Abstract: A tape head has first and second beams each having a recess in a tape bearing surface thereof, a face where the faces of the beams either face each other or face away from each other. A first chip is positioned in the recess of the first beam, and a second chip is positioned in the recess of the second beam. Each chip has circuitry selected from a group consisting of read elements, write elements, and combinations thereof. A tape bearing surface of each chip is generally aligned with the tape bearing surface of the associated beam. Also, an end of each chip is generally aligned with the face of the associated beam. Where closures are used, this eliminates the need to aligning the closure to skiving edges of the beam.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring fly height between a magnetic recording medium and a transducing head. In a first exemplary embodiment, magnetic spacing change value is calculated using media noise on the recording medium (instead of prerecorded tones) to provide a broadband frequency distribution that results in improved Wallace equation accuracy. In a second exemplary embodiment, a magnetic spacing change value is acquired by any suitable method but is adjusted as necessary to reflect transducing head wear, thus providing a methodology for calculating changes in fly height by taking into account the signal loss that is attributable to wear. In this way, a basic understanding of the mechanism causing changes in magnetic spacing is achieved.

Abstract: A tape recording head is provided comprising a support plate having a contoured surface with an opening in the contoured surface which allows head chips to protrude far enough to allow proper head tape contact for recording. The support plate is fixed on a coarse actuator so that the support plate and coarse actuator move together perpendicular to the motion of the recording tape. The head chips comprising rowbar substrates containing a multiplicity of recording elements are supported on a carrier mounted on a fine actuator and are not fixed to the support plate to allow low mass fine actuation.

Abstract: A compression zone recording head is provided having the recording tape in contact or near contact with the recording read/write transducer elements in a compression zone of the tape passing over a transducing surface. The compression zone recording head comprises a flat or shallow contour head having a thin, hard, preferably conducting closure to provide wear protection to the transducers. In one embodiment of the invention, the transducers are located in a compression zone region where the recording tape contacts an edge of the transducing surface at a controlled wrap angle. In another embodiment, the transducers are located in a canopy zone region of the transducing surface due to bending of the tape due to the overwrap. The protective closure is preferably made of sputter deposited Al—Fe—Si, or alternatively of a deposited or bonded layer of Al—Fe—Si, Al—O—Ti—C, Zr—O—Ti, Si—N, Si—C or Zr—O.

Abstract: A method is provided for providing air-skiving edges of a tape head. A slot is created in an upper face of a substrate of a tape head. The slot includes at least one edge defining an edge of a tape bearing surface (TBS) of the tape head. The surface of the tape head is then formed and finished, such as by lapping. A grind operation is subsequently conducted to form a notch in the upper face of the substrate of the tape head. Such notch extends from the slot to an outside end of the substrate of the tape head.

Abstract: A tape head module assembly system is disclosed. A first and second module holder are placed in an initial alignment with module holder ends facing each other, the module ends each holding a tape head module. A tape wrap angle between the first and second module is set by first performing a fringe alignment and then lifting a rear end of the first and second module holder a prescribed amount. A horizontal adjuster produces a rotation for the first module holder so that gaps between the first and second modules are parallel. An alignment along a longitudinal axis for the second module holder is selected and the second module is translated laterally until the second tape head module held by the second module holder is aligned with the first tape head module held by the first module holder to provide reader-opposite-writer track-to-track registration. Then, the first and second tape head modules are joined together using a joining agent in the gap between the first and second tape head modules.