Tape drive with head-gimbal assembly and contact plate
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorsDiane L. Brown, Trevor W. Olson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure generally relates to a tape embedded drive having a head-gimbal assembly (HGA) and a contact plate. By using a support structure or contact plate beneath the tape, read and write heads can be designed to be narrower than the tape. The support structure or contact plate can stretch or relax the tape so that the spacing between servo tracks on the tape corresponds to the servo to servo spacing on the head. HGAs, which are narrower than the tape, can fly over the tape and read data from and write data to the tape. The HGA can have a single head or multiple heads. Additionally, multiple independent head assemblies can also be used for reading from and writing to the same tape.
Claims20
A storage device, comprising:
- a tape reel;
- a tape media coupled to the tape reel;
- and
- a head-gimbal assembly for reading data from and writing data to the tape media, wherein the head-gimbal assembly is configured to fly above the tape media when reading data from and writing data to the tape media and wherein the head-gimbal assembly comprises:
- a suspension having a base end, a top end, and a longitudinal axis extending from the base end to the top end;
- a slider coupled to the top end of the suspension;
- a magnetic head assembly coupled to a top end of the slider;
- a first actuator coupled to a first side of the base end of the suspension, the first side being disposed in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis;
- and
- a second actuator coupled to a second side of the base end of the suspension, the second side being opposite the first side, wherein the first and second actuators are piezoelectric push-pull actuators.
A storage device, comprising:
- a tape media;
- and
- a head-gimbal assembly comprising:
- a suspension having a top end, a base end, and a longitudinal axis extending from the base end to the top end;
- a magnetic head assembly disposed on the top end of the suspension for reading data from and writing data to the tape media;
- a first actuator coupled to a first side of the base end, the first side being disposed in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis;
- and
- a second actuator coupled to a second side of the base end opposite the first side, wherein the first and second actuators are configured to move the magnetic head assembly in a first direction and a second direction opposite the first direction, the first direction being parallel to a width of the tape media and the second direction being anti-parallel to the first direction, wherein the first and second actuators are piezoelectric push-pull actuators.
A storage device, comprising:
- a tape media;
- and
- a head-gimbal assembly comprising:
- an elongated suspension;
- a slider disposed on a top end of the elongated suspension;
- a magnetic head assembly disposed on the slider for reading data from and writing data to the tape media;
- means for moving the magnetic head assembly in a first direction and a second direction opposite the first direction, wherein the slider is configured to fly above the tape media when reading data from and writing data to the tape media;
- and
- means for moving the tape media closer to and farther from the magnetic head assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.