International Business Machines Corporation

Jerome Thomas Coffey

William Woodrow Brooks, Jr

Donald John Wanek

Richard Edward Lagergren

William W Brooks

James M Rigotti

Todd Phillip Fracek

Marvin A Schlimmer

Lowell James Berg

Jeffrey Fred Boigenzahn

Jeffrey B Brown

Walter E Zahn

Joe Martin Poss

Douglas W Johnson

Dale E Goodman

Gary L Heitkamp

Randy J Bornhorst

Richard H Estry

Brian Edwin Schultz

Larry H Lengerman

John H Wirz

Paul D Teig

Jeff B Brown

Marlin P Graves

Thomas J Myhre, Sr

Terrance L Schaefer

Arvid C Tougas

Bryan W Bicknese

Richard Greenberg

Steven Harry Voss

John R Reidenbach

Jerry Lee Neubauer

Peter M Herman

Holger J Baasch

Daniel L Good

David L Roach

John Charles Jans, Sr

Kenneth William Meyer

David R Larson

Timothy P Coffield

Curtis J Clemen

An actuator structure includes a flexure suspension with a flag appendage having a cantilevered portion extending parallel to the arm-suspension to form a gap therebetween. The flex cable that connects to the device electronics has an elongated portion secured to the side of the arm-suspension assembly presenting termination pads, which extend to the cable edge, along the elongated portion side and in alignment with the gap between arm-suspension and flag. The leads extending from the transducer are fanned out and extend across the gap. The leads are bonded to the arm-suspension and to the lead cantilevered portion immediately adjoining the gap. To terminate the leads, the flag is folded down 90 degrees, bringing the leads into contact with the te nation pads where they are ultrasonically bonded. The flag is then bent toward its original position causing the fine lead wires to separate between the flag cantilever portion bond and the ultrasonically bonded termination. As the flag is bent back, the fragile connections, between flag and flexure, rupture and the flag is separated from the balance of the arm-suspension assembly. In the assembled condition, the bonding of the fanned out lead wires to the arm-suspension provides strain relief.

Fan and fold head lead termination method using flex cable with edge

A shock-resistant actuator assembly for use in a data storage system is disclosed. The actuator assembly includes an actuator body, fabricated from a first type of metal, having a central aperture for pivoting on an actuator shaft. The actuator body includes at least one composite actuator arm extending outwardly from the actuator body. The composite actuator arm includes a primary arm member, also fabricated from the first type of metal, and a plating of a second type of metal having a thickness of at least 20 microns disposed on an upper and lower surface of the primary arm member. In one embodiment, the primary arm member is fabricated from aluminum and subjected to an electroless nickel plating process to deposit a sufficient thickness of nickel thereon to appreciably increase the stiffness of the primary arm member. In another embodiment, an actuator comb assembly includes a plurality of integral composite actuator arms for supporting a plurality of head suspension assemblies. The relatively thick plating of metal deposited on the primary arm member substantially enhances the stiffness and shock resistance of the composite actuator arm.

Method of fabricating a composite actuator arm assembly

A low profile, high capacity, high performance disk drive includes a plurality of disk surfaces mounted in parallel for simultaneous rotation about an axis. Each of a plurality of data transducer heads for reading and/or writing data to the data surfaces is attached to a slider. A stacked arm actuator for moving the data transducer heads in a radial direction across the disk surfaces includes a supporting arm and a suspension load beam attached to the supporting arm. The suspension load beam connects the supporting arm to the slider. The suspension load beam includes a load dimple bearing on the slider and has opposed stiffening flanges extending in a plane adjacent the slider. The actuator includes a stack of 9 head arm suspension assemblies and the stack has a height of 16.634 mm. An interdisk spacing of less than 1.4 mm provides a height dimension of 14.635 for a stack of 8 disks. Shock and electrical isolation is accomplished using four mounting blocks carrying energy absorbing, highly damped, resilient material.

High capacity, high performance low profile disk drive

An actuator structure includes a flexure suspension with a flag appendage having a cantilevered portion extending parallel to the arm-suspension to form a gap therebetween. The flex cable that connects to the device electronics has an elongated portion secured to the side of the arm-suspension assembly presenting termination pads, which extend to the cable edge, along the elongated portion side and in alignment with the gap between arm-suspension and flag. The leads extending from the transducer are fanned out and extend across the gap. The leads are bonded to the arm-suspension and to the lead cantilevered portion immediately adjoining the gap. To terminate the leads, the flag is folded down 90 degrees, bringing the leads into contact with the termination pads where they are ultrasonically bonded. The flag is then bent toward its original position causing the fine lead wires to separate between the flag cantilever portion bond and the ultrasonically bonded termination. As the flag is bent back, the fragile connections, between flag and flexure, rupture and the flag is separated from the balance of the arm-suspension assembly. In the assembled condition, the bonding of the fanned out lead wires to the arm-suspension provides strain relief.

