Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hiromitsu Masuda

Toshihiko Shimizu

Mikio Tokuyama

Shigeo Nakamura

Toshihiro Arisaka

Gentaro Nakamura

Tetsuya Hamaguchi

Haruhide Takahashi

Kousaku Wakatsuki

Takenori Atsumi

Irizo Naniwa

Kimihiko Sudo

Masaki Odai

Kouki Uefune

Hiromitsu Tokisue

Eiji Soga

Ryoichi Ichikawa

Hiroshi Matsuda

Kenji Suzuki

Masahito Kobayashi

Satoshi Nakamura

Takako Hayakawa

Nobumasa Nishiyama

Shinichi Kimura

Mutsuro Ohta

Takaaki Deguchi

Masahiko Sega

Akinori Takayama

Manoj Keshavan

Masakazu Sasaki

Kihachiro Tanaka

Miki Namihisa

Jung-Seo Park

Yoshiyuki Hirono

Taichi Sato

Hajime Eguchi

Yukiko Ikeda

Shin Nagahiro

Shigenori Takada

Takenori Atumi

Masaki Odal

Hitoshi Shindo

A multi-actuator data storage device such as a hard disk drive may include a lower actuator-pivot-VCM assembly including a lower pivot shaft and a lower motor assembly, an upper actuator-pivot-VCM assembly including an upper pivot shaft and an upper motor assembly, and a central support structure or plate sandwiched between the lower and upper pivot shafts and the lower and upper motor assemblies. The central support structure may be shaped to make contact with the motor assemblies only at discrete assembly locations and to make contact with the pivot shafts at opposing raised pads. Viscoelastic dampers may be adhered to the central support structure at the contact locations to dampen motor vibrational modes and/or to reduce the amplitude of vibration transmitted among the actuator-pivot assemblies. Such an assembly may increase the tilt and in-phase butterfly mode frequencies and decrease the gains of the tilt and coil torsion modes.

Central support for improved structural dynamics of actuators in a multi-actuator hard disk drive

A flexible type electrical feed-through involves a flexible printed circuit (FPC) part constructed as a laminate structure of a base insulating layer, a conductor layer, and a cover insulating layer, where the FPC part is wrapped around a metal part, forming a connector assembly. Such a feed-through may be used at an interface between a hermetically-sealed internal environment, such as in a lighter-than-air gas filled data storage device, and the external environment. Multiple connector parts may be coupled to an inner side of the feed-through, to each mate with a respective flexible cable assembly electrically connected to a respective actuator of a multi-actuator hard disk drive. A floating board-to-board connector part may be coupled to the outer side of the feed-through, which in turn is electrically connected to a printed circuit board assembly of a hard disk drive, and which is able to tolerate connector mating misalignment.

Flexible type electrical feed-through connector assembly

A voice coil actuator utilizes an eddy current magnet configured for positioning proximal to the outer perimeter side face of one or more recording disk, and which cooperates with the conductive side face to generate an eddy current force to rotate a latch lever to an unlatched position. Embodiments may include an end cam on a base on which the latch lever is rotatably disposed, and the latch lever includes a cam follower capable of rotatably engaging with the end cam, whereby the magnetic attraction between the eddy current magnet and the voice coil actuator yoke generates a latch bias force which causes the end cam and cam follower to engage or mesh in order to hold the latch lever in a latched position.

Hard disk drive voice coil actuator latch

A hard disk drive including a plurality of magnetic disks and a voice coil motor. The voice coil motor includes a coil and a first damper plate for dampening vibrations generated by the coil. The first damper plate is disposed within the voice coil motor.

Low profile damper plates for a yoke of a voice coil motor

A hard disk drive comprising, a base plate comprising a pin, a top cover, a plurality of magnetic disks, and a spoiler. The spoiler includes a first spring fastener for temporary spring fastening the spoiler on the base plate, and a second spring fastener for resiliently fastening the spoiler when the top cover is attached to the base plate.

Retaining a spoiler in a hard disk drive

A voice-coil motor (VCM) with voice coils configured to reduce vibrations of a head when data is accessed on a disk in a disk drive. The VCM includes at least one VCM magnet and a voice-coil assembly. The voice-coil assembly includes a first voice coil and at least a second voice coil. The first voice coil is disposed in proximity to a magnetic pole of the at least one voice-coil-motor magnet. The second voice coil is disposed in close proximity to the first voice coil such that the first voice coil substantially overlays the second voice coil. The first voice coil and the second voice coil are configured to reduce vibrations of the head when data is accessed on a disk in the disk drive. A rotary actuator including the voice coils and a disk drive including the VCM are also provided.

Voice-coil motor with voice coils configured oriented in the same direction and substantially overlayed to reduce head vibrations in a disk drive

Embodiments of the present invention help to suppress performance degradation in an actuator of a disk drive device when attaching a damping member to a single surface of an arm. According to one embodiment, in a HDD a damping member is attached to a single surface of an arm. A shape of an inner arm is asymmetric with the center position between disks. Specifically, the thickness from a center position between the disks to the damping material attaching surface is thinner than the thickness from a center position between the disks to an opposite surface of the damping member attaching surface. This suppresses deformation of the vibration mode in the case that the damping member is attached to the single surface of the arm.

