Read Rite Corporation

Western Digital (Fremont), Inc.

Jamshid Bozorgi

Muhammad A Hawwa

Aric K Menon

Jafar Hadian

Adolph Miller Allen

Mourad D Zarouri

Ruyue Y Wu

A Miller Allen

Head gimbal assemblies are provided that comprise a slider, a load beam, a flexure, and a lifter tab. The flexure holds the slider against a pivot point of the load beam. The lifter tab extends from the load beam to engage a load/unload ramp. The load beam includes a base portion having the pivot point, a first side rail, and a first limiter stop. The first side rail is disposed adjacent to a transverse side of the slider while the first limiter stop is adjacent to a leading side of the slider. The first limiter stop extends from the first side rail and is essentially perpendicular thereto. The flexure includes a first leading edge tab that extends between the first limiter stop and the base portion of the load beam to limit the movement of the flexure especially during loading and unloading.

Low profile head gimbal assembly with shock limiting and load/unload capability

Methods of manufacturing a load beam including a flexure/slider assembly are provided. A pre-form of a load beam has a base, a side beam extending from the base and a tab extending from the side beam, all substantially in a common plane. The flexure/slider assembly is attached to the base, then the load beam is bent in two locations, between the tab and the side beam, and between the side beam and the base. After bending, the tab and the side beam are substantially orthogonal to one another and both the tab and the side beam are substantially orthogonal to the base so that the base, side beam, and tab form a partial enclosure around the slider.

Method of manufacturing a head gimbal assembly with substantially orthogonal tab, side beam and base

Windage proximate to a spinning disk within a disk drive is directed through a plurality of apertures in a ramp situated near the outside diameter of the disk. A tab extending from a load beam that supports a slider rests on the ramp when the drive is not in use. When the drive is started the disk begins to spin and an actuator moves the load beam to bring the slider over the surface of the disk. As the load beam moves, the tab is guided along the ramp and cushioned by the air flow emerging from apertures in the ramp beneath it. When the drive is stopped the actuator brings the load beam back so that the tab engages the ramp. A cushion of air is again provided as the tab is moved along the ramp as the tab is returned to a parked position.

Airflow assisted ramp loading and unloading of sliders in hard disk drives

In one embodiment the apparatus is a head gimbal assembly for use in a disk drive having a load/unload ramp, and includes a load beam having a pivot point, a flexure/slider assembly having a flexure and a slider, at least one limiter mounted between the flexure/slider assembly and the load beam, and a lifter tab extending from the load beam so as to be engagable with the load/unload ramp. The flexure is connected to the load beam and to the slider. The slider is positioned by the flexure to be capable of moving about the pivot point. The at least one limiter is positioned to limit movement of the flexure/slider assembly relative to the load beam. The head gimbal assembly can have a low profile by having the lifter tab extend from the load beam substantially at or below the upper surface of the load beam. The method of manufacture includes: obtaining a load beam having a base, at least one side beam extending from the base and at least one tab extending from the at last one side beam, wherein the base, at least one side beam and the at least one tab are substantially in a common plane; attaching a flexure/slider assembly to the load beam; bending the load beam between the at least one tab and the at least one side beam, such that the at least one tab is positioned out of the common plane; and bending the load beam between the at least one side beam and the base, such that the at least one side beam is positioned out of the common plane.

Low profile head gimbal assembly with shock limiting and load/unload capability and method of manufacture thereof

The present invention is embodied in an actuator arm which is mounted to a primary actuator. The primary actuator positions the actuator arm, with a read/write head mounted to the actuator arm, across a data storage disk. The actuator arm comprises an inboard portion, an outboard portion and a pair of bimorph actuators. The inboard portion has a longitudinal axis and is attached to the primary actuator. The outboard portion has the read/write head mounted onto it. The pair of bimorph actuators are deflectable together in a common direction and are connected between the inboard and the outboard portions. Upon deflection of the bimorph actuators in the same direction, the outboard portion is translated along an at least nearly straight line transverse to the longitudinal axis of the inboard portion. This transverse motion allows the read/write head to be kept substantially within a plane parallel to the surface of the data storage disk, preventing damage caused by possible contact between slider and the disk surface from rolling the slider due to out-of-plane motions. Further, the use of bimorph actuators provide increased displacements of the read/write head. Also, since the head displacement is not a function of microactuator's position along the actuator arm, the actuator arm can be shorter, allowing for use in compact disk drives.

Disk drive actuator arm with microactuated read/write head positioning

The present invention provides passive and active damping systems for reducing or substantially eliminating undesirable vibrations from components of data storage and retrieval systems. The passive and active damping systems incorporate piezoelectric materials, and make use of an advantageous property of these materials, namely the ability to convert mechanical strains into electric potentials and vice versa. The passive systems of the present invention dissipate vibrational energy through an electrical shunt circuit. The active systems seek to cancel an existing vibration in a component by generating and applying an additional vibration to the same component, where the applied vibration is out of phase with the existing vibration and the two vibrations tend to add destructively. Active systems, in certain circumstances, may also be able to anticipate predictable vibrations and proactively cancel them, rather than merely reacting to vibrations after they arise.

Piezoelectric vibration damping for disk drives

Amplifier chips for heads in a disk drive are interspaced adjacent to junctions between actuator arms and suspension arms that hold the heads. This allows decreased spacing between plural disks in the drive system and accelerated data rates. This also decreases assembly steps and damage to the chips as they are further removed from mechanical processes such as swaging that attach the suspension arms to the actuator arms. Damage to the disks or chips during operation is also averted, as the chips are removed from each other and from the rapidly spinning disk surfaces with which the suspension arms and heads are proximate. The interspacing can also improve performance characteristics of the preamplifier chips, which do not need to be made as thin in order to fit between disks, decreasing costs and problems such as overheating of the chips.

Read/write positioning arm with interspaced amplifier chips

A slider attaches to a low profile flexure to form a slider-flexure assembly. The flexure has no out-of-plane bends thereby minimizing slider-flexure assembly height. The slider has a top, a bottom, a leading edge and a trailing edge. The flexure includes a tongue having a proximal end and a distal end. The distal end of the tongue connects to the top of the slider. The proximal end of the tongue overhangs the leading edge of the slider. The flexure includes gimbal beams that diverge from the proximal end of the tongue so that the gimbal beams suspend the slider from beyond the leading edge of the slider, thus eliminating a need for out-of-plane bends in the flexure.

Low profile flexure and slider-flexure assembly

A disk drive includes a pivot bearing and actuator arm. The actuator arm includes a stepped pivot bearing housing. The pivot bearing housing has a first nominal inside diameter and a relatively smaller second nominal inside diameter to align the pivot bearing within the bearing housing. The pivot bearing has a body and a head. The head press-fits within the first inside diameter and the body press-fits within the second inside diameter to align the bearing assembly in the bearing housing. The body diameter of the bearing assembly is smaller than the bearing housing first nominal diameter to enable the bearing housing to pre-align the bearing assembly with respect to the bearing housing.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Jamshid Bozorgi