Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Western Digital Corporation

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Shawn E Casey

Kamran Oveyssi

Raffi Codilian

Keith R Berding

Ken L Chang

Terence H West

Chaw-Wu Tseng

Jifang Tian

Hongqi Li

William Flynn

Tegan Campbell

Jorge Haro

Roger G Davis

Martin John McCaslin

Chen-Chi Lin

John Robert Edwards

Charles D Flanigan

David William Niss

Serge Hauert

Mitchell D Dougherty

Mats Anders Engwall

Jason T Weaver

Haldun Arin

David T W Wang

Charles B Mountain

A disk drive assembly including a disk drive enclosure, a damping assembly including a first mounting sheet having a first side and a second side opposite the first side, at least one elastomeric cushion attached to the second side of the first mounting sheet, wherein the first side of the first mounting sheet of the damping assembly contacts a surface of the disk drive enclosure.

Hard disk drive (HDD) mounting system for shock and vibration

A novel information storage device is disclosed and claimed. The information storage device includes a device housing with a generally rectangular bay to accommodate a disk drive. The generally rectangular bay includes a base portion and a plurality of side portions. The information storage device further includes a damping insert sheet disposed between the disk drive and the base portion. The damping insert sheet has a plurality of elastomeric cushions, for example with a cushion thickness in the range 0.5 mm to 10 mm, and a spanning sheet, for example having a sheet thickness in the range 0.02 mm to 0.35 mm. Each of the plurality of elastomeric cushions is attached to the spanning sheet. Each of the plurality of elastomeric cushions contacts and is compressed between the generally rectangular bay and the disk drive.

Information storage device with a damping insert sheet between a housing bay and a disk drive

An actuator for a disk drive. The actuator includes an actuator body The actuator body includes a main body section defining a horizontal plane orthogonal to an axis of rotation. The actuator body further includes an actuator arm extending from the main body section. The actuator body further includes two parallel support extensions extending from the main body section opposite the actuator arm. The support extensions cooperatively form a channel between the support extensions. The actuator body further includes a coil support tab disposed adjacent the support extensions and extending orthogonal to the horizontal plane. The actuator further includes a vertical coil defining a coil plane disposed orthogonal to the horizontal plane. The coil is disposed in mechanical communication with the support extensions and the coil support tab for supporting the coil within the channel.

Actuator including an actuator body with parallel support extensions and coil support tab for supporting a coil and method of making the same

A head stack assembly for a disk drive. The head stack assembly includes an actuator body. The actuator body includes a main body section defining a horizontal plane orthogonal to an axis of rotation. The actuator body further includes an actuator arm extending from the main body section. The actuator body further includes a flex cable guiding support extending from the main body section adjacent the actuator arm orthogonal to the horizontal plane. The head stack assembly further includes a flex cable including a substantially flat main cable body disposed in mechanical communication with the flex cable guiding support in planes orthogonal to the horizontal plane parallel to the axis of rotation.

Head stack assembly with an actuator body and flex cable guiding support and method of making the same

A head stack assembly for a disk drive. The head stack assembly includes an actuator body defining an axis of rotation. The actuator body includes a main body section and a coil support portion extending from the main body section. The head stack assembly further includes an actuator coil supported by the coil support portion. The head stack assembly further includes insulated wiring extending between the actuator coil and the main body section in a direction orthogonal to the axis of rotation. The head stack assembly further includes a lateral wiring protector disposed laterally about the insulated wiring and extending from the main body section in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation. The lateral wiring protector includes an open channel with the insulated wiring disposed within the open channel.

Head stack assembly with insulated wiring extending between actuator coil and actuator main body section disposed in lateral wiring protector extending from actuator body

A disk drive comprises a housing including a base; a disk rotatably attached to the base; a printed circuit board coupled to the base and including a plurality of circuit board pads; a head stack assembly pivotally coupled to the base about a pivot axis and a flex-to-board connector. The head stack assembly includes a head for reading and writing to the disk and a flex cable assembly that includes a flexible film including a plurality of conductive traces that are electrically coupled to the head. The flexible film includes a connecting portion in which each of the plurality of conductive traces defines a trace pad. Each trace pad is disposed on a surface of the flexible film that is generally parallel to the pivot axis. The flex-to-board connector is attached to the base and is configured to couple to the connecting portion of the flexible film and to maintain the surface of the flexible film on which the trace pads are disposed in an orientation that is generally parallel to the pivot axis. The flex-to-board connector includes a plurality of conductive fingers, each configured to electrically connect one of the trace pads to a corresponding one of the plurality of circuit board pads.