Disk drive device and carriage of actuator with damping member

A carriage includes a slider on which a magnetic head for reading/writing information from/to a disk is mounted, a suspension for carrying the slider and for applying a predetermined load to the slider, a carriage arm to which the suspension is attached, and a body section to which the carriage arm is connected. The carriage arm includes a suspension fixing portion, as arm arranged substantially in parallel with a disk surface, and a restricting member which is a thin-plate-like member having a surface which is opposite to the plane of arm which is parallel to the disk surface. The restricting member and the arm are coupled via a viscoelastic body.

Carriage arm assembly for locating magnetic head, and magnetic disk apparatus using the same

A head support mechanism includes a head to write/read information, and a head support member to support the head. The head support member has parts delimiting an opening at a portion thereof in which opposing parts which delimit the opening in a width direction of the head support member are elastically deformable. Protrusions are formed on edges of the opening, and piezoelectric elements are mounted on the protrusions to enable deforming of the head support member in a direction of positioning of the head.

Magnetic disk apparatus

A carriage for a magnetic disk apparatus includes a slider on which a magnetic head for reading/writing information from/to a disk is mounted, a suspension for carrying the slider and for applying a predetermined load to the slider, and a carriage arm to which the suspension is attached. The carriage arm includes a suspension fixing portion, first and second arms arranged substantially in parallel with a disk surface, and a restricting member having a surface opposite to the first and second arms. The restricting member and the first arm, and the restricting member and the second arm are coupled via a viscoelastic body.

A carriage arm assembly for swingably supporting a magnetic head which includes a slider, a suspension carrying the slider, a carriage arm to which the suspension is attached, and a body section. The carriage arm extends from the body section and includes first and second arm members extending substantially in parallel with a swinging plane of the carriage arm, and a fixing portion provided at a distal end of the carriage arm for mounting the suspension thereon. Each of the first and second arm members have narrow sections in a distal end area and a base end area thereof, wherein a width of the narrow sections in a swinging direction is smaller than a width of an intermediate area of the first and second arm members.

A magnetic disk drive having a high recording density and enabling high speed transfer is achieved by reducing vibration of a carriage arm assembly to reduce a positioning error. The disk drive is configured so that a carriage arm is configured by two arm portions, the arm portions being coupled to each other by a restraint member through a viscoelastic material, the restraint member being supported on a carriage body or an area of the carriage arm in the vicinity of the body by means of adhesion or a viscoelastic material. By providing a high damping effect against various vibration modes in which in-plane bending and out-plane bending of the carriage arm are generated, vibration of the carriage arm assembly is suppressed, so that the positioning error is reduced, thereby the magnetic disk drive having a high recording density can be achieved.

Carriage arm assembly for magnetic disk drive

A magnetic disk drive comprises at least one magnetic head for reading and writing information on at least one magnetic disk, a carriage supporting the magnetic head over the magnetic disk for movement of the magnetic head about a predetermined shaft, an annular coil supported by a bobbin provided on the carriage and subjected to an electromagnetic force for driving the carriage. The drive further comprises a first connection member for joining the annular coil and the bobbin, an in-coil member arranged inside the annular coil, and a second connection member for joining the in-coil member and the annular coil. A modulus of longitudinal elasticity of the in-coil member is larger than that of the first or second connection member. The drive thus formed has the increased carriage rigidity, the improved positioning accuracy of a magnetic head and the increased recording capacity of the disk.

Magnetic disk drive with carriage having bobbin supporting annular coil connected by connection members

A head support mechanism includes a slider equipped with a magnetic head to read/write information from/to a magnetic disk, a load beam to provide the slider with an appropriate load, the load beam being flexible in a direction substantially perpendicular to the disk, and a microactuator mounting portion equipped with a microactuator. A first actuator fixing portion, which connects the microactuator mounting portion to a carriage, and a second actuator fixing portion on the magnetic head side of the microactuator mounting portion, which connects the microactuator mounting portion to the load beam, are coupled by two arm portions of the microactuator mounting portion. The microactuator is mounted on the microactuator mounting portion so that the microactuator does not come into contact with the microactuator mounting portion between the first actuator fixing portion and the second actuator fixing portion.

A magnetic disk device having a magnetic disk for recording information, a rotary mechanism for rotating the magnetic disk, a magnetic head unit for recording information on the rotating magnetic disk, a slider having mounted thereon the magnetic head unit and flying over the rotating magnetic disk, a magnetic head supporting mechanism for supporting the slider, and a positioning mechanism for setting the magnetic head unit at a predetermined radial position. The magnetic head supporting mechanism has mounted thereon an integrated circuit (IC) for amplifying an information write/read signal of the magnetic head unit, and a control circuit is connected to the IC. A recording frequency is controlled according to the radial position of the IC on the magnetic disk by the control circuit.

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Odawara, Japan

Hiromitsu Masuda