Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Paceco Corp.

Gregory Tran

Shiao-Hua Chen

Youn Tai Kim

Tho Pham

Seong Hoon Kim

Seong Woo Kang

Vincent Nguyen

Joe Bragg

Nikollay Ivanov

Ed Aguilar

Woo-Sung (William) Kim

Sung Wook Kim

Tzong-Shii Pan

Yanning Liu

Joseph Chang

Pyongwon Yim

Myeong-Eop Kim

Shufun Ho

Hao Zheng

Mukesh Patel

Yu-Min Lee

Fernando A Magsombol

Ki Tag Jeong

Weonwoo Kim

Scott Tran

Ian Griggs

Sivabalan Ganisen

Scott Tam

Jeong Jong Hoon

George Wakatsuki

A head stack assembly (HSA) for a disk drive includes an actuator body having a cylindrical bore therethrough and an actuator arm extending therefrom. A head is attached to a distal end of the actuator arm. A pivot bearing cartridge is disposed within the cylindrical bore. A tolerance band is radially preloaded between an outer surface of the pivot bearing cartridge and an inner surface of the cylindrical bore. The cylindrical bore has a first diameter in a first region adjacent a first axial end, and a second diameter in a second region adjacent a second axial end. There is a radial step between the first and second regions. The first diameter is greater than the second diameter by at least 20 microns but no more than 100 microns.

Disk drive actuator having a radially stepped pivot bore

A test ramp is disclosed comprising a plurality of planar surfaces, wherein each planar surface comprises at least one impediment. Each impediment is offset along a planar axis from the other impediments, and each impediment is operable to contact part of a respective actuator arm of a disk drive in order to excite a microactuator coupled to the actuator arm.

Test ramp for testing microactuators used in a multi-head disk drive

A novel head stack assembly (HSA) is disclosed and claimed. The HSA includes an actuator including an actuator body and an actuator arm extending from the actuator body, and a flexible printed circuit (FPC) adjacent the actuator body. The FPC includes a slit therethrough. A head gimbal assembly (HGA) is attached to the actuator arm. The HGA includes a load beam, a laminated flexure attached to the load beam, and a head attached to the laminated flexure. The laminated flexure has a flexure tail that includes an intermediate region that is disposed adjacent the actuator arm, and a terminal region that is electrically connected to the FPC. The terminal region is substantially orthogonal to the intermediate region. The intermediate region of the flexure tail extends into the slit, interferes with the slit, and contacts and deforms the FPC adjacent the slit.

Head stack assembly with suspension tails extending into interfering slits in a flexible printed circuit

The present invention includes a flexible printed circuit bracket including a crash stop rubber and/or an air block. The air block directs the air flow from the rotating disk surface(s) away from the head gimbal assemblies to minimize positional variance of the read-write heads. The crash stop rubber contacts the crash stop stub on the actuator arm block, stopping actuator assembly swinging away from the disk. The invention includes making an actuator assembly with the invention's flexible printed circuit bracket, as well as making the hard disk drive. The invention includes both the actuator assembly and the hard disk drive as the products of these processes. The invention also includes the actuator assembly and the hard disk drive containing the invention's flexible printed circuit bracket.

Method and apparatus for flexible printed circuit bracket including crash stop and/or air block in a hard disk drive

Invention protects the data region of a disk surface in hard disk drive, using a facing surface containing a radial bump near an outside region radially beyond the data region. The facing surface and radial bump may belong to a disk base, a disk damper, a disk cover and/or a cover insert attached to the disk cover, as well as the hard disk drive including at least one facing surface and radial bump. The method of making the disk base, the disk cover, the cover insert for the disk cover, the disk damper, and/or the hard disk drive, as well as the products of these manufacturing processes.

Method and apparatus reducing data damage from mechanical shock in a hard disk drive

The invention includes a method making a balanced disk pack for a hard disk drive, from a disk pack including a spindle motor rigidly coupled, and aligned by at least two open screw holes, with a disk clamp. The invention includes the resulting balanced disk packs, as well as hard disk drives built with such balanced disk packs. The invention also includes apparatus providing the means for implementing the steps of making a balanced disk pack from a disk pack. The invention includes at least one mechanical counterbalance for use in balancing the disk pack of a hard disk drive.

Method and apparatus for mechanically balancing the disk pack of a hard disk drive

Aerodynamic forces contribute to disk and actuator vibration leading to track positioning errors in storage devices such as hard disk drives. The invention provides a variety of dampening mechanisms and a method of dampening to alleviate these problems in single disk storage devices. This includes disk drives of at most 13 millimeters in height.

Media enclosures dampening desk vibration in single disk storage devices

Aerodynamic forces contribute to disk and actuator vibration leading to track positioning errors in storage devices such as hard disk drives. The invention provides a variety of dampening mechanisms and a method of dampening to alleviate these problems.

Apparatus and method for dampening disk vibration in storage devices

A protective cap for an electrical connector of a hard disc drive. The connector is assembled to a hard disk drive that contains one or more electrical circuits. The protective cap can be placed onto the top of the electrical connector to prevent an electrostatic discharged onto the connector. The cap can therefore protect the electrical circuits from damage due to an electrostatic discharge onto the connector.

Connector cap to inhibit damage to a connector due to electrostatic discharge

A protective cap for an electrical connector of a hard disk drive. The connector is assembled to a hard disk drive that contains one or more electrical circuits. The protective cap can be placed onto the top of the electrical connector to prevent an electrostatic discharged onto the connector. The cap can therefore protect the electrical circuits from damage due to an electrostatic discharge onto the connector.

A disk guard which can limit a z-axis movement of a disk within a hard disk drive. The disk guard may be mounted to a housing of the disk drive adjacent to the disk. A portion of the disk may extend into a groove of the disk guard. The groove limits the z-axis movement of the disk when the disk drive is subjected to a shock load.

Impact guard for limiting hard disk movement

A swage mount plate that can be used to attach a suspension arm to an actuator arm of a hard disk drive. The swage mount plate may include a sleeve that can be inserted into corresponding swage openings of the suspension arm and an actuator beam of the actuator arm. The swage plate may include at least one flange that extends from said sleeve and becomes embedded into the actuator beam. The flange may increase the retention torque of the swage plate.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Gregory Tran