Toshiba and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Assigned Seventeen Patents

Magnetic disk and head positioning
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,636,446) developed by Suzuki, Hiroyuki, and Sado, Hideo, Kamakura Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device and head positioning 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 write head configured to write data on the disk, a first read head, and a second read head each configured to read data from the disk, and a controller configured to detect a first error of each track pitch corresponding to each track of the disk on the basis of a first gap in a radial direction between the first read head and the second read head at each position in the radial direction of the disk, write a servo pattern on the disk on the basis of a first correction value used to correct the first error, and position the head on the basis of the servo pattern.”

The patent application was filed on February 22, 2019 (16/282,456).

Magnetic disk and read/write processing
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,629,235) developed by Kawabe, Takayuki, Sagamihara Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device and read/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 configured to write data to the disk and read data from the disk, and a controller configured to write position information of the head when writing a first track of the disk and a second track partially overlapping with the first track in a first region of the first track at which read processing on the first track is started.”

The patent application was filed on February 4, 2019 (16/266,140).

Control value setting method of thermal actuator for magnetic disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,622,010) developed by Watanabe, Toru, Kawasaki Kanagawa, Japan, for a “control value setting method of thermal actuator for magnetic disk device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to one embodiment, curve fitting, which uses power supplied to the thermal actuator when a magnetic head is brought into contact with a magnetic disk by the thermal actuator and a quadratic or higher curve, is performed at at least five radial positions in a radial direction of the magnetic disk in a case of setting a control value of the thermal actuator, and it is determined as abnormal contact detection when a Z value of an RMS of a fitting residual from the quadratic or higher curve of each power exceeds a predetermined value.”

The patent application was filed on February 4, 2019 (16/266,141).

Actuator assembly having dual sensors for detecting vibration on magnetic disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,614,845) developed by Yoshikawa, Norio, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for an “actuator assembly having dual sensors for detecting the vibration on magnetic disk device.“

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 base that includes a bottom wall and side walls standing along a circumference of the bottom wall, a housing that includes a cover facing the bottom wall and closing the base, an actuator assembly that is housed inside the housing and is rotatable around a rotation axis, a head movably supported by the actuator assembly, a control circuit board provided outside of the housing, a first sensor disposed on the control circuit board, and a second sensor disposed inside the housing.”

The patent application was filed on August 24, 2018 (16/111,782).

Magnetic recording head and magnetic recording and reproducing device comprising the same
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,614,839) developed by Tomoda, Yusuke, Kawasaki Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic recording head and magnetic recording and reproducing device comprising the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording head includes a main magnetic pole which applies a recording magnetic field to a magnetic recording medium, an auxiliary magnetic pole which faces the main magnetic pole across a recording gap, a first magnetic bypass layer which is provided in a recording gap in a track direction, and a second magnetic bypass layer which is provided in the recording gap in the track direction and is arranged at a distance from the first magnetic bypass layer in a track width direction.”

The patent application was filed on December 10, 2018 (16/214,940).

Magnetic disk and recording
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,607,643) developed by Aoyagi, Yuka, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device and recording method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A magnetic disk device includes a magnetic head that writes data on and reads data from the magnetic disk, and a controller circuit. The controller circuit is configured to control a gap between the magnetic head and the magnetic disk, and select one of two or more gap values for the fly height, based on a write location in the magnetic disk of data to be written by the magnetic head.”

The patent application was filed on September 2, 2018 (16/120,292).

Disk device
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,607,640) developed by Akatsuka, Naoto, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for a “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 first actuator assembly and a second actuator assembly which are respectively supported by a first bearing unit and a second bearing unit to be rotatable about a support shaft. The first bearing unit includes a first sleeve and a ball bearing. The second bearing unit includes a second sleeve and a ball bearing. The first sleeve includes a first end surface opposed to the second sleeve and an annular first step projecting from the first end surface, and the second sleeve includes a second end surface opposed to the first step with a gap and an annular second step projecting from the second end surface. The second step is opposed to the first step and the first end surface with a gap.”

The patent application was filed on October 21, 2019 (16/658,975).

Magnetic head having difference skew angles at different regions on magnetic recording disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,600,437) developed by Sudo, Daisuke, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, Sasamoto, Tatsurou, Tama Tokyo, Japan, Hara, Takeyori, Kawasaki Kanagawa, Japan, Takeo, Akihiko, Kokubunji Tokyo, Japan, Chokki, Kazuo, Fujisawa Kanagawa, Japan, and Nitta, Tatsuo, Machida Tokyo, Japan, for a “magnetic head having difference skew angles at different regions on magnetic recording disk.“

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 including a first region and a second region different from the first region, a head that writes data on the disk and reads data from the disk, an actuator that positions the head on the disk, and a controller which positions the head by driving the actuator and writes data in the first region and the second region with the head, a skew angle of the head with respect to a circumferential direction of the disk varying within a first angle in the first region, and varying, in the second region, from a second angle larger than the first angle to a third angle larger than the first angle and the second angle.”

The patent application was filed on August 24, 2018 (16/111,927).

Magnetic disk device and recording
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,592,423) developed by Shinbori, Takahiro, and Kumagai, Ryuta, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device and recording method of the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes heads and a controller. The heads write data in a recording region of the magnetic disk. The controller divides in order, by a track group with a constant size, an entire region of the recording region where management regions indicating physical positions corresponding to the heads, respectively, creates the track groups so as to straddle the management regions at boundaries of the management regions, and controls writing of the data for each of the track groups. The controller assigns unique and logically consecutive numbers to the track groups and manages information on the management regions to which the track groups belong.”

