WD Assigned Two Patents

HAMR transducer having protective pads
Western Digital, LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,861,317) developed by Yan Wentao Fremont, CA, Lo Yu, Foster City, CA, and Fowler David E., San Jose, CA, for “heat assisted magnetic recording transducer having protective pads.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method fabricates a heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) transducer having an air-bearing surface (ABS) and that is optically coupled with a laser. The HAMR transducer includes a write pole, a waveguide, and at least one protective pad. The write pole has a pole tip with an ABS facing surface. The waveguide is located in a down track direction from the pole tip and directs light from the laser toward the ABS. The protective pad(s) are adjacent to the write pole and have front surface(s) at the ABS.”

The patent application was filed on May 28, 2013 (13/903,121).

HDD modifying rotational position optimization algorithm
to achieve target performance for limited stroke
Western Digital Technologies, Irvine, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,879,191) developed by Edwin S. Olds, Fort Collins, CO, and Salman A. Nawaz, Trabuco Canyon, CA, for “disk drive modifying rotational position optimization algorithm to achieve target performance for limited stroke.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk, wherein a maximum radial movement of the head is limited. A plurality of access commands are stored in a command queue, and an access latency is determined for each command in the command queue, wherein the access latency is based at least on a seek latency for the head and a rotational latency for the disk. The access latency for each access command is increased by an offset based at least on a seek length for each access command, wherein the offset compensates for the limited maximum radial movement of the head. An access command is selected from the command queue based on the increased access latencies, and the selected access command is executed.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 14, 2012 (13/677,136).