WO2002077981A1

WO2002077981A1 - Electronic ic device with multiple fixed heads for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media forming digital computer mass stores

Info

Publication number: WO2002077981A1
Application number: PCT/IT2002/000185
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alessio Gerotto; Giorgio Gabbi; Francis A. Forte
Original assignee: Alessio Gerotto; Giorgio Gabbi; Forte Francis A
Priority date: 2001-03-23
Filing date: 2002-03-22
Publication date: 2002-10-03
Also published as: ITMI20010634A1; ITMI20010634A0

Abstract

An electronic IC device with multiple fixed heads for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media forming digital computer mass stores is characterized in that said device comprises a fixed arm carriage, at least a microchip containing a plurality of heads, conductor cables, at least an integrated circuit, a ribbon-cable and connector.

Description

ELECTRONIC IC DEVICE WITH MULTIPLE FIXED HEADS FOR READING AND WRITING DATA FROM/ON MAGNETIC MEDIA FORMING DIGITAL COMPUTER MASS STORES

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an electronic IC device with multiple fixed heads for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media forming digital computer mass stores.

As is known, a very important requirement to be met in the information communication field, as well as in the mass store making field is that of providing hard disks and, in general, magnetic storing devices, having great storing, access speed and reliability capabilities.

It is common knowledge that operators in the informatic sector, and in particular all the industrial manufactures of mass storage, have great demand for hard disks, and storage magnetic devices in general, with higher and higher memory, fast access and increasing reliability.

Present technological solutions have devices, constituted by many concentric magnetic disks, splined on an unique vertical shaft.

Such disks are spaced by equidistant gaps, inside which little arms, mutually integral, can be angularly moved, thanks to apt mechanisms, such arms constituting a carriage with unique body and with sideways fulcrum to the disks.

The little arms have at their ends a reading and/or writing magnetic head, and, thanks to an angular movement around their fulcrum, they can perform a total scanning of the tracks, which constitute the sectors, according to which the total useful surface of the magnetic substrate containing the binary data is generally divided.

The main defect, intrinsic in the above mentioned technique and therefor unavoidable, is the fact that the increase of the data storage capacity is obtained mainly by reducing the gap between the magnetic head and the magnetic disk, called flight height.

The reduction of the flight height has the consequent risk of data destruction.

This drawback resulted in the realization of systems and methods to control the flight height, which highly complicate the electronics and manufacture of mechanical and sensorial devices .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly the aim of the present invention is to avoid the above mentioned defects and to provide an integrated electronic circuit, provided with a plurality of fixed magnetic heads, for reading and writing data from/on magnetic supports or media constituting the mass storage of digital data processors .

According to one aspect of the present invention this aim is achieved by the fact that the present invention provides to use a structure including a plurality of fixed magnetic heads, integrated in a microchip. The microchip is applied on the top and/or bottom surfaces of suitably contoured and machined metal arms, which are fixed sidewise to the disk, and project therefrom through the overall radial extension of the disk surfaces.

Said plurality of integrated heads are accordingly arranged, in a permanent manner, at the related disk tracks, and are actuated or deactuated by control means, or controls, also constituting an integrating part of the microchip.

Within the scope of the above mentioned aim, a main object is the present invention is to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks and allow a performance higher than that of prior systems to be easily obtained, while reducing the data access time.

A further object of the present invention is to simultaneously switch on and/or off in their reading and/or writing operations, a plurality of different heads, on different tracks and/or sectors of a hard disk.

Yet another object of the present invention is to eliminate vibrations due to the movement of the arms and to reduce the possibility of data destruction, while increasing the stability and reliability of the device.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a device for reading and writing data from/on a hard disk, susceptible to increase the storing capability thereof. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a data reading/writing device allowing a great power saving and size reduction to be obtained.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the above mentioned aim and objects, as well as yet other objects, which will become more apparent hereinafter, are achieved by an electronic IC device, including a plurality of fixed heads, for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media constituting mass stores of digital processors or computers .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent hereinafter, from the following preferred, though not exclusive, embodiment of a device for reading and writing data from/on hard disk magnetic media, which is illustrated, by way of an indicative, but not limitative example, in the accompanying drawings, where :

