Abstract: An optical disc drive including a housing, a disc exchanger, a data processing module, an optical disc cassette, a cassette ejector and at least an elastic element is provided. The disc exchanger is disposed inside the housing to operate within an operating range. The data processing module is disposed within the operating range inside the housing. The optical disc cassette is suitable for being set up within the operating range and has at least one hollow. The cassette ejector is disposed on the housing. The elastic element is disposed inside the housing. When the optical disc cassette is stationed inside the housing, a distance is kept between the elastic element and the hollow. The elastic element is disposed on an ejection path of the hollow. The elastic element is suitable for lodging inside the hollow of the optical disc cassette when the optical disc cassette is ejected from the housing.

Abstract: The disclosed invention provides a magnetic head of high stability in which “erase after write” is prevented. Here is provided a magnetic head comprising a thin-film magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, the thin-film magnetic head including a main pole with its tip facing a magnetic recording medium and coils for exciting the main pole, wherein the tip of or at least a part of the main pole consists of a soft magnetic multilayer containing laminations, each of which comprises a first ferromagnetic film, a second ferromagnetic film, and an antiparallel coupling layer formed between the first ferromagnetic film and the second ferromagnetic film, wherein the antiparallel coupling layer causes antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling of the first ferromagnetic film and the second ferromagnetic film.

Abstract: An optical recording/reproducing apparatus includes a frame defining a space therein to receive operational components of said apparatus, a tray movably received in said space for accepting an optical disc therein; an upper cover attached to said frame beside said space so as to have said accepted optical disc sandwiched between said cover and said tray in said space; a front panel attached to said frame beside said cover and said space, and having an opening formed in a moving path of said tray to have said tray movable through said opening; and a blocking strip firmly attached to said frame and separate from said cover and said panel, a lower edge of said blocking strip is nearly close with a top surface of the tray, said blocking strip extending beside said moving path of said tray along a direction essentially perpendicular to said moving path.

Abstract: The supersonic cleaning of a magnetic head apparatus is executed while the control conductive pattern and the conductive leaf spring are electrically connected by means of soldering, and the conductive leaf spring is grounded. This makes it possible to prevent the accumulation of electrostatic charges in the piezoelectric elements on the magnetic head apparatus, thereby preventing the development of surge current or reducing the intensity thereof, and reducing the damage to the reproducing elements and the recording element mounted on the slider of the magnetic head apparatus.

Abstract: A head slider having a thin film magnetic head is mounted on a suspension assembly. The suspension assembly is comprised of a metal plate-like member, and a piezoelectric actuator for displacing the head slider relative to the suspension assembly. The piezoelectric actuator has a piezoelectric film, and a pair of electrode films placed so as to sandwich the piezoelectric film in between. The piezoelectric film and the pair of electrode films are formed in an order of one electrode film, the piezoelectric film, and the other electrode film on the plate-like member.

Abstract: Single write poles tend to large shape anisotropy which results in a very large remnant field when not actually writing. This has now been eliminated by giving the write pole the form of a three layer laminate in which two ferromagnetic layers are separated by a non-magnetic or antiferromagnetic coupling layer. Strong magnetostatic coupling between the outer layers causes their magnetization directions to automatically be antiparallel to one another, unless overcome by the more powerful write field, leaving the structure with a low net magnetic moment. The thickness of the middle layer must be carefully controlled.

Abstract: A magnetoresistive sensor having a pinned layer that extends beyond the stripe height defined by the free layer of the sensor. The extended pinned layer has a strong shape induced anisotropy that maintains pinning of the pinned layer moment. The extended portion of the pinned layer has sides beyond the stripe height that are perfectly aligned with the sides of the sensor within the stripe height. This perfect alignment is made possible by a manufacturing method that uses a mask structure for more than one manufacturing phase, eliminating the need for multiple mask alignments.

Abstract: A disk apparatus, e.g., a magnetic disk apparatus has a storage medium in the form of a disk which is rotated and accessed, and is designed so as to reduce the occurrence of scratches on the storage medium due to contact between the head and the storage medium while ensuring stable access to the disk-type storage medium. In addition to a main dowel which is provided on a suspension and which supports a magnetic head at a center of the same, an auxiliary dowel is provided on the suspension on the air outflow side relative to the main dowel to limit the tilt of the magnetic head at the time of loading.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for damping vibration in a flexible cable for use in a magnetic disk drive apparatus. The vibration damping mitigates resonant oscillation of the flexible cable which would otherwise cause tracking errors by forcing the actuator of the away from the desired data track on a magnetic disk. A layer vibration damping material and one or more electrical leads are enclosed within a surrounding electrical insulator, the damping material being completely enclosed, while the leads have selected portions exposed to allow electrical connection devices.

Abstract: A chucking apparatus in which a plurality of pawl bodies are provided in a radial direction of a hub body of a turntable such that the pawl bodies can move, a center hole of a disk is pressed by the pawl bodies to hold the disk, wherein the chucking apparatus comprises a resilient member for biasing the pawl bodies outward of the hub body, each of the pawl bodies includes a pawl portion which comes into contact with the disk, and a pawl-side stopper for limiting outward movement caused by the resilient member, the hub body includes a pawl opening through which the pawl portion can project outward, and a hub-side stopper which abuts against the pawl-side stopper, a position of the pawl portion in a standby state where the disk is not held by the pawl portion is set lower than a position of the pawl portion in a recording/replaying state where the disk is held by the pawl portion.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for reduced contribution to suspension hinge stiffness of an electrical interconnect metal layer while retaining substantial impedance reductions from the metal layer use a sinuous pattern of removed and retained subregions of the metal layer selectively and distributively to ease bending of the metal layer and decrease its stiffness contribution while the retained metal layer subregions provide a substantial proportion of the impedance reduction normally provided by the metal layer.

