WD Assigned Three Patents

Energy assisted magnetic recording disk drive using modulated laser light
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., Irvine, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,891,341) developed by Krichevsky, Alexander, San Jose, CA, Mallary, Michael L., Sterling, MA, and Zong, Fenghua, San Jose, CA, for a “energy assisted magnetic recording disk drive using modulated laser light.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method and system provide a heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) disk drive including a media. The HAMR disk drive also includes a slider, at least one laser, at least one HAMR head on the slider and at least one electro-optical modulator (EOM) optically coupled with the laser(s) and coupled with the slider. The at least one laser and the at least one EOM are coupled to provide a modulated energy output. The at least one EOM controls the modulated energy output to have a characteristic waveform shape. The at least one HAMR head includes at least one waveguide, a write pole, and at least one coil for energizing the write pole. The at least one waveguide receives the modulated energy output and directs the modulated energy output toward the media.”

The patent application was filed on March 11, 2013 (13/794,166 ).

Reducing surface roughness of magnetic media for storage drives
WD Media, LLC, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,900,465) developed by Yun, Yang, San Jose, CA, Yao, Xiaofeng, San Jose, CA, Chen, Yi , San Jose, CA and Dorsey, Paul C., Los Altos, CA, for a “methods for reducing surface roughness of magnetic media for storage drives”.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods for reducing the surface roughness of magnetic media to be used in storage drives are described. One such method includes forming a recording media on a substrate, the recording media including at least one recording layer configured to store information magnetically, depositing a first layer of carbon on the recording media, the first carbon layer having a first average preselected thickness, etching the first carbon layer to have a second average preselected thickness less than the first average preselected thickness, depositing a second layer of carbon on the etched first carbon layer, the second carbon layer having a third average preselected thickness that is less than the first average preselected thickness, and implanting nitrogen in the second carbon layer. “

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2012 (13/539,103 ).

High performance media transport manager architecture for data storage systems
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., Irvine, CA ,has been assigned a patent (8,904,091) developped by Guda, Chandra M., Lake Forest, CA and Thelin, Gregory B., Garden Grove, CA for a “high performance media transport manager architecture for data storage systems ”.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage system is disclosed that utilizes high performance media manager transport architecture. In one embodiment, solid-state memory is connected via a bridge interface and media manager transport architecture optimizes the transfer and throughput of data communicated across the bridge. Media transport manager architecture can support reordering and interleaving of storage access commands by using priority and staging mechanisms. Balanced load of solid-state memory, parallel execution of storage access operations, improved concurrency, and increased performance can be attained. “

The patent application was filed on December 22, 2011 (13/334,541).