Abstract: A method for silver-alloy plating an electrical contact and a silver-alloy plated electrical contact are provided. The method includes cleaning the electrical contact by removing contaminates and exposing the electrical contact to at least one of an acid or base. The method includes preparing a sliver-alloy plating bath including water, a silver complex, and a metal complex, the metal complex being at least one of nickel or cobalt. The method includes silver-alloy plating the electrical contact in the silver-alloy plating bath, wherein the plating bath has a pH of greater than 7. The metal complex forms about 0.3% to about 50% by weight of a content of a silver-alloy plated deposit.

Abstract: A C-type pliers contains a first elongated jaw including a first recess and a third recess, a second elongated jaw including a second recess and a fourth recess; a first handle further including a first notch, and a second handle including a second notch; a switching unit including a first cover, a second cover, a shaft extending outwardly from the second cover and used to drive the first cover and the second cover simultaneously, the shaft pivots the first handle, the second handle, the first elongated jaw, and the second elongated jaw; a switching unit also including a first retainer, a second retainer, when the first retainer retains in the first recess, the second retainer retains in the fourth recess simultaneously, and when the first retainer retains in the second recess, the second retainer retains in the third recess synchronously.

Abstract: A perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head is fabricated with a pole tip shielded laterally by a graded side shield that is conformal to the shape of the pole tip at an upper portion of the shield but not conformal to the pole tip at a lower portion. The shield includes a trailing shield, that is conformal to the trailing edge of the pole tip and may include a leading edge shield that magnetically connects two bottom ends of the graded side shield.

Abstract: A three step ion beam etch (IBE) sequence involving low energy (<300 eV) is disclosed for trimming a sensor critical dimension (free layer width=FLW) to less than 50 nm. A first IBE step has a steep incident angle with respect to the sensor sidewall and accounts for 60% to 90% of the FLW reduction. The second IBE step has a shallow incident angle and a sweeping motion to remove residue from the first IBE step and further trim the sidewall. The third IBE step has a steep incident angle to remove damaged sidewall portions from the second step and accounts for 10% to 40% of the FLW reduction. As a result, FLW approaching 30 nm is realized while maintaining high MR ratio of over 60% and low RA of 1.2 ohm-?m2. Sidewall angle is manipulated by changing one or more ion beam incident angles.

Abstract: A perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head is fabricated with a pole tip shielded laterally by a graded side shield that is conformal to the shape of the pole tip at an upper portion of the shield but not conformal to the pole tip at a lower portion. The shield includes a trailing shield, that is conformal to the trailing edge of the pole tip and may include a leading edge shield that magnetically connects two bottom ends of the graded side shield.

Abstract: A perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head is fabricated with a pole tip shielded laterally by a graded side shield that is conformal to the shape of the pole tip at an upper portion of the shield but not conformal to the pole tip at a lower portion. The shield includes a trailing shield, that is conformal to the trailing edge of the pole tip and may include a leading edge shield that magnetically connects two bottom ends of the graded side shield.

Abstract: High Hc (>4,000 Oe) and high Hk (>1 Tesla) has been achieved in FePt films as thin as 70 Angstroms. This was accomplished by starting with a relatively thick film having the required high coercivity, coating it with a suitable material such as Ta, and then using ion beam etching to remove surface material until the desired thickness was reached.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing an electrical conductor includes providing a substrate layer, depositing a graphene layer on the substrate layer and selectively depositing boundary cappings on defects of the graphene layer to inhibit corrosion of the substrate layer at the defects. Optionally, the boundary cappings may include nano-sized crystals deposited only at the defects. The selectively depositing may include electrodepositing boundary cappings on exposed portions of the substrate layer at the defects. The selectively depositing may include reacting boundary capping material with exposed portions of the substrate layer at the defects to deposit the boundary cappings only at the defects.

Abstract: A hard bias (HB) structure for producing longitudinal bias to stabilize a free layer in an adjacent spin valve is disclosed and includes a composite seed layer made of at least Ta and a metal layer having a fcc(111) or hcp(001) texture to enhance perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in an overlying (Co/Ni)X laminated layer. The (Co/Ni)X HB layer deposition involves low power and high Ar pressure to avoid damaging Co/Ni interfaces and thereby preserves PMA. A capping layer is formed on the HB layer to protect against etchants in subsequent process steps. After initialization, magnetization direction in the HB layer is perpendicular to the sidewalls of the spin valve and generates an Mrt value that is greater than from an equivalent thickness of CoPt. A non-magnetic metal separation layer may be formed on the capping layer and spin valve to provide an electrical connection between top and bottom shields.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing an electrical conductor includes providing a substrate layer, depositing a surface layer on the substrate layer that has pores at least partially exposing the substrate layer, and forming graphene deposits in the pores. Optionally, the graphene deposits may be formed only in the pores. The graphene deposits may be formed along the exposed portions of the substrate layer. The graphene layers may be selectively deposited or may be deposited to cover an entire layer. Optionally, the forming of the graphene deposits may include processing the electrical conductor using a chemical vapor deposition process using an organic compound precursor and heat of sufficient temperature to facilitate graphene growth on the metal compound comprising the substrate layer.

Abstract: The free layer of a CPP-TMR sensor is biased by laterally disposed hard bias (HB) layers that include a seedlayer structure, a magnetic layer structure of high coercivity material and a capping layer structure. The magnetic layer structure is a layer of FePt-containing material, such as FePtCu, while the seedlayers and capping layers include layers of Cr, CrTi, Fe, FeCo or FeCoMo. These combinations enable the promotion of the L10 phase of the FePt-containing material which provides a high coercivity magnetic layer structure at much lower annealing temperatures than in the prior art.

