklahoma City, OK (US);
Hieu Van Nguyen, Oklahoma City, OK (US);
John Michael Baker, Tuttle, OK (US);
Seagate Technology, Inc., Scotts Valley, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method are disclosed for determining a maximum magnitude of bias current that can be safely applied to a head of a disc drive. The disc drive comprises a head disposed adjacent a rotatable disc having a recording surface on which data are magnetically stored, a preamplifier circuit which selectively applies bias currents to the head, and a head bias current selection circuit, operably coupled to the preamplifier circuit, which first determines the maximum magnitude of bias current that can be applied to the head in relation to a maximum power dissipation rating of the head and voltage measured across the head when at least one initial bias current of selected magnitude is applied to the head. Thereafter, a range of bias currents having different magnitudes less than or equal to the maximum magnitude are selected and evaluated to select an optimum magnitude for subsequent use by the drive.