Hewlett-packard Company

George A Drennan

Darrel R Bloomquist

James E Opfer

Michael B Jacobson

Robert J Lawton

A hard disk drive having an actuator assembly in which only flexible integral load beams are used in the armstack structure. The load beams are assembled in a stack on a tubular actuator member along with the movable coil member of the actuator motor, or other actuator drive mechanism, and after alignment are secured to the tubular member to from a separate actuator assembly. This actuator assembly is applicable to both rotary and linear actuators in disk drives. In the rotary actuator assembly structure, the tubular member or hub is secured to a bearing housing journaled in the base of the drive for rotation about the axis of the tubular member. In the linear actuator structure, the tubular member, is fastened to the moving part of the linear drive mechanism and linearly moves with that mechanism.

Disk drive having an improved transducer suspension assembly

An inexpensive, vertically oriented multiple substrate carrier is disclosed for high-temperature, high vacuum film deposition systems. In one embodiment, the substrates have central circular openings and the carrier includes a plurality of supports on which the substrates hang, with each support, such as a vertically oriented sheave, engaging the perimeter of a substrate opening. As the carrier is rotated, planetary motion is imparted to the substrates to facilitate simultaneous, two-sided, substantially uniform deposition of a film. In another embodiment, the substrates are circular and are each supported for planetary motion and two sided deposition in a respective circular groove which bounds an opening through the carrier.

Planetary substrate carrier method and apparatus

A sealed substrate processing path has plural selectably isolatable vacuum deposition chambers along the path. A transporter carries substrates along the path and an independently controllable sputter deposition is performed in each deposition chamber on substrates therein. Substrates are loaded from a load chamber to a first deposition chamber while a vacuum is maintained in the first and load chambers. Substrates are transferred from a last deposition chamber to an unload chamber while a vacuum is maintained in the last and load chambers. Substrates are placed in the load chamber while the load and first chambers are isolated and are removed from the unload chamber while the last and unload chambers are isolated. In one embodiment, substrates travel succesively from the load chamber to first through fourth deposition chambers and then to the unload chamber. In another embodiment, substrates travel from the load chamber to first to second to first and to third deposition chambers and then to the unload chamber. First and second alternating load chambers are provided in another embodiment with substrates being loaded into the second load chamber while substrates are transferred from the first load chamber to the first deposition chamber and vice versa. The respective first and second load chambers are coupled through an interface chamber to the first deposition chamber and are each isolatable from the interface chamber during loading.

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Eagle, ID, United States of America

George A Drennan