JPH06236584A - Information recording medium cassette and information processor utilizing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To protect a recording medium surface and to prevent the error at the time of transportation so as to improve portability by constituting a frame housed in the recording medium in such a manner that this frame can be inserted and removed into and out of an information processor and covering the medium surface with a gelatinous material at the time of removal. CONSTITUTION:The recording medium 23 is provided on a ground surface electrode 24 and this medium and an electrode juncture 25 are connected. A recording medium cassette 20 has a substrate part 26 to be drawn out at the time of insertion into the processor body and a gel chamber 27 for storing the gelatinous material 28 for protecting the recording surface at the time of removal. As a mechanism to cover the surface of the medium 23 with the material 28, the surface of the medium 23 is covered with the material 28 by pushing the substrate part 26 into the chamber 27 at the time of taking out the cassette 20 by drawing the substrate part 26 on which the medium 23 is placed out of the chamber 27 contg. the material 28 at the time of recording and reproducing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a more portable information recording medium cassette and an information processing apparatus using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a scanning tunneling microscope (hereinafter referred to as STM) has been developed which enables direct observation of a material surface and an electronic structure near the surface [G. Binning et al., Helvetica Phy.
sica Acta, 55, 726 (1982)], enabling observation of real-space images with high resolution regardless of single crystal or amorphous, and at the same time, measuring at low power with almost no damage to the sample material due to electric current. Since it can be applied to various materials as well as having an advantage that it can be operated in an atmosphere or a solution as well as in an ultrahigh vacuum, it is expected to be widely applied.

The STM utilizes a phenomenon in which a tunnel current is generated when a voltage is applied between a metal probe and a conductive sample to bring them closer to a distance of about 1 nm. Recently, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-63-161552 and JP-A-63-161553, this STM principle is applied to an information processing apparatus mainly for ultra-high density recording / reproducing. There are many proposals that make up. That is, information is recorded by physically deforming the recording medium corresponding to the sample by the probe electrode corresponding to the probe of the STM, or changing the electronic state of the medium surface, and recording bits by the tunnel current flowing between the two. It is said that the large-scale information can be recorded / reproduced at a high density of molecule / atom order by using the method of reproducing information.

Among the above-mentioned recording methods, in order to give a physical deformation, a sharp recording probe is pressed against the recording medium to make it concave, and holes are formed in graphite or the like by applying a pulse voltage on the recording medium. It has been recently reported that you can do it. That is, by bringing the probe electrode close to the surface of the recording medium and applying a voltage between them with a pulse width of 3 to 8 V and a pulse width of 1 to 100 μs, a hole with a diameter of about 40 A can be formed, which is sufficient as a recording bit. Can be used for. On the other hand, in order to record by changing the electronic state, an appropriate organic molecule accumulation film is formed on the base electrode by the Langmuir-Blodgett method (hereinafter referred to as the LB method) or the like, and the base electrode and the probe electrode are formed. A method is known in which a voltage is applied to change the electrical resistance characteristics of this minute portion, and
It is attracting attention because it can be easily rewritten.

FIG. 7 shows the structure of a conventional information recording carrier for changing the electronic state for recording and an information processing apparatus using the same, and on the moving substrate 2 provided on the coarse movement mechanism 1, A base electrode 3 and a recording medium 4 having a switching memory effect are installed, and a probe electrode 6 attached to a three-dimensional drive mechanism 5 facing the recording medium 4 is provided. First, a microcomputer 7 and coarse movement control are provided. The coarse movement mechanism 1 is driven by the circuit 8 to roughly align the probe electrode 6 and the recording medium 4. X when recording
When the Y-scan drive circuit 9 drives the three-dimensional drive mechanism 5 to scan the probe electrode 6 on the recording medium 4 and a pulse voltage is applied to the probe electrode 6 and the base electrode 3 by the voltage application device 10 at the recording position, recording is performed. Recording is performed by locally creating a region having a different electric resistance on the medium 4.

At the time of reproduction, the probe electrode 6 and the recording medium 4
The probe electrode 6 is scanned on the surface of the recording medium 4 while applying a constant voltage such that a tunnel current flows between them. The tunnel current obtained at that time is amplified and detected by the current amplifier 11, and the servo circuit 12 drives the three-dimensional drive mechanism 5 to move the probe electrode 6 in the vertical direction so that the tunnel current always becomes a constant value. This vertical movement amount corresponds to the recorded information. Note that these controls are all performed by the microcomputer 7.