Abstract: A disk apparatus includes a plurality of stockers each for stocking a disk therein, a plurality of stocker moving mechanism arranged around the plurality of stockers, for, when stocking a disk in one of the plurality of stockers and when playing back a disk stocked in one of the plurality of stockers, moving the one of the plurality of stockers upward or downward, each of the plurality of stocker moving mechanism having small-diameter portions at upper and lower ends thereof, and an actuation member movably arranged in a gap between the small-diameter portion of one of the plurality of stocker moving mechanism and an inner surface of a wall of a housing.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatuses for forming a radio frequency identifiable disc medium storage device are described. A metal layer is deposited onto a disc. At least one metal trace on the disc is connected to the metal layer. An adhesive interposer is attached to the disc around an opening in the center of the disc. The interposer includes an integrated circuit die. Pads of the integrated circuit die are coupled to the at least one pair of metal traces by the interposer. The interposer further includes a matching network. A coating is formed on the disc to encapsulate the metal layer, interposer, and integrated circuit die.

Abstract: A disc apparatus including: a disc tray on which a disc is mounted; an optical pickup unit which irradiates a light beam on the disc; a traverse assembly unit on which the optical pickup unit is mounted; a driving motor which is a power source for operating the disc tray, the optical pickup unit, and the traverse assembly unit; an inner circumference arrival sensor which detects whether the optical pickup unit arrives at the inner circumference of the disc; and an encoder sensor which detects the number of rotations of the driving motor when the driving motor rotates clockwise or counterclockwise, wherein based on the number of rotations of the driving motor in the clockwise direction, the optical pickup unit is moved to the inner circumference of the disc, and then the traverse assembly unit descends, so that the disc tray is opened.

Abstract: Patterned, longitudinally and transversely antiferromagnetically exchange biased GMR sensors are provided which have narrow effective trackwidths and reduced side reading. The exchange biasing significantly reduces signals produced by the portion of the ferromagnetic free layer that is underneath the conducting leads while still providing a strong pinning field to maintain sensor stability. In the case of the transversely biased sensor, the magnetization of the free and biasing layers in the same direction as the pinned layer simplifies the fabrication process and permits the formation of thinner leads by eliminating the necessity for current shunting.

Abstract: The present invention provides a magazine-based library that is capable of operating on a magazine data storage element comprised of a plurality of hard disk drives and an interface that allows data to be transferred between the hard disk drives and a host computer. One embodiment of the library comprises a plurality of shelves that are each capable of supporting at least one magazine data storage element, one or more drives, and a magazine transport that is capable of moving a magazine data storage element between any one of the shelves and any one of the drives. The present invention also provides a magazine data storage element drive that is capable of being used in stand-alone mode, i.e., outside of a magazine-based library.

Abstract: A recording/reproducing mechanism 3 includes a pickup mechanism irradiating light on a disc recording medium 4, a pickup feed mechanism moving the pickup mechanism, and a flat cover 33 having an opening 33A cut along a feeding direction of the pickup mechanism. The flat cover 33 is supported elastically in a direction toward and away from the tray 2. The tray 2 has a recessed portion allowing the flat cover 33 to move in the direction toward and away from the tray 2. A protrusion 5 is provided on the recessed portion to restrict deformation of the flat cover 33 and prevents the flat cover 33 from contacting to the disc recording medium upon dropping impact. Therefore, even if the edge of the opening 33A of the flat cover 33 is turned up due to the impact when the driver housing the disc recording medium 4 therein is dropped, the edge contacts to the protrusion 5.

Abstract: An optical disk drive includes a main body including a spindle motor to rotate a disk and an optical pickup to access the disk, a tray installed on the main body to be loaded and unloaded, and a compression member, which is disposed on the main body, for preventing vibrations of the tray, when the tray loads into and unloads from the main body, by applying an elastic force to a side surface of the tray in a horizontal direction.

Abstract: A keystroke apparatus for an optical disk drive includes a computer bezel (40), an optical disk drive (10) having a keystroke (12), a pressing member (20) movably attached to the computer bezel (40) and at least one spring (30) causing the pressing member (20) to come back to an original position. The pressing member (20) has a slanted resisting portion (25) for abutting against the keystroke (12). When the pressing member (20) is pressed, the resisting portion (25) drives the keystroke (12) to open or close the optical disk drive (10).

Abstract: A system and method are provided for manufacturing a coil structure for a magnetic head. Initially, an insulating layer is deposited with a photoresist layer deposited on the insulating layer. Moreover, a silicon dielectric layer is deposited on the photoresist layer as a hard mask. The silicon dielectric layer is then masked. A plurality of channels is subsequently formed in the silicon dielectric layer using reactive ion etching (i.e. CF4/CHF3). The silicon dielectric layer is then used as a hard mask to transfer the channel pattern in the photoresist layer using reactive ion etching with, for example, H2/N2/CH3F/C2H4 reducing chemistry. To obtain an optimal channel profile with the desired high aspect ratio, channel formation includes a first segment defining a first angle and a second segment defining a second angle. Thereafter, a conductive seed layer is deposited in the channels and the channels are filled with a conductive material to define a coil structure.