Seagate Technology Incorporated

Conner Peripherals, Inc.

Seagate Technologies, Inc.

Frederick Mark Stefansky

Wallis Allen Dague

Rishi Kant

Glade N Bagnell

Steven R Speckmann

Frederick Paul Renken

Albert Michael Lindrose

William J Bryan

Michael J Lerdal

Karl E Hase

Walter Wong

Louis J Shrinkle

John P Squires

Michael Kenneth Andrews

Kurt M Anderson

Thomas A Fiers

William Repphun

Kenneth J Altshuler

Richard B Balsley, Jr

James Dunkley

Thomas Hogan

Robert W Yates

The present invention is directed to a disk drive that includes a head disk assembly on a base plate, a cover sealably attached to the base plate to enclose the head disk assembly, and a printed circuit board fastened beneath the head disk assembly. The printed circuit board has a port connector at one end of the board opposite an end having power and signal connectors.

Disc drive having a printed circuit board port connector

A suspension includes a load beam having a main body and a transducer support element which is movable relative to the main body. A sheet of dielectric material extends along the load beam and carries a plurality of transducer signal traces and a coil. A microactuator is positioned along the load beam and includes a first magnet, the coil and a lever arm. The lever arm is secured to the transducer support element and supports one of the first magnet and the coil. The other of the first magnet and the coil is secured relative to the load beam.

Disc drive suspension having a moving coil or moving magnet microactuator

A low height disk drive having an overall height of approximately one inch (1&Prime;). The drive includes a head disk assembly, including a base plate, two disks rotatably supported on the base plate, a motor for rotating the disks, at least two heads for reading information from and writing information on respective ones of the disks; an actuator, supported on the base plate and responsive to control signals, for selectively positioning the heads with respect to the disks, and a cover sealably attached to the base plate to enclose the storage device, the head, and the actuator. The disk drive also includes control circuitry for generating control signals, and for providing information signals to and receiving information signals from the heads. The head disk assembly and the control circuitry have a combined height of approximately one inch or less.

Disc drive magnetic latch mechanism

An apparatus and method for uniformly centering and retaining an information storage disc on a spindle motor. A disc drive spindle motor assembly including a rotatable motor spindle having a top portion and a hub portion, and an annular disc mounted over the top portion and supported on the hub portion. The assembly further includes an annular disc clamp mounted over the top portion of the spindle, and having a centering portion and a peripheral clamping portion. A disc clamp retainer is fastened to the spindle applying a compressive force to the disc clamp to secure the disc against the hub portion. The centering portion of the disc clamp has a series of spaced centering tabs adapted to abut the spindle and symmetrically push against the annular disc when the compressive force is applied to the disc clamp.

Disc clamp for a disc drive

A low height disk drive having an overall height of approximately one inch (1&Prime;). The drive includes a head disk assembly, including a base plate, two disks rotatably supported on the base plate, a motor for rotating the disks, at least two heads for reading information from and writing information on respective ones of the disks; an actuator, supported on said base plate and responsive to control signals, for selectively positioning the heads with respect to the disks, and a cover sealably attached to the base plate to enclose the storage means, the head, and the actuator. The disk drive also includes control circuitry for generating control signals, and for providing information signals to and receiving information signals from the heads. The head disk assembly and the control circuitry have a combined height of approximately one inch or less.

Actuator assembly retaining clip

Disk drive pass-through connector

A disc drive and method of making a disc drive, including a voice coil magnet assembly. The voice coil magnet assembly includes a top magnetic return plate, a bottom magnetic return plate and at least one pair of magnets affixed to at least one of the plates. The voice coil magnet assembly is pre-assembled prior to attachment to a base plate. The pre-assembled voice coil magnet assembly is then structurally coupled to the base plate at a boss or attachment point, and is done so in a rotatable manner at the boss or attachment point, such that the voice coil of an actuator assembly is sandwiched by the rotation of the pre-assembled unit about the structural attachment point or boss.

Pre-assembled voice coil magnetic assembly and rotatable attachment structure/method to base plate for disc drive

Apparatus for sealing the internal spindle motor bearing structure from the surrounding environment in a hard disc memory device. The motor includes a single low-cost part that seals both airflow paths, including both the bearings of the motor and around the wires. This single part acts as the electrical connector for the spindle motor as well as the seal. The invention consists of a single injection molded plastic connector with electrical contact members contained therein. Wires from the internal windings of the spindle motor pass through a hole provided in the connector housing and are terminated to the electrical contact members located within the connector. This hole is in turn sealed with a single drop of adhesive that is cured under the application of ultraviolet light. In a preferred embodiment, the spindle motor housing and connector are designed to form a press fit between the outer diameter of the circularly shaped connector housing and a groove in the motor housing provided for this purpose.

