Patents Examined by Craig A. Renner
  • Patent number: 10777223
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of feeding an agent, capable of stabilizing a remaining agent of a feeding part in characteristic and amount just before definitively feeding an agent to each definitive portion. The method includes intermittently moving a feeding part to a plurality of definitive portions defined on a structural object to definitively feed a flowable agent with a predetermined amount to each one of the definitive portions. The structural object includes a semi-finished product part with the definitive portions and a frame to be separated from the semi-finished product part. The frame includes a waste portion for the flowable agent. The waste portion has a same form as the definitive portions. The feeding part wastefully feeds the flowable agent to the waste portion with a same amount as the predetermined amount and thereafter starts the intermittently moving for the definitively feeding of the flowable agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: NHK SPRING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Teramoto, Masaru Inoue, Takeshi Shimoda
  • Patent number: 10762919
    Abstract: A perpendicular magnetic recording write head includes a main portion formed of conventional high-moment magnetic materials, and a beveled or tapered trailing portion formed of a Co/Fe multilayer with negative magnetic anisotropy (negative anisotropy constant or —Ku). The Co/Fe multilayer tapered trailing portion has a high saturation magnetization (Ms) and thus functions as part of the write pole to direct the flux perpendicularly to the recording layer. Also, the —Ku Co/Fe multilayer tapered trailing portion has its hard axis oriented substantially orthogonal to the layer thickness and thus substantially prevents flux leakage into the write gap. The —Ku Co/Fe multilayer may also be formed on the sides of the write pole in the cross-track direction to prevent flux leakage into the side gaps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Suping Song, Zhanjie Li, Yaguang Wei, Terence Tin-Lok Lam, Kuok San Ho
  • Patent number: 10762916
    Abstract: A disk drive head assembly includes a spin torque oscillator (STO) situated between a main pole and a trailing shield. A head-disk interference (HDI) sensor is placed between the main pole and a read sensor shield. A trace is connected between a preamplifier and the head assembly for providing a first biasing voltage level to the spin torque oscillator (STO) and to the head-disk interference (HDI) sensor for determining resistance changes in the head-disk interference (HDI) sensor. Further, the preamplifier is configured for determining a resistance change in the head-disk interference (HDI) sensor based on a change in current through the head-disk interference (HDI) sensor. The spin torque oscillator (STO) and the head-disk interference (HDI) sensor are connected in parallel to two connectors from the two contacting pads on the preamplifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Headway Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Yan Wu
  • Patent number: 10755732
    Abstract: An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a module having a plurality of tunnel valve read transducers arranged in an array extending along the tape bearing surface of the module. Each of the tunnel valve read transducers has upper and lower shields for providing magnetic shielding. A sensor structure is positioned between the shields. An electrical lead layer is positioned between the sensor structure and one of the shields. The electrical lead layer is in electrical communication with the sensor structure. A spacer layer is positioned between the electrical lead layer and the one of the shields. A conductivity of the electrical lead layer is higher than a conductivity of the spacer layer. At least some of the sensor structures are recessed from a plane extending along the tape bearing surface. An at least partially polycrystalline coating is positioned on a media facing side of the recessed sensor structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert G. Biskeborn, Calvin S. Lo
  • Patent number: 10755733
    Abstract: A read head includes a first ferromagnetic layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, a first diffusion-assist nonmagnetic metallic layer located between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer, a second diffusion-assist nonmagnetic metallic layer located between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer, and a semiconductor spacer layer located between the first diffusion-assist nonmagnetic metallic layer and the second diffusion-assist nonmagnetic metallic layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES LLC
    Inventors: Yuankai Zheng, Christian Kaiser, Zhitao Diao
  • Patent number: 10748560
    Abstract: An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a module having a tape bearing surface. The tape bearing surface extends between first and second edges of the module. A first tape tenting region extends from the first edge along the tape bearing surface toward the second edge. Each tunnel valve read transducer is positioned in the first tape tenting region. A plurality of tunnel valve read transducers are arranged in an array extending along the tape bearing surface of the module in the first tape tenting region. Each of the tunnel valve read transducers includes a sensor structure having a tunnel barrier layer. At least some of the sensor structures are recessed from a plane extending along the tape bearing surface. An at least partially polycrystalline coating is located on a media facing side of the recessed sensor structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert G. Biskeborn, Calvin S. Lo
  • Patent number: 10748566
    Abstract: A disk drive head suspension or flexure and method of manufacture. Embodiments include a portion such as a terminal pad or flying lead comprising a base layer, a dielectric layer on the base layer, a conductor layer, a seed layer between the dielectric layer and the conductor layer, and a noncorrosive metal layer on the seed layer side of the conductor layer. The seed layer has a strip that extends beyond the edge of the dielectric layer. The noncorrosive metal layer extends over the strip of the seed layer and into contact with the edge of the dielectric layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Hutchinson Technology Incorporated
