Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Lin Yang

Jin Hui Ou-Yang

Chiao-Ping (Roger) Ku

Jen-Tai Lin

Chunjer Chuck Cheng

Serge Hauert

Gary C Griffin

Michael G Choy

Alex Y Tsay

Raffi Codilian

Robert J McNab

Shuo-Hao Chen

Hsueh-Chieh Wu

Steven J Alfred

Aaron J Hanna

John R Gustafson

Aaron D Little

Jonathan M Garbarino

William C Tipton, Ii

Sudha Narayanan

Lin Mei

Gary C Griffen

There is provided a disk drive including a disk drive base, a disk rotatably coupled to the disk drive base, and a spindle motor attached to the disk drive base and configured to support the disk for rotating the disk with respect to the disk drive base. The disk drive further includes a filter component. The filter component includes a filter housing coupled to the disk drive base, and a filter element disposed within the filter housing for filtering disk rotation induced airflow. The filter element includes a coarse section and a fine section. The coarse section has a porosity greater than a porosity of the fine section.

Disk drive including a filter component with coarse and fine sections

A novel disk drive includes a disk and a spindle motor to which the disk is attached to rotate about an axis of rotation. The disk drive also includes a stationary plate facing and disposed over the disk, wherein the stationary plate includes a plurality of grooves through which rotation-induced air flows from an inlet end to an outlet end. The disk drive also includes a recirculation filter coupled to and immediately adjacent said outlet end of said plurality of grooves.

Disk drive having a stationary plate facing a disk and with a recirculation filter coupled to grooves in the stationary plate

A novel disk drive is disclosed and claimed. The disk drive includes a disk and a spindle motor to which the disk is attached to rotate about an axis of rotation. The disk drive also includes a stationary plate facing and disposed over the disk, wherein the stationary plate includes a plurality of grooves through which rotation-induced air flows from an inlet end to an outlet end. The disk drive also includes a recirculation filter coupled to and immediately adjacent said outlet end of said plurality of grooves.

A stationary plate functions as a vibration damper and has an integrated air filtration guide. In one embodiment the stationary plate is disposed between two adjacent disks, and the guide comprises one or more grooves through which rotation-induced air may flow. In another embodiment, a plurality of stationary plates may be disposed between a plurality of disks, wherein each of the plurality of stationary plates has a grooved side through which the rotation-induced air may flow. In still another embodiment, the orientation of the grooves in the stationary plate is such that the rotationally-induced airflow impinges the disk drive's voice coil motor.

Disk vibration damper having an integrated air circulation guide

There is provided a disk drive including a disk drive base, a disk rotatably coupled to the disk drive base, and a spindle motor attached to the disk drive base and configured to support the disk for rotating the disk with respect to the disk drive base. The disk drive further includes a filter component. The filter component includes a filter housing coupled to the disk drive base, and a pair of filter elements disposed within the filter housing for filtering disk rotation induced airflow. Each filter element includes a coarse section and a fine section, wherein the coarse section is positioned upstream of the fine section relative to a direction of the induced airflow.

A disk drive includes a disk drive base, a disk, and a head stack assembly rotatably coupled to the base adjacent the disk surface of the disk. The disk drive includes an airflow channeling enclosure. The enclosure includes an airflow inlet disposed downstream of the head stack assembly and configured to receive the disk rotation induced airflow therethrough. The enclosure further includes an airflow channel extending along the disk surface from the airflow inlet. The enclosure further includes an outer wall extending along the disk surface from the airflow inlet and defining the airflow channel radially interior to the outer wall. The enclosure further includes an airflow outlet disposed upstream of the head stack assembly extending from the outer wall and the channel opposite the airflow inlet for modifying the disk rotation induced airflow passing from the channel.

Disk drive with airflow channeling enclosure

A disk drive including a disk drive base, a disk coupled to the disk drive base, and a head stack assembly coupled to the disk drive base. The disk drive further includes an airflow diverter filter component disposed upstream of the head stack assembly with respect to disk rotation induced airflow for modifying the disk rotation induced airflow adjacent the head stack assembly. The filter component includes a first filter element disposed adjacent the disk surface, a second filter element disposed between the first filter element and the head stack assembly, and a third filter element having a porosity finer than the first and second filter elements. The third filter element is generally radially further than the second filter element from the axis of rotation. The disk rotation induced airflow generally enters the filter component through the first filter element and exits through the second and third filter elements.