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a prior and conventional reading system including a movable head arm;

Figure 2 is a further top plan view of the device according to the present invention;

Figure 3 is yet another top plan view comparing the movable-arm carriage of a prior system with the fixed-arm carriage included in the device according to the present invention; Figure 4 is a side view illustrating a possible embodiment of a fixed-arm carriage according to the present invention; Figure 5 is a top plan view illustrating a graphic diagram of a fixed arm carriage, like that shown in figure 4 ;

Figure 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a plurality of magnetic disk spaced by the fixed arm construction bearing the microchips, according to the present invention;

Figure 7 is a side perspective view illustrating the device according to the present invention;

Figure 8 is a top plan diagram of the device according to the present invention, integrally assembled in a hard disk;

Figure 9 is a partial schematic view illustrating a single arm and a single disk;

Figure 10 illustrates a possible diagram or pattern of a microchip according to the present invention; and

Figure 11 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a functional schematic diagram of the mode of operation of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to the number references of the above mentioned figures, the electronic device, for reading and writing binary data from/on a magnetic medium or support, according to the present invention, which has been generally indicated by the reference number 1, comprises a carriage 8 including fixed arms 2, a ribbon cable 3 for coupling the device according to the present invention to the remaining part of the electronics for managing the data flow, a connector 4, and several microchips 5.

Said microchips 5 are arranged on and fixed to the faces and near the surfaces of the disks 6. With the exception of the first and latter arm 2, which, as shown, support a single microchip, the other arms are each provided with two microchips 5, i.e. one facing the underside of the top disk 6 and the other facing downward, toward the top face or surface of the bottom or lower disk 6.

As shown, the disks 6 are so arranged as to rotate abut a pivot shaft 7, thereon they are keyed.

The microchips 5, moreover, have their heads 9 facing the top of bottom surfaces of the disks 6.

The heads 9 comprise a sensor 11 for reading the dipolar orientation of the magnetic substrate molecules, therethrough they pick-up and recognize a bit 1 from a bit 0. From the sensor 11, the sensing signal is sent to one of the three controllers 10 arranged inside the microchip 5.

From said controllers 10, the signals are sent at first to the inside of the microchip 5, through the tracks and contacts 12 and then to the outside thereof, through suitably designed conductor cables 14, as far as a suitable external integrated circuit 13.

The heads 9 comprise moreover a transducer 15, for generating a magnetic field proportional to the current passing through said transducer and for varying the dipolar momentum of the magnetic medium, as necessary for writing data.

The writing transducer 15 is also driven by one of the three microchip 5 integrated controllers 10, coupled to the outer integrated circuit 13. By the mentioned ribbon cable 3, said integrated circuit 13 is coupled to the connector 4 constituting an interface with the remaining part of the hard disk controlling electronics which is mounted, as it is conventional in this field, on a card underlying the plane housing the disks 6 and, accordingly, not visible in the figures.

As is shown in the accompanying figures, as the disks 6 are rotated, the arm 2 is held in a fixed condition, while projecting through the overall radial extension of the disk 6 surfaces.

Thus, said arm 2 allows the heads 9 to be properly located, in a constant and permanent manner, on the related disk tracks .

Accordingly, the switching on and off of the reading sensors 11, and/or of the writing transducers 15, are easily controlled, in a very accurate manner, through the mentioned controlling electronics, by signals exchanged between the outer integrated circuit 13 and the controllers 10. This will result in a total independence of the data reading and writing operations from the mechanical or electromechanical parts of the device, as, on the contrary, it occurs in prior hard disks.

In fact, in the latter, as it is clearly shown in figure 1, the head bearing arm movement, for performing a scanning of the disk surface, is controlled by a plurality of electromechanical devices which occupy as much as a third of the total volume of the hard disk casing.

Actually, prior approaches provide to use an electromagnetic transducer which, by exploiting a morphologic variation of a two-composition metal membrane, performed by a thermal resistance, drives several mechanisms and/or linkages to cause said heads to perform a scanning angular movement on the disk tracks. The high speed turning movement of the disk, the high storing capability of the disk corresponding to low flight heights, and the generation of microvibrations , due to the head bearing arm movement, have achieved, in prior approaches, very small tolerances, jeopardizing the operation reliability of the hard disks.

