Patents Examined by Nabil Hindi
  • Columnar data storage on tape partition
    Patent number: 9830104
    Abstract: A method for writing data from a table to a tape includes setting a number of partitions on the tape, where the number of partitions is greater than or equal to a number of columns of the table to be written to the tape, and writing data from each column of the table to at least one partition of the tape, the at least one partition including two or more wraps, the data is written from a top of the two or more wraps towards a bottom of the two or more wraps in a direction of a width of the at least one partition. The written data is reciprocated from a beginning of the tape to an end of the tape in a longitudinal direction of the tape such that writing of a last data entry of one column ends at a beginning of the two or more wraps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kousei Kawamura, Koichi Masuda, Sosuke Matsui, Yutaka Oishi, Takahiro Tsuda
  • Shock sensor resonance detection for notch filter tuning
    Patent number: 9832050
    Abstract: A method of tuning a notch filter in a data storage device (DSD) including the notch filter and a shock detection system includes: adjusting pulse width modulator (PWM) frequency settings of a spindle drive signal; detecting a maximum noise level of an output signal of the shock detection system while adjusting the PWM frequency settings; and selecting a notch filter frequency corresponding to a PWM frequency setting at which the maximum noise level of the output signal of the shock detection system is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Erik J. Eklund, Timothy A. Ferris
  • Pad sharing for contact sensor and bolometer with temperature compensation in heat-assisted magnetic recording device
    Patent number: 9824705
    Abstract: A slider of a heat-assisted recording head comprises electrical bond pads coupled to bias sources and a ground pad, an air bearing surface, and a waveguide configured to receive light from a laser source. A contact sensor proximate the air bearing surface is coupled between a first bond pad and a second bond pad. A bolometer is coupled to a reference thermal sensor. The bolometer is situated at a slider location that receives at least some of the light communicated along the waveguide. The reference thermal sensor is situated at a slider location unexposed to the light communicated along the waveguide. The bolometer and reference thermal sensor are coupled between the first and second bond pads and in parallel with the contact sensor. A ground connection is coupled to the ground pad and at a connection between the bolometer and the reference thermal sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Declan Macken, Jon Karsten Klarqvist
  • Light information device and light information processing method
    Patent number: 9824713
    Abstract: Provided is a light information device, and the like, that records header information on an information recording medium, after preventing screen burn of a spatial light modulator. One example of the solution in the present invention is a light information device that records two-dimensional page data on an information recording medium and is provided with a first information generation unit, a second information generation unit that generates a second bit string on the basis of a first bit string, and a spatial light modulation unit that displays a pattern corresponding to the second bit string.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsushi Neo, Jyunya Iizuka
  • Skew compensation in a patterned medium
    Patent number: 9818438
    Abstract: A system may compensate for skew in a patterned medium, such as but not limited to a self-assembling bit patterned medium, with a write pole separated from a data storage medium by an air bearing. The write pole being connected to a controller. The data storage medium can have a plurality of magnetic islands arranged in data tracks with each data track having a track center. The write pole may be selectively shifted from the track center by the controller to compensate for a skewed write pole configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventors: Wenzhong Zhu, Gary E. Hillukka, Bin Huang
  • Measuring transition shifts due to laser power variation in a heat-assisted magnetic recording device
    Patent number: 9818447
    Abstract: A method comprises writing a waveform on a magnetic recording medium using a heat-assisted magnetic recording apparatus which includes a laser. The method also comprises reading back the waveform from the medium, and detecting one or more transition shifts in the readback waveform indicative of a mode hop of the laser. The method further comprises measuring a metric of the one or more transition shifts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Xuan Zheng, Walter R. Eppler, Julius K. Hohlfeld, Heidi M. Olson
  • Heat assisted magnetic recording system having at least three possible magnetic configurations per physical bit
    Patent number: 9818440
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a heat assisted magnetic recording system includes a magnetic recording medium comprising a magnetic recording layer, where the magnetic recording layer includes a plurality of physical bits. Each physical bit has a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and one of at least three magnetic states, where the at least three magnetic states include a +1 magnetic state, a 0 magnetic state, and a ?1 magnetic state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Pierre-Olivier Jubert, Michael Konrad Grobis, Richard Leo Galbraith, Roger William Wood
