Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Shufun Ho

Tzong-Shii Pan

Kamran Oveyssi

Dennis W Hogg

Yau-Shing Lee

Gregory Tran

Ali Hosseinzadeh

Alex Y Tsay

Fernando A Magsombol

Chee Shu Tay

A head stack assembly (HSA) includes a flexible printed circuit (FPC) having a mouth with an upper mouth edge and a lower mouth edge. The FPC includes a first plurality of conductive terminals immediately adjacent the upper mouth edge and a second plurality of conductive terminals immediately adjacent the lower mouth edge. The mouth is bisected by a mouth centerline that is substantially parallel to and substantially equidistant from first and second actuator arms of the HSA. A head gimbal assembly (HGA) is attached to each of the first and second actuator arms. Each HGA includes a flexure tail laminate having a dielectric layer disposed between a plurality of conductive traces and a structural layer. The plurality of conductive traces is electrically connected to either the first or second plurality of conductive terminals via a plurality of openings in the structural layer and in the dielectric layer.

Head stack assembly with a flexible printed circuit having a mouth centered between arms

A novel head stack assembly (HSA) is disclosed and claimed. The HSA includes a flexible printed circuit (FPC) having a mouth with an upper mouth edge and a lower mouth edge. The FPC includes a first plurality of conductive terminals immediately adjacent the upper mouth edge and a second plurality of conductive terminals immediately adjacent the lower mouth edge. The mouth defines and is bisected by a mouth centerline disposed equidistant from the upper mouth edge and the lower mouth edge. The mouth centerline is substantially parallel to and substantially equidistant from first and second actuator arms of the HSA. A first plurality of conductive traces of a first head gimbal assembly (HGA) is electrically connected to the first plurality of conductive terminals, and a second plurality of conductive traces of a second HGA is electrically connected to the second plurality of conductive terminals.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an alignment comb and a subassembly of a head stack assembly for a hard disk drive using the alignment comb. The subassembly includes a flexible printed circuit (FPC) having a plurality of first apertures, a flexure configured to be coupled to the FPC, the flexure having a second aperture configured to overlap a corresponding one of the first apertures, and an alignment comb including a plurality of fingers configured to align the FPC with the flexure, the plurality of fingers being spaced apart in a first direction and a finger of the plurality of fingers configured to extend into the corresponding one of the first apertures and the second aperture.

Systems and methods for aligning components of a head stack assembly of a hard disk drive

A disk drive head stack assembly has a flexible printed circuit (FPC) including a flex cable and a flex stiffener. The flex stiffener includes a terminal region support portion that is attached to the actuator body, a flex cable guide portion, and a stiffener bend. The stiffener bend is between and connects the terminal region support portion and the flex cable guide portion. The flex cable includes a guided portion that is in contact with the flex cable guide portion. A flex cable terminal region is attached to the terminal region support portion. The stiffener bend is about a stiffener bend axis that is perpendicular to the actuator pivot axis.

Disk drive head stack assembly having a flexible printed circuit with stiffener bend axis normal to the actuator pivot axis

A novel head stack assembly (HSA) is disclosed and claimed. The HSA includes an actuator including an actuator body and an actuator arm extending from the actuator body, and a flexible printed circuit (FPC) adjacent the actuator body. The FPC includes a slit therethrough. A head gimbal assembly (HGA) is attached to the actuator arm. The HGA includes a load beam, a laminated flexure attached to the load beam, and a head attached to the laminated flexure. The laminated flexure has a flexure tail that includes an intermediate region that is disposed adjacent the actuator arm, and a terminal region that is electrically connected to the FPC. The terminal region is substantially orthogonal to the intermediate region. The intermediate region of the flexure tail extends into the slit, interferes with the slit, and contacts and deforms the FPC adjacent the slit.

Head stack assembly with suspension tails extending into interfering slits in a flexible printed circuit

A semiconductor die mounted to a flex cable is provided. The flex cable comprises a heat sink layer and a flex cable substrate having conductive traces disposed thereon. The flex cable substrate includes an aperture aligned with the semiconductor die. A thermal conductor disposed within the aperture contacts both the semiconductor die and the heat sink layer. The thermal conductor can comprise, for example, a set of solder balls.

Thermal dissipation from a flip chip through an aperture in a flex cable

A disk drive includes a disk drive base, a spindle motor attached to the disk drive base, a disk supported by the spindle motor, and a head stack assembly coupled to the disk drive base. The head stack assembly includes an actuator body, a coil portion cantilevered from the actuator body, an actuator arm cantilevered from the actuator body in an opposite direction from the actuator arm, a flex circuit cable having an electrical connector end, and a flex bracket for clamping the electrical connector end of the flex circuit cable to the disk drive base, the flex bracket having first and second ends being spaced-apart along a width of the disk drive. The disk drive further includes an upper voice coil motor plate and a lower voice coil motor plate, the voice coil motor plates secured to the disk drive base, one of the voice coil motor plates having an integrally formed elongated protrusion extending from the voice coil motor plate for contacting and securing the flex bracket to the disk drive base, the elongated protrusion extending from the first end to proximate the second end, wherein the flex bracket is secured to the disk drive base free of using any fastener.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Shufun Ho