Seagate Technology Incorporated

Other

Magnecomp Corporation

Markus Erwin Mangold

Zine-Eddine Boutaghou

Peter Crane

Zine Eddine Boutaghou

Bradley Jay Ver Meer

Scott Edward Ryun

Adam Karl Himes

Michael Allen Greminger

Kuen Chee Ee

Wayne Allen Bonin

Peter Hahn

Long Zhang

Jason Wayne Riddering

Kenneth Lee Pottebaum

Richard August Budde

Curtis A Trammell

James Morgan Murphy

Kent J Forbord

Lee Walter

Roger Alan Resh

Sandeepan Bhattacharya

David Gerard Wobbe

Frederick Paul Renken

Ram Mohan Rao

Menachem Rafaelof

Deborah S Schnur

Yu-Li Chang

Ram Mahan Rao

Derek A Lewis

Bijoyendra Nath

Su Xia

In one implementation, the presently disclosed technology teaches an apparatus with a head attached to an end of a baseplate. The baseplate includes a tilted section that causes a torsion axis of the baseplate to pass near the head. In another implementation, the presently disclosed technology teaches an apparatus with a load beam attached to a baseplate. The apparatus also includes a head attached to an opposite end of the load beam from the baseplate. The baseplate includes a mass-shifted section that causes a torsion axis of the apparatus to pass through the head. In yet another implementation, the presently disclosed technology teaches a method for reducing baseplate resonance amplitude. The method includes shifting a baseplate mass on a suspension toward an adjacent disc surface to move a baseplate torsion axis to pass near a head.

Baseplate resonant axis optimization

A dual stage actuated suspension has microactuators that are adhered to the suspension by adhesive such as epoxy. The epoxy is contained within an adhesive containment vessel defined by walls of an insulating material such as polyimide. Adhesive overflow channels are formed within the polyimide to receive and channel any excess epoxy that overflows over the polyimide wall. The channels may have increasing width to help draw the excess epoxy toward a centrally located reservoir.

Dual stage actuated suspension having adhesive overflow control channels

An actuator load beam comprising a preload bend section defining an array of differently configured stiffness-reducing features. The stiffness-reducing features are characteristically sized in inverse relation to a respective distance from a longitudinal centerline of the actuator load beam at the preload bend section. An associated method comprising determining a thickness of a preload bend section for an actuator load beam associated with a desired resonant performance; determining a volume of stiffness-reducing features in the preload bend section associated with a desired vertical stiffness; and arranging an array of stiffness-reducing features associated with the determined volume in an array of sequentially smaller size with the largest size of the array being disposed nearest to a longitudinal centerline of the actuator load beam at the preload bend section.

Suspension bend section with stiffness-reducing features

A suspension is disclosed that includes a pre-load section and a load section. The pre-load section is configured to be connected to a base. The load section is connected to the pre-load section and comprises a load beam portion, a flex circuit portion, and a brace. The brace extends laterally exterior to the load beam portion proximate to the pre-load section. The brace increases the lateral sway vibration mode of the load section, allowing the load beam portion to be narrower, and provide a decreased weight and increased torsion vibration mode, while also maintaining an increased lateral sway vibration mode.

Braced suspension for supporting a head slider

A flow control device for a data storage system to reduce flow induced vibration. The flow control device includes a plurality of streamline flow passages to reduce turbulent flow in a flow field along a disc surface. Thus, air flow induced by rotation of data discs is directed through the plurality of streamline flow passages to reduce turbulence to limit excitation or vibration of the head and suspension components.

Drive level flow-field conditioning to reduce flow field turbulence

A head suspension mounts a head assembly in a disc drive. The head suspension includes controllable bending elements on the gimbal portion of the head suspension which allow dynamic control of the flying attitude of the head assemblies, and thus the flying height. In a first embodiment, the control elements are bi-metal features that utilize differential thermal expansion to control the flying attitude. In a second, and presently preferred, embodiment, the control elements are piezo-electric elements which provide bi-directional control of associated elements of the gimbal portion of the head suspension. In another aspect, the controllable bending elements are used to increase the flying height of the head assembly as the head assembly is moved from the data recording area of the disc into engagement with a textured landing zone.

Dynamic flying attitude control using augmented gimbal

A microactuation system selectively alters a position of a transducing head carried by a slider in a disc drive system with respect to a track of a rotatable disk having a plurality of concentric tracks. The microactuation system includes a head suspension having a first portion and a flexure for supporting the slider. A flexible beam extends from the first portion of the head suspension at one end to the flexure at the other end. An electroactive element is attached to the beam. The electroactive element bends in response to a control signal applied thereto. The beam is sufficiently compliant to permit movement of the first portion of the head suspension with respect to the flexure.

