Abstract: A rotary microactuator includes a stationary electrode formed on a substrate, a movable electrode in proximity to the stationary electrode, a flexure mechanically connecting the stationary electrode to the movable electrode, and a plurality of limiters anchored to the substrate. Each limiter has an in-plane limiter portion and an out-of-plane limiter portion. The in-plane limiter portion limits movement of the movable electrode to a predetermined in-plane distance in a direction parallel to a surface of the substrate. The out-of-plane limiter portion limits movement of the movement of the movable electrode to a predetermined out-of-plane distance.

Abstract: An air bearing slider for supporting a magnetic read/write head on a moving disk includes at least one front force carrying pad located in front of a suspension pivot point of an air bearing slider, at least one rear force-carrying pad located behind the suspension pivot point of the air bearing slider, and a trailing-edge pad having a magnetic read/write head embedded in a rear portion of the trailing-edge pad. Each front force-carrying pad carries a front air bearing force that is generated by a relative motion between a surface of the disk and the slider when the surface of the disk has a predetermined disk velocity with respect to the slider. Each rear force-carrying pad carries a rear air bearing force that is generated by the relative motion between the surface of the disk and the slider. The trailing edge pad carries substantially no air bearing force.

Abstract: A magnetoresistance effect type head comprises a magnetoresistance effect film having a pair of leads connected thereto and possessing a magnetic field responding part and a pair of upper and lower shield layers having a magnetoresistance effect film nipped therebetween through the medium of a magnetic gap-forming insulating film. This magnetoresistance effect type head satisfies the relations, W.sub.s <W.sub.r and T.sub.r <W.sub.r, wherein W.sub.s stands for the width of the surface of the upper shield layer facing the magnetoresistance effect film, W.sub.r for the distance between the pair of leads, and T.sub.r for the width of the magnetic field responding part of the magnetoresistance effect film. The magnetic field responding part of the magnetoresistance effect film is formed as of the remainder of the MR film region whose magnetic moment is fixed outside the end part of the upper shield layer facing the MA film.

Abstract: A drum base according to he invention, on which a drum of a magnetic tape recorder is mounted, comprises a substantially annular frame having a fixing surface to which the drum is fixed; at least one through hole extending through the fixing surface for allowing a screw which is to be threadably attached to a threaded hole formed in the drum to pass therethrough; and a pair of mounting surfaces provided on the fixing surface on which the drum is mounted, the mounting surfaces being located adjacent to the at least one through hole so as to have a symmetrical relationship in a circumferential direction of the annular frame with respect to the at least one through hole and within a range of a diameter dimension of the at least one through hole in a radial direction of the annular frame.

Abstract: A turntable device of the present invention is applicable to, e.g., an optical disk drive and driven by a spindle motor while supporting an optical disk or similar disk-like recording medium thereon. A turntable assembly is made up of an upper turntable and a lower turntable. The upper turntable includes a projection having a tapered portion, and spring portions. The tapered portion and spring portions cooperate to surely obviate the eccentricity of the disk. The lower turntable includes a recess forming a space for accommodating the spring portions, thereby reducing the overall thickness of the assembly. The turntable device is therefore highly portable and small size.

Abstract: A tape drive chassis with isolation mounting features in the back half of the chassis that enable the chassis to be mounted in a computer bay that is twisted or has misaligned mounting features. The isolation mounting features of the chassis are integral with the chassis and designed to deflect and conform to torque in the computer bay. The isolation mounting features include travel limit stops that limit the distance that the isolation mounting features can be bent. The isolation mounting features ensure that the drive chassis remains planar even if the host computer bay may be twisted or have mounting holes that are not co-planar.

