Insite Peripherals

Quantum Corporation

Maxtor Corporation

Other

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Stephen Paul Williams

Roger O Williams

Jimmy D Godwin

Timothy A Riener

Alton B Otis, Jr

Andrew M Rose

Michael R Hatch

Jonathan C Hofland

C Douglas Richards

Mark E Strysko

Francis P Crimi

Arun Balakrishnan

James Chiao

Jwo-min Wang

Milton C Kurtz

Gregory K Roberts

Kathryn Chuan Tao

John Thomas Contreras

Luiz M Franca-Neto

Brian D Strom

Wentao Yan

Thomas A Tacklind

Albert L Hartman

William R Akin, Jr

Christopher Montgomery Carpenter

Jon Edward Jacoby

James Montgomery Low

Duane G Wallace, Jr

Approaches for a hard-disk drive (HDD) and a head gimbal assembly comprising techniques for forming the gimbal legs in a head gimbal assembly (HGA) in a manner to shift the distribution of mass of the HGA that results in controlling the magnitude of resonance gain associated with the HGA during operation of a hard-disk drive.

Distribution of mass in vertical axis for HGA flexure mode control

Approaches to a mass balanced flexure gimbal assembly for controlling the sway mode of the loadbeam portion of the suspension of a head gimbal assembly (HGA) of a hard-disk drive (HDD). The sway mode of concern is that which is excited when a head slider is actuated by a plurality of piezo actuation devices of a secondary actuation system. A suspension includes a mass attached to the suspension flexure and configured for balancing a moment force about the gimbal, about which a slider rotates when microactuated. The mass is located on the side of the slider opposing the side on which the piezo actuation devices are mounted, to counteract the mass of the piezo devices.

Mass balanced flexure gimbal for head gimbal assembly sway mode control

A disk pack, comprising at least one hard disk, is rotatably mounted to a housing. The disk pack defines an axis of rotation and a radial direction relative to the axis. At least one actuator mounted to the housing is coupled with a suspension and is movable relative to the disk pack. A slider, comprising a slider body and a head configured to read data from and write data to at least one hard disk, is coupled with the suspension. A first suspension electrical interconnect is configured to electrically couple a first signal conducting pathway with the slider and with a first non-terminated signal pathway. A second suspension electrical interconnect is configured to electrically couple a second signal conducting pathway with the slider and with a second non-terminated signal pathway. The length of the second non-terminated signal pathway is selected to achieve a desired impedance level.

Tunable microstrip signal transmission path in a hard disk drive

A disk drive head-gimbal assembly includes a flexure that is modified to address the effects that the operating temperature of the disk drive may have on fly height. Generally, the flexure tongue is split into a leading edge flexure tongue section and a trailing edge flexure tongue section that are separated by a slider decoupling section. The slider decoupling section structurally interconnects the leading and trailing edge flexure tongue section, and further provides a reduced contact area with the slider. This reduced contact limits the ability of the flexure tongue to induce a positive crown on the air bearing surface of the slider.

Thermally-compensating attachment of disk drive slider to flexure

A disk drive includes a drive circuitry, a storage disk, a suspension and a slider. The slider is supported by the suspension and receives electrical current from the drive circuitry. The slider includes a flying side that generally faces the storage disk, a read/write head, and a slider deformer that is electrically decoupled from the drive circuitry. In one embodiment, the slider deformer is formed from a material having a coefficient of thermal expansion that is greater than a coefficient of thermal expansion of other portions of the slider. In this embodiment, the slider deformer causes a deformation of a portion of the flying side when the temperature of the slider deformer changes. Thus, when the read/write head expands or contracts due to a change in temperature of the slider, the slider deformer at least partially offsets the expansion and/or contraction of the read/write head to maintain a substantially consistent head-to-disk spacing of the disk drive.

