Patent ID: 7502184

Claim:
A magnetic transfer apparatus to transfer information to a slave medium, said magnetic transfer apparatus comprising: a slave holder rotated about a rotation axis, a master information carrier and the slave medium disposed at the slave holder, and an electromagnet disposed to one side of the slave holder, the electromagnet comprising a first pole and a second pole, the first pole opposingly disposed from the second pole and each of the first and the second poles disposed along a first direction substantially perpendicular to a transfer magnetic field between the first and the second poles and substantially parallel to a radial direction extending out from the rotation axis of the slave holder, wherein the electromagnet is disposed to only one side of the rotation axis of the slave holder, and wherein the electromagnet initially applies an initial DC magnetic field to the slave medium in the slave holder to initially magnetize a magnetic layer of the slave medium in one direction of concentric recording tracks, the transfer magnetic field is applied to the slave medium in another direction opposite to the one direction of the initial-magnetization with the initially-magnetized magnetic layer of the slave medium held in close contact with a magnetic layer on a master information carrier, and at least one of the initial DC magnetic field and the transfer magnetic field is applied while rotating the slave medium relative to the one of the initial DC magnetic field and the transfer magnetic field and the rotation of the slave medium is stopped after an intensity of the one of the initial DC magnetic field and the transfer magnetic field is gradually reduced to not stronger than a predetermined level.