Hutchinson Technology Corporation

Magnetic Peripherals Inc.

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Martronics, Inc.

Control Data Corporation

Questak Innovations, Inc.

Lloyd C Goss

Brent D Lien

Jeffry S Bennin

Dean E Myers

Gary E Gustafson

Todd W Boucher

Michael T Hofflander

Gerald L Weispfenning

James H Dettmann

Ryan A Jurgenson

James J Ressmeyer

James M Adley

Hatem R Radwan

A head suspension assembly (HSA) for positioning a floating head assembly over selected tracks on the surface of a rotating data storage device, said head suspension assembly comprising a first surface, a proximal end region, a gimbal region acting as a gimbal flexure, and a head assembly with electric terminals attached to the gimbal region. The HSA also includes a spring region adjacent the proximal end region and a monocoque region located in between the gimbal region and the spring region. The monocoque region is a hollow shell having a closed plane figure cross sectional profile and includes a ceiling region and a floor region separated and spaced from each other, and an aperture that traverses both the ceiling region and the floor region. An integrated circuit having a plurality of control pins and a plurality of read-write pins fits into the aperture. A first set of electrical conductors connects the head terminals to the read-write pins and a second set of electrical conductors connects the control pins to exit terminal means for electrically coupling the second set of conductors to circuitry outside of the head suspension assembly.

Integrated circuit on a monocoque suspension

A disk drive system includes a base, a disk rotatably attached to the base, and an actuator assembly movably attached to the base. The actuator assembly moves the transducer to selected areas of the disk where information representative of data is to be written or read. The transducer is attached to the suspension. The arm has at least one suspension attached thereto using a wire wound sleeve or wrap. The wire wound sleeve or wrap surrounds the end of the arm and captures one or two suspensions between the arm and the wire wound coil. A transducer is attached to the suspension. The electrical connections between the arm and the suspension can also be made along with the mechanical connection of these two elements.

Suspension attachment technique and apparatus for attaching suspension

A head suspension assembly includes a load beam, a flexure and a constraint structure for limiting range of motion of the flexure tongue. The constraint structure directly engages a free end of the flexure tongue to restrict the range of motion of the free end of the flexure tongue. This constraint structure is on the disk-confronting surface of the load beam to overlap the proximal end of the flexure tongue. The constraint structure may be formed in one piece with a proximal extension of the flexure. A method for manufacturing a head suspension assembly of the type including a load beam and a flexure, includes a step of incorporating into the suspension assembly a constraint structure for directly engaging the free end of the flexure tongue to restrict the range of motion of the flexure tongue. Preferably, the method includes shaping the constraint structure from the flexure itself, and bending the constraint structure, so that the distal limit of the constraint extends directly over and is spaced from the free end of the tongue, between the tongue and its associated disk surface.

Method of making a flexure vertical motion stop

An integrated lead disk drive suspension including a load beam and one or more conductive leads. The load beam has a mounting region on a proximal end, a head bonding platform on a distal end, and one or more spring regions connecting the head bonding platform to the mounting region. The conductive leads are integrated with and insulated from the load beam by an adhesive dielectric layer, and extend between the head bonding platform and the mounting region. The leads are adapted to reduce mechanical effects of the leads and/or dielectric layer on spring characteristics of the spring regions. One embodiment of the leads includes at least a first compensating portion which extends off the load beam and traverses a nonlinear path around at least a portion of one or more of the spring regions. In another embodiment the portions of the conductive leads extending between the distal end of the load beam and the head bonding platform are substantially free from the dielectric layer. In yet another embodiment the width of portions of the dielectric layer is about equal to or less than the width of adjacent portions of the conductive leads.

Hygrothermal load compensating structures in an integrated lead

Laminate structures for attachment to a head suspension assembly in a hard disk drive. The laminate structures include a spring metal layer, a conductive layer, and an intermediate insulator/adhesive layer. The conductive layer can act as an interconnect assembly, as a gimbal, and as a spring region. The method of manufacture of the laminate structures incorporates manufacture of an interconnect assembly into the manufacture of spring structures such as a load beam or a gimbal. The laminate structures are manufactured by etching the layers from the outside in, using other layers as etching masks. Unique configurations are possible where either or both metal layers can be discontinuous, thanks to the manufacturing support of the second layer. The second layer can also be shaped into a plurality of panels, thus freeing the metal layers to act as the spring elements.

Laminated structures for a disk drive suspension assembly

Method of making laminated structures for a disk drive suspension

A method for manufacturing a disk drive suspension including a load beam and a microactuator. The load beam and microactuator are formed from three sheets of laminated material. A first sheet of material is chemically etched to form the load beam and lower electromagnetic field generating coil members of the microactuator. A second sheet of material is chemically etched to form stationary and moving pole members of the microactuator, and a third sheet of material is chemically etched to form upper magnetic field generating coil members. The sheets of material are bonded together to form first and second magnetic field generating coils surrounding the stationary pole member. A moving pole member is chemically etched from the second sheet of laminated material and has a free end mounted between the coils at the ends of the stationary pole member. The opposite end of the moving pole member is mounted to a distal end of the load beam. In response to tracking control signals, the moving pole member moves the distal end of the load beam along a tracking axis.

