Abstract: A normal tape reel is disclosed, comprising a tape reel portion and a magnetic tape wound on the reel core of the tape reel portion, wherein the ratio of the winding radius R of the magnetic tape to the radius r of the reel core (R/r) is not smaller than 3.5 and the winding hardness of the magnetic tape is adjusted to a range of from 1.9 to 11.5 N.

Abstract: A method for forming a top spin-valve SyAP GMR read sensor having a novel conductive lead overlay configuration and the sensor so formed. The lead overlay electrically contacts the sensor at a position within the SyAP pinned layer, thus simultaneously assuring improved electrical contact and destroying the GMR properties of the sensor at the junction to improve the definition of the sensor track width.

Abstract: A gimbal and load beam apparatus for a head suspension for a disk drive having lateral arms with dielectric and conductor layers without metal backing to provide for low pitch and roll stiffness while also having a structural layer attached to the gimbal at proximal and distal locations for high lateral stiffness. The structural layer may be formed of stainless steel and can serve as the load beam and spring region for the head suspension.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: The invention includes a method making a balanced disk pack for a hard disk drive, from a disk pack including a spindle motor rigidly coupled, and aligned by at least two open screw holes, with a disk clamp. The invention includes the resulting balanced disk packs, as well as hard disk drives built with such balanced disk packs. The invention also includes apparatus providing the means for implementing the steps of making a balanced disk pack from a disk pack. The invention includes at least one mechanical counterbalance for use in balancing the disk pack of a hard disk drive.

Abstract: A spin valve GMR sensor configured in a bridge configuration is provided. The bridge includes two spin valve element pairs. The spin valve elements include a free layer, a space layer, a pinned layer, and a bias layer. The bias layer includes a first bias layer and a second bias layer. The first and second spin valve element pairs are formed on separate metal layers and a current pulse is applied to the metal layers, which sets the direction of magnetization in the pinned layer of the first pair of spin valve elements to be antiparallel to the direction of magnetization in the pinned layer of the second pair of spin valve elements. The same effect can be accomplished by making the pinned layer substantially thicker than the second bias layer in the first spin valve element pair and the pinned layer is substantially thinner than the second bias layer in the second spin valve element pair and applying a magnetic field to the first and the second spin valve element pairs.

Abstract: A disk drive includes a disk and a head stack assembly for reading and writing to the disk. The head stack assembly includes a body portion, a first actuator arm cantilevered from the body portion and a second actuator arm cantilevered from the body portion. A coil portion is cantilevered from the body portion in an opposite direction from the first and second actuator arms. An actuator arm spacer is disposed between the first and second actuator arms and away from the body portion, and mechanically links the first and second actuator arms.

Abstract: A method for making a magnetic disk, without chemical mechanical polishing to remove asperities, includes the steps of placing an annular-shaped element in a vacuum chamber, exposing a surface of the element to a beam of gas clusters while it is in the vacuum chamber, and thereafter applying a magnetic coating. The annular-shaped element may be a substrate, or it may be a substrate with a base coating such as glassy carbon or amorphous carbon. The substrate may be made of glass, preferably high quality fusion glass. The surface of the annular element may be textured by forming a sequence of concentric annular valleys, with plateaus being left between the valleys, before the magnetic coating is applied. A semiconductor wafer may also be smoothed by a beam of gas clusters to prepare the wafer for photolithography.

Abstract: A disk drive has an internal breather filter that performs a filtration function while maintaining ventilation with an exterior of the drive. The filter circulates a gas between an interior and the exterior of its enclosure. The enclosure includes a first ventilation path for circulating the gas from the exterior to the filter, and a second ventilation path for circulating the gas from the filter to the exterior. In addition, a method of inspecting the filter and disk drive is disclosed. The method includes a compressing and decompressing step of compressing and decompressing the inside of the enclosure, a measuring step of measuring pressure in the enclosure, and a judging step of judging whether attachment of the filter is adequate on the basis of a value of the pressure measured.

Abstract: The invention is directed to improvement of a thin film magnetic head of a magnetic recording apparatus. The magnetic head includes a write element, in which a first coil and a second coil are provided on a first insulating film formed on one surface of a first magnetic film and surround in a spiral form a back gap portion. One of the first coil and the second coil is fitted into the space between coil turns of the other, insulated from the coil turns of the other by a second insulating film, and the first and second coils are connected to each other so as to generate magnetic flux in the same direction. One of the first coil and the second coil has a side surface being adjacent to the pole portion with the second insulating film and another side surface being adjacent to the back gap portion with the second insulating film, and each of the side surfaces has a taper angle making the sectional shape of the coil narrower in the lower part and wider in the upper part.

Abstract: A thin film magnetic head which has a thin film coil for generating a magnetic flux and a magnetic pole layer for emitting the magnetic flux generated by the thin film coil toward a recording medium. The magnetic pole layer having a stacked structure including a main magnetic pole layer, an auxiliary magnetic pole layer, and a non-magnetic pole layer. The main magnetic pole layer is disposed so as to be exposed in a recording medium facing surface which faces the recording medium. The auxiliary magnetic pole layer has one end face recessed from the recording medium facing surface and which is disposed so as to face a part of the main magnetic pole layer. The non-magnetic layer is disposed so as to be sandwiched between the main magnetic pole layer and the auxiliary magnetic pole layer.

