Metal fusion bonding – Process – Using high frequency vibratory energy
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-20
2001-11-27
Dunn, Tom (Department: 1725)
Metal fusion bonding
Process
Using high frequency vibratory energy
C228S001100, C228S212000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321974
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field:
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a head gimbal assembly (hereinafter referred to as an HG assembly) serving as a component of a hard disk drive, and in particular to a method for connecting a terminal held by the slider of the HG assembly to a head, and a lead held by the HG assembly that is connected to an external unit.
2. Description of the Related Art:
Referring to
FIG. 12
, a conventional head gimbal assembly connection method includes a flexure
101
for holding a slider
102
. The slider
102
is disposed at the front end of an HG assembly and integrally held by a bonding fixture
100
. A platform
103
serving as the foremost end of the flexure
101
fixes and holds the vicinity of the front end of a lead
104
through an insulating sheet
105
. Four bonding pads
108
connected to a head (not shown) are formed on the front end face of the slider
102
. The front end of each lead
104
is curved so as to approach the bonding pad
108
(shown by a broken line in FIG.
12
).
A wedge
106
of an ultrasonic bonder is moved by moving means (not shown) in the direction of the arrow K to press the front end of the lead
104
against the contacted bonding pad
108
at a predetermined load. In this state, ultrasonic vibrations (at approximately 60 kHz) are applied to the wedge
106
in the direction of the arrow L to bond the lead
104
to the bonding pad
108
.
When the front end of the lead
104
is pressed against the bonding pad
108
by the wedge
106
, a pair of supports
107
are set to the bottom faces of both the sides of the platform
103
in order to prevent the platform
103
of the flexure
101
from being deflected due to the rigidity of the lead (FIG.
13
). When the lead
104
is pressed in this manner and ultrasonic vibrations are applied, the lead
104
is plastically deformed and bonded to the bonding pad
108
and stabilized.
However, because it is difficult to accurately bring the support
107
into contact with the platform
103
without forming a gap h (
FIG. 13
) between the platform
103
and the support
107
, or without pushing the platform
103
up for the accuracy of the bonding fixture
100
or positioning accuracy of the ultrasonic bonder
70
, the flexure
101
may be deformed during this step. If the flexure
101
is deformed, the static posture of the HG assembly becomes unstable and the flight posture of the slider
102
may be affected.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A plurality of bonding pads formed on a slider are integrally joined to an elastic flexure for a disk drive suspension. The slider has a suction device for contacting and fixing a platform of the flexure relative to the suction device. The pads are ultrasonically bonded to the slider with leads that are held by the flexure. The bonding portions of the leads face and are pressed against the pads with ultrasonic waves. The leads are plastically deformed during these steps to prevent the flexure from being deformed after the ultrasonic bonding process.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.
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Matz US 2001/0001588 A1 May 24, 2001.*
Lee et al. US 2001/0001587 A1 May 24, 2001.
Hayashi Akiko
Satoh Takuya
Tsuchiya Tatsumi
Yoshida Tatsushi
Bracewell & Patterson L.L.P.
Dunn Tom
International Business Machines - Corporation
Martin Robert B.
Stoner Kiley
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