Abstract: A method for manufacturing a disk drive includes assembling the head disk assembly in a clean room, performing servo writing upon the head disk assembly in the clean room, and performing a head disk assembly test upon the head disk assembly in the clean room. The head disk assembly is then connected to the controller printed circuit board assembly to form a drive-under-test. The drive-under-test is then transported to an integrated test system and electrically connected thereto. The integrated tests system then performs substantially all of the required manufacturing tests upon the drive-under-test, thereby substantially reducing the labor and floor space associated therewith.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head which employs pole tips members which are coplanar in a plane across the write gap to produce a written track whose width is determined by the thickness of the pole tip members. The coplanar write structure may be-combined with a multilayer read sensor disposed in the write gap to produce a narrow trackwidth thin film magnetic head having both write and read capabilities.

Abstract: The invention relates to forming, on a piezoelectric element, a plurality of piezoelectric walls and concave grooves so as to be arranged alternately and parallel to each other. Thereafter, a conductive layer of a metallic thin film is formed on the back end surface and the bottom surface opposite to the grooved side of the actuator board, side surfaces of the piezoelectric walls, and the electrodes are conductably connected with the conductive layer. Then, the actuator board is subjected to a dicing process or the like to form a plurality of dividing lateral grooves on a back end surface and a bottom surface of the actuator board, forming a plurality of divided conductive patterns extending in the front and rear direction of the actuator board, and additionally, to form a dividing longitudinal groove intersecting with the lateral grooves on the bottom surface, separating the conductive patterns from other portions of the conductive layer.

Abstract: A method for making integrated circuits electrically connected to conductive coil elements includes placing integrated circuits in recesses provided at precise locations along a foil carrier web and positioning coils also at designated locations on the foil web so that a coil is associated with each integrated circuit. The web is then cut to produce a planar coil electrically connected to an integrated circuit on a foil element. The integrated circuit and coils may be coated with a casting compound and the coils may be formed using various procedures, including pressing coils into the surface of the foil, sewing the coils to the foil and electrostatically forming the coils on the foil with fusion of the coil material directly onto the foil. Apparatus for carrying out the aforesaid process, including winding of the coils, is described.

Abstract: A low noise inductive magnetic head used for writing and reading magnetic signals onto and from a magnetic recording medium includes two magnetic poles P1, P2 that are formed on a substrate which define a transducing gap therebetween. Each of the poles P1, P2 includes an outer magnetic layer formed remotely from the gap and an inner magnetic layer formed adjacent to the gap. The inner and outer magnetic layers have magnetostrictions (.lambda..sub.s) of approximately equal but opposite values, such that each of the magnetic poles P1, P2 exhibits a net magnetostriction of zero or is biased within a predefined range, regardless of the individual magnetostriction values of its layers.