Abstract: A disk table in a magnetic disk drive is disclosed. The disk table comprises a disk table body having an opening, a chucking arm made of an elastic body, where one end of the chucking arm is fixed on a lower face of the disk table body and the other end of the chucking arm is set free, a chucking roller disposed on the other fee end of the chucking arm, where the chucking roller is protruded from an upper face of the disk table through the opening, and a stopper provided on the lower face of the disk table in the vicinity of the free end of the chucking arm, wherein the chucking arm is freely floatable in vertical direction, and the amount of separation of the free end of the chucking arm from the lower face of the disk table body is restricted by stopper when the chucking roller is urged downwards.

Abstract: The substrate of a magnetic recording medium is laser textured using a continuous wave laser light beam and microfocusing lens system to form a laser textured data zone comprising a plurality of substantially uniform concentric microgrooves. In an embodiment, the microfocusing lens system comprises an array of horizontally and vertically spaced apart microfocusing lenses, each optically linked to a fiber optic cable.

Abstract: A magnet is provided which holds spherical balancers in the central portion of a rotor when the rotation of the rotor is stopped. When rotations of the rotor is started, a larger torque T.sub.0 is transmitted from the rotor to the balancers. Thus, the balancers quickly start rotating. When the rotor rotates at high speed, the centrifugal force separates the balancers from the magnet and moves the same to the outer wall portion of the rotor. At this time, a torque T.sub.0 which is transmitted from the rotor to the balancer is reduced so that the balancers are moved in the circumferential direction. Thus, the automatic aligning operation is performed. The number (n) of the balancers is made to be a value obtained by the following equation:n=180/.theta.+0.5 (all digits to the right of the decimal point are discarded)wherein .theta.: angle of balancer balls disposed in the outer portion, in which .theta.=2sin.sup.

Abstract: An apparatus and associated method are described which reduce air turbulence in a disc drive assembly. In a method of use, a groove is machined into a side portion of an actuator arm and then a streamlined actuator arm side rail is inserted into the groove to provide streamlining characteristics to the actuator arms. An actuator arm is provided which has a groove which extends along a side portion of the actuator arm. A streamlined side rail is attached to the side portion of the actuator arm, and is preferably arrowhead-shaped so that the side rail mates with the groove. The streamlined side rail reduces air turbulence in the disc drive caused by air flow against and around the actuator arms, yielding an improvement in the power consumption of the disc pack spindle motor.

Abstract: A method of design of a magnetic recording slider and sensor geometry is disclosed which allows a magneto-resistive recording element to achieve a significantly reduced physical and magnetic spacing with a rigid magnetic recording disk in a disk drive, without resulting in thermal transients caused by sensor/disk contacts. The method utilizes pseudo-contact slider technology with an intentionally recessed MR sensor pole tip and alumina region. The reduced spacing achieved by pseudo-contact recording is significant compared to the spacing loss incurred by the proposed precision of the MR recording element, resulting in a net reduction in head medium magnetic spacing.

Abstract: A low-noise toroidal thin film head ("TFH") device has low coil resistance and inductance, especially suitable for very high magnetic recording areal densities and channel frequencies. The length of a toroidal coil turn is only about 20-30% that of the length of an average turn in the conventional planar spiral coil design. This allows either reduction of the device thermal noise (by about 6 dB) and/or increase of the device operational frequency bandwidth (by a factor of 3-5). The toroidal coil coupling efficiency between each turn and the magnetic core is practically 100%, thereby improving the write and read-back efficiencies. In one embodiment a non-via large back-closure contact area is provided between the bottom and top magnetic poles along their entire back-side width, and all other open branches and loose ends in the magnetic circuit are eliminated. The magnetic core has a gradual, smooth toroidal (or a horse-shoe) shape with no loose ends, nooks, crevices, or sharp corners.

Abstract: A rotary microactuator that includes a stationary structure formed on a substrate and a movable structure attached to the stationary structure by a flexure. The stationary structure has at least one branch, with each branch of the stationary structure having at least one electrode finger. The movable structure has at least one branch and a center of rotation about which the movable structure rotates. Each branch of the movable structure has at least one electrode finger. Each branch of the movable structure is separated from an adjacent branch of the stationary structure by a minimum-required distance along the branch of the movable structure.

