Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080253025 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING AN ADDITIONAL GROUND PAD AND ELECTRIC AL CONNECTION FOR GROUNDING A MAGNETIC RECORDING HEAD - Method and apparatus are presented for electrically coupling a slider to ground. In one embodiment, a bonding pad is provided on a side of the slider body separate from the bonding pad(s) used for read/write signals. This separate bonding pad is electrically coupled within the slider body to components that are to be coupled to ground. A separate conductor provided on the suspension (e.g., a trace, a flex circuit, etc.) may be electrically coupled to the separate bonding pad via gold ball bonding. The conductor is also coupled to ground in the hard-disk drive device (e.g., via the preamplifier). The use of the separated bonding pad and trace may negate the need to use a conductive adhesive to electrically ground the slider via its attachment to the tongue of a slider. | 10-16-2008 |
20080253026 | Method to protect the magnetic recording head from thermal asperities during disk drive operation - A slider mounted read/write head is protected from thermal asperities due to head-disk interactions by a ridge formed along an interfacial plane that extends above the ABS plane of the slider. The ridge is formed as part of a lapping process that is directed from the read/write head towards the slider substrate and uses an abrasive slurry to which may be added a strong base such as KOH. The height of the ridge is less than approximately 2 nm. | 10-16-2008 |
20080285173 | HYBRID COATING FOR MAGNETIC HEADS - A system and method for providing corrosion protection for a magnetic read/write head is disclosed. A monolayer surface coating is applied to cover those portions of the under layer of a magnetic read/write head not already covered by a previously applied diamond-like coating. This allows for a thinner diamond like coating than previously applied in the art. The monolayer surface coating can be a self-assembled monolayer, such as an organosilicon for hydroxylated surfaces or carboxylic acids for aluminum or other metal oxides. Alternatively, the monolayer surface coating can be directly applied to the under layer with no diamond-like coating being present. The monolayer surface coating can be applied by a surface immersion process or by a vacuum coating process. | 11-20-2008 |
20090074949 | MEASURING AND NEUTRALIZING THE ELECTRICAL CHARGE AT THE INTERFACE OF A MAGNETIC HEAD AND MEDIA - A system and method for measuring and neutralizing the electrical charge at the interface of a magnetic head and a magnetic storage medium, such as a disk, is disclosed. A surface treatment material is applied to the magnetic head. The surface treatment material matches the medium surface material on the surface of the magnetic storage medium. The surface treatment material on the magnetic read/write head may be a fluorinated carbon, such as a Fomblin Z-derivative, perfluoro alkyl trichlorosilane, a FC-722, or a fluorinated polymer. The surface treatment material can be applied to the magnetic head by a vapor deposition process or by a liquid immersion process. The charge on the head-disk interface can be measured by applying varying external charges to the head while reading a signal previously written to the disk. | 03-19-2009 |
20090219651 | Air-bearing design for hard disk drive (HDD) applications - A slider is formed with an ABS topography that eliminates the accumulation of lubricant swept from the surface of a rotating disk in an operating HDD. The topography includes air channeling grooves in which are formed backflow blocking elements that prevent the formation airflow patterns that would cause lubricant to be aspirated into the ABS topography of the slider and that create airflow patterns that sweep lubricant away from the ABS of the slider. The topography is first tested to make sure that the slider has the proper flying height and aerodynamic stability, then the backflow blocking elements are added to control the airflow, while maintaining the desired flying height and stability. | 09-03-2009 |
20090262458 | ABS design for dynamic flying height (DFH) applications - A DFH (Dynamic Flying Height) type slider ABS design has significantly improved DFH efficiency and a decreased sensitivity of flying height to both ambient conditions and disk surface variations. This is a result of embedding the read/write head and heater in a micro-pad having a very small surface area. The micro-pad is surrounded by a wing-like structure that projects from a central rail in the ABS. The micro-pad is separated from the central rail by a surrounding trench whose depth can be varied to tune the DFH efficiency. The small surface area of the micro-pad reduces the air pressure at the read/write head and the projecting wings and adjacent topology help to direct the airflow around the micro-pad. | 10-22-2009 |
