Ceramic suspension bent by stressed patch

Abstract

The present invention provides a prebent ceramic suspension which includes a ceramic load beam which is bent by a stress patch. With thin film techniques the stress patch is formed on top of the load beam. In the preferred embodiment the patch is amorphous hydrogenated diamond-like carbon. When the suspension is on a wafer the carbon patch exerts a compressive stress on a top surface of the load beam just under the patch. When the suspension is released from the wafer the compressive patch exerts tensile forces on the top surface of the load beam causing an end of the load beam to bend toward the wafer. The amount of bending of the suspension can be accurately controlled by the cross sections of the load beam and the patch as well as the lateral dimensions of the patch. Further control can be achieved by controlling the hydrogen, nitrogen and other additive components of the carbon patch. After fabrication bending can be lessened by machining portions of the patch with a laser beam to effectively negate the stress of these portions. Still further, the patch can be laterally configured so that the suspension forms an arc when preloaded on a disk. During fabrication various layers can be formed by thin film deposition to form an integrated magnetic head-slider-suspension. A pair of prebent ceramic suspensions can be preloaded on adjacent magnetic disks by a single actuator arm.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.