Abstract: On a first magnetic layer 27, is formed a ring-shaped insulating layer 28 whose air bearing surface side edge defines a reference position for a throat height, and after forming a write gap layer 29, a second magnetic layer 30 is formed such that the second magnetic layer extends over the ring-shaped insulating layer 28. The write gap layer is selectively removed by performing an etching process using the second magnetic layer as a mask, and then the first magnetic layer is partially removed over a part of its thickness to form a trim structure. After forming a thin film coil 33, 35 within the ring-shaped insulating layer, a third magnetic layer is formed to be brought into contact with a rear portion of the second magnetic layer 31. The third magnetic layer may be contacted with a surface, a surface and side walls or a surface, side walls and an end surface of rear portion of the second magnetic layer.

Abstract: In a magnetic tunnel effect type magnetic head 20 having a magnetic tunnel junction element 26 sandwiched with conductive gap layers 25 and 27 between a pair of magnetic shielding layers 24 and 28, the conductive gap layers 25 and 27 are formed from at least one nonmagnetic metal layer containing a metal element selected from Ta, Ti, Cr, W, Mo, V, Nb and Zr. Therefore, the magnetic head 20 can have an improved face opposite to a magnetic recording medium.

Abstract: Provided is a magnetic reproducing apparatus capable of controlling a magnetic domain of a free layer, and obtaining a sufficient reproduction output even if the size of an MR device is reduced. The MR device is formed so as to have a laminate structure in which a semi-hard magnetic layer and a first ferromagnetic layer (free layer) are exchange-coupled to each other through a non-magnetic exchange coupling layer. Unlike an abutted junction structure using a hard magnetic layer, the distribution of a magnetic bias applied from the semi-hard magnetic layer to the first ferromagnetic layer becomes uniform, thereby the first ferromagnetic layer is brought into a single magnetic domain state. Moreover, the semi-hard magnetic layer has a moderate coercive force lying halfway between soft magnetism and hard magnetism, so the magnetization direction of the first ferromagnetic layer is not fixed.

Abstract: An optical pickup actuator including a coil, a first magnet, and a second magnet. The coil is installed in a blade holding an objective lens. The first magnet is positioned inside a cavity formed in the center of the coil. The second magnet is installed outside the cavity to face the first magnet. The outer surface of the first magnet facing the coil is polarized into a first pole and inner surface of the first magnet is polarized into a second pole.

Abstract: A current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) magnetoresistive sensor has additional layers for stabilizing the free layer against sense-current-generated magnetic fields. A ferromagnetic stabilizing layer is spaced from the free layer by a spacer layer and is exchange coupled with a second antiferromagnetic layer, the first antiferromagnetic layer being the conventional one for pinning the pinned layer in the CPP sensor. The stabilizing layer is in a vortex or other non-longitudinal magnetization pattern that is fixed by exchange coupling with the second antiferromagnetic layer. The stabilizing layer is also ferromagnetically coupled to the free layer across the spacer layer so that in the absence of both a sense current and an external magnetic field, the free and stabilization layers have similarly shaped vortex or other non-longitudinal magnetization patterns.

Abstract: A magneto-resistive device is improved in characteristics by removing a surface oxide film to reduce the resistance and reducing an ion beam damage. The magneto-resistive device has a magneto-resistive layer which comprises a tunnel barrier layer, an underlying pinned layer, and an overlying free layer. A non-magnetic layer is formed on the free layer for protection. A composite-layer film comprised of an insulating layer and a damage reducing layer is formed in contact with an effective region which is effectively involved in detection of magnetism in the magneto-resistive layer without overlapping with the effective region. The damage reducing layer is made of a material which includes at least one element, the atomic weight of which is larger than that of silicon. The insulating layer and damage reducing layer do not constitute a magnetic domain control layer for applying a biasing magnetic field to the free layer.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a reader/writer is provided having a substrate with an undercoat formed thereon. A first shield is formed over a portion of the undercoat and a pair of reader leads is formed over the first shield and undercoat. A read sensor is formed between the reader leads and a first pole/second shield is formed over the reader leads. A mid coat is formed over the undercoat and the reader leads. A second pole is formed over and in contact with the mid coat. A lead is formed over the second pole. A pedestal is formed over the reader lead and an overcoat is formed over the second pole and the lead and around the pedestal. A pad is then formed over the pedestal.

Abstract: To accurately decrease the gap depth between an upper pole layer and a lower pole layer and the front-end portion width of the upper pole layer. A thin-film magnetic head of the present invention is constituted by forming a lower shielding layer, a read gap layer holding an MR magnetosensitive element, a common pole layer, and a write gap layer in order on an insulating substrate, forming a first flattening layer, a coil pattern layer, and a second flattening layer laminated in order on the write gap layer excluding the vicinity of an ABS plane, and forming an upper pole layer on the write gap layer and the second flattening layer nearby an ABS plane. Moreover, a concave portion is formed on the common pole layer at a position separated from the ABS plane, the concave portion is filled with a nonmagnetic body, and the gap depth between the upper pole layer and the common pole layer is determined by the concave portion.

Abstract: The present invention is to provide a magnetic tape recording/reproducing device capable of accurately positioning a magnetic tape relative to a magnetic head to thereby improve recording/reproduction characteristics to or from the magnetic tape even when the running direction of the magnetic tape is inverted between forward and reverse directions. First guide rollers are provided so as to swing between a first inclined position and a second inclined position along a tangential direction of the magnetic tape partially wound on roller portions and, where the first inclined position is such that allowing upper flanges to reside on an upstream side of the lower flanges in the tape running direction, and the second inclined position is such that allowing the upper flanges to reside on a downstream side of the lower flanges in the tape running direction. The first guide rollers are respectively provided with drive means for allowing the first guide rollers to swing between the first and second inclined positions.