Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Teruhiro Nakamiya

Satoshi Nakamura

Nobumasa Nishiyama

Kazuhiro Nagaoka

Nobuyuki Okunaga

Hiroshi Matsuda

Shigeo Nakamura

Takuma Muraki

Yasushi Inoue

A hard disk drive flexible printed circuit (FPC) includes a plurality of fingers extending from a main portion, with each finger having a first wiring layer including a first electrically conductive trace layout, a second wiring layer including a second electrically conductive trace layout, and a base film interposed between the first and second wiring layers, where the first conductive trace layout includes at least one thermally conductive protective island overlaying a respective portion of the second trace layout to provide a protective thermal barrier to the base film. Hence, maximum temperatures across various layers of the FPC laminate can be reduced, damage to the FPC prevented, and manufacturing yields improved.

Flexible printed circuit copper overlay for temperature management

A hard disk drive flexible printed circuit (FPC) includes a plurality of fingers extending from a main portion, with each finger having a thermally-conductive stiffener, at least one wiring layer over the stiffener, and a cover film over the at least one wiring layer, where the centroid of the stiffener is offset from the centerline of the cover film. Thus, utilizing the heat-sink characteristics of the stiffener, temperature differences among the upper and lower electrical pads of the FPC resulting from a heat-based interconnection procedure can be reduced and the temperatures across the FPC finger made more uniform, damage to the FPC prevented, and soldering yields improved.

Flexible printed circuit offset finger stiffener

A hard disk drive suspension includes a suspension tail configured to electrically connect to a read-write transducer at a distal end and extending in a proximal direction toward a tapered tip at a proximal end, where the tapered tip comprises a decreasing taper that narrows in the proximal direction. Hence, structural overlap among adjacent suspension tails in misalignment scenarios and consequent marginalized electrical connections between the suspension tail and a corresponding flexible printed circuit are inhibited. The most proximal electrical pads of the suspension tail may be configured with a different aspect ratio, or in a fewer number of lines, from other adjacent electrical pads, thereby fitting within the narrowest portion of the tapered tip.

Hard disk drive suspension tail having narrowing tip

Described herein is a multilayer flex circuit having a first dual flex circuit and a second dual flex circuit where each one comprises an outer metal layer, a base insulation layer, and an inner metal layer. The base insulation layer is disposed between the outer metal layer and the inner metal layer. The inner metal layer of the first dual flex circuit is configured to face toward the inner metal layer of the second dual flex circuit. The multilayer flex circuit also includes a coupling layer that adhesively couples the inner metal layer of the first dual flex circuit to the inner metal layer of the second dual flex circuit. The multilayer flex circuit also comprises an electrically conductive material that electrically connects the inner metal layer of the second dual flex circuit to the inner metal layer of the first dual flex circuit.

Multilayer flex circuit with non-plated outer metal layer

Described herein is a connector assembly that comprises a head-gimbal assembly (HGA) tail connector, a flex connector, and an adhesive. The HGA tail connector comprises a pad support, an HGA pad coupled to the pad support, and an HGA trace coupled to the pad support and electrically coupled to the HGA pad. The flex connector comprises a substrate, comprising a first side and a second side, where the first side is opposite the second side. The flex connector also comprises a flex pad coupled to the first side of the substrate, a flex trace coupled to the second side of the substrate, and a via extending through the substrate from the first side to the second side. The via electrically couples the flex pad and the flex trace. Also, the adhesive adheres the HGA pad of the HGA connector in electrical contact with the flex pad of the flex connector.

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Tokyo, Japan

Teruhiro Nakamiya