Axial flux permanent magnet motor for ball screw cam elevator mechanism for reduced-head hard disk drive
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorsDiep Nguyen, David K. Myers, Bikash Sukla
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An approach to a reduced-head hard disk drive (HDD) involves an actuator elevator subsystem that includes a ball screw cam assembly with an axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motor affixed to a cam screw to drive rotation of the screw, which drives translation of an actuator arm assembly so that a corresponding pair of read-write heads can access different magnetic-recording disks of a multiple-disk stack.
Claims19
An actuator elevator assembly for a reduced-head hard disk drive (HDD), the assembly comprising:
- a ball screw cam assembly;
- a head-stack assembly (HSA) translatably coupled with the cam assembly;
- and
- an axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motor affixed to a screw of the cam assembly and configured to rotate about a fixed shaft around which the AFPM motor is positioned, to drive rotation of the screw to drive translation of the HSA along an axis of the screw.
A method for vertically translating a head-stack assembly (HSA) in a hard disk drive (HDD) to access multiple magnetic-recording disks, the method comprising:
- driving an axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motor affixed to a screw of a ball screw cam assembly, thereby rotating the screw about a coaxial fixed shaft;
- allowing a planar multi-ball bearing assembly that is coupled with the HSA to translate vertically in response to rotating the screw;
- and
- while the bearing assembly is translating, sensing the vertical position of the HSA.
A reduced-head hard disk drive (HDD), comprising:
- recording means for storing digital information;
- reading/writing means for reading from and writing to the recording means;
- means for moving the reading/writing means to access portions of the recording means;
- axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) motor rotating means for rotating cam means about a fixed shaft for translating the reading/writing means from one recording means to another recording means;
- and
- means for sensing a vertical position of the reading/writing means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.