Toshiba Assigned Seven Patents

Magnetic disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,083,714) developed by Matsuo, Takashi, and, Yoshida, Kenji, Kamakura Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device, controller, and method.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A magnetic disk device includes a magnetic disk that includes a plurality of tracks, a magnetic head for reading data from the magnetic disk, and a controller. The controller begins controlling the magnetic head to move to a second track of the plurality of tracks from a first track of the plurality of tracks before decoding of a first track signal output from the magnetic head is completed, wherein the first track signal is output from the magnetic head while the magnetic head is positioned over the first track.”
The patent application was filed on September 1, 2017 (15/694,723).

Techniques for clearly distinguishing between neighboring spirals in SSW
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,074,392) developed by Gerasimov, Anton, Santa Clara, CA, for “techniques for clearly distinguishing between neighboring spirals in an SSW.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “During in-drive writing of a servo spiral on a disk surface, a servo spiral can be distinguished during demodulation from adjacent servo spirals on the same disk surface. When a set of servo spirals is written on a disk surface, a first spiral is written to include a first identifying characteristic and the following spiral is written to include a second identifying characteristic. The identifying characteristic may include embedded sync marks encoding a certain numerical value, a unique frequency of high-low transitions included in each spiral, and/or a unique frame size.”
The patent application was filed on March 9, 2017 (15/454,885).

Spiral-based self-servo-write on single disk surface
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,074,391) developed by Wang, Zhi, Palo Alto, CA, and Liang, Jiangang, Saratoga, CA, for “spiral-based self-servo-write on single disk surface.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A hard disk drive, (HDD) is configured to move a read head over a region of a storage surface that includes unreadable segments of reference spirals that have been overwritten by a reference spiral in a set of spirals that is currently being written on the storage surface. By moving the read head across the region of the storage surface at a return radial velocity that is selected such that the write head crosses no consecutive reference spirals at an unreadable segment, the servo system of the HDD does not experience an error due to crossing multiple consecutive reference spirals at unreadable segments. Thus, a set of spirals that includes partially damaged reference spirals can be employed to control the position of a read head. Consequently, a second surface is not required for the set of spirals employed in controlling the writing process.”
The patent application was filed on March 8, 2017 (15/453,874).

Magnetic disk device and write processing
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,037,769) developed by Tomoda, Yusuke, and Yano, Koji, Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device and write processing method.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes a disk, a head including a main pole configured to apply a recording magnetic field to the disk, and side shields provided in a first direction with respect to the main pole and possessing a magnetic field in the magnetization direction of the first direction, and a controller configured to output a recording current in which a magnitude of a first electric current and a magnitude of a second electric current opposite to the first electric current in direction of the current are different from each other to the head according to the magnetic field of the side shields.”
The patent application was filed on August 31, 2017 (15/691,914).

Disk device and manufacturing
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,020,027) developed by Okamoto, Makoto, Tokyo, Japan, and Sasaki, Yasutaka, Kanagawa, Japan, for “disk device and method of manufacturing disk device.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “According to one embodiment, a disk device includes a disk-shaped recording medium, a head which processes data on the recording medium, and a housing accommodating the recording medium and the head. The housing includes a base with a side wall, and a cover having a welded portion welded to the side wall by laser welding. The welded portion includes a first welded portion welded to a first region of the side wall and having weld beads with a first shape, and a second welded portion welded to a second region of the side wall and having welded beads with a second shape different from the first shape.”
The patent application was filed on August 23, 2017 (15/683,974).

Hard disk drive and head positioning
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,020,017) developed by Furuhashi, Takao, Kanagawa, Japan, for “hard disk drive and head positioning method.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “According to one embodiment, a hard disk drive includes a disk including a plurality of data areas, and a plurality of servo areas between the plurality of data areas, an arm holding a write head and a read arm, and a positioning module which positions the read head or the write head by rotating the arm, wherein the positioning module positioning the write head by positioning the read head, and adjusting a position of the read head or the write head, based on an output of the read head located in a data area between two servo areas adjacent in a peripheral direction, of the plurality of servo areas.”
The patent application was filed on December 18, 2015 (14/975,366).

Magnetic disk drive and recording head control
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,014,009) developed by Koizumi, Gaku, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk drive and recording head control method.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk drive records and reproduces referential data and measures a referential characteristic value in a state in which supply of a STO voltage is stopped, executes control of reducing a temperature set value of a heater at a recording operation, based on the referential characteristic value, records and reproduces corrected data and measuring a corrected characteristic value in a state of supplying the STO voltage with a polarity opposite to a polarity at a general operation, while varying the temperature set value at a recording operation, compares the referential characteristic value with the corrected characteristic value and obtaining a difference, and corrects the temperature set value based on the difference.”
The patent application was filed on January 31, 2018 (15/884,696).