    Inventors: Michael C. Christenson, David M. Groschen
  • Patent number: 10741202
    Abstract: The present disclosure generally relates to a magnetic media drive employing a magnetic recording head. The head includes a main pole at a media facing surface (MFS), a trailing shield at the MFS, and a MAMR stack disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield at the MFS. The MAMR stack includes a seed layer and at least one magnetic layer. The seed layer is fabricated from a thermally conductive material having electrical resistivity lower than that of the main pole. The seed layer has a stripe height greater than a stripe height of the at least one magnetic layer. With the extended seed layer, the bias current from the trailing shield to the main pole spreads further away from the MFS along the extended seed layer before flowing into the main pole, reducing temperature rise at or near the MAMR stack, leading to improved write head reliability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Kuok San Ho, Yunfei Ding, Zhigang Bai, Yaguang Wei, Terence Lam, Goncalo Baiao de Albuquerque, Xinjiang Shen, Feng Q. Liu
  • Patent number: 10734036
    Abstract: A computer program product, including a storage device storing computer readable program code executable by a processor to implement a method for corrosion protection of a tape drive based on a tape drive corrosion protection system that includes a tape drive, a temperature sensor, a heating entity, and a controller. Humidity information is determined via a humidity sensor. Temperature information, indicative of a temperature in or within the tape drive, is established via the temperature sensor. The temperature information is received at the controller. The heating entity is activated in a manner dependent on the temperature information established via the temperature sensor in order to prevent corrosion within the tape drive. Activating the heating entity is in response to a determination that the relative humidity is above a specified relative humidity threshold value and a temperature drop is above a specified temperature drop value within a specified period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ole Asmussen, Robert Beiderbeck, Erik Rueger, Markus Schaefer
  • Patent number: 10734015
    Abstract: The present disclosure generally relates to data storage devices, and more specifically, to a magnetic media drive employing a magnetic recording head. The head includes a main pole at a media facing surface (MFS), a trailing shield at the MFS, a heavy metal layer disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield at the MFS, and a yttrium-iron garnet (YIG) layer. Spin-orbit torque (SOT) is generated from the heavy metal layer and transferred to a surface of the main pole as a current passes through the heavy metal layer in a cross-track direction. The YIG layer is an electrical insulator, but also a good spin current conductor. Thus the charge current can be fully utilized for spin current conversion. The YIG layer does not dissipate energy because there is no shunting. With the reduced shunting from the main pole to the trailing shield, write-ability is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Suping Song, Zhanjie Li, Michael Kuok San Ho
  • Patent number: 10726868
    Abstract: In one general embodiment, an apparatus includes a module having a tape bearing surface and an array of write transducers extending along the tape bearing surface. Each write transducer has a first write pole having a pole tip extending from a media facing side of the first write pole, a second write pole having a pole tip extending from a media facing side of the second write pole, a nonmagnetic write gap between the pole tips of the write poles, and a high moment layer between the pole tips of the write poles. The high moment layer has a higher magnetic moment than a magnetic moment of the pole tip of the second write pole. The tape bearing surface of the module has patterning, and/or a first tape tenting region where each write transducer is positioned in the first tape tenting region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert G. Biskeborn, Calvin S. Lo
  • Patent number: 10714131
    Abstract: Reader-to-reader separation (RRS) is substantially decreased, and cross-track alignment of top and bottom sensors is improved with a process where a sidewall on the two sensors is formed during a single photolithography and ion beam etch sequence. RRS is minimized since the two sensors share a common reference layer (RL), and shields between the readers are omitted. A RL front portion is formed on a first stack of layers with a first free layer and uppermost first tunnel barrier, and a RL back portion is on a second stack comprising a reference layer and antiferromagnetic coupling layer sequentially formed on an antiferromagnetic layer. The RL may be a single layer or a synthetic antiferromagnetic structure so that the sensors operate in a common mode or differential mode, respectively. A third stack with a bottom second tunnel barrier and overlying second free layer is formed on the RL front portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: Headway Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Yan Wu
  • Patent number: 10706878
    Abstract: A junction shield (JS) structure is disclosed for providing longitudinal bias to a free layer (FL) having a width (FLW) and magnetization in a cross-track direction between sidewalls in a sensor. The sensor is formed between bottom and top shields and has sidewalls extending from a front side at an air bearing surface (ABS) to a backside that is a stripe height (SH) from the ABS. The JS structure has a lower layer (JS1) with a magnetization parallel to that of the FL, and a tapered top surface such that JS1 has decreasing thickness with increasing height from the ABS. As aspect ratio or AR (SH/FLW) increases above 1, longitudinal bias increases proportionally to slow an increase in asymmetry as AR increases, and without introducing a loss in amplitude for a reader with low AR. The JS1 layer may be antiferromagnetically coupled to an upper JS layer for stabilization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Headway Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Urmimala Roy, Yan Wu