Abstract: High Hc (>4,000 Oe) and high Hk (>1 Tesla) has been achieved in FePt films as thin as 70 Angstroms. This was accomplished by starting with a relatively thick film having the required high coercivity, coating it with a suitable material such as Ta, and then using ion beam etching to remove surface material until the desired thickness was reached.

Abstract: A cable is provided having a jacket surrounding a core. A carbon-based substrate (CBS) conductor is provided in the core. The CBS conductor includes a CBS network metalized with a metalized layer. A method for manufacturing a carbon-based substrate (CBS) conductor includes providing a CBS network of CBS fibers forming a framework and metalizing at least a portion of the CBS network with a metalized layer. Optionally, the metalized layer may be at least one of a silver metalized layer, a copper metalized layer, a gold metalized layer, a nickel metalized layer, and a tin metalized layer. The CBS network may be one of a yarn, a sheet, and a tape. The CBS conductor may be a signal carrying conductor of the cable or the CBS conductor may surround the core and provide EMI shielding for the core. The cable may further include a contact terminated to the CBS conductor at the first end of the cable.

Abstract: A laminated high moment film with a non-AFC configuration is disclosed that can serve as a seed layer for a main pole layer or as the main pole layer itself in a PMR writer. The laminated film includes a plurality of (B/M) stacks where B is an alignment layer and M is a high moment layer. Adjacent (B/M) stacks are separated by an amorphous layer that breaks the magnetic coupling between adjacent high moment layers and reduces remanence in a hard axis direction while maintaining a high magnetic moment and achieving low values for Hch, Hce, and Hk. The amorphous material layer may be made of an oxide, nitride, or oxynitride of one or more of Hf, Zr, Ta, Al, Mg, Zn, Ti, Cr, Nb, or Si, or may be Hf, Zr, Ta, Nb, CoFeB, CoB, FeB, or CoZrNb. Alignment layers are FCC soft ferromagnetic materials or non-magnetic FCC materials.

Abstract: The present invention provides for a folding utility knife comprising: a handle pivotally connected to a blade holding compartment, the handle comprises at least two side walls forming a space, the space of the handle designed to encase at least a portion of a blade holding compartment during a folded position, the blade holding compartment comprising an internal cavity leading to an opening at a front end of the blade holding compartment which allows a portion of a blade to protrude from the blade holding compartment, a rear end of the blade holding compartment is pivotally attached to one end of the handle; and a device that allows the blade to be in a first extended position during use and then be retracted to a second non-use position, the entire blade is situated within the internal cavity of the blade holding compartment during the second position.

Abstract: A method of correction of particle interference to hemoglobin measurement of a blood sample on a hematology analyzer is provided. The method includes mixing an aliquot of a blood sample with a lytic reagent to lyse red blood cells and forming a sample mixture; measuring absorbance of the sample mixture at a predetermined wavelength of a hemoglobin chromogen formed in the sample mixture, and obtaining an apparent hemoglobin concentration of the blood sample using obtained absorbance; measuring concentration and size of cellular particles remaining in the sample mixture; removing contribution of the cellular particles to the apparent hemoglobin concentration using the concentration and the size of the cellular particles to obtain a corrected hemoglobin concentration of the blood sample; and reporting the corrected hemoglobin concentration of the blood sample.

Abstract: The free layer of a CPP-TMR sensor is biased by laterally disposed hard bias (HB) layers that include a seedlayer structure, a magnetic layer structure of high coercivity material and a capping layer structure. The magnetic layer structure is a layer of FePt-containing material, such as FePtCu, while the seedlayers and capping layers include layers of Cr, CrTi, Fe, FeCo or FeCoMo. These combinations enable the promotion of the L10 phase of the FePt-containing material which provides a high coercivity magnetic layer structure at much lower annealing temperatures than in the prior art.

Abstract: A cutting apparatus includes a sheath with an entrance, a slot, extrusion and withdrawal recesses, a positioning aperture and a discarding aperture. A handle is pivotally connected to the sheath. A first button is inserted through and movable along the slot between a position where bosses thereof are in the extrusion recesses and another position where the bosses are in the withdrawal recesses. A second button is inserted through the discarding aperture. A carrier is movably located in the sheath and connected to the first button. A jaw is connected to the carrier. Teeth of the jaw are moved out of cutouts of a blade when the jaw is pushed by the second button as the second button is pressed. A cassette can be inserted in the sheath so that a positioning block thereof can be inserted in the positioning aperture.

Abstract: Perpendicular magnetic recording media having a magnetic capping layer that is exchange coupled to an underlying perpendicular magnetic recording layer. The magnetic coupling layer is a granular layer having a high saturation magnetization (Ms). The perpendicular magnetic recording layer can include magnetic grains separated by an oxide grain boundary phase.

Abstract: A dynamic fly heater (DFH) for improved lifetime and better film uniformity is disclosed for a magnetic head. The heater has a lower amorphous Ta layer and an upper W layer to promote small grain size and reduced electro-migration. The composite film is especially advantageous for heaters greater than 1000 Angstroms thick where dR/R is difficult to control in the prior art. The DFH may be a (Ta/W)n laminate in which the Ta layers are about 30 Angstroms thick and the combined thickness of the W layers is from 400 to 1200 Angstroms. A Ta film is preferably sputter deposited with an Ar pressure of 3 to 5 mTorr and the W film is sputter deposited in the same chamber with a 3 to 20 mTorr Ar pressure. In one embodiment, a merged read/write head has one DFH in the read head and a second DFH in the write head.