Method of recording/reproducing an information signal

• US 6,356,524 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2001
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Aratani, Katsuhisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Huber, Paul W.
• Application Number:
  US09/821,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20010043545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 348 Days
• Field of Search: 369/126, 369/95, 369/99, 369/127, 369/128, 369/135, 369/151, 250/306, 250/307
• US Class Current: 369/126
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 10/00 Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 11/00 Recording on or reproducing from the same record carrier wherein for these two operations the methods are covered by different main groups of groups G11B3/00 - G11B7/00 or by different subgroups of group G11B9/00; Record carriers therefor driving or moving of heads G11B3/02, G11B5/48, G11B7/08, G11B21/02
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 21/02 Driving or moving of heads
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/0014 record carriers not specifically of filamentary or web form G11B23/0057 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/00 Recording or reproducing using a method not covered by one of the main groups G11B3/00 - G11B7/00; Record carriers therefor G11B11/00 takes precedence driving or moving of heads G11B21/02
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/04 using record carriers having variable electric resistance; Record carriers therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/14 using microscopic probe means , i.e. recording or reproducing by means directly associated with the tip of a microscopic electrical probe as used in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy [STM] or Atomic Force Microscopy [AFM] for inducing physical or electrical perturbations in a recording medium; Record carriers or media specially adapted for such transducing of information marking using electrical current B41M5/20; measuring roughness or irregularity of surfaces G01B7/34; details of scanning-probe microscopes G01Q
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/1409 Heads
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/1418 Disposition or mounting of heads or record carriers G11B17/00 and G11B19/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 9/1472 characterised by the form
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/724 Devices having flexible or movable element
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/86 Scanning probe structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/861 Scanning tunneling probe
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/869 Optical microscope
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/935 Spin dependent tunnel, SDT, junction, e.g. tunneling magnetoresistance, TMR
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/943 Information storage or retrieval using nanostructure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/947 with scanning probe instrument

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of recording/reproducing information signals at an access speed in the order of μs, a recording density of 1 to 10 GBs/cm², and a data transfer rate in the order of Gbit/sec without breakage of the data. The method includes the steps of: making a head device face to a memory medium having a flat recording surface, the head device including a plurality of head elements two-dimensionally arranged each of which has at its leading end a flat portion having an area of 0.1 μm² or less; moving the head device relative to the memory medium a distance more than a gap between two adjacent ones of the head elements; and recording an information signal at a specific position of the recording surface at a recording density of 1 Gbit/cm² or more, or reproducing an information signal previously recorded on the recording surface at a specific position by the head device.

Claims

1. A method of recording/reproducing an information signal, comprising the steps of:

making a head device face to a memory medium having a flat recording surface, said head device including a plurality of head elements two-dimensionally arranged each of which has at its leading end a flat portion having an area of 0.1 μ

m² or less;

moving said head device relative to said memory medium a distance more than a gap between two adjacent ones of said head elements;

and recording an information signal at a specific position of said recording surface at a recording density of 1 Gbit/cm² or more, or reproducing an information signal previously recorded on said recording surface at a specific position by said head device.

2. A method of recording/reproducing an information signal according to claim 1, wherein an information signal is recorded on the recording surface of said memory medium in the form of irregularities or an information signal recorded on the recording surface of said memory medium in the form of irregularities is reproduced.

3. A method of recording/reproducing an information signal according to claim 2, wherein the information signal recorded on the recording surface in the form of irregularities is reproduced by applying an electric field between said head element and the recording surface of said memory medium, and detecting an impedance between said head element and said memory medium, said impedance being changed due to said irregularities corresponding to the information signal.

4. A method of recording/reproducing an information signal according to claim 3, wherein the information signal recorded on the recording surface in the form of irregularities is reproduced by detecting an impedance between said head element and the recording surface of said memory medium while bringing the leading end of said head element not in contact with the recesses of the irregularities but in contact with the projections of the irregularities.

5. A method of recording/reproducing an information signal according to claim 1, wherein the information signal is reproduced by applying an electric field having a frequency higher than a mechanical primary resonance frequency of a driving portion of said head device between the leading end of said head element and the recording surface of said memory medium, and detecting a current modulated depending on the information signal.

6. A method of recording/reproducing an information signal according to claim 1, wherein an information signal is recorded or reproduced by moving said head device relative to said memory medium in a state in which part of said head elements of said head device face to the recording surface of said memory medium.