Texas Instruments Corporation

Michael K Masten

Mark W Heaton

Tsen-Hwang Lin

Philip A Congdon

Michael T Direnzo

Mark A Avery

A hard disk drive system ( ) includes a rotating magnetic disk ( ), and a support arm ( ) which is supported for movement relative to the disk under control of a voice coil motor ( ). a microactuator ( ) supports a read/write head ( ) on the support arm for movement relative thereto a control arrangement ( ) controls the voice coil motor and the microactuator in response to position information ( ), which is read by the read/write head from the disk and which indicates the position of the read/write head relative to the disk. The system is free of a sensor for detecting the actual position of the support arm relative to the read/write head or the disk.

Method and apparatus for positioning a read/write head of a hard disk drive

An integral computer hard drive microactuator support comprising a unitary member of solid material. The support includes a frame portion surrounding and defining an opening portion, and a platform portion disposed within the opening portion. Four fixed-fixed beam portions connect the platform portion to the frame portion, the fixed-fixed beam portions being generally rectangular in cross section and substantially straight along their length.

Silicon structural support of linear microactuator

A hard disk drive system (,) includes a rotating magnetic disk (,), an arm (,) moved by a voice coil motor (,), and a read/write head (,) movably supported on the arm by a microactuator (,). The read/write head is moved approximately radially of the disk in response to operation of the microactuator or movement of the arm. The microactuator has a nonlinear transfer function. A control system (,) for controlling the microactuator and the voice coil motor includes a control technique (,) having a nonlinear transfer function which is substantially an inverse of the nonlinear transfer function of the microactuator. Control of the microactuator is effected through the control technique, the control technique linearizing the control of the microactuator.

Method and apparatus for linearizing control of a reluctance force motor

An improved micro-actuator position sensor which provides an accurate position signal for higher bandwidth control of a micro-actuator. The position sensor allows closed loop control of the micro-actuator position. Preferred embodiment micro-actuator sensors include a piezo-resistive stress sensor integrated within the springs, a capacitance sensor and magnetic reluctance sensor. Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail as integrated sensors for a micro-actuator used in hard disk drives. The sensor is integrated with a micro-actuator at the tip of the conventional actuator arm to improve the precision seeking capability of the actuator arm.

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Plano, TX, United States of America

Michael K Masten