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. 17, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 27, 2001
Bo Liu, Singapore, SG;
Yaolong Zhu, Singapore, SG;
Data Storage Institute, Singapore, SG;
Abstract
The invention provides an apparatus ( ) and method for monitoring the load/unload process of a head-gimbal assembly (HGA) ( ), disk ( ) and ramp ( ) combination. A ramp strain arm ( ) is used to monitor the entire load/unload process. The ramp strain arm ( ), on which the ramp ( ) is mounted, includes force sensors ( ) that measure the friction force between the HGA ( ) and ramp ( ) as well as the air-bearing force on the slider ( ) of the HGA ( ) during the load/unload process. The signals form the force sensors ( ) are input to a computer ( ) through an interface circuit ( ) for recording and analysis in order to evaluate the performance of the combination of the HGA ( ), disk ( ) and ramp ( ).