Tape drives that operate bi-directionally are well-known. The tape media is generally enclosed into a single reel cartridge and the tape is transported around the tape path onto a tape reel thereby placing the tape media in contact with the transducer. The transducer in present day tape drives comprise a separate read and write element that cover each track of the data on the tape media. It is known, for instance, that a one-half inch wide magnetic tape can include 18 tracks. A higher number of tracks are contemplated and it is proposed that a one-half inch wide magnetic tape includes 36 tracks. To be able to read 36 tracks from the tape, an interleaved data transducing head is proposed.
An interleaved read/write head is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,005 to Fields, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In the magnetic head disclosed in that patent, the read and write gaps of each module of the magnetic head are alternately spaced across the width of the tape, such that the write gaps of one module are aligned with the read gaps of the other module. When one module is selected for writing, as a function of the direction of the tape movement, the other module is selected to read-after-write check the data written by the write element of the first module. One module writes odd track data during one direction of the tape movement and reads even track data during the opposite direction of the tape movement. The problem arises in that both read and write elements are located within one module with the gaps of each element aligned along the same line.
The read element of the modern day tape head is a magneto-resistive transducer and is formed of thin film layers deposited through a standard thin film deposition procedure. The write transducer, however, has its pole pieces formed from two blocks of magnetic ferrite magnetically connected together at the back gap and a transducing gap at the front face. A single block of magnetic ferrite operates as a closure structure after all of the elements of the read transducer and the write conductors are deposited onto the substrate magnetic ferrite block. Having different layers of material deposited at different locations into the side-by-side elements creates a leveling problem when the magnetic ferrite closure block is to be placed over the plurality of read and write elements. More layers form a greater thickness in the read element and therefore the write element generally lacks a supporting structure that can cause the magnetic ferrite closure piece to bend under stress when affixed to the completed transducers. In any event, the write head gap must not be narrower than the read head gap to properly read the written bits of information onto the magnetic media. Also, with the closure piece bent under stress at the time of manufacture, the stress may relieve in time, resulting in an unreliable gap.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an enhanced magnetic recording drive for multi-track operation.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic drive that uses an enhanced interleaved head to read and write magnetic transitions forming data onto magnetic recording media.
Another object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an enhanced transducer assembly and an enhanced method for making the transducer assembly.