The present invention, on the contrary, does not require any driving devices for driving the arms 2, since the latter are fixed. The invention, moreover, does not provide to use additional and complex control devices for controlling the flight height of the heads 9 on the disk 6 surfaces and, accordingly, allows to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks, and furthermore, most importantly, allows to achieve a very great power saving as well as a size saving corresponding to a third of the overall volume of prior hard disks .

It is superfluous to underline the great importance of these advantages in the constantly increasing search for space reduction of digital data processors.

From the above disclosure it should be apparent that the invention fully achieves the intended aim and objects and represents a radical innovation in the mass storage device field.

In particular, the invention provides an electronic IC device comprising a plurality of fixed heads , for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media constituting digital processor mass stores, characterized by the use of fixed arms 2, bearing, on their surfaces, microchips 5 including a plurality of reading and writing heads 9 , adapted to be each constantly arranged on its dedicated disk track.

The heads 9, in particular, are switched on or off by electronic signals provided by a plurality of controllers 10 which are also integrated on said microchips 5.

The device, moreover, allows to greatly reduce the access time, while providing a very accurate control of each head, with a consequent increase of the operating reliability and a great reduction of the size of the device, in addition to a very high power saving.

The invention, as disclosed, is susceptible to several modifications and variations, all of which will come within the scope of the invention. Moreover, all the constructional details can be replaced by other technically equivalent elements .

In practicing the invention, the used materials, as well as the contingent size, electronic architectures and configurations, can be any, depending on requirements .

Claims

1. An electronic integrated device, including a plurality of fixed heads, for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media constituting mass stores of digital processors, or computers, characterized in that said device comprises a carriage (8) including a plurality of fixed arms (2), at least a microchip (5) including therein a plurality of heads (9), conductor cables (14), at least an integrated circuit (13), a cable ribbon (3) and a connector ( 4 ) .

2. A device for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media, according to Claim 1, characterized in that said microchips (5) are arranged at the faces and near the surfaces of said disks (6) .

3. A device for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that, with the exception a first and last arm (2) of the carriage ( 8 ) , which support thereon a single microchip ( 5 ) , the other fixed arms ( 2 ) comprise each two microchips, i.e. one upward directed toward the bottom face of the disk (6) and the other downward directed toward the top face of the bottom disk ( 6 ) .

4. A device, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said disks (6) rotate about a shaft (7), thereon said disks are keyed, and that said microchips (5) expose the heads (9) toward the top or bottom surfaces of the disks (6) .

5. A device, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said microchips (5), comprise, in addition to said plurality of heads, at least three integrated controllers (10) and the related tracks and contacts (12).

6. A device, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the individual heads (9) comprise at least a sensor (11) for reading the dipolar orientation of the molecules constituting the magnetic substrate of said disks (6).

7. A device, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the signal picked up by said sensor (11) is sent to a controller (10) integrated in said microchip (5).

8. A device, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the signals are sent from said controllers (10), at first to the inside of the microchip (5) through said tracks and^' contacts (12) and then to the outside, through conductor cables (14), to an integrated circuit (13) outside of the microchip (5).

9. A device, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said heads (9) comprise at least a data writing transducer (15), driven by one of said controllers (10) integrated in said microchip (5) and coupled, through conductor cables (14) to said integrated circuit ( 13 ) .

10. A device for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said heads (9) and the component thereof are fully controlled by an electronic signals, through said microchip (5) integrated controllers (10) and said outer integrated circuit (13).

11. A device for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media, according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said device is fully independent from additional mechanical and electromechanical devices for driving the carriage (8) and/or the arms (2) and from control devices for controlling the flight height of said heads (9) on the surfaces of said disks (6).

12. An electronic integrated device, comprising a plurality of fixed heads, for reading and writing data from/on magnetic media constituting digital processor mass stores, according to one or more of the preceding claims, and substantially as broadly disclosed and illustrated in the disclosure and in the figures of the accompanying drawings enclosed in the subject Industrial Invention Patent Application.