G11B 7/12
Heads
Official title: Heads, e.g. forming of the optical beam spot or modulation of the optical beam (disposition or mounting of head elements within housing or with provision for moving of light source, optical beam or detector, irrelevant to the transducing method G11B7/08 {; modulating lasers H01S3/10; controlling the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light beams arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching gating or modulating G02F1/00})
G11B7/12 (Heads) appears on 10,034 US grants and 7,766 published applications in this corpus.
Search patents in G11B- Granted patents
- 10,034
- Published applications
- 7,766
- Assignees
- 983
- Inventors
- 9,208
- Latest grant
- 8 Sep 2026
Filings by year
| Year | Granted patents | Published applications |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 29 | 0 |
| 1977 | 23 | 0 |
| 1978 | 28 | 0 |
| 1979 | 20 | 0 |
| 1980 | 27 | 0 |
| 1981 | 19 | 0 |
| 1982 | 31 | 0 |
| 1983 | 21 | 0 |
| 1984 | 47 | 0 |
| 1985 | 52 | 0 |
| 1986 | 51 | 0 |
| 1987 | 82 | 0 |
| 1988 | 89 | 0 |
| 1989 | 128 | 0 |
| 1990 | 100 | 0 |
| 1991 | 121 | 0 |
| 1992 | 198 | 0 |
| 1993 | 203 | 0 |
| 1994 | 174 | 0 |
| 1995 | 204 | 0 |
| 1996 | 280 | 0 |
| 1997 | 292 | 0 |
| 1998 | 404 | 0 |
| 1999 | 311 | 0 |
| 2000 | 374 | 0 |
| 2001 | 360 | 240 |
| 2002 | 414 | 602 |
| 2003 | 404 | 551 |
| 2004 | 443 | 665 |
| 2005 | 366 | 892 |
| 2006 | 548 | 845 |
| 2007 | 513 | 717 |
| 2008 | 487 | 813 |
| 2009 | 459 | 662 |
| 2010 | 596 | 542 |
| 2011 | 628 | 333 |
| 2012 | 478 | 254 |
| 2013 | 334 | 173 |
| 2014 | 168 | 120 |
| 2015 | 100 | 75 |
| 2016 | 82 | 73 |
| 2017 | 73 | 36 |
| 2018 | 74 | 34 |
| 2019 | 40 | 28 |
| 2020 | 32 | 22 |
| 2021 | 25 | 23 |
| 2022 | 29 | 11 |
| 2023 | 10 | 22 |
| 2024 | 30 | 21 |
| 2025 | 26 | 10 |
| 2026 | 7 | 2 |
By publication year. Applications have been published since 2001. 2026 runs to 8 Oct.
Subgroups
Granted patents
- G11B 7/135Means for guiding the beam from the source to the record carrier5,319
- G11B 7/125Optical beam sources therefor4,200
- G11B 7/13Optical detectors therefor1,385
- G11B 7/123Integrated head arrangements895
- G11B 7/22Apparatus or processes for the manufacture of optical heads817
- G11B 7/14Specially adapted to record on, or to reproduce from, more than one657
- G11B 7/122Flying-type heads409
- G11B 7/121Protecting the head209
Recent patents
- Phase-modulated optical data storage8 Sep 2026US 12,731,610 B2Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Reading voxels in an optical storage medium using off-axis lighting28 Jul 2026US 12,694,901 B1Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Laser diode for heat-assisted magnetic recording, and related apparatuses, devices, systems, and methods23 Jun 2026US 12,664,999 B1Seagate Technology LLC
- Laser power monitoring in hard disk drives16 Jun 2026US 12,658,210 B1Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited
- Data recording on ceramic material12 May 2026US 12,626,722 B2Ceramic Data Solutions GmbH
- Compact Writing and Reading Head for Hyper Speed Data Recording on Ceramic Material28 May 2026US 2026/0148751 A1Ceramic Data Solutions GmbH
- Systems for and methods for mode hop detection in heat assisted magnetic recording12 Mar 2026US 2026/0073943 A1Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited
- Achromatic holographic phase marks18 Dec 2025US 2025/0383554 A1Ipg Photonics Corporation
- Waveguide network21 Aug 2025US 2025/0264664 A1Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
- Positive laser bias electrical control architecture for dark laser heating in heat assisted magnetic recording3 Jul 2025US 2025/0218462 A1Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
Most cited
By later US patents
- Methods and apparatus for forward-directed optical scanning instruments1,184US 6,485,413 B1The General Hospital Corporation · 2002
- Method and apparatus for performing optical measurements using a fiber optic imaging guidewire, catheter or endoscope1,079US 6,134,003 AMassachusetts Institute of Technology · 2000
- Method and system for automatically tracking a zoomed video image730US 5,610,653 A1997
- Fiber optic needle probes for optical coherence tomography imaging722US 6,564,087 B1Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2003
- Fiber optic imaging endoscope interferometer with at least one faraday rotator710US 6,501,551 B1Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2002