Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record transport with head stationary during transducing – Disk record
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-30
2004-12-14
Evans, Jefferson (Department: 2652)
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record transport with head stationary during transducing
Disk record
C360S264300, C360S265600
Reexamination Certificate
active
06831810
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disk drives. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods of manufacturing disk drives and to disk drives having an enclosure that includes a first and a second portion in which drive manufacturing steps may be carried out on both the first and second portions simultaneously.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical hard disk drive includes a head disk assembly (“HDA”) and a printed circuit board assembly (“PCBA”). The HDA includes at least one magnetic disk (“disk”), a spindle motor for rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly (“HSA”) that includes a head with at least one transducer for reading and writing data. The HSA is controllably positioned by a servo system in order to read or write information from or to particular tracks on the disk. The typical HSA has three primary portions: (1) an actuator assembly that moves in response to the servo control system; (2) a head gimbal assembly (“HGA”) that extends from the actuator assembly and biases the head toward the disk; and (3) a flex cable assembly that provides an electrical interconnect with minimal constraint on movement.
A typical HGA includes a load beam, a gimbal attached to an end of the load beam, and a head attached to the gimbal. The load beam has a spring function that provides a “gram load” biasing force and a hinge function that permits the head to follow the surface contour of the spinning disk. The load beam has an actuator end that connects to the actuator arm and a gimbal end that connects to the gimbal that carries the head and transmits the gram load biasing force to the head to “load” the head against the disk. A rapidly spinning disk develops a laminar airflow above its surface that lifts the head away from the disk in opposition to the gram load biasing force. The head is said to be “flying” over the disk when in this state.
Within the HDA, the spindle motor rotates the disk or disks, which are the media to and from which the data signals are transmitted via the head on the gimbal attached to the load beam. The transfer rate of the data signals is a function of rotational speed of the spindle motor; the faster the rotational speed, the higher the transfer rate. A spindle motor is essentially an electromagnetic device in which the electromagnetic poles of a stator are switched on and off in a given sequence to drive a hub or a shaft in rotation, the hub including a permanent magnetic ring.
FIG. 1
shows the principal components of a magnetic disk drive
100
constructed in accordance with the prior art. With reference to
FIG. 1
, the disk drive
100
is an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) drive comprising a HDA
144
and a PCBA
114
. The HDA
144
includes a base
116
and a separate, discrete cover
117
attached to the base
116
that collectively house a disk stack
123
that includes a plurality of magnetic disks (of which only a first disk
111
and a second disk
112
are shown in FIG.
1
), a spindle motor
113
attached to the base
116
for rotating the disk stack
123
, an HSA
120
, and a pivot bearing cartridge
184
(such as a stainless steel pivot bearing cartridge, for example) that rotatably supports the HSA
120
on the base
116
. The base
116
is typically attached to the separate cover
117
by means of screws or other discrete fasteners. The spindle motor
113
rotates the disk stack
123
at a constant angular velocity about a spindle motor rotation axis
175
. The HSA
120
comprises a swing-type or rotary actuator assembly
130
, at least one HGA
110
, and a flex circuit cable assembly
180
. The rotary actuator assembly
130
includes a body portion
140
, at least one actuator arm
160
cantilevered from the body portion
140
, and a coil portion
150
cantilevered from the body portion
140
in an opposite direction from the actuator arm
160
. The actuator arm
160
supports the HGA
110
with a head. The flex cable assembly
180
includes a flex circuit cable and a flex clamp
159
. The HSA
120
is pivotally secured to the base
116
via the pivot-bearing cartridge
184
so that the head at the distal end of the HGA
110
may be moved over a recording surface of the disks
111
,
112
. The pivot-bearing cartridge
184
enables the HSA
120
to pivot about a pivot axis, shown in
FIG. 1
at reference numeral
182
. The storage capacity of the HDA
111
may be increased by including additional disks in the disk stack
123
and by an HSA
120
having a vertical stack of HGAs
110
supported by multiple actuator arms
160
.
Current trends appear to favor ever-smaller drives for use in a wide variety of devices, such as digital cameras, digital video cameras and other audio-visual (AV) equipment and portable computing devices, for example. Concurrently, the highly competitive nature of the disk drive industry and the ever more stringent size constraints are driving disk drive manufacturers to finds ways to minimize costs. Simplifying the manufacturing process is one avenue that disk drive manufacturers are exploring, with the rationale that fewer manufacturing steps and fewer sequential manufacturing steps lead to a less costly drive. Toward that end, attention has turned to the drive enclosure as one possible candidate for further cost reductions. Indeed, it has been determined that an HDA configuration wherein the enclosure includes a base and a separate, discrete cover attached with screws might not be optimal, with respect to materials, cost and the number of manufacturing steps required to assemble the enclosure. Moreover, it would be advantageous if two or more manufacturing steps could be carried out simultaneously, on different sub-assemblies of the drive. This would increase manufacturing throughput, thereby further decreasing the cost of making the drives.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, this invention may be regarded as a disk drive that includes an enclosure, the enclosure including a first portion and a second portion configured to mate with the first portion. A spindle motor is attached to the first portion and a disk is mounted to the spindle motor, the disk including a recording surface. A head stack assembly is pivotally coupled to the second portion prior to the first and second portions being mated to one another. The head stack assembly includes a read write head that is configured to read from and write to the recording surface when the first and second portions are mated to one another.
The enclosure defines an exterior surface, and may include a hinge that mechanically couples the first portion to the second such that the hinge forms a portion of the exterior surface of the enclosure. A first VCM back plate may be attached to the first portion and a second VCM back plate may be attached to the second portion. The disk drive may further include an HSA pivot post coupled to the second portion and a pivot post mating feature coupled to the first portion, the HSA pivot post coupling with the pivot post mating feature when the first and second portions of the enclosure are mated to one another.
The present invention may also be regarded as a method of manufacturing a disk drive. The method may include a step of providing an enclosure including a first and a second portion, the first portion being configured to mate with the second portion; carrying out a first group of manufacturing steps on the first portion including, for example, attaching a spindle motor to the first portion; attaching a disk having a recording surface to the spindle motor, and carrying out a second group of manufacturing steps on the second portion including, for example, attaching a head stack assembly to the second portion, at least one of the steps of the first group being carried out while at least one of the steps of the second group is being carried out.
The first group of manufacturing steps may include, for example, attaching a first VCM back plate to the first portion and the second group of manufacturing steps may include attaching a second VCM back plate to th
Butler Walter W.
Lloyd Robert E.
C. Kim, Esq. Won Tae
Evans Jefferson
Shara, Esq. Milad G.
Western Digital Technologies Inc.
Young, Esq. Alan W.
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