Slider deformation control by thermal-structural compensators

A dual stage, head stack assembly () for a disk drive () having a storage disk () is provided herein. The head stack assembly () includes an actuator arm (), a coarse positioner (), a transducer assembly (), a base plate () and a fine positioner (). The coarse positioner () moves the actuator arm (). The transducer assembly () includes a load beam (), a flexure () and a data transducer (). The base plate () includes at least one positioner cavity () which receives the fine positioner (). A control system () directs current to the coarse positioner () to move the actuator arm () to position the data transducer () at or near a target track () on a storage disk (). The control system () also directs current to the fine positioner () to precisely position and maintain the data transducer on the target track (). Because the fine positioner () independently moves only the transducer assembly (), a higher system band-width is achieved.

Dual stage, head stack assembly for a disk drive

A disk drive flexure () includes both a support layer () and an electrical insulator layer (). A flex cable () is disposed on the electrical insulator layer (), and includes a plurality of slider bond pads (). The support layer () includes a bond pad support () for each slider bond pad (). Each bond pad support () is aligned with only a portion of its corresponding slider bond pad (), such that it supports less than an entirety of its corresponding slider bond pad ().

Disk drive flexure assembly with a plurality of support bond pad apertures with a bond pad disposed over a bond pad support and part of each support bond pad aperture

An improved E-block for positioning one or more transducer assemblies proximate one or more rotating storage disks of a disk drive is provided herein. The E-block includes an actuator hub and one or more actuator arms which cantilever away from the actuator hub for holding the transducer assemblies proximate the rotating storage disks. As provided herein, at least one of the actuator arms is a depopulated actuator arm which retains less than two transducer assemblies. Each depopulated actuator arm includes at least one, weighted segment integrally formed into the depopulated actuator arm. Further, each depopulated actuator arm has an arm thickness which is less than an arm thickness for a double head actuator arm. The weighted segment and the reduced arm thickness allow the depopulated actuator arm(s) to vibrate similar to a populated actuator arm(s). This allows the disk drive to be designed and tuned to improve fragility and resonance characteristics of the E-block.

E-block having improved resonance characteristics and improved fragility

An E-block ( ) and head stack assembly ( ) for maintaining one or more data transducers ( ) proximate one or more rotating storage disks ( ) of a disk drive ( ) is provided herein. The E-block ( ) includes an actuator hub ( ) and one or more actuator arms ( ). The actuator arms ( ) cantilever away from the actuator hub ( ) and hold the data transducers ( ) proximate the rotating storage disks ( ). As provided herein, at least one of the actuator arms ( ) has a roll-bias angle ( ) over the majority of the length of the actuator arm ( ). Moreover, the head stack assembly ( ) maintains a suspension assembly ( ) at a reduced suspension z-height ( ) relative to the storage disk ( ). As provided herein, the roll-bias angle ( ) of the actuator arms ( ) and the reduced suspension z-height ( ), each decrease track misregistration.

Head stack assembly having decreased track misregistration characteristics

Mechanically formed standoffs in a disk drive integrated circuit interconnect reduces the cost of manufacturing and improves the reliability of the electrical interconnections thereof. Connection pads defined along the interconnect are bonded with bonding pads of a signal producing source and a signal processing source. The standoffs provide mechanical stops during the bonding process, enabling sufficient bonding material to form between bonding areas. The standoffs are mechanically formed with a punch and die assembly either directly through a bonding pad predefined along traces on the interconnect or adjacent the bonding pad. The standoffs formed through the bonding pads are covered with solder or other electrically conductive bonding material.

Mechanically formed standoffs in a circuit interconnect

An improved flexure for supporting a read/write head adjacent to a relatively moving storage medium in a disk drive is disclosed. The flexure is a patterned flex circuit structure that is mounted to a load beam in an actuator assembly and includes integral wiring and bonding pads for electrically connecting the head to the electronics of the disk drive. The flexure also implements a high compliance gimbal with integral wiring.

Flex circuit flexure with integral high compliance gimbal

An improved suspension for supporting a read/write head adjacent to a relatively moving storage medium in a disk drive is disclosed. The suspension includes a curved loadbeam or a curved flexure that reduces the magnitude of the gain in the first torsion resonant mode of oscillation when the Z-height of the loadbeam is configured for minimum sensitivity of the first torsion gain as a function the loadbeam Z-height, thereby providing a suspension capable of providing improved head position servo performance and improved manufacturing and assembly yields.

Growing community of inventors

Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

Stephen Paul Williams