Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Kousaku Wakatsuki

Haruhide Takahashi

Shigeo Nakamura

Shinobu Hagiya

Toshihiko Shimizu

Mikio Tokuyama

Hiromitsu Masuda

Irizo Naniwa

Takayoshi Ohtsu

Masaki Odai

Naoki Maeda

Takeshi Miyazaki

Toshiki Hirano

Keiko Watanabe

Kunihiro Maeda

Noriaki Okamoto

Yokuo Saitoh

Shinsuke Higuchi

Yoshihiko Miyake

Teruyoshi Higashiya

Kouji Kataoka

Akihiro Gotoh

Hiroshi Agari

Yohtaroh Ichimura

Toyoji Okuwaki

Mikio Takada

Shigenori Takada

Toshinori Kazama

Marutomo Gotou

Masaki Odal

Hitoshi Shindo

Approaches to a suspension for a hard disk drive include having an adhered one or more piezo actuating device driven by a negative bias driving voltage. The negative bias driving voltage is lower than ground, therefore such voltage inhibits the migration of ions of an electrically conductive adhesive to an electrically conductive flexure layer, and inhibits the degradation of the resistance of an insulating material positioned between the conductive adhesive and the conductive flexure layer.

Reducing ion migration in a hard disk drive microactuator flexure assembly

Approaches for protecting a component when a hard-disk drive (HDD) experiences a mechanical shock. An HDD includes a suspension comprising a load beam, a gimbal, and a flexure tongue. A component, such as a microactuator, is mounted on the suspension. The flexure tongue extends to at least the edge of the microactuator that is furthest from the gimbal. The flexure tongue prevents the microactuator from contacting the load beam when the HDD receives a mechanical shock. Alternately, the flexure tongue may comprise a tip portion that extends beyond the edge of the microactuator that is furthest from the gimbal, and the tip portion of the flexure tongue may deform to act as shock absorber when the HDD receives a mechanical shock. Alternately or additionally, a padding material may be used to prevent the microactuator or the flexure tongue from contacting the load beam when the HDD receives a mechanical shock.

Suspension for protecting a component from mechanical shock

In a dynamic electric test, a head slider is to be fixed positively to a suspension and to be removable easily from the suspension in accordance with the result of the test. In one embodiment of the present invention a head gimbal assembly includes a head slider, a gimbal and a load beam. The head slider is disposed on a gimbal tongue and is held with an urging force of a resilient clamp at a position between the resilient clamp formed on the leading side of the head slider and connecting terminals formed on the opposite side thereof.

Suspension for hard disk drive which enables easy dynamic electric testing

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a magnetic head slider to be easily mounted on or dismounted from a suspension and can hold a magnetic head slider so as not to be removed due to a shock resultant from handling during a characteristic test and a manufacturing process. A load beam is formed with protruding portions on both sides. A flexure includes a frame portion, a plate portion, a spring portion, an E-shaped pressing portion, and a probe portion. The plate portion extends from a guide portion of the frame portion. The probe portion may be formed by partially cutting out the frame portion. A limiter is formed on both sides of the plate portion. The limiter protrudes from the rear of the load beam and has a hook-shaped tip. The hook-shaped portion of the limiter engages with the protruding portionof the load beam to limit excess vertical movement of the flexure. A gap may be formed between the limiter and the protruding portion.

Suspension for magnetic head slider characteristic test

Embodiments of the invention limit a pitch attitude angle of a magnetic head slider during loading without allowing gimbal stiffness of a flexure in an ordinary flying state to be increased. In one embodiment, a limiter formed by part of a flexure is disposed so as to provide a clearance from a lift tab formed by part of a load beam. A limiter clearance, if the clearance between the limiter and the lift tab is so called for convenience sake, must be maintained as a physical clearance when a magnetic head slider is in an ordinary flying state. The lift tab and the limiter are disposed on a side of an air inflow end of the magnetic head slider. The limiter clearance during unloading is thereby made small so as to allow proper and positive unloading operation. In addition, the limiter clearance made small during loading allows the absolute value of a pitch attitude angle of the magnetic head slider to be limited to a small one if the pitch attitude angle tends to become negative due to disturbances or vibration from the loading operation itself.