The patent application was filed on September 10, 2018 (16/126,302).

Motor drive control
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,581,353) developed by Kimura, Hideki, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for “motor drive control device and motor drive control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ” A motor drive control device includes a PWM circuit configured to generate an excitation current for a motor, a measurement circuit configured to measure a charge duty of the excitation current, an arithmetic circuit configured to obtain a characteristic line from the change of the measured duty and calculate a predetermined division point of an excitation current waveform from the characteristic line, and a setting circuit configured to set a level of the excitation current at the division point.”

The patent application was filed on March 1, 2018 (15/908,821).

Magnetic head and disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,580,445) developed by Maeto, Nobuhiro, Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic head and disk device with the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ” According to one embodiment, a magnetic head includes a reading head including first, second, and third reading elements R1, R2, R3 which are arranged in a down track direction with intervals in an air bearing surface. A core width RW2 of the second reading element is half the width of the data track or more, and a core width RW1 of the first reading element and a core width RW3 of the third reading element are less than the core width RW2. The first reading element is opposed to one end of the second reading element and is in a position overlapping a part of an adjacent data track, and the third reading element is opposed to the other end of the second reading element and is in a position overlapping a part of an adjacent data track.”

The patent application was filed on December 7, 2018 (16/213,373).

Actuator block having dual sensors for detecting vibration on magnetic disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,566,017) developed by Yoshikawa, Norio, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for an “actuator block having dual sensors for detecting vibration on magnetic disk device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device includes an actuator assembly including an actuator block including a rotatable bearing unit, a plurality of heads movably supported by the actuator assembly, a first sensor provided to the actuator block, and a second sensor provided at a position different from the first sensor.”

The patent application was filed on August 17, 2018 (15/998,871).

SMR drive that maintains physical locations of bands via flush/copy operations
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,565,119) developed by Schmidt, Thorsten, Livermore, CA, Ehrlich, Richard M., Saratoga, CA, Zayas, and Fernando Anibal, Rangiora, New Zealand, for a “SMR drive that maintains physical locations of bands via flush/copy operations .“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”When a shingled magnetic recording (SMR) hard disk drive (HDD) performs additional SMR band copy and/or flush operations to ensure that data associated with logical bands that are adjacent or proximate in logical space are stored in physical locations in the SMR HDD that are proximate in physical space. As a result, efficient execution is ensured of read commands that span multiple logical bands of the SMR HDD.”

The patent application was filed on March 12, 2018 (15/919,089).

Magnetic disk and head position control
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,553,248) developed by Iwashiro, Masafumi, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic disk device and head position control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk device reads servo information from a recording surface of a magnetic disk using a head, detects a position of the head based on the servo information, and estimates a vibration frequency of a disturbance applied to the head and filtering the estimated vibration frequency from a drive signal of the head. In the filtering, a position error is calculated using a target position of the head given when driving the head and the detected position of the head, a plurality of the vibration frequencies is estimated by executing the vibration frequency estimation based on the position error in a plurality of stages in series, and estimation results of the vibration frequencies are filtered in parallel from the drive signal of the head.”

The patent application was filed on March 13, 2019 (16/352,010).

Setting upper limit value of number of write times and magnetic disk
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,546,601) developed by Ichihara, Kazuhito, Tachikawa Tokyo, Japan, for “method of setting upper limit value of number of write times and magnetic disk device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method of setting an upper limit value of the number of write times, which is applied to a magnetic disk device including a disk and a head configured to write data to the disk and read the data from the disk, includes measuring a plurality of bit error rates in a recording area of the disk upon repeatedly writing to an area of the disk adjacent to the recording area a number of write times, deriving a function that approximates a bit error rate in relation to a number of write times, using the measured bit rates corresponding to at least a first number of write times, a second number of write times, and a third number of write times, and applying the function to determine a number of write times that correspond to a first threshold bit error rate that makes the data on the disk unreadable, and setting the determined number of write times as the upper limit value of the number of write times.”

The patent application was filed on March 1, 2019 (16/290,389).

Magnetic head with high-frequency oscillating element and disk device
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,546,600) developed by Koizumi, Gaku, and Ohtake, Masaya, Kanagawa, Japan, for “magnetic head with high-frequency oscillating element and disk device comprising the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”According to one embodiment, a magnetic head includes a main pole, a write shield magnetic pole opposed to the main pole with a write gap, and a high-frequency oscillator provided between the main pole and the write shield magnetic pole within the write gap. The main pole includes a shield-side end surface opposing the write shield magnetic pole with the write gap and brought into contact with the high frequency oscillator. The high-frequency oscillator has a width in a cross-track direction, in an air bearing surface, greater than a width of the shield-side end surface in the cross-track direction. The high-frequency oscillator is disposed to extend over at least one end edge of the shield-side end surface in the cross-track direction to an outer side of the main pole.”

The patent application was filed on December 7, 2018 (16/213,195).

Magnetic disk device and write processing
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, and Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation, Minato-ku, Japan, has been assigned a patent (10,540,999) developed by Kawabe, Takayuki, Sagamihara 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 that writes data to the disk and reads data from the disk, and a controller that obtains a gain to be changed according to a first value calculated based on first position information of the head and second position information of the head when writing a first track to the disk, calculates third position information of the head calculated based on the gain and the second position information, and writes a second track adjacent to the first track in a radial direction according to the third position information.”

The patent application was filed on February 25, 2019 (16/284,238).