1609 results about "Air bearing" patented technology

An apparatus and method for supporting, positioning and rotating a substrate are provided. In one embodiment, a support assembly for supporting a substrate includes an upper base plate and a lower base plate. The substrate is floated on a thin layer of air over the upper base plate. A positioning assembly includes a plurality of air bearing edge rollers or air flow pockets used to position the substrate in a desired orientation inside above the upper base plate. A plurality of slanted apertures or air flow pockets are configured in the upper base plate for flowing gas therethrough to rotate the substrate to ensure uniform heating during processing.

A method monitors operation of a disk drive. The method includes providing a disk drive which includes a rotating disk and a head having a read transducer in proximity to a surface of the disk and an adjustment mechanism which controllably adjusts an average relative spacing between the read transducer and the surface. The method further includes generating a read-back signal by reading from the surface using the read transducer. The read-back signal includes a high frequency carrier signal having an envelope that is modulated by a lower frequency signal. The method further includes varying the average relative spacing between the read transducer and the surface using the adjustment mechanism. The method further includes analyzing the envelope in the frequency domain and detecting an emergence of at least one frequency component of the envelope within an air bearing resonance range of frequencies.

A method and system provide a magnetic transducer having an air-bearing surface (ABS). The magnetic transducer includes a first shield, a read sensor, at least one soft magnetic bias structure and at least one hard bias structure. The read sensor includes a sensor layer that has at least one edge in the track width direction along the ABS. The soft magnetic bias structure(s) are adjacent to the edge(s) of the sensor layer. The soft magnetic bias structure has a first permeability. The soft bias structure(s) are between the read sensor and the hard bias structure(s). The hard bias structure(s) are adjacent to a portion of the soft bias structure(s) and have a second permeability. The first permeability is at least ten multiplied by the second permeability.

Thin substrates, such as flat glass panels, are levitated on a porous media air bearing creating a pressurized film of air and preloaded against the air film by negative pressure areas. The pressure can be distributed most uniformly across the pressure areas by defusing the pressure through a porous medium. Such a bearing can be used for glass flattening by holding the glass such that the unevenness is migrated to the side opposite the side to be worked on.

A method for manufacturing doped substrates using a continuous large area scanning implantation process is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a movable track member. The movable track member is provided in a chamber. The chamber includes an inlet and an outlet. In a specific embodiment, the movable track member can include one or more rollers, air bearings, belt member, and/or movable beam member to provide one or more substrates for a scanning process. The method may also include providing a first substrate. The first substrate includes a first plurality of tiles. The method maintains the first substrate including the first plurality of tiles in a vacuum. The method includes transferring the first substrate including the first plurality of tiles from the inlet port onto the movable track member. The first plurality of tiles are subjected to a scanning implant process. The method also includes maintaining a second substrate including a second plurality of tiles in the vacuum. The method includes transferring the second substrate including a second plurality of tiles from the inlet port onto the movable track member. The method includes subjecting the second plurality of tiles to an implant process using the scanning implant process.

An apparatus and method for aligning a disk with an imprinting surface are described. In one embodiment, the apparatus has a die which includes an air-bearing mandrel having a tapered nose to engage an ID of the disk, a circular imprinting surface having a centerline concentric with the air-bearing mandrel, and an air-bearing cavity to position the disk. The axial movement of the top die towards the bottom die guides the ID of the disk into coincident alignment with the centerline of the top die.

This invention provides a small, high efficiency, oil free motor driven compressor/blower suitable for providing pressurized, contamination-free gas and or air to transportation, industrial and aerospace fuel cell systems or other contaminant-intolerant applications. The motor driven compressor/blower rotor assembly is supported by foil air bearings and rotates at high speed by using a high frequency drive. The impeller is a centrifugal type design. The MDC can be easily integrated into the air management system of a fuel cell.

A laser machining system may include an opposite side camera to provide workpiece alignment from an opposite side of the system (i.e., the side opposite the laser machining process). The opposite side camera may be used with an air bearing positioning stage, and a portion of the stage and/or the opposite side camera may be moved to allow the opposite side camera to image a feature on the workpiece to be aligned. The opposite side alignment may be used with back side scribing and/or dual side scribing of a workpiece with alignment from one or both sides of the workpiece. Laser machining systems and methods may also be used to provide quasi-stealth scribing and multi-beam scribing.

A stabilized field sensor apparatus collects field data, in particular magnetic field data, with reduced motion noise. The apparatus includes a tear drop shaped housing, a tow frame in the housing, a plurality of vibration isolating dampers spaced around the frame, a base assembly mounted to the dampers, a support pedestal having a bottom end fixed to the base assembly and an upper free end, a single spherical air bearing connected to the upper free end of the pedestal, an instrument platform with a lower hollow funnel having an upper inside apex supported on the air bearing for a one point support, principal and secondary gyro stabilizers for maintaining pivotal and rotational stability, and at least one field sensor mounted to the instrument platform for collecting the field data while being stabilized against motion noise including vibration, pivoting and rotation from the base assembly, from the tow frame and from the housing. Stabilization of the instrument platform is enhanced by preserving accurate balance through a dynamic balancing system whereby small masses are moved under computer control to maintain the center of mass of the instrument platform at the center of rotation of the spherical air bearing. The dynamic stabilization process is made more precise by actively vibrating the instrument platform by a set of linear vibrators.

