Western Digital Technologies Assigned Three Patents

Read head having one or more antiferromagnetic layers below soft bias side shields, and related methods
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11514936) developed by Le, Quang, Jiang, Hongquan, Hwang, Cherngye, and Takano, Hisashi, San Jose, CA, for “read head having one or more antiferromagnetic layers below soft bias side shields, and related methods.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure relates to read head apparatus, and methods of forming read head apparatus, for magnetic storage devices, such as magnetic tape drives (e.g., tape drives). In one implementation, a read head for magnetic storage devices includes a lower shield, an upper shield, one or more lower leads, and a plurality of upper leads. The read head includes a plurality of read sensors, each read sensor of the plurality of read sensors including a first antiferromagnetic (AFM) layer. The read head includes a plurality of soft bias side shields disposed between and outwardly of the plurality of read sensors. The read head includes a plurality of second AFM layers disposed below the plurality of soft bias side shields along a downtrack direction.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-06-25 (17/359199).

Storage device reducing wake latency for magnetic tape
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11514938) developed by Malina, James N., Irvine, CA, for a “data storage device reducing wake latency for magnetic tape.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device is disclosed comprising at least one head configured to access a magnetic tape. The head is positioned at an idle location along a length of the magnetic tape when entering an idle mode, wherein the idle location reduces a wake latency associated with accessing the magnetic tape when exiting the idle mode.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-02-18 (17/178344).

Magnetic recording head having same-gap read-after-write
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11514929) developed by Biskeborn, Robert G., Hollister, CA, and Seagle, David J., Morgan Hill, CA, for a “magnetic recording head having same-gap read-after-write.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure generally relates to a tape head and a tape head drive including a tape head. The tape head comprises at least one same gap verify (SGV) module comprising a closure, a substrate, and a plurality of write transducer and read transducer pairs. The write transducer and the read transducer of each pair are spaced a first distance in a first direction of about 5 μm to about 20 μm. The SGV module head assembly is configured to write data to a tape using the write transducer of each pair and read verify the data written on the tape using the read transducer of each pair such that the write transducer and read transducer of each pair are concurrently operable. In some embodiments, the SGV module head assembly is further configured for dynamic tilting to enable correcting of mis-registration caused by tape lateral dimension changes.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-04-16 (17/232704).