As described above, in order to utilize the tunnel current, it is necessary to bring the probe electrode 6 and the recording medium 4 close to each other by about 1 nm. Therefore, the probe electrode 6 and the recording medium 4 must be processed and manufactured with high precision. Is required.

[0008]

However, in order to put the recording / reproducing method as described above into practical use, it is necessary to replace the recording medium and transfer the information to another information processing apparatus. Since it is minute, there is a risk of changing the recording shape during transportation.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording medium cassette which is less likely to cause errors due to changes in the recording shape even when the recording medium is taken out, and which has higher reliability and portability, and an information processing apparatus using the same. is there.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, in the information recording medium cassette according to the present invention,
It has a frame in which a substrate on which a recording medium is placed is housed, and the surface of the recording medium in the frame is covered with a gel-like substance.

Further, in the information processing apparatus according to the present invention related to the above specified invention, there is provided a frame in which a substrate on which a recording medium is placed is housed, and the surface of the recording medium in the frame is made of a gel material. It is characterized in that the recording medium characterized by being covered is processed with information via an information processing probe.

[0012]

In the information recording medium cassette and the information processing apparatus using the same having the above-described structure, the frame accommodating the recording medium can be inserted into and removed from the information processing apparatus, and the surface of the recording medium is covered with the gel substance at the time of attachment and detachment. As a result, since the surface of the information recording medium is protected, errors during transportation are reduced and portability is improved.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail based on the embodiments shown in FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an information recording medium cassette according to the present invention and an information processing apparatus using the same.

As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus of the present invention has a probe vertical movement mechanism 36 in the upper part, and a probe XY drive mechanism 35 having a probe electrode 29 at the tip via the probe vertical movement mechanism 36. The probe electrode 29 is movable vertically and horizontally. Below the probe XY drive mechanism 35, a tray 37 is provided so that the information recording medium cassette 20 can be placed and introduced into the information processing apparatus 21. Information recording medium cassette 2 placed on the tray 37 and introduced into the information processing device 21
Reference numeral 0 indicates the vertical direction and the horizontal and vertical directions (vertical and vertical directions) by the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33 provided below the information recording medium cassette 20 and the information recording medium vertical movement mechanism 34 provided via the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33. It is freely movable in XY directions. Further, when the information recording medium cassette 20 is mounted inside the information processing apparatus body 21, the electrode connecting portion 25 provided in the information recording medium cassette 20 and the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33 in the information processing apparatus body 21 are provided. The electrode connecting portion 32 comes into contact with each other to connect to a signal or a power source. As the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33, a piezoelectric element having a so-called inchworm structure or the like can be used.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the recording medium 23 is accommodated in the frame 22 of the information recording medium cassette 20 which is introduced into the information processing apparatus 21, and is inserted into and removed from the processing apparatus main body 21. It is configured to be possible. Recording medium 2
3 is provided on the base electrode 24, and the base electrode 24 is connected to the electrode connecting portion 25 in FIG. The recording medium cassette 20 has a substrate portion 26 that is pulled out when it is inserted into the processing device main body 21, and a gel chamber 27 that stores a gel substance 28 for protecting the recording surface when detaching. As a mechanism for covering the surface of the recording medium 23 with the gel substance 28, the substrate portion 26 on which the recording medium 23 is placed is pulled out from the gel chamber 27 containing the gel substance 28 at the time of recording / reproducing and the recording medium cassette 20 is taken out. The tray 37 is provided with a mechanism for pressing the substrate portion 26 into the gel chamber 27 to cover the surface of the recording medium 23 with the gel substance 28.
As a mechanism of the tray 37, a guide mechanism portion for fixing the frame 22, a guide mechanism portion for fixing the substrate portion 26, and a parallel driving mechanism portion for putting the substrate portion 26 in and out of the gel chamber 27 are provided. A hinge spring can be used as the guide mechanism. However, a leaf spring or a piezoelectric element may be used, and the present invention is not limited to this. As the parallel drive mechanism, a stepping motor and a gear can be used to move the substrate portion 26 fixed by the guide mechanism in the direction for taking it in and out of the gel chamber 27. Although a stepping motor was used as a drive source, this may be a DC servo motor or an AC servo motor, and is not particularly limited.

