Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Seagate Technology International

Byoung-gyou Choi

Do-wan Kim

Min-pyo Hong

Yong-kyu Byun

No-yeol Park

Jeong-seon Kim

Jun-Young Lee

Dong-wook Kim

Ki-tag Jeong

Sang-chul Shin

Sung-wook Kim

Dong-Lyoul Shin

Sang-min Suh

Kwang-Kyu Kim

Ji-Ho Hwang

Hong-taek Lim

Jeong-il Chun

Heung-seong Jang

Tcherniak Valeri

Krasnoslobodtsev Valery

An actuator latch system of a hard disk drive (HDD) retains a rotatable swing arm of the HDD in place when a magnetic head of the HDD is parked. The actuator latch system includes a portion of the swing arm that defines a notch at an end portion of a swing arm, and a latch lever that has at least one main hook and a rebound hook, and an elastic buffering arm. The latch lever is disposed on the base member adjacent the end portion of the swing arm and is supported so as to be rotatable. The at least one main hook prevents the swing arm from initially rotating in one direction beyond a certain point, and the rebound hook prevents the swing arm from rotating beyond a certain point after the swing arm rebounds upon colliding with the at least one main hook.

Actuator latch system of hard disk drive

An HDD includes a base, a swing arm, a VCM coil disposed on the rear end portion of the swing arm, a lower yoke and an upper yoke disposed below and above the VCM coil, at least one magnet attached to the yokes, and a latch lever levitated by the at least one magnet. The latch lever includes a hook at one end and a counterbalance at another end. A first magnetic retractor is installed on the counterbalance to apply torque to the latch lever. The first retract member is disposed such that the vertical component of the net magnetic force applied to the first retractor by the magnet(s) is about 0 when the latch lever is located at a position at which a first air gap and a second air gap exist, respectively, immediately below and above the latch lever.

Actuator latch system of hard disk drive including magnetically levitated latch lever

An FPC holding mechanism of an actuator assembly of a hard disk drive (HDD) includes an FPC holder protruding from an arm-mold of the actuator assembly, and an FPC clip mounted to the FPC holder so as to be rotatable. The FPC holder defines a guide groove into which the FPC is inserted and a first side support plate facing one side surface of the FPC. The FPC clip includes a second side support plate juxtaposed with the first side support plate and facing the other side surface of the FPC, and at least two clip arms extending in a horizontal direction over upper and lower edges of the FPC, respectively. At least one of the clip arms has a hook hooked onto the first side support plate. The FPC holding mechanism thus prevents a portion of the FPC from moving in vertical and horizontal directions.

Flexible printed circuit holding mechanism of hard disk drive including FPC holder and FPC clip clipped to the holder, and actuator assembly including the same

A flexible printed circuit board and a bracket structure for the hard disk drive. The flexible printed circuit board includes a base layer, a circuit layer provided on the base layer, a cover layer provided on the circuit layer, and a filter layer interposed between the base layer and the circuit layer. Also, the bracket structure includes a flexible printed circuit board for driving an actuator, a bracket connected to the flexible printed circuit board, and a filter interposed between the flexible printed circuit board and the bracket. Thermal asperity caused by fine particles in the hard disk drive is prevented so that performance deterioration of the hard disk drive is prevented and reliability thereof is improved.

Flexible printed circuit and bracket structure for hard disk drive

A hard disk drive includes a disk pack having at least one disk for recording and/or storing data and a spindle motor that support and rotates the disk, a base to which the disk pack is mounted, a cover that covers an upper surface of the base, and a respective filter disposed close to each of at least one of the major surfaces of the disk and extending in the radial direction of the disk including over at least an inner peripheral region of the disk. The filter has an absorbent layer capable of absorbing particles that come in contact with it. Particles on the surface of the disk, from the inner to the outer peripheral regions of the disk, are removed by the filter when the disk is rotated and the particles are flung off of the disk. Thus, particles will not damage the magnetic head(s) of the hard disk drive nor will the particles cause errors to occur in the recording and/or reproducing of data.

Hard disk drive

A rotor blade and an HDD (hard disk drive) having the same, wherein the rotor blade is mounted together with a disk-shaped data storing medium on a spindle motor of the HDD to rotate coaxially with the disk-shaped data storing medium. The rotor blade includes a plurality of blades to increase a floating force applied to a slider that records or reads data on or from the disk-shaped data storing medium by increasing a speed of an airflow in an inner region of the disk-shaped data storing medium.

Rotor blade and hard disk drive having the same

Provided is a hard disk drive (HDD) assembly. The HDD assembly includes: a HDD including a base member, a cover member, a spindle motor, a data storage disk, and an actuator; and a printed circuit board (PCB) disposed beside the HDD and operating the HDD. The HDD assembly can be mounted on an electronic device, for example, a mobile phone. In this case, the HDD assembly is mounted between a main PCB and a back cover of the mobile phone using a first damping pad interposed between the cover member and the main PCB and a second damping pad interposed between the base member and the back cover. The PCB for the HDD is disposed on the main PCB of the mobile phone to be placed beside the HDD.

Hard disk drive assembly, mounting structure for hard disk drive, and mobile phone adopting the mounting structure

Provided are a hard disk drive (HDD) assembly and a mobile phone employing the HDD assembly. The HDD assembly includes: a HDD including a base member, a cover member, a spindle motor installed on the base member, at least one data storage disk mounted on the spindle motor, and an actuator pivotably installed on the base member and moving a read/write head to a predetermined position on the disk; a printed circuit board (PCB) disposed beside the HDD and operating the HDD; and a mounting bracket mounted on an electronic device while accommodating the HDD and the PCB, and including a first accommodating space adapted to accommodate the HDD and a second accommodating space disposed beside the first accommodating space and adapted to accommodate the PCB.

