Load beam fine actuator protection feature
AssigneeWestern Digital Technologies, Inc.
InventorKia Moh Teo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A head gimbal assembly (HGA), such as for a hard disk drive (HDD), includes a load beam formed with proximal openings therethrough and a flexure coupled with the load beam, where the flexure includes a tongue portion to which a fine actuator is coupled and the tongue portion includes corner portions proximal to the fine actuator. Each opening of the load beam is shaped and positioned to overlay the corner portion of the flexure to avoid contact between the load beam and the corner portion in response to shock events. Flexure gimbal clearance relative to the load beam is thereby enabled to protect the integrity of the fine actuator piezoelectric elements from non-operational shock events for example.
Claims19
A head gimbal assembly (HGA) comprising:
- a load beam comprising a proximal opening therethrough;
- and
- a flexure coupled with the load beam, the flexure comprising:
- a tongue portion to which a fine actuator is coupled, the tongue portion comprising a corner portion proximal to the fine actuator;
- wherein the opening of the load beam is shaped and positioned to overlay the corner portion of the tongue portion of the flexure to avoid contact between the load beam and the corner portion in response to a shock event.
A hard disk drive (HDD) comprising:
- recording disk media rotatably mounted on a spindle;
- means for reading from and writing to a recording disk medium of the recording disk media;
- means for moving the means for reading and writing to access portions of the recording disk media;
- and
- a head gimbal assembly (HGA) coupled with the means for moving, the HGA comprising:
- a load beam comprising a proximal opening therethrough, and
- a flexure coupled with the load beam, wherein:
- the flexure comprises a tongue portion to which a fine actuator is coupled, and
- the tongue portion comprises a corner portion proximal to the fine actuator,
- wherein the opening of the load beam is shaped and positioned to overlay the corner portion of the tongue portion of the flexure to avoid contact between the load beam and the corner portion in response to a shock event.
A method of manufacturing a head gimbal assembly (HGA), the method comprising:
- forming a load beam comprising at least one proximal opening therethrough;
- and
- coupling a flexure to a slider side of the load beam;
- wherein;
- the flexure comprises a gimbal portion to which at least one piezoelectric actuator element is coupled,
- the gimbal portion comprises at least one leading edge corner portion proximal to the at least one piezoelectric actuator element, and
- each opening of the load beam is shaped and positioned to overlay each respective corner portion of the gimbal portion of the flexure to avoid contact between the load beam and the corner portion in response to a shock event.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.