Apple Inc.

Maxtor Corporation

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Sae Magnetics (h.k.) Limited

Yanchu Xu

Zhong-Qing Gong

Yanning Liu

Connor Raymond Duke

Junyi Yang

Craig Matthew Stanley

David Marcus Tung

Shawn Xavier Arnold

Glenn K Trainer

Jifang Tian

Jason C Della Rosa

Wei Guo

Alex M Lee

Michael C McGrath

Yiduo Zhang

Jeffrey M Thoma

Benjamin A Bard

Yin Yuan

Mark Heimbaugh

Kevin R Richardson

Alexander R Gould

Gregory Joseph Arnone

Nelson J Kottke

David John Loader

JianFeng Xu

LingJun Kong

Lei Yu

Qiang Zhao

Anping Guo

Mike Leis

An electronic speaker can include: a device housing that defines an interior housing cavity; an audio driver disposed within the interior housing cavity; and a foot assembly coupled to the device housing and operable to support the electronic speaker. The foot assembly can include: a foot assembly sidewall having an outer sidewall perimeter extending outwardly away from a central neck; a planar foot having an outer foot perimeter proximate the outer sidewall perimeter where an upper surface of the planar foot cooperates with an interior surface of the foot assembly sidewall to create an internal cavity within the foot assembly; a suspension system disposed within the foot assembly internal cavity and coupling the planar foot to the foot assembly sidewall. The suspension system can include: an isolator plate disposed within the internal cavity of the foot assembly and mechanically coupled to the planar foot where the isolator plate includes a channel projecting perpendicularly away from the planar foot towards the device housing; an isolator stop fitted within the channel and having an aperture formed through the isolator stop aligned with a length of the channel; and an isolator fastener coupled to the foot assembly sidewall and disposed within the channel. The isolator fastener can extend through the isolator aperture formed through the isolator stop and can be operable to allow the foot assembly sidewall to translate with respect to the planar foot.

Electronic speaker with a planar foot

A haptic actuator may include a housing, at least one coil carried by the housing, and a field member having opposing first and second sides. The haptic actuator may also include a respective flexure bearing mounting each of the first and second sides of the field member to be reciprocally movable within the housing responsive to the at least one coil. At least one of the flexure bearings may include an arm and a damper body attached thereto.

Haptic actuator including damper body and related methods

The described embodiments relate generally to printed circuit boards (PCBs) including a capacitor and more specifically to designs for mechanically isolating the capacitor from the PCB to reduce an acoustic noise produced when the capacitor imparts a piezoelectric force on the PCB. Conductive features can be mechanically and electrically coupled to electrodes located on two ends of the capacitor. The conductive features can be placed in corners where the amplitude of vibrations created by the piezoelectric forces is relatively small. The conductive features can then be soldered to a land pattern on the PCB to form a mechanical and electrical connection while reducing an amount of vibrational energy transferred from the capacitor to the PCB.

Acoustically quiet capacitors

A Non-Uniform Dielectric Layer, Multi-Layer-Ceramic-Capacitor (MLCC) has upper and lower dielectric layers separating upper and lower electrode layers, where the lower dielectric layers have a greater vertical thickness than the upper dielectric layers to reduce piezoelectric effect driven capacitor reaction forces on a printed circuit board (PCB) on which the capacitor is mounted. Such an MLCC may include an upper set of dielectric layers that separate adjacent pairs of upper electrode layers in a top portion of the MLCC, and a lower set of dielectric layers that separate adjacent pairs of lower electrode layers in a bottom portion of the MLCC. A bottom portion of the MLCC may be mounted on a PCB. The thickness of the lower dielectric layers may be between 1.5 and 3.5 times greater than the upper dielectric layers to reduce piezoelectric effect driven capacitor reaction forces in the audio range of human hearing.

Non-uniform dielectric layer capacitor for vibration and acoustics improvement

Swaging a suspension base plate to an actuator arm for a hard disk drive. A portion of material adjacent to a hole in the actuator arm is removed to create an opening to receive material. A flange of the suspension base plate is inserted into the hole in the actuator arm. The suspension base plate is swaged to the actuator arm, wherein the swaging causes material from the suspension base plate to flow into the opening.

Reducing gram load change in actuator arm in a hard disk drive

A voice coil motor for a disk drive includes a permanent magnet, a voice coil adapted to move in an arc proximate to the permanent magnet, a top plate positioned above the voice coil, and a bottom plate positioned below the voice coil. The permanent magnet has two halves that are magnetized in opposite direction. The two halves of the magnet are split into a right half magnet portion and a left half magnet portion. The right half magnet portion and the left half magnet portion are attached to the top plate and the bottom plate respectively at opposite sides of the voice coil motor. The invention also discloses a disk drive unit with such VCM.

Voice coil motor and disk drive unit with the same

A load arm for a disk drive may include a base section that has an opening for receiving a spindle of a voice coil motor. The base section may have hinge arms that extend from the base section and terminate in tab portions. An arm section may be affixed to the tabs of the hinge arms of the base section such as by spot welding. A head suspension assembly may be affixed to a distal end of the arm section such as by spot welding. A sensor may be provided on a hinge arm of the base section. The sensor may comprise a piezoelectric polymer sensing element and an electrode formed over the piezoelectric polymer sensing element.

Disk drive load arm structure having a strain sensor and method of its fabrication

An apparatus and method for latching an actuator arm assembly can position a read/write head relative to a data storage disk in a disk drive. A latch arm is configured to be moved between a closed position that inhibits movement of an actuator arm assembly in a landing zone and an open position that does not inhibit movement of the actuator arm assembly in the landing zone. A coil is configured to generate an electromagnetic force on the latch arm responsive to a coil current. A bias device is configured to provide a bias force on the latch arm that is substantially opposed to the electromagnetic force from the coil. The latch operating current/voltages is controlled and modified according to environmental conditions such as temperature.

Temperature-adaptive open-loop control of active latch

A latch apparatus is configured to latch an actuator arm assembly that can position a read/write head relative to a data storage disk in a disk drive. The latch apparatus includes a latch arm, a coil, a permanent magnet, and a latch control circuit. The latch arm is configured to be moved between a closed position that inhibits movement of the actuator arm assembly in a landing zone and an open position that does not inhibit movement of the actuator arm assembly in the landing zone. The coil is configured to generate an electromagnetic force on the latch arm responsive to a coil current. The permanent magnet is configured to generate a magnetic force on the latch arm that is substantially opposed to the electromagnetic force from the coil. The latch control circuit is configured to increase according to defined open current profiles over a defined opening time period the coil current to at least an upper defined level to cause the coil to move the latch arm from the closed position to the open position. The latch control circuit is further configured to decrease according to defined close current profiles over a defined closing time period the coil current to no more than a lower defined level to cause the permanent magnet to move the latch arm from the open position to the closed position.

Latch apparatus for latching an actuator arm assembly in a disk drive

A method for assembling a disk drive using a multifunctional push-pin hole is disclosed. A push-pin of a servo writer is directed through the push-pin hole of the disk drive for executing a servo writing operation. The push-pin is withdrawn from the push-pin hole at the completion of the servo writing operation. A filter is disposed within the push-pin hole so as to be disposed within an interior of the disk drive. This filter may provide one or more of a humidity control/adjustment function and a chemical filtering function (e.g., an integrated chemical filter). Moreover, this filter may work as a sound barrier. That is, this filter may be used to reduce sound intensity outside the disk drive on top of the push-pin hole in relation to those prior art push-pin holes which were sealed by only a piece of tape on an exterior surface of the disk drive.

Method for assembling a disk drive

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Yanchu Xu