Fan and fold head lead termination structure using flex cable with edge

A direct access storage device includes at least one disk mounted for rotation about an axis and having opposed disk surfaces for storing data. A magneto-resistive (MR) transducer head is mounted for movement across each respective disk surface for writing to and for reading data signals from the disk surface. Each MR transducer head includes a write element and a read element. A preamplifier, associated with the MR transducer head, amplifies read and write signals of the read element and the write element. A flex cable couples the read and write signals between the preamplifier and the MR transducer heads. The flex cable includes a common read return signal line for each sequential pair of the MR transducer heads.

Direct access storage device with magneto-resistive transducing head

A head suspension assembly for use in a disk drive having a load and unload ramp, the head suspension assembly including a load beam, a cover having a load and unload tang, a coating sandwiched between the cover and the load beam, and a head lead wire extending through the coating. In a preferred embodiment, the coating is a visco-elastic thermoplastic adhesive and the cover is a constraining material; whereby the cover is adhered to the load beam and undesired vibrations of the head suspension assembly are dampened. In a method of fabricating the head suspension assembly, the cover is placed over the load beam after the coating is applied and after the head lead wire is strung over the load beam, and then the cover is adhered to the load beam by heating the coating, preferably by placing a heated platen over the cover. Consequently, the load and unload tang, which is part of the cover, is not an obstacle when routing the head lead wire over the load beam and bonding the wire to a slider, and the head suspension assembly fabrication process can be automated.

Low profile head suspension assembly with load and unload capability

An apparatus for mounting an actuator of a data storage system to a housing which uses a single mounting screw. The mounting screw is disposed within an aperture provided on the housing cover and a central bore of the actuator shaft, and secures the actuator shaft to a housing cover and base casting. A mounting boss is disposed on the base casting and adapted for registering with the actuator shaft and receiving the mounting screw. Efficient top-down assembly of standard and small form factor data storage systems is facilitated by employment of the novel actuator mounting apparatus.

Actuator mounting apparatus for top-down data storage system assembly

Shock-resistant data storage system actuator assembly

An actuator for a PCMCIA DASD incorporates a tie bridge for stabilizing the support arms of the actuator while at the same time not increasing the largest radial dimension of the actuator drive motor beyond that of the radial dimension for the exterior of the coil. The tie bridge is disposed above, below, or both above and below the coil of the actuator drive motor. This space otherwise unused is now advantageously utilized, while additionally creating benefits in the design and the operation of the DASD. A crash stop and latch surface are incorporated into the structure of one of the support arms supporting the coil in such a way that the forces encountered by the actuator upon forcible engagement with a rigid structure within the DASD housing are absorbed and thereby reduced to values less than critical failure values.

Direct access storage device with a molded actuator motor coil support

Method of fabricating a low profile head suspension assembly having load

A disk drive or direct access storage device (DASD) of the type having multiple disks and multiple actuator arms, both the disks and the actuator arms assembled in a stacked manner, advantageously assembled with the locating surface or flange of the actuator disposed on the opposite side of the stacked actuator arms from the side of the disk stack having the locating surface or flange for the disk hub. This opposite flange design results in a substantial reduction in the effects of tolerance buildup and therefore permits the design of the disk drive equal in all other respects to a conventional same side flange arrangement, but permitting additional disks, lower height, less tightly defined tolerances on components or the use of cheaper manufacturing techniques and technologies for recording data.

Direct access storage device with opposing actuator and spindle flanges

A resilient and compliant shock rail is provided on the sides of the bottom cover for a PCMCIA standard Direct Access Storage Device. The shock rails, being of a resilient and easily deformable material, lengthen the impact time and attenuates the shock forces exerted on the DASD, thereby bringing the deceleration forces to acceptable levels. The shock rail may be further provided with low friction surfaces by bonding thin metal plates to the top and bottom surfaces of the shock rails to ease insertion and withdrawal of the PCMCIA DASD. The shock rail is provided with reinforcing members to insure that the keying scheme required for proper insertion is effective.

Compliant rail for shock protection of a PCMCIA DASD

A load beam for a direct access storage device is disclosed as having an integral flexure formed of two generally uniform cross section intersecting beams with one of the beams extending between two projecting arms of the load beam. The flexure is spaced from an attached slider by a frustroconical projection formed on the flexure. The pitch and roll of the slider is limited by forming surfaces on the load beam structure that will engage the slider as the slider either pitches or rolls excessively. Overlying the flexure and the slider and adhesively engaged with the flexure is a damping layer of visco-elastic material which will absorb energy and suppress undesirable vibrations. The damping layer is provided with tabs or extensions that are adhered to the projecting arms of the load beam to enhance the vibration damping function of the layer.

Low profile head suspension assembly

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Jerome Thomas Coffey