Bending microactuator having a two-piece suspension design

A head gimbal assembly (HGA) for use in a forward flow disc drive includes a load beam having a longitudinal axis, a gimbal, a slider, and an air deflector. The gimbal is mounted to a distal end of the load beam. The slider includes a transducing head and is mounted to a disc side of the gimbal and is aligned with the longitudinal axis of the load beam. The air deflector includes a first deflecting member that is positioned upstream of the slider relative to a forward airflow. The air deflector extends from a disc side of either the distal end of the load beam or the gimbal and across the longitudinal axis. The air deflector deflects a portion of the forward airflow away from the slider to thereby reduce windage induced off-track motion of the transducing head.

Head suspension assembly having an air deflector

An actuator arm design having a close cross section which greatly improves the performance of the disc drive. The actuator arm is formed of a top skin, a bottom skin, and a core. The core may be formed of a corrugated metal, or a foam metal, or a combination of the two. As a result of this structure of the arm, the arm is highly stiff, yet low mass which yields an arm having a high resonant frequency.

Unibody (monocoque) arm design for high performance disc drives

A monocoque head suspension carries a read-write head on a distal end and is attachable at a proximal end to an actuator assembly. The monocoque head suspension includes a bottom skin and a top skin, and also a core positioned between the bottom and top skins. The core has voids therein that form hollow regions between the bottom and top skins. The core may be made of low-density material, such as photo-imageable epoxy, polyamide or polyimide, deposited on the bottom skin, or may be a separately formed piece. The bottom skin and top skin may be made of a stainless steel material. The monocoque head suspension may be a component of an assembly to store data to a magnetic medium and read data from the medium.

Monocoque head suspension

A magnetic disc drive includes a base, a disc rotatably attached to said base, and a ramp attached to the base near said disc. The magnetic disc drive also has an actuator assembly pivotably attached to the base. The actuator assembly rotates about an actuator pivot point. The actuator assembly further includes a suspension attached to one end of the actuator assembly, and a transducer attached to the suspension. The actuator assembly moves the transducer between a transducing position and an unload position. The suspension includes a lift tab which contacts the ramp at a contact point as the transducer is moved to the unload position. As the actuator assembly moves the transducer to the unload position, the contact point moves toward the actuator pivot point. This results in a change of the resonant frequency of the actuator assembly. The resonant frequency is lower when the transducer is near the end of the ramp proximate the disc. The ramp can have a straight or a curved lift tab contact path.

Ramp design for dynamic load

A microactuation system selectively alters a position of a transducing head carried by a slider in a disc drive system with respect to a track of a rotatable disk having a plurality of concentric tracks. The microactuation system includes a head suspension having a first portion and a second portion coupled by one or more flexible hinges. An electroactive element is attached to the first portion of the head suspension at one end and the second portion of the load beam at the other end. The electroactive element bends in response to a control signal applied thereto. The hinge is sufficiently compliant to permit movement of the first portion with respect to the second portion of the head suspension.

In-plane suspension-level bending microactuator for precise head positioning

A slider having a slider body is provided for actively controlling a fly height of the slider relative to a data storage disc. A first plurality of beams are affixed to a back surface of the slider body. The beams are disassociated from one another and are constructed of deformable material. Each beam, in response to an applied electrical control signal is deformable in a first dimension parallel to the back surface of the slider body. Deformation of the first plurality of beams in response to an applied electrical control signal affects slider fly height by changing one of slider body crown and cross curvatures to a greater extent than along the other. In accordance with other embodiments, multiple layers of deformable beams are attached to a slider. In yet other embodiments, piezoelectric material layers having anisotropic properties are substituted for beam layers.

Fly height control slider with crown and cross curve de-coupling

A head suspension for mounting a head assembly in a disc drive that utilizes dynamic loading and unloading of the head assemblies. The head suspension includes a ramp contact feature that is located at the distal end of the head suspension and is substantially laterally centered on the head assembly, in order to minimize induced attitude moments at the time of loading and unloading of the head assemblies. The head suspension also provides selectable vertical separation between the ramp contact feature and the associated disc surface, in order to allow design flexibility. The head suspension also includes displacement limiting features which prevent plastic deformation of the gimbal during head lifting, and which contribute to positive pitch attitude during head unloading, to minimize the amount of disc surface which must be reserved for head unloading.

Growing community of inventors

Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Markus Erwin Mangold