Patents Examined by Brian Butcher
  • Patent number: 8953423
    Abstract: There is provided a cartridge including a plurality of optical information recording media having unique information recorded thereon, an accommodation body configured to accommodate the plurality of optical information recording media, and an identification device configured to store the unique information of the plurality of optical information recording media and supply the unique information to a changer in a non-contact manner, the identification device being provided in the accommodation body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2015
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshihisa Chiba, Hisao Tanaka, Osami Banjo
  • Patent number: 8947989
    Abstract: A wobble determining apparatus is provided with: a calculating device for calculating (i) a first time required until reaching a number of revolutions of a motor which allows a predetermined linear velocity, and (ii) a second time required to move an optical head to a position which allows the predetermined linear velocity, on the basis of the number of revolutions of the motor and the position of the optical head; a judging device for judging whether to keep the optical head in accordance with the calculated first time and the calculated second time; and a controlling device for controlling a moving device not to move the optical head if it is judged to keep the optical head, and for controlling the moving device to move the optical head to the position which allows the predetermined linear velocity if it is judged not to keep the optical head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Tani, Yoshinori Kajiwara, Wataru Terui, Takahiro Otomo
  • Patent number: 8937783
    Abstract: A magnetic data recording system wherein the wherein adjacent track interference during writing is avoided by modulating the size of a write bubble on the magnetic media in response to a position error signal. If the position error signal indicates that the magnetic head is off-track, circuitry within the magnetic data recording system adjusts the size of the write bubble temporarily to prevent the write bubble from encroaching on a neighboring data track. This adjustment of the write bubble can be accomplished by adjusting power to the write head. Adjustment of the write bubble can also be achieved by adjusting power to a magnetic oscillator in a microwave assisted magnetic recording system (MAMR) or adjusting power to a heating element in a thermally assisted magnetic recording system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: HGST Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Thomas R. Albrecht, Manfred E. Schabes
  • Patent number: 8929016
    Abstract: A magnetic recording head includes a magnetic writer comprising a main write pole and a return write pole. The magnetic recording head includes a write heater assembly comprising at least one first heater subassembly and at least one second heater subassembly. At least part of the magnetic write head is disposed between the first heater subassembly and the second heater subassembly. When the first heater subassembly, the second heater subassembly, and the magnetic writer are energized, a variation in the thermal protrusion of the head media interface of the magnetic recording head may be less than about 20 nm along the down track and/or cross track directions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventors: Kaizhong Gao, Raul Horacio Andruet, Xiaobin Wang
  • Patent number: 8929008
    Abstract: Systems and methods for testing magnetic media disks during manufacturing using sliders with temperature sensors are provided. One such method involves scanning a surface of a selected disk of a plurality of magnetic media disks using a slider including a magnetic transducer and a temperature sensor, counting a number of the surfaces scanned, determining, during the scanning, whether a threshold crossing event has occurred by determining whether a signal from the temperature sensor signal is not within a preselected range, counting, during the scanning, a number of threshold crossing events, storing, if the number of threshold crossing events is greater than a preselected events limit, the number of surfaces scanned, stopping, if the number of surfaces scanned is greater than a surfaces scanned threshold, the scanning, and returning, if the number of surfaces scanned is less than or equal to the surfaces scanned threshold, to scan a next selected disk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: WD Media, LLC
    Inventors: Thomas A. O'Dell, Balvinder Singh
  • Patent number: 8922926
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide a recording medium. The recording medium may include a dedicated servo layer for providing servo information. The dedicated servo layer may include a plurality of tracks. A first track may include a first servo signal. A second track may include a second servo signal. The first servo signal and the second servo signal may include a plurality of common transitions. The transitions may be provided at a pre-determined frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Agency for Science, Technology Research
    Inventors: Jingliang Zhang, Lin Thi Lin, Zhimin Yuan, Bo Liu
  • Patent number: 8922521
    Abstract: A circuit for switching an LCD between display and touch modes is disclosed. The circuit can include one or more switches configured to switch one or more drive, sense, and data lines in LCD pixels according to the mode. During touch mode, the circuit switches can be configured to switch one or more drive lines to receive stimulation signals, one or more sense lines to transmit touch signals, and one or more data lines to transmit residual data signals. During display mode, the circuit switches can be configured to switch one or more drive lines and sense lines to receive common voltage signals and one or more data lines to receive data signals. The circuit can be formed around the border of the LCD chip or partially or fully on a separate chip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Porter Hotelling, Marduke Yousefpor, Shih Chang Chang