The invention discloses a closed loop planar linear motor which includes a stationary stator (or platen) of arbitrary extent, and a moving forcer which is a single rigid body that can move over the planar stator surface on an air bearing with high speed and high precision in two orthogonal translational directions and a small rotation (or combinations thereof). An important distinguishing feature is a monolithic position and orientation sensor based on alternating current (AC) magnetic techniques which is an integral part of the forcer and occupies otherwise unused space in the forcer body. Also incorporated within the forcer is a special electronic processing element which converts weak AC signals from the sensor into usable high precision position and orientation information relative to the stator surface. A unique controller which is part of the closed-loop linear motor acts to combine information from the AC magnetic sensor with input from a user to provide precise, high-performance closed-loop control of the forcer, thereby enabling the forcer to be positioned with sub-micrometer precision and oriented with sub-millidegree precision on the stator surface. Additionally, owing to its closed-loop nature, the forcer can maintain its position and orientation even in the presence of disturbance forces and torques, and can emulate the operation of a mechanical spring and damper.

A motor-driven centrifugal compressor includes a journal air bearing having a bump foil and a top foil for restraining a bearing shaft in a resting state and forming an air layer between the top foil and the bearing shaft in a rotating state. The top foil and the bump foil are fixed to an inner circumferential surface of a ring member, which is fixed to an inner circumferential surface of a first stationary holding member of the ring member. The first stationary holding member has a coolant water channel defined therein. The bearing shaft, the air layer, the top foil, the bump foil, and the coolant water channel are arranged in the order named along a normal direction.

A motor is provided including a housing having single and integral motor and bearing cooling inlets. The motor is arranged within the housing and includes a stator and a rotor assembly supported on air bearings. The cooling inlet is in fluid communication with the motor stator and with the air bearings. The motor cooling inlet provides and the bearing cooling inlet provides a uniform pressure on the rotor assembly. The uniform pressures exerted on the rotor assembly produce bearing loads that generally cancel one another. The source of the cooling flow is uncompressed air at low pressure. This may be achieved by providing a vent in the housing that is common to both the motor cooling inlet and the bearing cooling inlet. As a result, journal bearings and seals of substantially the same size may be used.

A stage for processing a substrate, especially useful for vacuum applications, has a recess just large enough to hold a substantially flat substrate and a chuck or holder but not much more. The perimeter of the recessed side has an air bearing surface separated from the recess by differentially pumped groves and seal lands. The air bearing lands are urged against a reference plate guide surface and the seal lands being substantially coplanar create a resistance to flow between the groves and recess, on the other side of the base reference plate mounts the radiation source. The VCS may operate in a vacuum environment itself, or in another preferred embodiment, it provides the possibility for multiple stages moving between process or inspection steps within the same tool or process sequence.

A slide loading mechanism utilizes compressed air as the transport medium to move the slides from a magazine to the stage of a microscope. The stage is provided with a carriage moving horizontally along a direct path between the stage and the magazine. A conveyor coupled to the carriage includes a tongue suitable for positioning under the slide of interest in the magazine when the carriage is at one end of its travel path, so that the slide may be picked up for translation to the stage of the microscope. When the carriage is moved to the opposite end of its travel path, the tongue is completely removed from the magazine, which may be freely moved vertically by an elevator to align another slide for processing. Directional air flow is used to suspend and transport the slide back and forth between the two ends of the conveyor

A magnetic head suspension assembly is fabricated with an integral piece which includes a load beam section, a flexure section, a rest mount section and a leaf spring section between the load beam and rear mount. A tongue extends from the load beam to the flexure and has a down-facing load dimple which contacts the non-air bearing surface of an attached air bearing slider. The flexure includes narrow thin legs adjacent to a cutout that delineates the load beam tongue. The head suspension is characterised by a high first bending mode frequency and low pitch and roll stiffness.

An aspect of the invention can be regarded an air bearing slider for use in a disk drive including a rotatable magnetic disk. The slider includes a leading side and a trailing side. The slider further includes opposing lateral sides extending between the leading and trailing sides. The slider further includes a transducer pad disposed adjacent the trailing side. The transducer pad includes a transducer for reading and writing data from and to the magnetic disk. The slider further includes a pair of pressurized side pads each respectively disposed laterally between the transducer pad and a respective one of the lateral sides. Each side pad includes a forward shallow etched surface, a trailing shallow etched surface extending from adjacent the trailing side toward the leading side, and a side pad air bearing surface disposed between and above the forward and trailing shallow etched surfaces.

A slider is formed of an air bearing surface coated with a wear limiting coating that substantially limits surface wear of the air bearing surface encountered in proximity recording. The wear limiting coating is comprised of a wear inhibiting layer formed on the air bearing surface and a sacrificial layer formed on the wear inhibiting layer. The two coatings of the wear limiting coating have different mechanical properties so that the sacrificial layer is burnished, exposing the wear inhibiting layer. This design substantially limits the surface wear of the air bearing surface typically encountered in proximity recording, resulting in less debris accumulation, which could otherwise adversely affect the performance of the proximity recording head. This self-limiting burnishing action overcomes the flying height variation due to manufacturing tolerances and provides extremely small and uniform magnetic spacing, which greatly enhances the proximity recording. Moreover, the burnishing action also achieves an improved flying stability and a reduction in the altitude sensitivity.