20100039732 | ABS design for dynamic flying height (DFH) applications - A DFH (Dynamic Flying Height) type slider ABS design has a stable flying height and a DFH efficiency that is uniform across the entire disk surface. These properties are a result of embedding the read/write head and heater in a trapezoidally bridged micro-pad having a very small surface area. The micro-pad is surrounded by a wing-like structure that projects from a central rail in the ABS and the micro pad is connected to an inner edge of that structure by a bridge having a trapezoidal shape. The trapezoidal shape responds effectively to variations in air flow direction and pressure point as the slider moves across the disk surface and, as a result, provides the uniform DFH efficiency. At the same time, the projecting wings and adjacent topology help to direct the airflow around the micro-pad and provide the stable flying height. | 02-18-2010 |
20100172057 | Suspension gimbal designs with better dynamic performances - Gimbal designs are provided that minimize adverse dynamic performance of a HDD suspension, particularly subsequent to head-disk-interface (HDI) interactions. The improvement of operational performance can be seen in graphical representations of the vibrational modes of a gimbal mounted slider subsequent to such HDI interactions. Each gimbal design includes a ramp limiter formed as two separated arms connected by one or two transverse bars and a routing of conducting traces that relieves stress and minimally contacts these bars. | 07-08-2010 |
20110299196 | Suspension gimbal designs with better dynamic performances - Gimbal designs are provided that minimize adverse dynamic performance of a HDD suspension, particularly subsequent to head-disk-interface (HDI) interactions. The improvement of operational performance can be seen in graphical representations of the vibrational modes of a gimbal mounted slider subsequent to such HDI interactions. Each gimbal design includes a ramp limiter formed as two separated arms connected by one or two transverse bars and a routing of conducting traces that relieves stress and minimally contacts these bars. | 12-08-2011 |
20130250446 | Spacing Fluctuation Compensation - A method to compensate for spacing variations between a dynamic fly height (DFH) controlled read/write head and a rotating disk surface. Using a HDI sensor or equivalent indicator of touchdowns, a power profile is calculated for an arbitrary track on a disk. The profile tracks disk topography by recording touchdown power at each of a series of sectors into which the track is subdivided. The resulting power profile, smoothed and expressed as a function of sector position, substitutes for the usual constant TD power setting that provides only an uncompensated range of spacing variations. A fixed back-off spacing power is added to the power profile enabling the head to fly over the track at a constant spacing. The power profile can be calculated to account for various temperature and pressure conditions. | 09-26-2013 |
20130250455 | Measurement of Spacing Fluctuation by HDI Sensor - A method for determining the surface distortions of a disk in a spin-stand or single or multiple disk hard disk drive (HDD) utilizing a DFH type write head. A stepwise power curve is supplied to the DFH head, the head is flown over a chosen track on the disk, and the high frequency signal from a HDI sensor is analyzed in order to determine the step of an initial touchdown power and the step of a complete touchdown power as a function of individual sectors in a sector subdivision along a chosen track. The HDI sensor signal is averaged within each step of the power curve between these two steps and a Ratio variable, | 09-26-2013 |
20140036384 | ABS Design for Uniform Touch-Down and Back-Off in DFH Applications - A DFH (Dynamic Flying Height) type slider ABS design has significantly improved DFH efficiency and back-off efficiency as well as uniform touchdown detectability. This is the result of decoupling the local pressure variations at the read/write head that result from skew angle variations across a disk, from local stiffness due to ABS protrusion caused by heater activation. The decoupling, which allows the heater activation stiffness to be carefully tuned, is a result of the effects of airflow channeled by a wide down-track channel onto a narrow down-track channel formed in an extended finger of the central pad of the slider. Airflow impinges on the finger channel in a manner that eliminates variations in air pressure at the central pad due to variations in skew angle. | 02-06-2014 |