  • Read head characteristic pre-detection
    Patent number: 9812164
    Abstract: Implementations disclosed herein provide a method comprising applying voltage to a read head during an unload state, detecting characteristic read head data, and storing the detected characteristic read head data in a buffer. In another implementation, the method further comprises performing a read retry operation in response to a read failure, reading the detected characteristic read head data from the buffer, determining if the detected characteristic read head data meets a threshold for a first predetermined criterion, performing a correction operation if the threshold for the first the first predetermined criterion is met, determining whether a media sector is read successfully, and ending the read retry operation if the media sector is read successfully.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Mingyeong Son, Seungyoul Jeong, Man Sik Shim, Woo Chan Kim
  • Bond pad sharing between a temporary contact sensor and a multiplicity of readers of a recording head
    Patent number: 9812159
    Abstract: A slider of a magnetic recording head includes a plurality of electrical bond pads and a plurality of readers comprising at least a first reader and a second reader. Each of the readers is coupled to a different pair of electrical bond pads. A temporary contact sensor is provided on the slider and coupled between a bond pad of the first reader and a bond pad of the second reader. The temporary contact sensor is configured for operation during a certification process of the apparatus and to become inoperable after completion of the certification process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Declan Macken
  • Resistive temperature sensors for improved asperity, head-media spacing, and/or head-media contact detection
    Patent number: 9812161
    Abstract: A sensor supported by a head transducer has a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and a sensor resistance. The sensor operates at a temperature above ambient and is responsive to changes in sensor-medium spacing. Conductive contacts connected to the sensor have a contact resistance and a cross-sectional area adjacent to the sensor larger than that of the sensor, such that the contact resistance is small relative to the sensor resistance and negligibly contributes to a signal generated by the sensor. A multiplicity of head transducers each support a TCR sensor and a power source can supply bias power to each sensor of each head to maintain each sensor at a fixed temperature above an ambient temperature in the presence of heat transfer changes impacting the sensors. A TCR sensor of a head transducer can include a track-oriented TCR sensor wire for sensing one or both of asperities of the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Manuel Charles Anaya-Dufresne, Brian William Karr, Gary Joseph Kunkel, Zhen Wei
  • Magnetic disk device, adjusting method thereof, and manufacturing method thereof
    Patent number: 9805759
    Abstract: An adjusting method for a magnetic disk device including a disk, a head that writes data on the disk, a controller circuit that outputs write data and a control signal related to the write data, and an integrated circuit that outputs a write current to the head, includes adding a delay to a timing of polarity inversion of one bit of the write data or the control signal, outputting the write data and the control signal added with the delay from the controller circuit to the integrated circuit, outputting from the integrated circuit to the head, the write current having a current value that is changed at one of timings of polarity inversion of the write data, according to the control signal, and adjusting a deviation between the write data and the control signal, based on the output write current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventor: Keiichi Kishino
  • HAMR NFT materials with improved thermal stability
    Patent number: 9805757
    Abstract: A near field transducer includes gold and at least one dopant. The dopant can include at least one of: Cu, Rh, Ru, Ag, Ta, Cr, Al, Zr, V, Pd, Ir, Co, W, Ti, Mg, Fe, or Mo. The dopant concentration may be in a range from 0.5% and 30%. The dopant can be a nanoparticle oxide of V, Zr, Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, Si, Ce, Y, Ta, W, or Th, or a nitride of Ta, Al, Ti, Si, In, Fe, Zr, Cu, W or B.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventors: Tong Zhao, Michael Christopher Kautzky, William Albert Challener, Michael Allen Seigler
  • Reproducing device
    Patent number: 9805761
    Abstract: A reproducing device (100) includes (i) an optical pickup (6) for irradiating, with reproduction light, an optical disk (1) which is a super-resolution medium, (ii) an RF signal processing circuit (9) for converting, into a reproduction signal, light which reflected off optical disk (1), (iii) an i-MLSE detecting section (141) for evaluating quality of the reproduction signal, and (iv) a spherical aberration correcting section (142) for correcting a spherical aberration by using a result of evaluation of the quality of the reproduction signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignees: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA, MEMORY-TECH HOLDINGS INC.
