Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Head mounting – Disk record
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-05
2002-10-01
Tupper, Robert S. (Department: 2652)
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Head mounting
Disk record
C360S264200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06459549
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive and a slider support structure having a head for moving the slider close to the disk recording surface of the hard disk drive, the construction of a head gimbal assembly, and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to the construction of a flexure for directly holding the slider, the construction of the pad of a point portion of a lead line, and a method of joining the slider pad and the lead pad.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are two prior art methods for joining a slider and a lead line: the bent lead method and the gold ball method. In the bent lead method of
FIG. 11
, the point portion of a lead
53
is pressed against a pad
63
formed on a slider
52
by the wedge
58
of a ultrasonic welder. Ultrasonic vibration is then applied to join these. elements. In the gold ball method of
FIG. 12
, the pad
63
of a slider
52
and the point portion of a lead
54
are orthogonally oriented relative to each other, and a metal line
56
supported by a damper
57
is moved near them through a capillary
55
. The point portion of metal line
56
is melted into a spherical shape by heat means such as an electrode or the like, and pressed against the pad
63
of the slider
52
and the point portion of the lead
54
such that they are joined by thermal adhesion. In the gold ball method, the joined portion is reinforced with an ultrasonic weld.
In these two connection methods, the slider
52
must be fixed to an operating jig or the like in the ultrasonic joining process. For this reason, an aperture (indicated at reference numeral
59
h
in FIG.
12
), through which a push member (not shown) acting on the slider
52
in the direction of arrow P in
FIGS. 11 and 12
is passed, is provided in a load beam
59
to push the slider
52
against a fixed table (not shown).
Aperture
59
h
restricts the configuration of the point portion of the load beam
59
because it is formed in point portion, and makes a reduction in the weight of the load beam difficult. For this reason, an improved joining method which does not require an ultrasonic joining step is desirable.
In the background art, however, the construction of the head gimbal (HG) assembly adopted in the present invention involves the appropriation of the HG assembly adopted in the aforementioned gold ball method. A top view of the construction is shown in
FIG. 13 and a
sectional view, taken along index line
105
—
105
of
FIG. 13
, is shown in FIG.
14
.
The slider
52
in the figures is fixed to a flexure tongue
59
a,
formed by a pair of slits
61
a
and
61
b
of a flexure
59
and an aperture
61
c
connected to them, through an insulating sheet
60
b,
and four leads
54
are also fixed to the flexure
59
through an insulating sheet
60
a.
The lead pad
54
, which is one end portion of the lead
54
, is formed to have a large area and is disposed at a position adjacent to a bonding pad
63
provided on the slider
52
, while the other end portion of the lead
54
is connected to a multi-connector (not shown) to be connected to an external unit. And the lead pad
54
a
and the bonding pad
63
are joined by a solder ball joining method to be described infra, whereby a soldered portion
64
is formed therebetween.
On the other hand, the point portion
52
a
of the slider
52
is mounted on the insulating sheet
60
a
laid under the lead pad
54
a,
as shown in FIG.
14
. This is due to the following reasons. The rear end (left end in
FIG. 14
) of the insulating sheet
60
a
may originally be formed (at a position indicated by a broken line in
FIG. 14
) so that it is aligned with the rear end (left end in
FIG. 14
) of the lead pad
54
a;
however, in this case, the rear end will protrude in the direction of arrow S because of an error during manufacturing. The spacing between the rear end of this lead pad
54
a
and the point portion
52
a
of the slider
52
is set to tens of &mgr;m, so that the fluctuation that the point portion
52
a
is now mounted on the insulating sheet
60
a
and then is not mounted will occur in fixing the slider
52
to the flexure tongue
59
a
and will cause incommodity to occur.
To avoid this incommodity, the rear end of the insulating sheet
60
a
is previously extended in the direction of arrow S so that the point portion
52
a
of the slider is mounted on the insulating sheet
60
a
with reliability. And by interposing the insulating sheet
60
b
with the same thickness as the insulating sheet
60
a
between the flexure tongue
59
a
and the slider
52
, the slider
52
is prevented from inclining.
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
Although the point portion
52
a
(
FIG. 14
) of the slider
52
is mounted on the insulating sheet
60
a,
as described supra and is fixed with a conductive adhesive agent
65
in the same way as the other places, there is a possibility that this adhesive agent
65
will protrude from the joined portion and contact the lead pad
54
a,
the bonding pad
63
, and the soldered portion
64
. Also, if the lead pad
54
a
is sufficiently spaced from the boding pad
63
in order to prevent the adhesive agent
65
from contacting the lead pad
54
a,
there is a problem that soldering conditions will go bad.
In addition, since the slider
52
is fixed to the flexure tongue
59
a
through the insulating sheet
60
b
with the same thickness as the insulating sheet
60
a,
the position of the bonding pad
63
provided on the slider
52
becomes higher than the lead pad
54
a,
so that it becomes difficult to move both close together.
Moreover, the bonding pad
63
formed on the slider
52
is spatially restricted and only a limited area can be ensured for each pad. On the other hand, the lead pad
54
a
has enough space and a wide area is ensured. For this reason, the heat capacity of the lead pad
54
a
becomes greater compared with the boding pad
63
, so there is a fear that the difference between a rise in temperature and a drop in temperature will occur when solder reflows and will incur defective soldering.
Furthermore, the soldered portion
64
shrinks with a reduction in temperature after join, so there is a problem that a warp will be produced due to this shrinkage and the rigidity of the flexure
59
and the HG assembly cannot be supported at a predetermined posture.
An object of the present invention is to provide the construction and the manufacturing method of the HG assembly suitable for the solder ball joining method, while overcoming these various problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An elastic flexure has a flexure tongue, an aperture, and a slider attached to the flexure tongue in a predetermined direction. The flexure functions as a suspension having an array of leads supported by the flexure so that one end portion of each lead has a pad facing substantially perpendicular to a pad-joint surface. The pad-joint surface is formed on the slider and the aperture is formed so that at least a tip of the pad is included in the area of the aperture.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the pad formed on the lead has nearly the same heat capacity as that of the pad formed on the slider.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a flexure having an aperture, the flexure having elasticity and functioning as a suspension; a slider supported on the flexure and formed with a plurality of first pads; and a plurality of leads supported by the flexure so that one end portion of each lead having a second pad faces substantially perpendicular to a pad-joint surface of the first pad and so that the second pads are located in proximity to the plurality of first pads, respectively; in which the aperture is formed so that positions that the first and second pads are adjacent to are included in the area of the aperture.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a head gimbal assembly comprising a flexure having an aperture, the flexure having elas
Inoue Hiroo
Ishikawa Hiromi
Nanba Masaaki
Pattanaik Surya
Tsuchida Hiroyasu
Bracewell & Patterson L.L.P.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Martin Robert B.
Tupper Robert S.
Watko Julie Anne
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