Disc drive suspension and head

Details Disc drive suspension and head Disc drive suspension and head

1999-01-21

2001-11-27

Neyzari, Ali (Department: 2651)

Dynamic information storage or retrieval

Storage or retrieval by simultaneous application of diverse...

C360S114050

Reexamination Certificate

active

06324130

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is in the field of disc drive mechanisms for reading data from and writing data to data storage discs. More particularly, the present invention is in the field of magneto-optical (MO) disc drives.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electronic data is commonly stored on discs of various types. Disc drives hold and rotate the disc while positioning a mechanism over the disc to read data from it or write data to it. Some conventional disc drives use a “flying” read/write head, or “flying head”, to access data stored magnetically on circular or spiral grooves, or tracks, of the data storage disc. Engaging the flying head in a position to access data is referred to as loading the head. Typically, the flying head is positioned over a track at a certain height to allow data reading or data writing. For example, in magneto-optical (MO) disc drives, data is recorded by positioning a head that includes a magnetic coil in proximity to an MO disc, locally heating the MO disc to lower the coercivity of a layer of magnetic media. When the coercivity of the magnetic media is lowered, the magnetic head applies a magnetic field to reverse the magnetic polarity in the heated area recording data on the MO disc. In such MO disc drives, data is read from the magnetic media of the MO disc by illuminating areas of the MO disc with linearly polarized laser light. The Kerr rotation effect causes the plane of polarization of the illuminating laser beam to be rotated. The direction of rotation depends on the magnetic polarity in the illuminated area of the storage media. When the MO disc is read, the polarization rotation is determined with a pair of optical detectors in a polarization beam splitter to produce an output data signal.
In one prior art method, a flying head is in a loaded position on the MO disc when it is not spinning and no data access operation is taking place. For a data access operation, the MO disc is rotated so that an air bearing forms between the MO disc and the flying head. When the flying head is suspended above the MO disc by the air bearing, the flying head can be moved over the MO disc to an appropriate area to perform a data access operation. This technique is referred to as static loading and unloading or as contact-start-stop because the MO disc must be stationary when the head is loaded or unloaded. This technique has several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that part of the MO disc area must be set aside as a landing zone, which reduces the MO disc area available for data storage. Another disadvantage is that the head can crash into the MO disc if the drive is bumped or dropped, if power is suddenly removed from the drive, or if contaminants are on the disc surface at loading and become trapped under the head. When the head crashes into the MO disc, there is a likelihood of damage to the MO disc, loss of data stored on the MO disc, and even destruction of the drive itself.
Yet another disadvantage of prior art static loading/unloading systems is the necessity of providing a very smooth, very flat, slider surface and media surface on which to carry the magnetic head. Such a slider body is needed in static loading/unloading systems to withstand thousands of contact-start-stop events in the life of the disc drive. In addition, static loading/unloading systems also require lubrication and texturing of the media surface.
Another prior art method, called dynamic loading and unloading, loads and unloads the head while the MO disc is spinning.
FIG. 1
is a diagram of a some parts of a prior art disc drive that performs dynamic loading and unloading. Suspension
103
is attached to flying head
109
. Suspension
103
is typically manufactured of a material with spring characteristics and has a bend
105
created by forming the material of suspension
103
. Bend
105
serves the purpose of providing a spring force and stiffness in the direction perpendicular to the surface of MO disc
107
. Some other prior art suspensions may include multiple bends. The angle of bend required to produce the appropriate spring force required in a particular disc drive application must be calculated before forming suspension
103
. Because the forming process is imprecise, some trial and error may be required to produce a suspension having the required spring force. Typically, the gram load of the suspension is measured after the suspension if formed.
Flying head
109
is loaded by moving suspension
103
over ramp
101
. The surface of ramp
101
over which suspension
103
moves has a slope such that suspension
103
and flying head
109
are moved over MO disc at the proper height for read or write operations. When suspension
103
is advanced toward disc
107
, suspension
103
is flexed such that the angle of bend
105
is opened.
FIG. 2
is a side view of suspension
103
and flying head
109
showing bend
105
. Mounting plate
111
is attached to suspension
103
and to mounting area
113
. Actuator arm
113
is a rigid part of the disc drive assembly. Plane
115
is the plane of an MO disc drive in the disc drive assembly incorporating suspension
103
. When head
109
is loaded, suspension
103
is flexed, for example by ramp loading as in
FIG. 1
, so that the surface of head
109
is approximately parallel to plane
115
.
Disadvantages of prior art suspension systems include the time and expense required to form a bend in the suspension and test the suspension to confirm that it has the appropriate spring force.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A magneto-optical (MO) disc drive including a novel suspension, slider body, airbearing surface, and magnetic head is described. The MO disc drive includes a fine-focus actuator block including an objective lens, wherein the coarse carriage block moves radially above a surface of an MO disc to position the objective lens. The MO disc drive also includes a flat suspension having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is fixedly attached to the fine-focus actuator block and the second end is attached to the coarse carriage block. A gimbal is moveably attached to an opening in a surface of the suspension and a magnetic head assembly is attached to the gimbal. The magnetic head assembly is loaded and unloaded by the load/unload mechanism independent of the objective lens and attached to the coarse actuator.


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