Disk drive with airflow diverter filter component

A disk drive includes a base, a spindle motor attached to the base, the spindle motor including a hub having hub apertures, a plurality of disks on the spindle motor and including a first and a second disk, a disk spacer between the first and second disks, and a disk clamp. The disk spacer has a plurality of spacer through apertures. Each of the spacer through apertures extend radially through the disk spacer. The disk clamp has clamp through apertures adjacent to an inner diameter of the disk clamp. Each of the clamp through apertures extend longitudinally through the disk clamp. The clamp through apertures, the hub apertures and the spacer through apertures are aligned for allowing airflow to pass through the apertures when the disks are rotating.

Disk drive having apertures aligned near the inner diameter of a disk stack for allowing airflow to pass through the apertures to reduce disk flutter

A method of operating a disk drive including providing the disk drive. The disk drive includes a disk with data tracks and an actuator with a slider including a perpendicular magnetic write head. The write head includes leading and trailing sides defining a taper angle. The write head and the actuator define a maximum skew angle with respect to the data tracks. The maximum skew angle being greater than the taper angle. The method further includes rotating the slider during operation of the disk drive to reduce a difference between the skew and taper angles for aligning the write head with the data tracks.

Method of operating a disk drive including rotating a perpendicular write head to reduce a difference between skew and taper angles, and a disk drive

A disk drive includes a disk clamp for clamping a plurality of disks to a spindle motor, and a disk spacer positioned between first and second disks. The first disk has a plurality of first disk through apertures adjacent its inner diameter. The first disk through apertures are circumferentially spaced-apart and extend longitudinally through the first disk. The disk spacer has a plurality of spacer apertures that are circumferentially spaced-apart and extend longitudinally through a portion of a thickness of the disk spacer. The disk clamp is adjacent to the first disk and has a plurality of clamp through apertures adjacent an outer diameter of the disk clamp. The clamp through apertures are circumferentially spaced-apart and extend longitudinally through the disk clamp. The first disk through apertures, the spacer apertures, and the clamp through apertures are aligned for allowing airflow to pass through when the plurality of disks is rotating.

Disk drive having apertures near the ID of a disk stack for allowing airflow to pass through the apertures to reduce disk flutter

Disk drives including suspensions and head gimbal assemblies in which the load beam pitch angle is reduced exhibit a reduced disk flutter induced track mis-registration (TMR) at the disk outer diameter. The reduction in the load beam pitch angle may be achieved through variations in the load beam, hinge and/or mount plate configurations, relative positions and/or thickness.

Suspension design for attenuation of disk flutter induced track mis-registration of a hard disk drive by manipulation of the hinge and/or load beam

There is provided a disk drive including a disk drive base and a spindle motor hub. The disk drive further includes first and second disks disposed about the spindle motor hub. The disk drive further includes a disk spacer disposed about the spindle motor hub between the first and second disks. The disk spacer includes a circumferential disk spacer opening. The disk drive including a plate body extending between the first and second disks for modifying air flow adjacent the first and second disks during operation of the disk drive, and an inner edge extending from the plate body and disposed towards the hub, the inner edge being disposed within the disk spacer opening overlapping the disk spacer in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation for mitigating against contact between the inner edge and the first and second disks.

Disk drive including a disk plate overlapping a disk spacer in a circumferential disk spacer opening

There is provided a disk drive including a disk drive base and a spindle motor hub. The disk drive further includes first and second disks disposed about the spindle motor hub. The disk drive further includes a disk plate coupled to the disk drive base. The disk plate includes a plate body extending between the first and second disks for modifying air flow adjacent the first and second disks. The plate body includes a plate body thickness in a direction parallel to an axis of rotation of the spindle motor hub. The disk plate further includes an inner edge extending from the plate body and disposed towards the hub. The inner edge includes an edge thickness in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation less than the plate body thickness for mitigating against contact between the inner edge and the first and second disks.

Disk drive including a disk plate with a reduced thickness inner edge disposed towards a spindle motor hub

An aspect of the invention can be regarded as a disk drive that includes a disk drive base and a spindle motor hub rotatably coupled to the disk drive base. The disk drive further includes a first disk disposed about the spindle motor hub and having a first disk stiffness. The disk drive further includes a second disk disposed about the spindle motor hub and having a second disk stiffness different than the first disk stiffness. According to another aspect of the present invention, the second disk has a second disk thickness different than a first disk thickness. According to another aspect of the present invention, the second disk is formed of a second material having a second material stiffness different than a first material stiffness.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Lin Yang