Mike N Suk

6421205, Jul 16, 2002

Feb 23, 1999

09/256453

Lee Kevin Dorius - San Jose CA
Donald Ray Gillis - San Jose CA
Owen Melroy - Morgan Hill CA
Vedantham Raman - Morgan Hill CA
Richard Lindsay Stover - Oakland CA
Mike Suk - Milpitas CA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G11B 560

3602365

A slider used in a disk drive apparatus is described which has an air bearing surface and a trailing surface and a plurality of recessed steps at the trailing edge. These steps at the trailing edge greatly reduce stictional forces.

6459550, Oct 1, 2002

Oct 2, 2000

09/677422

Donald Ray Gillis - San Jose CA
Mike Suk - San Jose CA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G11B 2112

3602651

An active damping control for a disk drive includes an i. d. crash stop and an o. d. crash stop which constrain the motion of an actuator arm. Each crash stop includes an inner core manufactured from a material that generates current when mechanically strained. The inner core of each crash stop is connected to a circuit that includes an energy dissipating element that dissipates energy received from either crash stop. Thus, when the actuator arm collides with either crash stop, the rebound of the actuator arm off the crash stop is minimized.

6501624, Dec 31, 2002

Feb 19, 1997

08/802469

Donald Ray Gillis - San Jose CA
David H. Jen - San Jose CA
Mike Suk - Milpitas CA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NJ

G11B 554

3602563

A data storage system has a disk having a first, second and third zone. The first zone has rough texturing to prevent stiction between a slider at rest and the disk. The second zone has intermediate texturing to prevent stiction when a moving slider is in contact with the disk. The third zone has a smooth texture and is used for data recording. A control unit moves the slider between the zones as appropriate on power up and power down of the system. The system has an actuator latch having a bias device. The bias device allows the slider to be positioned between the first and second zones by selective energizing of the actuator while in the latched position.

6549378, Apr 15, 2003

Jan 16, 2001

09/764764

Mike Suk - San Jose CA
Donald Ray Gillis - San Jose CA

Hitachi Global Storage TEchnologies Netherlands B.V. - Amsterdam

G11B 554

360255

The present invention is a magnetic disk drive for reading or writing magnetically, comprising: (i) a base; (ii) one or more magnetic disks; (iii) a hub fixedly attached to the disk(s) for supporting the disk(s); (iv) a motor operable to rotate the hub; (v) a plurality of magnetic read/write heads, each associated with the surface of a disk; (vi) one or more actuators for supporting the heads and moving the heads across the disks, each actuator having a load/unload tab at its distal end adjacent to the inner diameter side of the actuator; and (vii) a load/unload structure for displacing the heads from the disk comprising a plurality of ramps.

6560074, May 6, 2003

Jan 16, 2001

09/972043

Donald Ray Gillis - San Jose CA
Mike Suk - San Jose CA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G11B 548

3602457

A disk drive suspension has a longitudinal axis that defines inner and outer edges of the suspension. A flexure having a head gimbal assembly is aligned with the axis and spring-loaded to the suspension. A single limiter extends from the flexure through an opening in the suspension to hook to the suspension. The limiter limits the planar separation between the flexure and the suspension. The limiter is offset from the axis such that it is located much closer to the inner edge. During the unloading of the suspension from the disk, a tab on the suspension engages a ramp to begin to lift the suspension away from the disk. As the suspension is lifted, the flexure and head gimbal assembly have limited planar separation from the suspension due to the limiter. Since the limiter is offset from the axis, the surface of the head gimbal assembly is skewed relative to the disk. The offset limiter reduces the chance of the hub-side edge of the slider contacting the disk surface, since the limiter lifts the slider from hub side.

6574074, Jun 3, 2003

Jan 16, 2001

09/761329

Sanford A. Bolasna - San Jose CA
Mike Suk - San Jose CA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G11B 560

3602362, 3602356, 3602357, 3602358, 3602363

One embodiment of a recording head for a disk drive with a load/unload mechanism has an air bearing on one surface. The air bearing comprises a patterned set of three air bearing pads, and at least one deep pocket. The three air bearing pads are spaced apart from each other by the deep pocket, with the largest of the air bearing pads located on the leading edge, and the other pads on the trailing edge. The air bearing pads have unique geometry one of the trailing corners of the air bearing is free of all the air bearing pads. This configuration gives the air bearing superior performance characteristics over prior art designs with load/unload mechanisms, particularly in regard to contact with the disk during loading and unloading sequences.

6680811, Jan 20, 2004

Oct 9, 2001

09/973296

Donald R. Gillis - San Jose CA
Mike Suk - Milpitas CA

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G11B 2102

360 75, 360 7303

A disk drive utilizes a slider that is designed to fly very high or well above the surface of the disk when loading onto the disk and until a reading or writing operation requires the head to go to a relatively low-flying position with respect to the disk. Thus, the slider has two or more altitudes at which it flies depending on the operating conditions of the disk drive. The different altitudes of the slider are achieved by adjusting three primary variables: the rotational speed of the disk, selecting the radial position of the slider/actuator arm, and by the gram load. Other factors that may be used to tune this performance include pitch static attitude, pitch stiffness, and air bearing surface design.

6683743, Jan 27, 2004

Jan 10, 2001

09/758415

Donald Ray Gillis - San Jose CA
Mike Suk - San Jose CA
Kris Victor Schouterden - Los Gatos CA

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V. - Amsterdam

G11B 2102

360 75, 360 7806

A method for controlling the velocity of an actuator arm in a hard disk drive includes moving the actuator arm to an inner limit or outer limit of motion. Then the power to the actuator coil, which drives the actuator arm, is reduced to zero and the actuator arm is released. Bends in the flexible cable connected to the actuator arm can cause the actuator arm to move toward the outer limit of motion. As the actuator arm moves due to the flexible cable, the velocity contribution of the flexible cable is measured and stored. Thereafter, the velocity of the actuator arm, during emergency power shut off, normal unload of the disk drive, or normal load of the disk drive, is decreased or increased by an amount equal to the cable-induced velocity to compensate for the velocity contribution of the flexible cable.