Western Digital (fremont), Inc.

Read Rite Corporation

Kenneth Frederick Young

David John Seagle

Muhammad A Hawwa

Edmund Bruno Fanslau, Jr

Keith R Berding

Martin John McCaslin

Weijin Li

Yimin Niu

Viktor S Doundakov

Sandrawattie Sankar

Kah Yuen Kam

Frank P Missell

An enhanced recording head design provides thermal diffusion and thermal expansion control in order to minimize the pole tip protrusion resulting from the thermal heating of the magnetic recording head during operation. In one embodiment, the recording head a thermal restraint section formed above a write section, and is made of a 60&#x2013;80% face-centered-cubic NiFe (Invar) material. According to another embodiment, the thermal restraint section is formed under the read section. According to yet another embodiment, one thermal restraint section is formed above the write section, and another thermal restraint section formed under the read section.

System and method for minimizing thermal pole tip protrusion

A micro-actuator is comprised of a piezoelectric motor mounted on a flexure tongue with offsetting hinges, to perform a fine positioning of the magnetic read/write head. The substantial gain in the frequency response greatly improves the performance and accuracy of the track-follow control for fine positioning. The simplicity of the enhanced micro-actuator design results in a manufacturing efficiency that enables a high-volume, low-cost production. The micro-actuator is interposed between a flexure tongue and a slider to perform an active control of the fly height of the magnetic read/write head. The induced slider crown and camber are used to compensate for thermal expansion of the magnetic read/write head, which causes the slider to be displaced at an unintended fly height position relative to the surface of the magnetic recording disk. The enhanced micro-actuator design results in reduced altitude sensitivity, ABS tolerances, and reduced stiction. The controlled fly height of the magnetic read/write head prevents a possibility of a head crash, while improving the performance and data integrity.

Active fly height control crown actuator

A method and system for providing head is disclosed. The method and system include providing a first pole, a second pole, a write gap, at least one coil and an FePt alloy. The write gap separates the first pole from the second pole. The first and second poles are for writing to a medium. The coil(s) have a plurality of turns and reside between the roles. The FePt alloy is in proximity to the first pole and the second pole. The FePt alloy is configured to counteract expansion of the first pole and the second pole.

Method and system for reducing thermal pole tip protrusion

A head gimbal assembly for a disk drive. The head gimbal assembly includes a load beam defining a longitudinal axis. The head gimbal assembly further includes a flexure with a portion of said flexure being attached to said load beam. The head gimbal assembly further includes a slider including a read/write head. The head gimbal assembly further includes a collocated microactuator which connects between said flexure and said slider for providing pure or nearly pure lateral movement to said slider in a plane of motion that includes the longitudinal axis. The collocated microactuator is a shear mode piezoelectric motor and disposed between the slider and the load beam along an axis disposed orthogonal to the longitudinal axis.

Shear mode multilayered collocated micro-actuator for dual-stage servo controllers in disk drives

Collocated rotating flexure microactuator for dual-stage servo in disk drives

A transducer suspension for a drive system has a beam which is bendable in a vertical direction for holding the transducer adjacent to the media, but is torsionally stiff for quicker access times and reduced noise and errors. This inherently contradictory performance occurs by joining a laterally elongated brace which is torsionally stiff about its elongated dimension across a pair of laterally disposed strips to cause the strips to flex in unison, allowing bending but reducing torsional motion in the suspension about an axis which is substantially perpendicular to the torsionally stiff axis of the brace. The torsionally stiff brace may take the form of a tube having a rectangular, triangular or circular cross-section, and may be formed of material cut from the suspension to define the hinge strips. The brace may have reduced longitudinal dimensions at the connections to the strips to further filter torsional versus bending vibrations. A plurality of braces joined to hinge portions may also occur in a single suspension for increased effect.

Head suspension having reduced torsional vibration

A head gimbal assembly includes a suspension of the type supporting a slider and a flex circuit. The suspension is formed of a load beam that supports the flex circuit, and a resilient flexure which is secured to the load beam and which supports the slider. The flex circuit is comprised of conductive traces formed on a compliant, dielectric substrate. The substrate includes a body portion and a head portion for supporting the conductive traces. The substrate head portion is patterned such that selected portions are removed to leave bare conductive trace sections on a generally serpentine insulation layer, in order to compensate for variations effected by heat and humidity. The serpentine insulation layer is S-shaped with a periodic pattern, and overlays but does not touch the load beam tip. The substrate body portion overlays and is secured to the load beam at selected locations. This design enables the flex circuit to provide support for the conductive traces, to insulate the conductive traces from the load beam, to minimize the stiffness effect of the flex circuit on the gimbal, to direct the expansion and contraction of the substrate in a controlled fashion while retaining the mechanical connectivity of traces to the substrate, and to minimize the effect of the expansion and contraction on the slider flying characteristics.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Kenneth Frederick Young