Disk drive including a base assembly having a flex-to-board edge connector

A disk drive comprises a disk, an actuator arm, a head attached to the actuator arm, a voice coil motor, a parking latch for latching the actuator arm in a latched position in order to park the head during a non-operating mode, a post, and an inertial latch for maintaining the actuator arm in the latched position when the disk drive is subjected to a physical shock. The inertial latch comprises a body having a protruding arm and a pivot surface, wherein during the physical shock the body rotates about the pivot surface such that the protruding arm engages the actuator arm. The body of the inertial latch further comprises a strip-spring comprising a first end inserted into a first receptor and a second end inserted into a second receptor such that the strip spring has an initial arc displacement when installed into the body of the inertial latch.

Disk drive comprising an inertial actuator latch with strip-spring biasing

An aspect of the invention can be regarded as a method of balancing a rotary actuator for use in a rotatable head stack assembly (HSA) portion in a disk drive. The rotary actuator has a pivot axis, and the rotatable HSA portion has an installed HSA portion center-of-gravity. The method provides for determining a desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location for locating the installed HSA portion center-of-gravity along the pivot axis for mitigating acceleration of the rotary actuator about the pivot axis due to external linear acceleration experienced by the disk drive during a track-follow operation. The method further provides for measuring weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to determine an actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity. The method further provides for selectively modifying weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to locate the actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity at the desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BALANCING A ROTARY ACTUATOR BY MODIFYING WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROTARY ACTUATOR FOR LOCATING AN INSTALLED HEAD STACK ASSEMBLY PORTION CENTER-OF-GRAVITY ALONG A PIVOT AXIS

A disk drive includes a head gimbal assembly and a disk that includes a recording surface. The head gimbal assembly comprises a load beam, the load beam including a first load beam surface facing toward the recording surface and a second load beam surface facing away from the recording surface, a plurality of conductors at least partially supported by the first load beam surface, each conductor including a proximal conductive pad, a distal conductive pad and a conductive path between the proximal and distal conductive pads, the proximal conductive pad being closer to a pivot axis than the distal conductive pad, a gimbal coupled to the load beam, the gimbal including a gimbal proximal end that supports the respective distal conductive pads and a gimbal distal end, and a head for flying above the recording surface of the disk while reading magnetic data recorded on the recording surface of the disk as the disk spins in a rotational direction.

Head stack assembly and disk drive using a reversed direction head gimbal assembly

An aspect of the invention can be regarded as an actuator arm assembly which includes an actuator arm having an actuator bore. The actuator arm is configured to pivot about an axis of rotation. The actuator bore has pivot sleeve contact areas. The actuator arm assembly includes a pivot cartridge which includes a pivot sleeve which is formed to exert compressive force radially from the axis of rotation. The pivot sleeve is formed to locally deform radially relative to the axis of rotation adjacent the pivot sleeve contact areas. The pivot cartridge includes a bearing outer race. The pivot cartridge includes a bearing gap formed between the bearing outer race and the pivot sleeve for inhibiting transfer of force between the pivot sleeve and the bearing outer race.

Actuator arm assembly having bearing gap formed between bearing outer race and pivot sleeve for mitigating torque ripple on actuator arm in a disk drive

An aspect of the invention can be regarded as a method of balancing a rotary actuator for use in a rotatable head stack assembly (HSA) portion in a disk drive. The rotary actuator has a pivot axis, and the rotatable HSA portion has an installed HSA portion center-of-gravity. The method provides for deetermining a desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location for locating the installed HSA portion center-of-gravity along the pivot axis for mitigating acceleration of the rotary actuator about the pivot axis due to external linear acceleration experienced by the disk drive during a track-follow operation. The method further provides for measuring weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to determine an actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity. The method further provides for selectively modifying weight distribution characteristics of the rotary actuator to locate the actual rotary actuator center-of-gravity at the desired rotary actuator center-of-gravity location.

