Thin retroreflective marker for data storage cartridge
AssigneeIomega Corporation
InventorFred C. Thomas, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cartridge for a data storage disk drive has a thin retroreflective marker. Light from a source is reflected from the marker almost exactly on its incident path. A planar light shaping optical structure such as a holographic light shaping diffuser (LSD) ruled or blazed diffraction grating, holographic diffraction grating, binary optics or holographic diffraction grating directs light to the detector. The LSD has degrees of angular diffusion in different orthogonal axes. This property makes possible unique identification of different types of cartridges.
Claims36
A cartridge for a data storage drive which has a source of irradiance and a detector of said irradiance for determining whether the cartridge is suitable for use in said drive, said cartridge comprising:
- a body;
- a data storage medium in said body;
- and
- a marker on said body, said marker being a thin sheet of plastic retroreflective material which reflects irradiance from said source back toward said source for detection by said detector which thereby identifies said cartridge as being suitable for use in that drive.
A cartridge for a data storage drive which has a source of irradiance and a detector of said irradiance for determining whether the cartridge is suitable for use in said drive, said cartridge comprising:
- a body;
- a data storage medium in said body;
- and
- a marker on said body, said marker being a thin sheet of plastic retroreflective material which reflects irradiance from said source back toward said source for detection by said detector which thereby identifies said cartridge as being suitable for use in that drive, and;
- a planar surface relief optical structure in the path of said irradiance back toward said source.
A cartridge for a data storage drive which has a source of irradiance and a detector of said irradiance for determining whether the cartridge is suitable for use in said drive, said cartridge comprising:
- a body;
- a data storage medium in said body;
- a marker on said body, said marker being a thin sheet of plastic retroreflective material which reflects irradiance from said source back toward said source for detection by said detector which thereby identifies said cartridge as being suitable for use in that drive;
- and
- a light shaping diffuser in the path of said irradiance back toward said source.
The combination of a data storage drive and a cartridge for said drive, said drive comprising:
- a source of irradiance;
- a detector of reflected irradiance;
- and
- means for enabling said drive when reflected irradiance exceeds a predetermined level, said cartridge comprising:
- a body;
- a data storage medium in said body;
- and
- a retroreflective marker on said cartridge, said marker being a thin sheet of plastic retroreflective material which reflects irradiance from said source back toward said source, said detector being connected to enable said means for enabling said disk drive when light from said retroreflective marker exceeds a predetermined level.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.