Western Digital Technologies Assigned Two Patents

Hybrid dedicated and dynamic servo for tape
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., has been assigned a patent (11688420) developed by Malina, James N., Irvine, CA, Kobayashi, Masahito, Fujisawa, Japan, Burton, Derrick E., Ladera Ranch, CA, Biskeborn, Robert G., Hollister, CA, and Watson, Mark L., Boulder, CO, for a “hybrid Dedicated and dynamic servo for tape“

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 drive including a tape head. The tape head comprises servo heads configured to read servo data from a tape, a plurality of write heads configured to: write user data to a plurality of data tracks of the tape and write embedded servo data into one or more data fields of the tape, the embedded servo data comprising servo positioning information, and a plurality of read heads configured to read the user data and the embedded servo data from the tape. The embedded servo data may be embedded servo fields or embedded servo tracks. The embedded servo data allows the tape head to be accurately controlled and positioned above the tape, and for new data to be accurately appended to the tape.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-11-09 (17/522646).

2D magnetic recording (TDMR) to counter tape dimensional stability (TDS) errors in tape media
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., has been assigned a patent (11670329) developed by Le, Quang, Liu, Xiaoyong, Jiang, Hongquan, Hwang, Cherngye, San Jose, CA, Ho, Kuok San, Emerald Hills, CA, and Takano, Hisashi, San Jose, CA, for a “two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) To counter tape dimensional stability (TDS) errors in a tape media.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure is generally related to a tape drive including a tape head configured to read shingled data on a tape. The tape head comprises a first module head assembly aligned with a second module head assembly. Both the first and second module head assemblies comprises a plurality of data heads. Each data head comprises a write head, a first read head aligned with the write head, a second read head offset from the first read head in both a cross-track direction and a down-track direction, and a third read head offset from the first and/or second read heads in the cross-track and down-track directions. By utilizing three read heads within each data head, data can be read from a tape that has experienced tape dimensional stability, as at least one read head will be near a center of each data track of the tape.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-12-15 (17/552072).