International Business Machines Corporation

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Dale E Goodman

Jeffrey Fred Boigenzahn

Richard Edward Lagergren

Michael Scott Good

James M Rigotti

Brian Lee Rappel

Lyle R Tufty

Darrell Eugene Bratvold

Gregory Allen Lyons

Dale C Goeke

Eric Alan Eckberg

Jerome Thomas Coffey

Joe Martin Poss

Mark Kenneth Hoffmeyer

Kirk Barrows Price

Charles Allan Brown

John Beck

Roger Scott Krabbenhoft

Steven Alf Hanssen

Herman Russell Wendt

Luke A Cossette

Randy J Bornhorst

Daniel C Stucky

A micro-actuator of a head suspension either is wired in a reverse polarity to effect movement of the suspension arms in opposing directions relative to the magnetic disks or reversed in physical orientation and wired identically. This permits a single micro-actuator control signal to control all micro-actuators and thereby cancel the affects of inertia of the suspension arms and the read/write heads on the actuator arms as half of the suspension arms and magnetic heads move in one direction while, simultaneously, the other half of the suspension arms and magnetic heads move in a second, opposite direction in response to a single control signal, simplifying wiring and control electronics. The counter-movement of the suspension arms and magnetic counter the inertia and inertial forces and expedite the settling into their stable recording/reading positions, thereby reducing seek times and improving disk drive performance.

Micro-actuator transducer stack inertia cancellation control

A data storage disk drive is provided with a spindle which supports a plurality of disks having at least one magnetic disk surface to form a spindle assembly for rotation of the disk surfaces about a common axis and a rotary actuator which supports magnetic transducers for movement in unison about respective disk surfaces. The disk drive includes a disk drive enclosure having die-cast generated predetermined zero draft geometries for mounting the spindle motor shaft and the actuator bearing shaft. The enclosure includes a base casting and a cover casting, each casting including structure for locating and retaining electrical connectors used for connecting to a planar electronics card located outside the drive enclosure. The disk drive includes an effective and easily manufacturable electrical path from a flex circuit to an actuator comb. The disk drive includes a tubular chemical breather filter arranged with integral housing and diffusion channels formed in the cover casting.

Structure and enclosure assembly for a disk drive

A gasket for a disk drive system that seals the connector port for the actuator flex cable to the disk drive housing which is designed to also provide electrical ground contact from the disk drive housing to the actuator flex cable ground lead. In accordance with the new gasket disclosed herein, grounding of the actuator flex cable ground lead to the disk drive housing is accomplished without need of additional fasteners, or additional process steps in assembly of the disk drive.

Gasket frame for grounding an actuator flex cable in a disc drive

A printed circuit connector terminal pad coating technique is disclosed which functions as a single universal pad surface which supports multiple electrical connection practices including wirebonding, soldering, and wear resistant, pad on pad mechanical connection. The tri-plate surface treatment includes an initial diffusion resistant coating of nickel; an intermediate layer of hard, wear resistant noble or semi-noble metal that provides pad on pad connector reliability and affords a metallurgically stable solder joints and wirebond interfaces; and a final coating of soft gold. The intermediate layer may be pure palladium having a nominal thickness of 35 microinches or a layer of gold, hardened by cobalt, nickel, iron or a combination of these dopants to effect a hardness of 200 to 250 (Knoop scale). The use of a common surface treatment for the multiple attachment processes is implemented with a single masking step, rather than a sequence of selective masking, plating and stripping operations. In the printed circuit environment, the masking is provided by the final covering that encloses, seals, and electrically insulates the conductors in a circuit board application or in the instance of a flexcable, the adhesive coated flexible coverlay the covers and seals the copper conductor elements while exposing the conductor terminal pads.

Universal surface finish for DCA, SMT and pad on pad interconnections

A direct access storage device includes at least one disk mounted for rotation about an axis and having opposed disk surfaces for storing data. A magneto-resistive (MR) transducer head is mounted for movement across each respective disk surface for writing to and for reading data signals from the disk surface. Each MR transducer head includes a write element and a read element. A preamplifier, associated with the MR transducer head, amplifies read and write signals of the read element and the write element. A flex cable couples the read and write signals between the preamplifier and the MR transducer heads. The flex cable includes a common read return signal line for each sequential pair of the MR transducer heads.

Direct access storage device with magneto-resistive transducing head

A data storage disk drive is provided with a spindle which supports at least one disk having at least one magnetic disk surface to form a spindle assembly for rotation of the disk surfaces about a common axis and a rotary actuator which supports at least one magnetic tranducers for movement about respective disk surfaces. The enclosure includes a base casting and a cover casting. The base casting include predetermined registration surfaces for mounting the spindle and the rotary actuator and having a mating face. The cover casting has a mating face for engaging the base mating face to define the disk drive enclosure for enclosing the spindle, the at least one disk surface, the at least one magnetic transducer and the actuator. The mating faces extend along the length of the disk drive enclosure. The base casting including a locational and retention cast pocket structure for locating and retaining electrical connector and a flexible cable used for connecting to a planar electronics card located outside the drive enclosure.

Enclosure assembly for a disk with a locational and retention cast

A Direct Access Storage Device (DASD), either magnetic or optical, wherein the chamber which encloses the disk, actuator and electrical connections is sealed from the outside conditions by disposing a seal or gasket about a connector which is surface mounted on a flex cable and disposing the connector in a passage through the base of the DASD. The flex cable is disposed adjacent the inner surface of the cover, and a tail portion of the flex cable is folded to an orientation to position the tail so that it may be attached to an actuator or similar mechanism within the DASD. The tail is maintained in its proper orientation once inserted into a slot formed into the base member. The slot side walls constrain the tail without the need to have the tail fixedly attached to the base member at any point and thereby easing assembly, disassembly, rework and/or repair of the DASD. Compressive forces exerted on the flex cable by the cover and cover screws effectively ground the flex cable through a grounding tab engaged with the base. Further, the compressive forces exerted by the cover against the flex cable, gasket, and base member insure an effective seal of the internal chamber of the DASD from the exterior conditions.

Direct access storage device with improved reliability flex cable

A data storage disk drive is provided with a spindle which supports a plurality of disks having at least one magnetic disk surface to form a spindle assembly for rotation of the disk surfaces about a common axis and a rotary actuator which supports magnetic transducers for movement in unison about respective disk surfaces. The disk drive includes a voltage reference tab provided for quick assembly and removal from an actuator comb. The voltage reference tab maintains the magneto-resistive transducers and the magnetic disks at the same reference voltage potential thus minimizing electrical discharge from the transducer to the disk. The voltage reference tab is a copper tab having symmetrical slots about a fastening hole to facilitate the bending operation and to reduce the rate at which heat is conducted during the soldering process. The tab maintains the voltage reference potential between the head and disk through an extension of the flex cable attached to the actuator.

Growing community of inventors

Oronoco, MN, United States of America

Dale E Goodman