Recording in the recording medium cassette 20
Probe electrode 2 for recording / reproducing information on / from the medium 23
9 is made of tungsten or the like, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
End of bimorph beam 31 cantilevered on base 30
Attached to each. Disconnection of bimorph beam 31
The surface configuration is, for example, upper electrode (Au) / insulating film (Si₃ N
_Four ) / Piezo layer (ZnO) / insulating film (Si₃ N_Four )/During
Electrode (Au) / insulating film (Si₃ N_Four ) / Piezo layer (Zn
O) / insulating film (Si₃ N_Four ) / Lower electrode (Au)
Size, 750 μm x 150 μm, thickness 7.5 μm
You can create something of a degree. This bimorph girder
When the two piezo layers of 31 are polarized in the same direction
, Positive (negative) on the upper electrode and positive on the lower electrode with respect to the middle electrode
By applying a voltage of the same polarity, such as (negative),
The tip of the Imorph beam 31, that is, the probe electrode 29 is changed.
For example, with the above voltage at an applied voltage of ± 15V,
The displacement amount is about 5 μm. The probe electrode 29
From the wiring and driving voltage of each bimorph beam 31
The path should be formed on the base 30 and the bimorph beam 31.
You can In addition, the probe electrode 29 and
Imorph beam 31 is produced by micromechanics or
A known method called micromachining [K. E.
Petersen, Proc. IEEE 70, 420 (1982) and T. R. Alb
recht et al., 4th International conference on STM /
STS (STM'89) P1-29, S10-2].
Furthermore, the base 30 is a probe XY drive that can move in the XY directions.
The probe XY drive mechanism 3 connected to the moving mechanism 35.
5 is the vertical movement of the probe that can move vertically as shown in FIG.
It is connected to the mechanism 36.

Further, due to the contact of the electrode connecting portion 25 provided on the recording medium cassette 20 with the electrode connecting portion 32 provided on the processing apparatus main body 21, the processing apparatus main body 21 has a drive circuit as shown in FIG. Complete. That is, the information recording medium X
A coarse movement circuit 38 for coarsely moving the Y drive mechanism 33 in the XY directions to vertically move the information recording medium vertical movement mechanism 34, and a probe XY drive mechanism 35 for driving the probe XY drive mechanism 35 in the XY directions to vertically move the probe vertical movement mechanism 36. XY scan drive circuit 40,
A voltage application circuit 39 for applying a voltage between the probe electrode 29 and the base electrode 24, the probe electrode 29 and the recording medium 23.
A current amplifier 41 for amplifying a current tunneling between them, a servo circuit 42 for adjusting a voltage applied to the bimorph beam 31 so that a current detected by the current amplifier 41 becomes constant, and control of the entire device and data A microcomputer 43 for performing analysis and the like is provided. The other probe electrodes 29, the bimorph beams 31, and their associated circuits are not shown.

In the above structure, the information recording cassette 2
The information recording medium up-and-down moving mechanism 34 lowers the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33 so as not to prevent 0 from being placed,
Further, the probe XY drive mechanism 35 is raised by the probe vertical movement mechanism 36, the tray 37 is pulled out of the processing apparatus main body 21, the recording medium cassette 20 is placed, and then the tray 3
7 is returned to the inside of the processing device main body 21, at this time, the substrate portion 26 of the recording medium cassette 20 is pulled out from the gel chamber 27, and the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33 is raised again to mechanically abut the recording medium cassette 20 and mount it. At times, the electrode connecting portion 25 and the electrode connecting portion 32 are brought into contact with each other to complete the driving circuit.
Then, at the time of recording, erasing or reproducing, the probe XY drive mechanism 35 is lowered, the tunnel current generated between the probe electrode 29 and the recording medium 23 is amplified and detected by the current amplifier 41, and the probe electrode 29 is detected by the voltage application circuit 39. Voltage is applied to each bimorph beam 31 and the voltage applied to each bimorph beam 31 is controlled by the servo circuit 42, the microcomputer 43, etc. to control the distance between each probe electrode 29 and the recording medium 23, and the XY scanning drive circuit 39. Scanning of the recording medium 23 in the XY plane is performed by the probe XY drive mechanism 35 driven by. Further, when there are a plurality of probe electrodes 29, the selection can be performed by the XY scan drive circuit 39 or the microcomputer 43. Further, the information recording medium vertical movement mechanism 34 lowers the information recording medium XY drive mechanism 33, and the probe vertical movement mechanism 36 raises the probe XY drive mechanism 35 to mount the recording medium cassette on the tray 37 and Push the substrate portion 26 into the gel chamber 27,
The recording medium cassette can be taken out by ejecting the tray 37 out of the processing apparatus main body 21.