  • Patent number: 8908480
    Abstract: A method and system provide an energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) disk drive. The EAMR disk drive includes a media, at least one laser coupled with the slider, at least one EAMR head on the slider, and at least one electro-optical modulator (EAM) The EAM(s) are optically coupled with the laser(s) and coupled with the slider. The combination of the laser(s) and EAM(s) provide a pulsed energy output. The EAMR head(s) include at least one waveguide, a write pole, and at least one coil for energizing the write pole. The waveguide(s) receive the pulsed energy output and direct the pulsed energy output toward the media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Alexander Krichevsky
  • Patent number: 8908312
    Abstract: A data storage device and method for enabling dynamic fly height control which is insensitive to off-track motions is described. In some embodiments, a hard disk drive acquires signal data from neighboring overlapping tracks which are unwritten, thermally erased, or AC demagnetized. Side-to-side (off-track) positional errors or oscillations of the read head do not affect the signal which arises solely from the magnetic domains on the disk. Thus, signal variations may only arise from changes in the fly height. In other embodiments, neighboring overlapping data tracks are prewritten with reference data. The width of the neighboring overlapping tracks exceeds any expected side-to-side positional errors of the read head, thus signal variations may only arise from changes in the fly height. For all embodiments, the noise or reference data signal may serve as a reliable dynamic measure of the fly height with no effects arising from off-track motions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: HGST Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Sripathi V. Canchi, Michael K. Grobis, Bruno Marchon, Erhard Schreck
  • Patent number: 8902530
    Abstract: A set of decisions is determined based at last in part on a set of samples. For a given sample in the set of samples, a low frequency noise estimate is estimated based at least in part on (1) at least some samples from the set of samples and (2) at least some decisions from the set of decisions. A reduced noise sample is generated by removing the low frequency noise estimate from the given sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: SK hynix memory solutions inc.
    Inventors: Zheng Wu, Jason Bellorado, Naveen Kumar, Marcus Marrow
  • Patent number: 8902531
    Abstract: A maximum velocity is dynamically determined during a tape drive operation to obtain a statistical standard deviation of a position error signal (PES) that yields an amount of stopwrite (SW) operations that avoids backhitching. The tape velocity is adjusted to the maximum velocity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nhan Xuan Bui, Kevin Bruce Judd, Roger Javier Justo, Hirokazu Nakayama, Tomoko Taketomi
  • Patent number: 8897107
    Abstract: There is provided a playback device including a light source, an objective lens that radiates light emitted onto an optical recording medium, and onto which is incident reflected light obtained from a recording surface of the optical recording medium, a condenser lens that condenses the reflected light, a photodetecting section configured to, provided that a confocal position is a focal position of the condenser lens, ? is a wavelength of light radiated onto the optical recording medium, and NA is a numerical aperture of the objective lens, extract and detect light within a range of a diameter less than 1.5?/NA centered on an optical axis at the confocal position, and a phase difference imparting section that imparts a designated phase difference between a reflected light component from a readout track and a reflected light component from a track neighboring the readout track.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Kimihiro Saito
  • Patent number: 8897106
    Abstract: An objective lens for optical pickup and an optical pickup apparatus having the same are provided. The objective lens for optical pickup includes a light source side lens surface and a disc side lens surface. The light source side lens surface and the disc side lens surface each include an effective region disposed at a central region of the objective lens and a non-effective region disposed outside the effective region. An optical path changing element, disposed in the non-effective region of at least one of the light source side lens surface and the disc side lens surface, changes a path of light incident thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Seong-su Park, Soo-han Park, Woo-chang Chun
  • Patent number: 8891344
    Abstract: The invention combines several techniques applying high-resolution photosensitive emulsions for the long-term, archival storage of data, images and text. Data is stored as vertical interference patterns of multiple frequencies in a photographic emulsion. Read-out of the stored data uses a precision mechanism to locate and decode stored data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Inventors: Eric Dean Rosenthal, Richard Jay Solomon, Clark Eugene Johnson
  • Patent number: 8879371
    Abstract: A recording medium is provided with: a guide layer on which a guide track or tracks are formed; and a plurality of recording layers, wherein a same mark group is formed in a same rotational phase position of each of a plurality of guide tracks which are included in a beam spot of guide laser light, the mark group including a pair of record marks which are shifted by a predetermined distance toward a right side and a left side, respectively, from a track center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignees: Pioneer Corporation, Memory-Tech Holdings Inc.
