Low profile flexure and slider-flexure assembly

Details Low profile flexure and slider-flexure assembly Low profile flexure and slider-flexure assembly

1999-02-16

2001-06-12

Klimowicz, William (Department: 2754)

Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval

Head mounting

Disk record

Reexamination Certificate

active

06246547

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to hard disk drive slider-flexure assemblies, and in particular to low-profile flexures.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Typical hard disk drives have several rotating disks and an E-block with multiple actuator arms. The actuator arms each support one or more suspension assemblies. A suspension assembly is defined as a load beam, baseplate and flexure. The load beam has two ends. The baseplate enables one end of each load beam to swage to the actuator arm. The flexure supports an air bearing slider at the other end of the load beam. The slider has at least one read/write head. The combination of the flexure and the slider is termed a “slider-flexure assembly”.
The E-block pivots the actuator arms along an arc over the disk surface to enable the read/write head to read and write data. When the disk rotates, air pressure lifts the slider to a desired flying height above the disk. The load beam directs a gram load onto the slider in a direction normal to the disk.
Slider and head positioning tolerances with respect to a disk surface have become smaller as data storage densities have increased. To achieve precise head positioning, the sliders are designed with a high degree of pitch and roll compliance. This enables the slider to float freely at the desired flying height. Pivoting the slider with the E-block complicates the slider positioning. Accordingly, it is desirable to fix the slider in axial alignment with respect to the load beam so that when the E-block pivots, the slider does not misalign with the load beam. The slider-flexure assembly functions to allow the slider to pitch and roll while maintaining axial alignment with respect to the load beam.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,158 to Harrison et al. shows a flexure-slider assembly, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The Harrison et al. patent attempts to improve pitch and roll compliance while restricting translation that could misalign the slider with respect to the load beam. One drawback of the Harrison et al. design is that it includes out-of-plane bends (identified as
43
and
44
). This causes the slider-flexure assembly to consume space on two planes. One plane is occupied by the flexure tongue and another plane is occupied by a flexure portion of the slider-flexure assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,490 to Hagen et al. shows a slider-flexure assembly. However, the gimbal beams (identified as
58
) overhang the lateral sides of the slider, increasing the width of the slider-flexure assembly in the region of the slider. This increased width is undesirable because the overhanging gimbal beams may prevent the slider from reaching centrally defined disk tracks that are adjacent to a spindle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to provided an improved slider-flexure assembly that improves compliance to pitch and roll, restricts undesired slider movement, and consumes only a small amount of space.
Another object of the invention is to provide a reduced slider-flexure assembly.
According to the invention an improved flexure for a head gimbal assembly having a low-profile configuration is provided. The head gimbal assembly includes an E-block with multiple suspensions. Each suspension includes a load beam and an integrated flexure. A slider bonds to each flexure, forming a slider-flexure assembly.
The flexure includes gimbal beams and two ends. The load beam supports one end of the flexure. The slider mounts on the other end. The gimbal beams are distanced from the slider so that the gimbaling of the slider occurs at a position relatively close to the load beam. Gimbaling the slider at a position closer to the load beam allows for a planar flexure configuration. The flexure is planar to eliminate out-of-plane bends and to achieve for a low profile. The flexure of the present invention also minimizes space consumption around the slider to enable the slider to access the innermost disk tracks.
The slider includes a top, a bottom, a leading edge and a trailing edge. The flexure has a tongue that extends to connect with the top of the slider. The gimbal beams extend from the tongue and overhang the leading edge of the slider to perform a gimbaling function at a distance from the leading edge of the slider.
The tongue is relatively narrower than the slider to minimize space consumption by the flexure. The tongue has a defined thickness, and the gimbal beams have a thickness generally equal to the thickness of the tongue to simplify manufacture of the flexure. The thicknesses of the gimbal beam and the tongue may be modified in accordance with design requirements.
According to one aspect of the invention, the gimbal beams flare out, diverging from the tongue. The degree to which the gimbal beams flare is a matter of design, and the degree is sufficient to gimbal the slider, but not too much so as to disturb positioning of the slider over the innermost data tracks of a recording disk.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5282103 (1994-01-01), Hatch et al.
patent: 5428490 (1995-06-01), Hagen
patent: 5452158 (1995-09-01), Harrison
patent: 5467236 (1995-11-01), Hatanai et al.
patent: 5490027 (1996-02-01), Hamilton et al.
patent: 5602699 (1997-02-01), Khan
patent: 5625514 (1997-04-01), Kubo et al.
patent: 5781379 (1998-07-01), Erpelding et al.
patent: 5838517 (1998-11-01), Frater et al.
patent: 5877920 (1999-03-01), Resh
patent: 1-128278 (1989-05-01), None
patent: 9-147510 (1997-06-01), None
patent: 10-162533 (1998-06-01), None

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