The present invention may be regarded as a disk drive comprising a disk, an actuator arm comprising a head, and a voice coil motor for actuating the actuator arm to position the head radially over the disk. The voice coil motor comprises a first magnet for generating a first magnetic flux, and a rotary voice coil yoke comprising a magnetic flux conductor shaped to form an air gap with respect to the first magnet, the magnetic flux conductor comprising a first end having a first reluctance and a second end having a second reluctance, wherein the first reluctance is substantially lower than the second reluctance such that the magnetic flux conductor guides the first magnetic flux through the air gap and through the first end. A voice coil is wrapped around at least part of the magnetic flux conductor for conducting a current to generate a second magnetic flux such that at least part of the second magnetic flux is within the air gap for interacting with the first magnetic flux.

Voice coil motor comprising a voice coil wrapped around a rotary voice coil yoke comprising a low reluctance end and a high reluctance end

A method of making a balance-compensated (BC) rotary actuator for use in a rotatable BC head stack assembly (HSA) portion in a disk drive based upon track-follow characteristics of a rotatable test HSA portion is provided. The test HSA portion includes a test rotary actuator having a test actuator weight specification. The test rotary actuator has an actuator body portion, a test pivot axis extending through the actuator body portion and a head connected to the actuator body portion. The test rotary actuator is controlled to rotate about the test pivot axis for positioning the head over a selected disk track. The test rotary actuator has a test rotary actuator center-of-gravity torque vector associated therewith about the test pivot axis. The method provides for vibrating the disk drive at a vibration frequency in order to vibrate the test HSA portion. Position error information is read using the head while performing a track-follow operation during the vibrating of the test HSA portion. Head off-track error due to the vibration of the disk drive is derived based upon the read position error information representative of positioning of the head relative to the selected disk track. A resultant torque vector is derived based upon the head off-track error. The resultant torque vector has a magnitude equal to a mass of the test HSA portion times a distance between the test pivot axis and a test installed HSA portion center-of-gravity. The test installed HSA portion center-of-gravity takes into consideration forces acting upon the test rotary actuator due to installation with the test HSA portion. The resultant torque vector has a direction extending perpendicular from the test pivot axis towards the test installed HSA portion center-of-gravity. A balancing torque vector is derived having a magnitude equal to and a direction opposite of the resultant torque vector. The balancing torque vector is incorporated into the test actuator weight distribution specification to produce a BC actuator weight distribution specification. The BC actuator weight distribution specification is used to manufacture the BC rotary actuator having a BC pivot axis. The BC HSA portion has a BC HSA installation center-of-gravity at the BC pivot axis for mitigating external acceleration applied to the BC rotary actuator about the BC pivot axis due to external linear acceleration experienced by the disk drive during a track-follow operation.

Method of making a balance-compensated rotary actuator based upon track-follow performance of a rotatable test head stack assembly portion

A disk drive includes a disk drive base, a head stack assembly pivotally coupled to the disk drive base, a ramp load coupled to the disk drive base for parking the head, and an inertial latch. The head stack assembly includes a head and a coil portion coupled to the head, the coil portion defining an inner crash stop surface and an outer crash stop surface. The inertial latch includes a unitary latch base coupled to the disk drive base, an inner crash stop and an outer crash stop. The inner crash stop is integrally formed with the latch base and contacts the inner crash stop surface to limit travel of the head in a first direction during a shock event. The outer crash stop is also integrally formed with the latch base, and contacts the outer crash stop surface to limit travel of the head in a second direction during a shock event. The inertial latch further includes a unitary latch base coupled to the disk drive base, an elongated boom pivotally coupled to the latch base, an elongated interposer pivotally coupled to the latch base, a key-shaped post and a key-shaped bore. The key-shaped post and bore define means for pivotally coupling the boom to the latch base and for preventing relative vertical movement between the boom and the latch base. The interposer interacts with the boom during a shock event and contacts the latching surface such that the head is prevented from leaving the ramp load.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Shawn E Casey