Read Rite Corporation

Western Digital (fremont), Inc.

Western Digital Corporation

Muhammad A Hawwa

Jamshid Bozorgi

Aric K Menon

Edmund Bruno Fanslau, Jr

Kenneth Frederick Young

Edmund B Fanslau, Jr

Yimin Niu

An actuator is coupled between a head and a flexure, the actuator providing submicron positioning of the head while reducing undesirable vibrations of the flexure. The actuator includes a stator and a rotor, with a plurality of deformable elements coupled between the stator and the rotor. In one aspect the rotor, stator and deformable elements are constructed so that the rotor has a substantially fixed axis of rotation relative to the stator, and the actuation of a transducer in the head is magnified. In another aspect the rotor is coupled to the head so that the axis of rotation is substantially aligned with the center of mass of the head and rotor, increasing the frequency at which the actuator can move the head and reducing vibrations in the flexure caused by actuation of the head.

Piezoelectric microactuators with substantially fixed axis of rotation and magnified stroke

Windage proximate to a spinning disk within a disk drive is directed through a plurality of apertures in a ramp situated near the outside diameter of the disk. A tab extending from a load beam that supports a slider rests on the ramp when the drive is not in use. When the drive is started the disk begins to spin and an actuator moves the load beam to bring the slider over the surface of the disk. As the load beam moves, the tab is guided along the ramp and cushioned by the air flow emerging from apertures in the ramp beneath it. When the drive is stopped the actuator brings the load beam back so that the tab engages the ramp. A cushion of air is again provided as the tab is moved along the ramp as the tab is returned to a parked position.

Airflow assisted ramp loading and unloading of sliders in hard disk drives

An actuator is coupled between a head and flexure and gimbal elements, the actuator providing submicron positioning of the head while reducing undesirable vibrations of the flexure and gimbal elements. Such an actuator may have a frame that surrounds a cavity, the frame having an opening disposed adjacent to the head and a wall disposed on an opposite side of the frame from the opening. One or more active elements are disposed in the cavity and attached to the frame, the active element separated from the wall and having a dimension that varies in size in response to a control signal, with a moveable element coupled to the active element and to the head.

Enclosed piezoelectric microactuators coupled between head and suspension

An optical switching component comprises a rotor with a reflective top surface pivotally mounted within a stator, and a piezoelectric actuator set between the rotor and the stator to move the rotor about the pivot point. A controller can also be joined to the piezoelectric actuator to effectuate actuation thereof. Two light ports can also be set proximate to the reflective top surface such that a beam of light emitted from one is reflected to the other. Multiple optical switching components can be arranged to form an optical switching device. Optical switching components and devices can be fabricated according to conventional microfabrication practices including film deposition, planarization, and photolithography techniques.

Piezoelectric actuated optical switch

A microelectromechanical (MEM) actuator incorporates a dual-stator design operated electrostatically in conjunction with a rotor to affect a fine positioning of a thin film magnetic read/write head. The substantial gain in the frequency response bandwidth greatly improves the performance and accuracy of the track-follow control for fine positioning of the thin film read/write head. The stators are comprised of a plurality of electrodes arranged perpendicularly along a plurality of stationary radial spokes, which are interleaving and oppositely disposed to the same plurality of moveable radial spokes formed on the rotor. A track-follow control commands a voltage to be supplied to the rotor and stators, thereby inducing an electrical potential field to generate an electrostatically attractive force for each pair of radial spokes between each of the stator and the rotor. These circumferentially acting forces result in a torque that causes the rotor on which the slider is mounted to displace in a pure clockwise or counterclockwise rotation about the center of the flexure.

Electrostatic microelectromechanical (MEM) microactuator for precise read/write head positioning

A head gimbal assembly for a disk drive. The head gimbal assembly includes a load beam defining a longitudinal axis. The head gimbal assembly further includes a flexure with a portion of said flexure being attached to said load beam. The head gimbal assembly further includes a slider including a read/write head. The head gimbal assembly further includes a collocated microactuator which connects between said flexure and said slider for providing pure or nearly pure lateral movement to said slider in a plane of motion that includes the longitudinal axis. The collocated microactuator is a shear mode piezoelectric motor and disposed between the slider and the load beam along an axis disposed orthogonal to the longitudinal axis.

Shear mode multilayered collocated micro-actuator for dual-stage servo controllers in disk drives

An active, optical, piezoelectric actuated modulator allows switching between a reflecting state and an anti-reflecting state. The modulator, or switch, is based on the precise controlling of an air gap between a thin film membrane and a substrate. The thin film membrane is deformed by a miniaturized adaptive material, such as electrostrictive or piezoelectric (PZT) material. Maximum optical reflection is realized when the air gap is equal to a multiple of a quarter wavelength of an impinging optical beam, while anti-reflection is achieved when the thickness of the air gap is equal to zero or is different from a multiple of the quarter wavelength of the optical beam.

Active reflection and anti-reflection optical switch

The present invention is embodied in an actuator arm which is mounted to a primary actuator. The primary actuator positions the actuator arm, with a read/write head mounted to the actuator arm, across a data storage disk. The actuator arm comprises an inboard portion, an outboard portion and a pair of bimorph actuators. The inboard portion has a longitudinal axis and is attached to the primary actuator. The outboard portion has the read/write head mounted onto it. The pair of bimorph actuators are deflectable together in a common direction and are connected between the inboard and the outboard portions. Upon deflection of the bimorph actuators in the same direction, the outboard portion is translated along an at least nearly straight line transverse to the longitudinal axis of the inboard portion. This transverse motion allows the read/write head to be kept substantially within a plane parallel to the surface of the data storage disk, preventing damage caused by possible contact between slider and the disk surface from rolling the slider due to out-of-plane motions. Further, the use of bimorph actuators provide increased displacements of the read/write head. Also, since the head displacement is not a function of microactuator's position along the actuator arm, the actuator arm can be shorter, allowing for use in compact disk drives.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Muhammad A Hawwa