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:
Feb. 18, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 09, 2001
James Hammond Brannon, Palo Alto, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A carbon dioxide laser is used as a non-mechanical means for smoothing and polishing the as-cut chamfer surface at the edge of the disk. Applying laser radiation to the glass surface causes transient melting and resolidification. Due to surface tension effects, the glass resolidifies to produce a surface that is significantly smoother than it was before irradiation. If scratches or abrasive marks are present on the glass surface prior to irradiation, the irradiation process “polishes out” these defects as long as they are not too deep. At a wavelength near 10 &mgr;m, the penetration depth of the radiation into the glass is approximately 1 &mgr;m. Therefore, scratches and defects of this order of magnitude are eliminated. The quality of the resulting modified chamfer surface is far superior to the original mechanically ground and polished surface.