There are two types of actual recording on the recording medium 23: a method of physically deforming the recording medium 23 and a method of changing the electronic state of the recording medium 23. When a physical deformation is applied to the recording medium 23, for example, the recording medium 23, which is made of one silicon wafer integrated with the base electrode 24, is used, and a silicon molded product is also used for the base 30. Recording is performed by pressing the probe electrode 29 to physically change the recording medium 23. At the time of reproduction, when a direct current voltage of, for example, 200 mV is applied to the probe electrode 29 and the recording medium 23, the probe electrode 29 is two-dimensionally scanned so that the tunnel current has a constant value of, for example, 0.1 nA. Since the feedback drive amount of the bimorph beam 31 at that time corresponds to the recording information on the recording medium 23,
Playback can be performed.

When the electronic state of the surface of the recording medium 23 is changed, for example, as the recording medium 23, six layers of polyimide composed of pyromellitic dianhydride and 4,4-diaminodiphenyl ether formed by the LB method are accumulated. To use. Then, the probe electrode 29 is attached to the recording medium 23.
When a rectangular wave pulse voltage of 3.5 V and a pulse width of 5 ns is applied to the recording medium 23, the characteristics of the recording medium 23 are changed and a portion having a low electric resistance is generated, whereby recording can be performed. The reproduction can be executed by detecting the tunnel current as in the other cases, and the erasing is 5 V and the pulse width is 1 μs.
It can be performed by applying a triangular wave pulse voltage or the like.

Further, as the gel-like substance 28 to be covered to protect the medium 23 at the time of desorption, for example, silicone rubber which has absorbed a hydrocarbon solvent is used.

In this embodiment, the processing device for recording / reproducing using the principle of STM is mentioned, but the concept of the present invention is not limited to this, and is also applied to the principle of AFM. It can also be used for a probe and a processing device for recording and reproducing by using a probe on the surface of a recording medium.

[0024]

As described above, the information recording medium cassette and the information processing apparatus using the same according to the present invention,
It is possible to reduce errors that change the shape of the medium surface when carrying the information recording medium, easily replace the recording medium and transfer information to other information processing devices, and the recording medium cassette is relatively simple. With such a structure, it can be produced at low cost and is extremely useful in practice.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a state in which an information recording medium cassette is attached to a processing apparatus body.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an information recording medium cassette.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of an information recording medium cassette.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a probe electrode mounting method.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a probe electrode.

FIG. 6 is a circuit configuration diagram showing a state in which the information recording medium cassette is mounted in the processing apparatus main body.

FIG. 7 is a circuit configuration diagram of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 information recording medium cassette 21 processing device main body 22 frame 23 information recording medium 24 base electrode 25 electrode connecting portion 26 substrate portion 27 gel chamber 28 gel material 29 probe electrode 30 base 31 bimorph beam 32 electrode connecting portion 33 information recording medium XY Drive mechanism 34 Information recording medium vertical movement mechanism 35 Probe XY drive mechanism 36 Probe vertical movement mechanism 37 Tray 38 Coarse movement control circuit 39 Voltage application circuit 40 XY scanning drive circuit 41 Current amplifier 42 Servo circuit 43 Microcomputer

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Akihiko Yamano 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Shunichi Shito 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Haruki Kawada 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An information recording medium cassette, comprising a frame having an information recording medium accommodated therein, and covering the information recording medium with a gel material. 2. An information processing apparatus, wherein the information recording medium cassette is installed, and information is processed on the recording medium via the probe. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information recording medium cassette has a mechanism for covering the information recording medium with a gel material. 4. In order to install the information recording medium cassette, a tray for mounting the information recording medium cassette discharged to the outside of the apparatus is provided, and the tray on which the information recording cassette is placed is inside the apparatus. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a retracting mechanism. 5. The information recording medium cassette according to claim 1, wherein the gel-like substance is a silicone rubber which absorbs a hydrocarbon solvent. 6. The information recording medium cassette according to claim 1, wherein the information recording medium is recorded and reproduced by a recording / reproducing device using an information processing probe. 7. The information recording medium cassette according to claim 6, wherein the probe is recorded and reproduced by a plurality of probes. 8. The information recording medium cassette according to claim 1, wherein the information recording medium is formed of Si or Ge. 9. The information recording medium cassette according to claim 1, wherein the information recording medium is a polymer film. 10. The information recording medium cassette according to claim 9, wherein the polymer film is a polyimide film.