Method for manufacturing a head suspension with a microactuator

A head gimbal measurer for measuring the force loading on a head, the head having a plurality of air bearing surfaces, to predict the fly height of a selected one of the plurality of air bearing surfaces when the head is in operation relative to a rotating magnetically coated disc, including a measurement device for measuring the total normal force on the head and the differential normal force on each air bearing surface. A comparing device for comparing the measured total normal force on the head and the differential normal force on each air bearing surface with a known total normal force on the head and a known differential normal force on each air bearing surface to predict a fly height of the head when in operation relative to the rotating magnetically coated disc. The invention is further a load distribution measurement and adjustment device designed to shape a load arm of a head gimbal assembly used to transfer data to and from a rotating magnetically coated disc.

Load distribution measurement and adjustment device

A disk drive head suspension assembly for supporting a head slider over selected tracks of a rotatable data storage disk. The suspension assembly includes a load beam having proximal and distal ends and a bearing cover portion. A gimbal on the distal end of the load beam includes a flexure pad having a slider-engaging first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A ball-receiving hole extends through the flexure pad. A ball is mounted in the ball-receiving hole. The ball has a load point portion which extends from the second surface of the flexure pad and engages the bearing cover portion of the load beam. A static attitude compensating portion of the ball extends from the first surface of the flexure pad. A head slider is bonded to the slider-engaging first surface of the flexure pad by a layer of adhesive. The static-attitude compensating portion of the ball is engaged with the head slider and the adhesive fills spaces between the slider and the first surface of the flexure platform to hold the slider at a desired static attitude.

Suspension assembly with ball for static attitude compensation and load

A head suspension for attachment to a disk drive rigid arm comprises a load beam in which the flexure has a tongue provided with a shaped feature oriented toward the head on the slider-confronting surface of the tongue along at least one static offset torque axis. The shaped feature, in conjunction with an adhesive bond area between the flexure tongue and the top of the slider, is used to eliminate static roll and/or static pitch offsets between the suspension and the slider.

Method of mounting a head slider to a head suspension with static offset

A suspension for positioning a floating read-write head assembly over selected tracks on the surface of a rotating data storage device. It includes a planar and resilient load beam having a proximal end portion that may be constructed for attachment to an actuator arm, a gimbal region located at a distal end portion constructed for supporting a read-write head assembly for gimballed motion relative to the surface of the data storage device, a spring region between the proximal end portion, and a rigid floor region located between the spring region and the gimbal region. The suspension also includes a sheet material shell region having side wall regions supporting a ceiling region over a face of the rigid floor region of the load beam. The wall regions may include longitudinally extending edge flanges projecting generally away from the ceiling region and from the rigid region, lip edges to facilitate attachment, and lift surfaces. The wall regions attach the shell to a face of the floor region of the load beam to cover at least the floor region and form into a stiffened monocoque region encasing a cavity between the load beam and the shell region. A method for manufacturing the suspension is also disclosed.

Monocoque suspension

Gimballing flexure with static torque offset compensation feature

A disk drive suspension including a load beam having a rigid region, a base on a proximal end of the load beam and a flexure for receiving and supporting a read/write head on the distal end of the load beam. A microactuator on the load beam moves the flexure and read/write head about a tracking axis with respect to the rigid region. The microactuator includes a moving pole member mounted to the flexure, a stationary pole member mounted to the rigid region of the load beam adjacent to the moving pole, and coils around the stationary pole member.

Head suspension with tracking microactuator

In positioning a transducer head with respect to a supporting arm, the transducer head is subject to both a normal force and a moment force and has first and second air bearing surfaces. The apparatus includes a controller and first and second sensors for detecting the overturning moment and being adapted for providing data representative of the overturning moment to the controller. A first actuator varies the position of the load arm and a second actuator varies the position of the transducer head. The first and second actuators act in concert to negate the overturning moment. A third sensor detects the position of the first air bearing surface with respect to a known level reference and a third actuator positions the first air bearing surface of the transducer head. A fourth sensor detects the position of the second air bearing surface with respect to a known level reference and a fourth actuator positions the second air bearing surface of the transducer head. The controller calculates total normal force and differential force loads on the air bearing surfaces and generates commands to the first and second actuators to position the transducer head responsive to the calculated forces to achieve a desired differential force loading on the first and second air bearing surfaces after the head is glued to the load arm.

Head locator for mounting a head to a gimbal

A sector on a disk contains position information used to determine position error of a transducer over the disk. The sector has a normal field with a first side and a second side. The first side is oriented opposite the second side on the disk. A first quadrature field is located on the first side of the normal field and a second quadrature field is located on the second side of the normal field.

Growing community of inventors

Bloomington, MN, United States of America

Lloyd C Goss