Abstract: A head drum assembly for use in a video cassette recorder includes a rotary drum having a through hole and a threaded hole, a video head composed of a head chip for recording/reproducing signals on a magnetic tape, and a base plate divided into a fixed portion and a mounting portion for mounting the head chip, wherein the fixed portion of the base plate is formed with an aperture corresponding to the threaded hole of the rotary drum in such a way that the video head is installed on a lower surface of the rotary drum by engaging a fastening screw therethrough, and is formed with a slot, and a deformable member inserted into the slot in such a way that, when the deformable member is impinged by a laser beam, the head chip mounting portion of the base plate moves downwardly by a volume expansion of the deformable member.

Abstract: An apparatus having a magnetic head assembly including a plurality of arms each arm having a magnetic head fixed to a nose portion thereof and a magnetic disk unit having a plurality of magnetic disks mounted on a rotating shaft. The spacing between adjacent magnetic disks being set at a value corresponding to the thicknesses of the magnetic heads fixed to two of the arms, plus the thickness of the two arms, plus a rotating gap of the magnetic heads, plus a space of 0.1 mm or less. Further included is a disk height measuring device and a head measuring device for measuring the heights of the disks and the magnetic heads. An expansion device expands the spacing between the adjacent arms. The spacing between the adjacent arms being expanded an appropriate amount to provide optimal operation of the magnetic disk apparatus.

Abstract: A rotary microactuator includes a movable structure having a center of rotation about which the movable structure rotates, a stationary structure formed on a substrate, and a flexure member attaching the movable structure to the attachment structure of the stationary structure. The stationary structure has an attachment structure having an area including the center of rotation of the movable structure and having an attachment surface enclosing the center of rotation. The flexure member includes at least one flexure element. Each flexure element is attached to the attachment surface of the attachment structure and extends radially to the movable structure. A distance between the center of rotation of the movable structure and a point on the attachment surface of the stationary structure where one end of a flexure element is attached being shorter than a length of the flexure element.

Abstract: A MR element includes a MR layer with a strip shape extending in a track width direction. The MR layer has a surface located at a front end edge of the layer, to be opposed to a magnetic medium, and a tapered portion located at a rear end edge of the layer. In order to define the height of the MR layer, a length of the tapered portion along a direction perpendicular to the track width direction (L) is determined to substantially 1/5 or less, preferably 1/10 or less of a distance between the front end edge and the rear end edge of the MR layer (h.sub.MR).

Abstract: A disk drive system includes a base, a disk rotatably attached to the base, and an actuator assembly pivotally attached to the base. The actuator assembly moves the transducer to selected areas of the disk where information representative of data is to be written or read. The actuator assembly maintains the transducer in a transducing relationship with the disk. The actuator assembly includes an arm and a head gimbal assembly. The head gimbal assembly includes a suspension. The arm has a length from the point where it pivots to the end of the arm. The length of the arm is greater than 1.5 times the length of the suspension. The ratio of the length of the arm to the length of the suspension is in the range of 2.0 to 10.0. The arm is made of a composite material that includes elongated stiffening fibers. The resulting composite has a stiffness to mass ratio higher than aluminum, steel, or magnesium.

Abstract: The leading edge of a lower pole is constituted by a protruded central parallel portion, opposite end parallel portions, and slanted portions coupling the central parallel portion and the opposite end parallel portions. The width T.sub.wc of the central parallel portion is set to 10 to 25% of the total width T.sub.wa of the lower pole. The thickness P1' of the opposite end portion is set in the range from 3/1 or thicker to 3/2 or thinner than the thickness P1 of the central parallel portion.

Abstract: A moment-flex head suspension has a construction that reduces the pitch and roll stiffness of the read/write head support while maintaining the lateral stiffness of the flexure or gimbal of the head suspension sufficiently high.