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US 5,105,408 AGranted
Optical head with flying lens
AssigneeDigital Equipment Corporation
InventorsNeville K. S. Lee, James W. Howard, Patrick K. Tan, Walter Hrytsay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A micro-objective lens is carried on an air bearing slider with an optical passage through which the lens focuses an energy beam onto a spot on an optical data storage medium. The slider accomplishes automatic focusing. An RF coil is affixed to the slider facing the storage medium and surrounding the beam axis. The proximity of the coil lowers power switching requirements.
Claims24
An optical data storage system, comprising
- an optical data storage medium,
- a movable optical head for delivering a directed energy beam to a spot on the storage medium, including
- a slider flexibly suspended above said medium on an air bearing,
- micro-focusing optics mounted on said slider, said slider having an optical passage defined between said optics and the storage medium, said optics being oriented to focus the energy beam through said optical passage onto a spot on the storage medium, said slider maintaining the effective distance between said optics and said storage medium to achieve auto focusing, said optical passage being a tapered pyramidoidal recess formed in said slider accommodating a converging beam from said optics, said tapered pyramidoidal recess having flat sides.
1 more element
An optical data storage system, comprising
- an optical data storage medium,
- a movable optical head for delivering a directed energy beam to a spot on the storage medium, including
- a slider flexibly suspended above said medium on an air bearing,
- micro-focusing optics mounted on said slider, said slider having an optical passage defined between said optics and the storage medium, said optics being oriented to focus the energy beam through said optical passage onto a spot on the storage medium, said slider maintaining the effective distance between said optics and said storage medium to achieve auto focusing, said optical passage being a tapered recess formed in said slider accommodating a converging beam from said optics, said tapered recess being formed by anisotropic preferential etching.
1 more element
An optical data storage system, comprising
- an optical data storage medium,
- a movable optical head for delivering a directed energy beam to a spot on the storage medium, including
- a slider flexibly suspended above said medium on an air bearing,
- micro-focusing optics mounted on said slider, said slider having an optical passage defined between said optics and the storage medium, said optics being oriented to focus the energy beam through said optical passage onto a spot on the storage medium, said slider maintaining the effective distance between said optics and said storage medium to achieve auto focusing, said optical passage being a tapered recess formed in said slider accommodating a converging beam from said optics, said slider including a separate block in which said tapered recess is formed, said block is made of a crystalline material and said recess is formed by anisotropic preferential etching.
1 more element
An optical data storage system, comprising
- an optical data storage medium,
- a movable optical head for delivering a directed energy beam to a spot on the storage medium, including
- a slider flexibly suspended above said medium on an air bearing,
- micro-focusing optics mounted on said slider, said slider having an optical passage defined between said optics and the storage medium, said optics being oriented to focus the energy beam through said optical passage onto a spot on the storage medium, said slider maintaining the effective distance between said optics and said storage medium to achieve auto focusing, said optical passage being a tapered recess formed in said slider accommodating a converging beam from said optics, said storage medium having plural tracks and said tapered recess terminating, on the side of the slider facing the storage medium, in an exit aperture elongated in the cross-track direction.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.