    Inventors: Hideharu Tajima, Masaki Yamamoto, Hirohisa Yamada, Takayuki Naka, Masahito Konishi
  • Band rewrite optimization
    Patent number: 9805762
    Abstract: Implementations disclosed herein provide a method comprising comparing high-latency data sectors of a storage band, the high-latency data sectors having latency above a predetermined threshold, with target sectors for storing new data to determine one or more of the high-latency data sectors that may be skipped during retrieval of at-rest data from the storage band.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Jian Qiang, Wen Xiang Xie, Libin Cai, Andrew Kowles
  • Recording head with an on-wafer integrated laser
    Patent number: 9799359
    Abstract: A recording head includes a layer of plasmonic metal deposited on a surface of the recording head. One or more non-self-supporting layers of crystalline material are attached to the plasmonic metal, the one or more layers of crystalline materials configured to form an active region of a laser. A waveguide is configured to receive plasmons from the laser and direct the plasmons to a recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Scott Eugene Olson, Karim Tatah, Yi-Kuei Ryan Wu, Mark Anthony Gubbins, Marcus B. Mooney, Michael James Hardy
  • Dual purpose bolometric sensor for heat-assisted magnetic recording device
    Patent number: 9799361
    Abstract: An apparatus comprises a slider and an optical waveguide formed in the slider and configured to receive light from a laser source. A near-field transducer (NFT) is formed on the slider at or near an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider and optically coupled to the waveguide. A bolometric sensor is positioned proximate the NFT and exposed to at least some of the light. The bolometric sensor is configured to detect changes in output optical power of the laser source and contact between the slider and a magnetic recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: John Charles Duda, James Gary Wessel
  • Laser mode hopping detection method and apparatus for a heat-assisted magnetic recording device
    Patent number: 9792949
    Abstract: An apparatus and method provide for performing, using a heat-assisted magnetic recording head, multiple sequential writes to a recording medium, and recording a metric of write performance for each of the writes. The apparatus and method further provide for calculating fluctuations in the metric, detecting whether the head has a laser mode hopping problem using the metric fluctuations, and categorizing a severity of the laser mode hopping problem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Minjie Ma, Tim Rausch, Edward Charles Gage, Pu-Ling Lu
  • Layer for reducing magnetic field proximate a near-field transducer
    Patent number: 9786303
    Abstract: An apparatus comprises a magnetic pole and a near-field transducer positioned at or near a media-facing surface and is separated from the magnetic pole, the near-field transducer configured to generate a thermal spot. The apparatus further comprises a layer proximate the magnetic pole and the near-field transducer, and the layer is configured to reduce a magnetic field proximate a center of the thermal spot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventors: Christopher J. Rea, Hua Zhou, Jie Gong
  • Failure prognosis device, method, and storage system
    Patent number: 9786306
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a failure prognosis device includes circuitry configured to determine whether a sign of failure exists in a head, based on a signal quality value and a floating quantity of the head, the signal quality value being based on an error between a reproducing signal acquired from the head when reading data stored on a storage surface of a disk and a predetermined target signal, and output a determination result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Takashi Usui, Toshiaki Ohgushi, Takeichiro Nishikawa
  • Codes and techniques for magnetic recording
    Patent number: 9786319
    Abstract: This disclosure describes codes and techniques for magnetic recording. The coding schemes decrease bit error rates by decreasing total transitions in the encoded binary data compared to conventional codes. Additionally, instead of relying on a single coding scheme, an encoder and decoder are configured to switch between different coding schemes. By so doing, a variety of the coding schemes allows the encoded binary data to have a smaller bit error rate than a single coding scheme and have a maximum run-length less than or equal to a maximum run-length limitation of a magnetic disk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventors: Seyed Mehrdad Khatami, Gregory Burd, Byung-Hak Kim