  • Patent number: 10706877
    Abstract: A magnetic recording head is disclosed having a main pole, a shield hot seed layer positioned at a first side of the main pole, a first material positioned at both a second side and a third side of the main pole, the first material connected to the main pole, a second material positioned adjacent to the first material on the second side and the third side of the main pole, the second material comprised of a spin torque layer, a third material positioned adjacent to the second material on the second side and the third side of the main pole, a fourth material positioned adjacent to the third material on the second side and the third side of the main pole and a side shield connected on an exterior side of the fourth material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Alexander Goncharov, Muhammad Asif Bashir, James Terrence Olson, Petrus Antonius Van Der Heijden
  • Patent number: 10699734
    Abstract: A magnetic recording write head has an electrically-conductive structure in the write gap between the write pole and the trailing shield and electrical circuitry for directing current through the write gap. The current through the electrically-conductive structure generates a circular Ampere field which, at the disk-facing end of the write pole, is substantially parallel to the disk-facing end of the write pole. The electrically-conductive structure in the write gap may be a STO or an electrically-conductive layer that is not part of a STO. The current direction through the electrically-conductive structure in the write gap is selected so that the generated Ampere field at the write pole end is in substantially the same direction as the magnetization direction of the write head side shields, which has been discovered to result in minimization of cross-track interference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Zhigang Bai, Alexander Taratorin, Anna Zheng, Venkatesh Chembrolu, Supradeep Narayana, Suping Song, Yaguang Wei, Terence Lam, Michael Kuok San Ho, Changqing Shi, Lijie Guan
  • Patent number: 10679650
    Abstract: A current-assisted magnetic recording write head has an electrically conductive layer in the write gap between the write pole and the trailing shield. Electrical circuitry directs current from the write pole, through the conductive layer, to the trailing shield. The current through the conductive layer generates an Ampere field substantially orthogonal to the magnetization in the write pole to assist magnetization switching of the write pole. The write head's magnetic throat height (THm) is substantially the thickness of the trailing shield at the write gap, while the write head's electrical throat height (THe) is substantially the height of the conductive layer in the write gap. In embodiments of this invention, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the readback signal and the soft error rate (SER) of the recorded data can be improved with a write gap structure wherein THe is greater than THm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Zhigang Bai, Venkatesh Chembrolu, Yaguang Wei, Terence Lam, Michael Kuok San Ho, Lijie Guan, Suping Song, Supradeep Narayana
  • Patent number: 10679659
    Abstract: Provided is a magnetic tape cartridge of a single reel type in which a magnetic tape is wound around a reel, in which the magnetic tape includes a non-magnetic support, and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder and a binding agent on the non-magnetic support, a tape thickness is equal to or smaller than 5.2 ?m, a tape width difference (B?A) between a tape width A at a position of 10 m±1 m from a tape outer end and a tape width B at a position of 50 m±1 m from a tape inner end is 2.4 ?m to 12.0 ?m, and the tape width A and the tape width B are values measured 100 days from the date of magnetic tape cartridge manufacture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventors: Yusuke Kagawa, Norihito Kasada, Yuto Murata
  • Patent number: 10672426
    Abstract: The magnetic tape includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder and a binding agent on the non-magnetic support, in which a magnetic tape total thickness is equal to or smaller than 5.30 ?m, the magnetic layer has a servo pattern, a center line average surface roughness Ra measured regarding a surface of the magnetic layer is equal to or smaller than 1.8 nm, and an isoelectric point of a surface zeta potential of the magnetic layer is equal to or greater than 5.5.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Norihito Kasada
  • Patent number: 10672425
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are magnetic storage media with embedded disconnected circuits, and magnetic storage systems comprising such media. A magnetic storage media comprises a recording layer comprising a storage location, and an embedded disconnected circuit (EDC) configured to assist in at least one of writing to or reading from the storage location in response to a wireless activation signal. A magnetic storage system comprises a signal generator configured to generate a wireless activation signal, a magnetic storage media with a plurality of storage locations, and a write transducer and/or a read receiver. The magnetic storage media has at least one EDC configured to assist in writing to and/or reading from at least one of the plurality of storage locations in response to the wireless activation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Pankaj Mehra, Bernd Lamberts, Sridhar Chatradhi, Jordan A. Katine
  • Patent number: 10672421
    Abstract: A magnetoresistive device includes an MR element and a bias magnetic field generation unit. The MR element includes a free layer shaped to be long in one direction. The bias magnetic field generation unit includes a ferromagnetic layer for generating a bias magnetic field. The ferromagnetic layer includes two main portions, a first side portion, and a second side portion arranged to surround the perimeter of the free layer. In any cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the free layer, a shortest distance between the first side portion and the free layer and a shortest distance between the second side portion and the free layer are 35 nm or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: TDK Corporation
    Inventor: Kenzo Makino