Seagate Technology Incorporated

Engineering Measurements Company

Richard B Balsley, Jr

Frederick Mark Stefansky

Charles E Miller

Steven R Speckmann

Robert W Yates

Jerry C Wyss

William Godette

A magnetic parking device for retaining an actuator in a disk drive over a landing zone. A magnetically permeable capture member is provided on the drive actuator and a magnetic parking member for capturing and magnetically retaining the capture member to park the transducer is provided adjacent the drive actuator. The magnetic parking member includes a permanent magnet and a magnetic field containing member having a slot (or air gap) formed therein. The magnetic field containing member and permanent magnet form a magnetic circuit with a magnetic flux with the slot in the magnetic field containing member allowing a portion of the magnetic flux to extend beyond the physical confines of the magnetic field containing member to provide a capture region for the capture member. When the actuator moves into a position where the transducer is over a landing zone, the capture member enters the capture region adjacent the air gap and becomes part of the magnetic circuit formed by the magnetic field containing member and the permanent magnet. A bucking coil is provided, arranged about the magnet, for passing a current to generate a magnetic field with polarity opposite that provided by the permanent magnet to neutralize the magnetic field to release the actuator from the parked state.

Magnetic parking device for disk drive

A micro mass flow controller is provided to accurately and reliably control or meter a mass flow rate of gas flowing at very low rates. The flow controller includes a sonic choked flow restriction with an oscillateable valve that is operable to repetitiously open and close the flow restriction in a time-modulated manner. The flow controller takes measurements of gas inlet pressures and temperatures in an inlet plenum and, at least partially, based on these measurements imposes a duty cycle on the valve by sequentially starting and stopping the sonic choked flow through the flow restriction. The duty cycle of the valve in one embodiment is the ratio of open time to the sum of the open time and the closed time for the valve. The valve includes an actuator comprising an elongated, cantilevered, piezoelectric bimorph element connected to a driver circuit that provides time-modulated positive and negative voltages to alternately drive the bimorph element to bend upward and downward to open and close the valve to mass flow control or meter gas flow.

Micro mass flow control apparatus and method

A two and one-half inch form factor disk drive. The disk drive includes a base having a top and a bottom, and at least one storage disk. A spin motor is secured to the base and the disk is mounted thereon. Read/write heads are provided for reading information from and writing information on the storage disk. The read/write heads are supported and positioned by an actuator in response to control signals, the actuator having top and bottom plates comprising a support structure, the top plate being supported on the base. A cover is sealably attached to the base, such that the base and cover enclose the disk, the heads, and the actuator. In addition, control electronics, mounted on the head-disk assembly so that the control electronics are adjacent to the bottom of the base, generate the control signals to control the actuator means and provide information signals to and receive information signals from the read/write heads. The disk drive has an overall maximum height equal to or less than substantially twelve and one-half millimeters (12.5 mm). In a further aspect, the disk drive further includes a header assembly for electrically coupling a printed circuit board including the control electronics to the actuator, read/write heads and spin motor. The drive further includes an actuator assembly fabricated such that the actuator assembly and the header assembly are secured to a single mounting member thereby providing an integrated header and actuator assembly for insertion into the disk drive.

Disk drive with integrated presassembled actuator and header assembly

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Richard B Balsley, Jr