Hard disk drive assembly having mounting bracket and mobile phone employing the same

A hard disk drive (HDD) with an efficient connection between a flexible printed circuit and an actuator arm. The structure includes a flexible printed circuit having the flexible printed circuit and a stiffener for supporting the flexible printed circuit, and an actuator arm to which the flexible printed circuit is connected. An alignment hole, an alignment pin inserted into the alignment hole, a guide groove having one opened side, and a guide protrusion fitted into the guide groove are formed in the flexible printed circuit and the actuator arm, and the alignment hole and the alignment pin are fixed to each other through a soldering process.

Hard disk drive connecting a flexible printed circuit and actuator having vertical mating

A suspension assembly has a flexure limiter and an actuator of a disk drive adopting the flexure limiter. The suspension assembly elastically biases a slider toward a surface of a disk, in which a read/write head is mounted on the slider. In the suspension assembly, a load beam is coupled to an end portion of a swing arm of the actuator and has sidewalls bent along both outside edges thereof. A flexure supports the slider and has a rear end portion fixed to a disk facing surface of the load beam and a front end portion extended toward a front end portion of the load beam. A flexure limiter is bent from the front end portion of the flexure toward the load beam to face a surface opposite to the disk facing surface of the load beam, thus limiting a range of pitching and rolling movements of the flexure.

Actuator for a disk drive having a suspension assembly including a flexure of a monolithic structure and a limiter

A method of coupling a voice coil motor to a bowl-type base plate of a hard disk drive is described for a hard disk drive including a voice coil motor having a coil coupled to a rear end portion of an actuator arm, an upper yoke and a lower yoke provided at upper and lower portions of the coil respectively, a bowl-type base plate having a plurality of flattened structures for fastening the lower yoke in a position relative to the bowl-type base plate and a countersink formed in the lower yoke. The method includes inserting a countersunk head screw into the countersink and coupling the head screw to a screw coupling hole provided in a first support portion of the bowl-type base plate to fix the lower yoke to the bowl-type base plate, wherein the first support portion protrudes to a predetermined height and is formed around the screw coupling hole provided in the bowl-type base plate

Method of coupling a voice coil motor to a base plate of a hard disk drive

An actuator latch apparatus for a hard disk drive (HDD). The actuator latch apparatus includes a first latch formed on one end portion of a swing arm, a notch formed on the one end portion of the swing arm and spaced a predetermined interval from the first latch in a pivoting direction of the swing arm, and a latch lever pivotably installed on a base member. The latch lever includes a second latch contacting the first latch when the swing arm pivots in a first direction, and a hook engaging with the notch when the swing arm pivots in a second direction opposite to the first direction. Facing surfaces of the first latch and the second latch are inclined such that the first latch and the second latch slide into contact with each other when the swing arm pivots in the first direction.

Hard disk drive actuator latch apparatus having an inclined surface

A suspension assembly elastically biasing a slider toward a surface of a disk, in which a read/write head is mounted on the slider. In the suspension assembly, a load beam is coupled to a first portion of a swing arm of the actuator. A flexure supports the slider and has a first end portion fixed to a disk facing surface of the load beam and a second end portion extended toward a first end portion of the load beam. An end-tab is extended from the first end portion of the load beam. When the head is parked, the end-tab is supported by a ramp, which is arranged at an outside of the disk.

Suspension assembly having reinforced end-tab and actuator for disk drive adopting the same

A voice coil motor coupling structure of a hard disk drive for coupling a voice coil motor to a base plate of the hard disk drive, the voice coil motor includes a coil coupled to a rear end portion of an actuator arm, an upper yoke and a lower yoke provided at upper and lower portions of the coil, respectively, separated at a predetermined distance from the coil, and a magnet attached to the lower surface of the upper yoke. The voice coil motor coupling structure includes a countersink formed in the lower yoke, a countersunk head screw inserted in the countersink and coupled to a screw coupling hole provided in the base plate to fix the lower yoke to the base plate, a boss insertion hole formed in each of the lower and upper yokes at both end portions in a lengthwise direction, a boss protruding from the base plate and inserted in each of the boss insertion holes to prevent horizontal movements of the lower yoke and the upper yoke, and a screw inserted in each of the boss insertion holes and coupled to a screw coupling hole provided at each boss to fixedly couple the upper yoke to the lower yoke. Thus, the lower yoke of the voice coil motor can be stably fixed at an accurate position not only on a flat type base plate but also on a bowl type base plate.

Voice coil motor coupling structure of hard disk drive

An actuator locking apparatus of a hard disk drive locking an actuator using a magnetic force of a magnet attached to a first surface of a first yoke, with a metal piece installed at an end portion of an arm of the actuator, a contact portion protruding from a side surface of a second yoke, and bent such that an interval between a first contact surface of the contact portion facing the actuator and the actuator is greater than an interval between a second surface of the second yoke facing the actuator and the actuator, and a bending portion protruding from an edge of the first yoke and bent toward and extending to the contact portion, so that a second contact surface of an end portion of the bending portion contacts the first contact surface, and having a slot of predetermined width corresponding to the metal piece.

Growing community of inventors

Suwon-si, South Korea

Byoung-gyou Choi