SAE Magnetics and Headway Assigned Patent

SAE Magnetics H.K. Ltd., Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, and Headway Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,892,746) developed by Zheng, Guoqiang, Cha, Ellis, San Ramon, CA, Liu, Zhijun, Dongguan, China, and Zeng, Qinghua, Fremont, CA, for an “ABS design with soft bumper pads, (SBP) for mitigating media damage and thermal erasure in hard disk drives (HDDs).“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A slider design for a hard disk drive, (HDD) features an air-bearing surface, (ABS) topography with soft bumper pads, (SBP) formed proximally to corners of the leading edge and the trailing edge. The bumper pads are formed by a process that combines the use of a first photomask for subtractive etching of the ABS to form pedestals, followed by additive depositions onto the pedestals using a second lift-off photomask. The additive process deposits sequences of Si layers and diamond-like carbon, (DLC) layers to produce a soft bumper pad that is energy absorbing and heat conducting, thereby protecting the recording media from surface damage and thermal erasures.”

The patent application was filed on February 14, 2017 (15/431,811).