Back to results
US 2003/0072103 A1Published application
Apparatus and method for dampening disk vibration in storage devices
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsSeong Woo Kang, Seong Hoon Kim, Gregory Tran, Vincent Nguyen, Scott Tam, Nikollay Ivanov, Joe Bragg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aerodynamic forces contribute to disk and actuator vibration leading to track positioning errors in storage devices such as hard disk drives. The invention provides a variety of dampening mechanisms and a method of dampening to alleviate these problems.
Claims50
A disk drive, comprising:
- a plurality of disks, a first of said disks including a first disk surface and a second of said disks including a second disk surface;
- a disk base;
- an actuator providing a read-write head assembly communicatively coupled to said first disk surface and a second read-write head assembly communicatively coupled to said second disk surface, said actuator pivotably coupled to said disk base;
- a spindle motor rigidly coupled to said disk base, said spindle motor provided to rotate said disks about an axis of rotation at an operating rotational velocity;
- a dampening mechanism including a plate fixedly attached to said disk base and further including a first dampening surface separated from said first disk surface by essentially a first gap for at least 175 degrees with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks and for at least 16 millimeters of radial width with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks;
- said dampening mechanism further including,
- a second dampening surface separated from said second disk surface by essentially a second gap for at least 175 degrees with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks and for at least 16 millimeters of radial width with respect to said axis of rotation of said disks, wherein each member of a gap collection comprising said first gap and said second gap is at most a fixed distance;
- said dampening mechanism reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said first disk surface and said second disk surface to stabilize said disk surfaces as said first and said second disk surfaces rotate at said disk operating rotational velocity;
- and
- said dampening mechanism reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said actuator as said first and said second disk surfaces rotate at said disk operating rotational velocity;
- and
- a disk cover attached to said disk base forming an enclosure containing said spindle motor, said plurality of disks, said actuator, and said dampening mechanism.
9 more elements
A disk drive, comprising:
- at least one disk including a first disk surface;
- at least one actuator providing a read-write head assembly communicatively coupled to said first disk surface;
- means for rotating said at least one disk at an operating rotational velocity;
- and
- means for dampening said actuator with respect to said first disk surface, said dampening means including,
- means for providing a first dampening surface separated from said first disk surface by essentially a first gap;
- means for reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said first disk surface of said at least one disk for stabilizing said least one disk as said at least one disk rotates at said operating rotational velocity;
- and
- means for reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said actuator as said at least one disk rotates at said operating rotational velocity;
- wherein each member of a gap collection is at most a fixed distance, said gap collection comprising said first gap.
7 more elements
A method of reducing tracking positioning errors for a disk drive, comprising the steps of:
- rotating at least one disk including at least a first disk surface at an operating rotational velocity relative to at least one actuator providing a read-write head assembly communicatively coupled near said first disk surface;
- and
- dampening said actuator with respect to said first disk surface, said dampening step including the steps of,
- providing a first dampening surface separated from said first disk surface by essentially a first gap;
- reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said actuator based upon air flow related to said disk operating rotational velocity and related to said gap collection members;
- and
- reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said first disk surface for stabilizing said first disk surface based upon air flow related to said disk operating rotational velocity and related to said gap collection members;
- wherein each member of a gap collection is at most a fixed distance, said gap collection comprising said first gap.
5 more elements
A disk drive, comprising:
- at least one disk including a first disk surface;
- at least one actuator providing a read-write head assembly communicatively coupled near said first disk surface;
- and
- a dampening mechanism providing a first dampening surface separated from said first disk surface by essentially a first gap;
- wherein said least one disk rotates at an operating rotational velocity relative to said dampening mechanism and to said actuator;
- wherein each member of a gap collection is at most a fixed distance;
- wherein said disk drive is further comprised of:
- said dampening mechanism reducing aerodynamic forces acting upon said actuator based upon air flow related to said disk operating rotational velocity and related to said gap collection members;
- and
- said dampening mechanism stabilizing said first disk based upon air flow related to said disk operating rotational velocity and related to said gap collection members;
- and
- wherein said gap collection is comprised of said first gap.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.