Appeal No. 97-1647 Page 2
Application No. 08/321,255
BACKGROUND
The invention at issue in this appeal relates to magnetic
disc drives. It adjusts fly height between the surface of a
disc and a slider supported on a flexure arm in a magnetic
disc drive. The disc is first rotated at a testing rate,
which is less than its operating rate. At the testing rate, a
laser is used to heat the flexure arm to achieve a desired
bend therein and, thus, a desired fly height. The increased
rate at which the disk is rotated during operation causes the
fly height to increase such that the slider flies close to the
surface without touching asperities in the disc’s surface.
Claim 1, which is representative for our purposes,
follows:
1. A method of adjusting fly height between a
disc surface and a slider supported on a spring
loaded flexure arm in a disc drive, comprising the
steps of:
obtaining the disc drive;
obtaining a laser; and
heating the spring loaded flexure arm with the
laser, thereby deforming a bend in the spring loaded
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