Magnetic disk drive head suspension having a lift tab which engages a limiter

Embodiments of the invention suppress head jump at the time of application of an impact to provide for an excellent impact resistance performance in a magnetic disk device. In one embodiment, an actuator of a magnetic disk device comprises a suspension mounting the slider on a tip end side thereof to give a predetermined load to the slider, and an arm that holds the suspension, the arm being supported to be able to turn. The arm comprises two arm portions juxtaposed in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the disk, and a spacing between the two arm portions on a side of supported portions thereof in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the disk is larger than that on a side of the slider in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the disk.

Magnetic disk device and suspension having multiple arm portions of varying lengths

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

There is provided a magnetic disk drive in which a flying-height fluctuation produced by the operation of a fine actuator is decreased, the reliability is high, and recording density is high. For this purpose, the magnetic disk drive is configured as described below. The magnetic disk drive has a suspension including a base plate connected to a carriage, a load beam fitted with a slider, and a fine actuator which is provided on the base plate and finely moves the load beam. The configuration is such that the shortest track travel time using the fine actuator is larger than the inverse number of the local maximum of a flying-height fluctuation frequency of the suspension by the fine actuator. Also, the configuration is such that the shortest track travel time using the fine actuator is larger than the inverse number of the natural frequency of first torsion mode of the suspension by the fine actuator.

Disk drive having a two-stage actuator for suppressing a flying-height fluctuation

To strengthen a flying lead portion of a long-tail flexible printed circuit (FPC) integrally formed with a flexure, stacked support portions of resin layers on both sides of a flying leadof a long-tail FPCare reinforced with metal framesA fold-back portionof the long-tail FPCis folded back at 90 degrees so that flying leadis disposed parallel with a turning shaftof a carriage. The flying lead is then joined to a connection padon a main FPC boardusing solder

Head support mechanism and magnetic disk device

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.

To restrain temperature rise by controlling heat radiation from an IC. More specifically, an area of junctioning pads which are in contact with an IC is enlarged to substantially overlap the whole or at least half or more of the area of the IC. Further, the IC is covered with an overcoat which protrudes to other parts of a head supporting mechanism.

Disc drive head supporting mechanism having power supply pads for an integrated circuit which are of a greater area than signal/control junction pads

A magnetic disk apparatus of the present invention is equipped with a microactuator for micro motion using piezoelectric elements in addition to a coarse adjustment actuator such as a voice coil motor or the like, eliminates parts that slide between the microactuator and surrounding members, and alleviates stress on the piezoelectric elements even if an impact is given to the magnetic disk apparatus. Thus, a first actuator fixing portion on a carriage side and a second actuator fixing portion on a magnetic head side of a microactuator mounting portion are coupled with a plurality of flexible coupling portions and coupling portions are placed outside the microactuator in substantially symmetric with respect to a centerline in a longitudinal direction of a suspension.

Protruding portions are formed on outflow ends of slider rails on a floating magnetic head slider. This floating magnetic head slider is of rails type. Each of the protruding portion extends farther to the outside as it approaches the outflow end. Or the external sides of the rails on the magnetic head slider are so arranged that angles formed thereat diverge from the side of the inflow end to the side of the outflow end, and a pressure adjusting aperture is formed on the outflow side of each of the rails. Because of the above arrangement, it is possible to provide a magnetic head unit in which particles, such as dust, adhering to the disk surface are effectively removed, and in which floating stability is not impaired. Removing the particles on the disk surface is not limited by seeking directions even while the magnetic disk unit is in operation.

Rail-type floating magnetic head slider

The present invention provides; a magnetic disk recorder comprising (i) magnetic disks having magnetic recording media, (ii) thin-film magnetic heads for recording information in the recording media and reproducing information therefrom, and (iii) a carriage for moving the magnetic heads to intended positions, the recorder being wherein the thin-film magnetic heads are formed on sliders and these sliders comprise sintered bodies containing a non-magnetic metal oxide of spinel structure and harder ceramic particles than the metal oxide which are dispersed in the metal oxide; a sintered body useful particularly as a material for the magnetic head slider, a method for making the sintered body, and a magnetic head and a magnetic head slider, for recording and reproducing information, which are made by using the sintered body.

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Odawara, Japan

Kousaku Wakatsuki