Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Head mounting – For adjusting head position
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-08
2002-03-19
Letscher, George J. (Department: 2652)
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Head mounting
For adjusting head position
Reexamination Certificate
active
06359758
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a disc drive microactuator, and more particularly to a high resolution head positioning mechanism having a compliant joint serving as a center of rotation to enable rigid body motion of the system.
The density of concentric data tracks on magnetic discs continues to increase (that is, the size of data tracks and radial spacing between data tracks are decreasing), requiring more precise radial positioning of the head. Conventionally, head positioning is accomplished by operating an actuator arm with a large-scale actuation motor, such as a voice coil motor, to radially position a head on a flexure at the end of the actuator arm. The large-scale motor lacks sufficient resolution to effectively accommodate high track-density discs. Thus, a high resolution head positioning mechanism, or microactuator, is necessary to accommodate the more densely spaced tracks.
One promising design for high resolution head positioning involves employing a high resolution microactuator in addition to the conventional lower resolution actuator motor, thereby effecting head positioning through dual-stage actuation. Various microactuator designs have been considered to accomplish high resolution head positioning. However, many of these designs require deformation of the disc drive flexure or load beam to achieve small displacement of the head.
While these microactuators do preserve many of the manufacturing processes currently in existence by utilizing standard components, additional bending modes are generated in the load beam that have a negative effect on the performance of the microactuator and the associated servo control system that controls the movement of the microactuator. In order to accommodate the additional bending modes of the load beam, it is necessary to redesign the servo system to have substantially greater bandwidth, which requires significant additional design time and expense. In addition, the forces required to bend the stainless steel components of the disc drive, such as the load beam, are relatively high in relation to the size constraints of the microactuator. Therefore, there are significant design challenges to overcome in order to implement a microactuator that provides the requisite force to bend the load beam, which adds time and expense to the design process, and limits the range of technologies that maybe employed to realize the microactuator.
There is a need in the art for an effective disc drive microactuator design that utilizes rigid body motion of disc drive structures such as the gimbal and load beam in order to microposition the transducing head over a selected track of the rotating disc.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is an assembly and method for finely positioning a slider carrying a transducing head with respect to a selected track of a rotatable disc in a disc drive system. The disc drive system includes a movable actuator arm to effect coarse positioning of the slider. A suspension load beam has a proximal end connected to an actuator arm and a distal end for applying pre-load force to the slider. A flexure has a first end and second end, the second end supporting the slider. A compliant joint attaches the first end of the flexure to the suspension load beam between the proximal end and the distal end. A high resolution microactuator is operatively coupled to the flexure and the suspension load beam to deform the compliant joint and thereby effect rigid body movement of the flexure with respect to the suspension load beam upon operation of the motor. Alternatively, the compliant joint may be provided to attach the proximal end of the suspension load beam to the actuator arm, and the microactuator motor may by operatively coupled to the actuator arm and the suspension load beam to deform the compliant joint and thereby effect rigid body motion of the suspension load beam with respect to the actuator arm upon operation of the motor.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3678482 (1972-07-01), Billawala
patent: 3924268 (1975-12-01), McIntosh et al.
patent: 4374402 (1983-02-01), Blessom et al.
patent: 4605977 (1986-08-01), Matthews
patent: 4620251 (1986-10-01), Gitzendanner
patent: 4651242 (1987-03-01), Hirano et al.
patent: 4764829 (1988-08-01), Makino
patent: 4853810 (1989-08-01), Pohl et al.
patent: 4914725 (1990-04-01), Belser et al.
patent: 5021906 (1991-06-01), Chang et al.
patent: 5034828 (1991-07-01), Ananth et al.
patent: 5065268 (1991-11-01), Hagen
patent: 5079659 (1992-01-01), Hagen
patent: 5105408 (1992-04-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5177652 (1993-01-01), Yamaguchi et al.
patent: 5189578 (1993-02-01), Mori et al.
patent: 5255016 (1993-10-01), Usui et al.
patent: 5276573 (1994-01-01), Harada et al.
patent: 5303105 (1994-04-01), Jorgenson
patent: 5521778 (1996-05-01), Boutaghou
patent: 5552809 (1996-09-01), Hosono et al.
patent: 5623461 (1997-04-01), Sohmuta
patent: 5657188 (1997-08-01), Jurgenson et al.
patent: 5745319 (1998-04-01), Takekado et al.
patent: 5764444 (1998-06-01), Imamura et al.
patent: 5781381 (1998-07-01), Koganezawa et al.
patent: 5793571 (1998-08-01), Jurgenson et al.
patent: 5796558 (1998-08-01), Hanrahan et al.
patent: 5805382 (1998-09-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5867347 (1999-02-01), Knight et al.
patent: 5896246 (1999-04-01), Budde et al.
patent: 5898541 (1999-04-01), Boutaghou et al.
patent: 6069771 (2000-05-01), Boutaghou et al.
patent: 0 412 221 (1989-11-01), None
patent: 63-122069 (1988-05-01), None
patent: 02-263369 (1989-04-01), None
patent: 04-134681 (1992-05-01), None
patent: 04-368676 (1992-12-01), None
patent: 05-094682 (1993-04-01), None
patent: 06-020412 (1994-01-01), None
patent: 07-085621 (1995-03-01), None
“Silicon Micromachined Electromagnetic Microactuators for Rigid Disk Drives” by Tang et al,IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 31, No. 6, Nov. 1995.
“Magnetic Recording Head Positioning at Very High Track Densities Using a Microactuator-Based, Two-Stage Servo System” by Fan et al.,IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 42, No. 3, Jun. 1995.
“A Flexural Piggyback Milli-Actuator for Over 5 Gbit/in2Density Magnetic Recording” by Koganezawa et al,IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 32, No. 5, Sep. 1996.
“Transverse Mode Electrostatic Microactuator for MEMS-Based HDD Slider” by Imamura et al,IEEE1996.
“An Experiment for Head Positioning System Using Submicron Track-width GMR Head” by Yoshikawa et al.,IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 32, No. 5, Sep. 1996.
“Micro Electrostatic Actuators in Dual-Stage Disk Drives with High Track Density” by Tang et al.,IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 32, No. 5, Sep. 1996.
“Piezoelectric Microactuator Compensating for Off-Track Errors in Magnetic Disk Drives” by Imamura et al,Advance Information Storage Systems, vol. 5, pp. 119-125.
“A Dual-Stage Magnetic Disk Drive Actuator Using a Piezoelectric Device for a High Track Density” by Mori et al.,IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 27, No. 6, Nov. 1991.
“Dynamic Loading Criteria for 3-1/2 Inch Inline HDD Using Multilayer Piezoelectric Load/Unload Mechanism” by Kajitani et al.,IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 27, No. 6, Nov. 1991.
“Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Silicon Microgimbals for Super-Compact Rigid Disk Drives” by Temesvary et al.,Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, vol. 4, N.
Kinney & Lange , P.A.
Letscher George J.
Seagate Technology LLC
LandOfFree
Rigid body microactuator having elastic joint attachment does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Rigid body microactuator having elastic joint attachment, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Rigid body microactuator having elastic joint attachment will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2884907