    Inventors: Masayoshi Yoshida, Takuya Shiroto, Hideki Kobayashi, Masakazu Ogasawara, Takao Tagiri, Makoto Suzuki
  • Patent number: 8878772
    Abstract: A display system includes a display device having multiple possible poses, including a neutral pose. A physical constraint maintains the display device in the neutral pose absent an application of an external force. A sensor measures a magnitude and direction of a displacement of the display device to a displaced pose due to the application of the external force. Then, the rendering engine renders an image on the display device according to the magnitude and direction of the displacement even while the display device remains constant in the displaced pose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Yuri Ivanov, John C. Barnwell, III, James Barabas
  • Patent number: 8861322
    Abstract: An exemplary optical pickup comprises: a light source with first and second emission points; an optical branching element which branches light emitted from the first emission point into multiple light beams including a first main beam and first sub-beams and which also branches light emitted from the second emission point into multiple light beams including a second main beam and second sub-beams; an optical system which condenses the multiple light beams produced by the optical branching element onto an optical storage medium, thereby making the first and second main beams form a write light beam spot and a read light beam spot, respectively, on a target recording track on the storage medium and making the first and second sub-beams form reference light beam spots and other light beam spots somewhere on the storage medium other than the target recording track.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroaki Matsumiya, Kazuo Momoo
  • Patent number: 8861124
    Abstract: A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) transducer is coupled with a laser for providing energy and has an air-bearing surface (ABS) configured to reside in proximity to a media during use. The HAMR transducer includes a waveguide optically coupled with the laser and an optical power monitor optically coupled with the waveguide. The waveguide directs energy from the laser toward the media. The optical power monitor is optically coupled with the waveguide. The optical power monitor for captures a portion of the energy, converts the portion of the energy to heat and measures a local temperature proximate to the optical power monitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Western Digital (Fremont), LLC
    Inventors: Marc A. Finot, Matthew R. Gibbons, William J. Kozlovsky, Hongxing Yuan
  • Patent number: 8854938
    Abstract: An optical recording medium and a manufacturing method for forming the optical recording medium is provided. The optical recording medium includes a bar code-shaped reflection pattern that includes high reflection rate regions and low reflection rate regions and information is recorded with the bar code-shaped reflection pattern. The low reflection rate region is formed with pit strings. The high reflection rate region and the low reflection rate region are formed to satisfy: S+M/2?0.6H, where a signal level of a reproduction signal obtained from a reflection light in the high reflection rate region is denoted as “H”, a signal level of a reproduction signal obtained from a reflection light in the low reflection rate region is denoted as “S”, and a degree of modulation of the reproduction signal obtained from the reflection light in the low reflection rate region is denoted as “M”.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporationn
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kashiwagi, Yoshihiro Akimoto, Kimihiro Saito, Akiya Saito
  • Patent number: 8854936
    Abstract: Embodiments of optical disc drives are described that perform automatic forward sense calibration of write laser power using a sample and hold sampling strategy that is automatically determined based on an automatically selected write strategy. Embodiments of the described optical disc drive may be dynamically configured to support any optical disc media, any write mode, and any write strategy. The write strategies supported may include dynamically changing write speeds and/or write power levels across the respective optical media tracks. As the optical drive is automatically configured for a selected write media/write mode/write strategy, the sample and hold sampling delays used to control the sampling of a forward sense feedback signal are also automatically configured, thereby allowing each forward sense sampling point to be aligned with an area of the forward sense feedback signal that corresponds to a power level of interest and that avoids distortion in the feedback signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Gary Christopher Maul, Tom Geukens