Patents by Inventor Ralph F. Simmons, Jr.

Ralph F. Simmons, Jr. has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Tape drive
    Patent number: 7656614
    Abstract: A tape back-up drive having a head assembly. The head assembly includes a head configured to read data from a tape and to write data to the tape. The head assembly also includes at least one tape guide disposed adjacent to the head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Lawrence A. Hansen, Paul W. Poorman, Ralph F. Simmons, Jr.
  • Read and write head element arrangement
    Patent number: 7529060
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an arrangement of elements on a head includes a first group of data element spanning a first distance on the head and a second group of data elements spanning a second spanning distance on the head greater than the first spanning distance. The second group of elements overlaps the first group of elements such that some elements are common to both groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2009
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Ralph F. Simmons, Jr., Vernon L Knowles
  • Interconnect structure having multiple layers of traces for electrical connection to a tape head assembly
    Patent number: 7196866
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for electrically coupling read elements and write elements of a tape head assembly to another component includes an interconnect structure having plural layers of traces, with the traces comprising write traces electrically connected to respective write elements, and read traces electrically connected to respective read elements. The write traces and read traces are interleaved across a dimension of the interconnect structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Paul W. Poorman, Ralph F. Simmons, Jr., Lawrence A. Hansen
  • Tape head assembly
    Patent number: 7031089
    Abstract: A tape head assembly comprises a transducer head having plural arrays of transducing elements, the transducing elements comprising at least one of write elements and read elements. The tape head assembly further comprises a set of conditioning elements, the conditioning elements comprising at least one of write drivers and read amplifiers. Multiplexing circuitry selectively couples the conditioning elements to one of the plural arrays of transducing elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2006
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Lawrence A. Hansen, Ralph F. Simmons, Jr.
  • Weighting servo signals for head positioning
    Patent number: 6992857
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a servo positioning method includes deriving a first servo signal S1 from a first servo band, deriving a second servo signal S2 from a second servo band, defining a head element reference between the servo bands, weighting each servo signal according to a ratio of distances between the head element reference and a location on each servo band, and computing a servo control signal based on the weighted servo signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2006
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Vernon L. Knowles, Ralph F. Simmons, Jr.
  • Shields of magnetoresistive transducers
    Patent number: 4843506
    Abstract: An improved shield for field sensing transducers used in magnetic storage devices is presented. The inventive shield provides a planar surface for the transducer to rest on, a single magnetic domain in the vicinity of the transducer, low magnetic reluctance for fields from the recording media, and stability against external magnetic fields, that is, high reluctance for external magnetic fields.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1988
    Date of Patent: June 27, 1989
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventors: Hardayal S. Gill, Ralph F. Simmons, Jr.