Spindle motor for a hard disc drive with a combination seal and electrical connector

An apparatus and method of manufacturing a low cost disc drive base plate that incorporates a platform portion and one or more over-molded disc drive structural components. The platform portion of the base plate is stamped or fine blanked from sheet metal and defines a centrally located depression for receiving over-molded structural components of the disc drive. The structural components of the disc drive are over-molded using a polymer or plastic insert molding process to the platform portion of the base plate. The use of a stamped platform portion having over-molded structural components significantly reduces conventional manufacturing costs and allows for the design of a disc drive having greater positional accuracy then that obtained with current disc drive technology.

Over-molded base plate and method of manufacture of over-molded base plate for a disc drive

An apparatus and method for securing an information storage disc within a disc drive. A disc drive spindle motor assembly including a spindle and a hub portion extending radially outward from the spindle, the hub portion defining a top surface. An information storage disc is mounted on the hub portion, the information storage disc having a top surface. The assembly further includes an annular disc clamp forming a central aperture having a middle annular raised portion, an outer annular periphery portion, and at least one inner centering portion including an inner vertical peripheral surface. The central aperture of the disc clamp is sized to receive the spindle to allow the inner centering portion to center the disc clamp about the spindle, while the outer periphery engages the top surface of the information storage disc, and the middle annular raised portion extends above the top surface of the hub portion and is adapted to receive a downwardly directed force. A disc clamp retainer applying this force is connected to the spindle. The disc clamp retainer is fastened to the spindle and engages the middle annular raised portion of the disc clamp to transmit this force through the outer peripheral portion to the disc.

A dual-stage actuation assembly for a disc drive includes a movable actuator arm and a load beam connected to the actuator arm. A pad is attached to the load beam, and a hinge extends from the pad. A microactuator cradle is attached to the pad by the hinge, and includes a slider support structure having first and second beams that are bendable in response to control signals and a gimbal attached to the slider support structure for supporting the slider between the first and second beams over a surface of a disc. A first piezoelectric element is coupled to the first beam for bending the first beam in response to control signals in a selected direction, and a second piezoelectric element is coupled to the second beam for bending the second beam in response to the control signals in the selected direction. Bending of the first and second beams causes the microactuator cradle to rotate with respect to the pad about the hinge in a plane generally parallel to the surface of the disc, thereby effecting high resolution displacement of the transducing head carried by the slider.

Low-stress disc drive microactuator cradle

A magnetic parking device for retaining an actuator in a disk drive over a landing zone. A magnetically permeable capture member is provided on the drive actuator and a magnetic parking member for capturing and magnetically retaining the capture member to park the transducer is provided adjacent the drive actuator. The magnetic parking member includes a permanent magnet and a magnetic field containing member having a slot (or air gap) formed therein. The magnetic field containing member and permanent magnet form a magnetic circuit with a magnetic flux with the slot in the magnetic field containing member allowing a portion of the magnetic flux to extend beyond the physical confines of the magnetic field containing member to provide a capture region for the capture member. When the actuator moves into a position where the transducer is over a landing zone, the capture member enters the capture region adjacent the air gap and becomes part of the magnetic circuit formed by the magnetic field containing member and the permanent magnet. A bucking coil is provided, arranged about the magnet, for passing a current to generate a magnetic field with polarity opposite that provided by the permanent magnet to neutralize the magnetic field to release the actuator from the parked state.

Magnetic parking device for disk drive

A microactuator is employed in a disc drive system to finely position a transducing head adjacent to a selected track of a rotatable disc. The disc drive includes an actuator arm, a load beam attached to the actuator arm, and a flexure supporting a slider carrying the transducing head adjacent to a surface of the rotatable disc. The microactuator is formed integrally with the load beam, and is attached to the flexure so that displacement effected by the microactuator deflects a portion of the load beam to finely position the flexure and the head-carrying slider with respect to the selected track of the rotatable disc.

Integral load beam push-pull microactuator

A mechanism is provided to position a transducing bead with respect to a selected radial track of a rotatable recording disc in a disc drive including an actuator arm and a suspension load beam connected to the actuator arm. A plate is hingedly attached to the load beam, and a flexure is attached to the plate. A slider supporting the transducing head is attached to the flexure. A microactuator is attached to the plate and is operable in response to electrical control signals to move the plate relative to the load beam in the general plane of the load beam to selectively position the transducing head proximate to the selected radial track on the rotatable recording disc.

Growing community of inventors

Longmont, CO, United States of America

Frederick Mark Stefansky